Using Tracking As a Tool To Reach Your Challenge Goals
October 23 2023 | Ashleigh Kidd, RD, LDN
Welcome to Week 1 Challengers! We know you’re already crushing it and we’re excited to be on this journey with you. It’s no secret that setting specific goals and tracking your habits can help you reach your health and fitness goals. When we take a closer look at our habits, we’re paying more attention to the behaviors that are either helping or hindering us from reaching our goals. We can then use this information to make small realistic changes that will add up over time resulting in positive sustainable change. Let’s dive deeper into how you can use tracking as a tool during this 45 Day Challenge.
Getting started in the F45 Training App:
Setting unrealistic goals and expecting to stick to extreme/restrictive habits perpetuates the “all or nothing” mindset and leads to discouragement. We want to break away from this cycle and focus on feasible positive change that you’ll actually want to stick with. This is where setting S.M.A.R.T. goals in the F45 Training App at the beginning of the 45 Day Challenge can help.
At Check-in #1 you’ll set your S.M.A.R.T. goal(s). This goal should be:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Attainable
- Realistic
- Time-Bound
Don’t worry, the F45 Training App will walk you through the S.M.A.R.T. goal process!
Once you’ve set your goal(s) you can track your Challenge journey via the F45 Training App, giving you that extra accountability to build consistent habits to reach your goals. In the app, you can track things like water intake, sleep, whether or not you had a macro-balanced meal, and if you attended your workouts.
You can also log and share your results for fitness assessments like Playoffs or Benchmark to know how you’re performing and improving over time. We recommend leveraging the notes section to track any variables such as performance readiness (injury? fatigue?), recovery or sleep (maybe you did an ice bath or breathwork the day prior? Did that have a positive effect on your performance?). This will enable you to look back on past weeks or months and begin to identify patterns that may be contributing to your recovery and performance.
Tracking habits in the WHOOP Journal:
In addition to F45 Training App tracking, you have access to highly individualized insights from WHOOP! According to WHOOP, the Journal is a “customizable feature which allows you to log specific choices, behaviors, and other variables that may impact performance on a daily basis”. The Journal offers a wide range of over 100 behaviors (across several categories) to choose from so you can easily track and see their effect on your physiological metrics. WHOOP reports include some of these categories:
- Recovery (acupuncture, ice baths, massage, and stretching)
- Sleep (blue-light blocking glasses, sound machine, sharing a bed, etc)
- Nutrition (choices such as paleo, plant-based, or a late meal)
- Supplements (melatonin, turmeric, and more)
- Medications (including dosage and frequency)
- Lifestyle (things like working from home, alcohol consumption, sex)
- Mental Health (anxiety, therapy, journaling)
- Reproductive Health (menstruating pregnant, trying to conceive)
As you fill out your daily journal, WHOOP stores the information and gives you an in-depth analysis of how the behaviors you record correlate to changes in your recovery. Learn more about tracking with WHOOP here.
Between the F45 Training App and WHOOP Journal, you’ve got science-backed tools to help you build sustainable habits & reach your goals, and we love to see it. Remember, F45 is more than a gym, it’s your team, and when it comes to success, there’s strength in numbers. Your F45 coach and studio community is there to support you along the way!
Have you ordered your meals for the remainder of Challenge? Check your area here for suppliers here.
For nutrition and wellness support, you can always check out F45 Articles for tips on how to improve your nutrition and relationship with food.