Like most people this time of year, I’ve decided to get healthy in the new year. Since I’m a very visual and math-oriented, I need a planner to keep track of my numbers. I’ll use fancy apps on my phone to track, but nothing beats a good planner! I’ve had several over the years, but I’ve never been very happy with any and never stick to them. Once I stop tracking, I lose motivation and fall off the wagon. Instead of buying another one that wouldn’t be quite right, I decided to make my own this year. Pinterest has made me believe I’m actually crafty! It turned out to be a pretty easy process. I just bought a pretty journal at Target, made the forms I wanted in excel, printed on cardstock, and glued them into the journal. I tend to write pretty big, so I kept my forms simple in order to have enough room for me to write. That’s probably my biggest gripe about store-bought planners!

Oh, and I read on pinterest someone suggested only making a few months’ worth so you can adjust as your needs change. I thought that was pretty genius advice, so my planner is only for 2 months. Since I’m just starting out with this new diet/exercise, I thought it would be a great way to make changes down the road once I know exactly what I’m going to want from a planner. Plus, that’ll be about how long it’ll take me to get bored with this particular journal.

How about some pictures? I didn’t think to take any “during,” but here’s my finished product.

I decided to have monthly, weekly, measurements, and daily sections. I just cut scrapbook paper into 2″x2″ squares, folded them, labeled them, and glued them in.

My monthly calendar was probably the most basic thing I made. It’ll suit my needs perfectly, though. All the pages I designed are 5″x7″ so I just made my monthly calendar take up two pages on excel, and printed the two halves separately. Does that make sense to anyone but me?

Next is my weekly section. I wish I would’ve added the “measurements” form in place of the “calories” one, but I’ll do that in the next one, I guess. I’m going to be using to track my food, so I decided to only add a weekly calories section to be sure I’m staying within my goals.

Third is the measurements section. I’m a firm believer in measuring my body parts and putting more stock into those numbers than the scale. Even if the scale doesn’t move, it’s great to see the inches shrink! I did add a spot for weekly weigh-ins, but my main focus is the measurements.

Finally, my daily section. I almost didn’t make any sort of form for this section, and just use the original lined pages in the journal. In the end, I couldn’t leave well enough alone, though, and decided to do both. I made a sheet to be glued on the left side, and left the right side open for notes and stuff. That’s where I’ll log my feelings and make notes on my food choices or whatever else comes to mind. It’s where my true growth will happen.

So that’s it! That’s my newly created fitness journal. I can’t wait to start using it! I hope it’ll be a great tool to help me reach my goals.

My twins turned 3 on the 5th. Sniff!  Because of Pinterest, I did more work on this party than I ever have on a party. I learned so much about the design end of Photoshop. I will be back with a more detailed post about their birthday party with pictures taken by my fabulously talented photographer friend, Kim. First, though, I attempted two different shoots with my kids to try and get ONE decent picture. Yeah, that didn’t happen. This was the best I got. We went outside the next day and played around on our front steps, and I got some beauties of each of them then. No good ones of all three, though, so those will be separate posts because this one would be way too long otherwise!

My favorite.