Eli is one year old and I am finally done nursing! What an amazing thing it was to be able to make it to one year, but I am thrilled to be able to pack the pump away for the next little one.

With work and traveling, we had a tough first year. I decided to give myself grace and just focus on providing him what he needed. With all that behind me, I am no longer a nutrient source for my son, I do not have abnormally fluctuating hormones and I can have my body back.

Over the next thirty days, I am going to journal my own personal weight loss challenge. I have some baby weight to lose and I have been waiting months to finally get it done. I am at a great place with work, my son's sleeping schedule is on point and I am mentally in the zone to knock it out. I have a decade's worth of wisdom and experience to share and I am delighted to put myself on display to demonstrate everything that I advocate to friends, family and clients as it relates to health, fitness and weight loss.

In any health or weight loss journey, I 100% advocate for using some type of journaling. I have always used a composition book at baseline. I just like to be able to make notes, specifics around my workouts, running pace, output on the bike, or specifically what I ate that day, how I felt … Maybe staple a recipe into the book if I cooked something especially good. I always go back and reread these journals, because in each one I was at a different stage in my life and they all provide different, valuable information.

I have also used and periodically use lots of different apps. Some favorites that I would recommend are: MyFitnessPal, Day One, and lately Carb Manager. Over the next 30 days, I’ll be using Instagram as a public journal to share my years of experience … Enjoy!

In my physical journal, at the beginning of each week I write down a summary page of where I will be each day for work, what my planned workout will be (running/biking/weights/etc), and if I have any planned meals out. I feel that being proactive and staying ahead of all of these things helps me tremendously. I am a working mom and so nearly every hour of my day is calculated. Some days I can sleep in and push my workout to the evening, but if I know that I have dinner plans Monday night and I am feeling exceptionally lazy and tired Monday morning, it helps me to basically say to myself “Get your ass out of bed or you are going to miss your workout today”. I have major FOMO with dining out (a weakness). If I know I am dining out three times during the week, it helps me to prepare ahead of time, look up the menu and choose what I will get, decide if/where I am going to allow myself to indulge… Because I will never reach my goals if I indulge all three times!

I take it one step further and have a page for each day during the week. Because I am also a believer in food prepping, I will write down my "menu" for the day, boxes to check off when I have consumed bottles of water, and a box to check if I went to bed on time. I also record my specific workout and my performance. This may seem excessive, but it is all information that helps me understand why I had a headache during the day, or why my workout was exceptionally lame or why I was craving M&Ms at 3pm. Knowledge is power. When I am working with a client, if I can pour through their journal, I can quickly understand why they may be having trouble in different areas.

I am a planner by nature. I believe that unless you have a personal chef preparing all of your meals, a nutritionist watching you throughout the day and personal trainer at your doorstep every morning to drag you out of bed and push you through a workout ... Accountability partners are crucial, but at the end of the day you have to hold yourself accountable and a journal is a great way to do that.

I do not do this ALL of the time. You may be reading this and think... Jeez this is a lot of work, and it can be. But I will say, that during the times when I was the MOST in tune with my health, I was journaling.

If you are on a journey to optimal health, get a journal and keep notes! In my own journey, my notes have been priceless to be able to go back and read. As you learn what works for you, your own wisdom is the most valuable!

My next fitness challenge and journaling