Tip of the Day:

Don't Just Jog It — Log It!

You've heard, and perhaps you already do it, that logging what you eat is an effective way to evaluate your daily intake and assess where you may need to make changes. What you may not have known is that the same is true for exercise.

Logging your workouts can be a real eye-opener — it helps you see where you started and how far you've progressed toward your goals. Write down the time of day, how long you worked out, the intensity level at which you exercised, and how you felt when you finished. With such a record, you can compare the days you felt the best to the days when you didn't feel as good, or didn't have as good a workout. You may start to see a pattern that will tell you what works best for you; then you can focus on exercising in that way so you can get the most out of your workouts.

It also helps to write down what strength-training exercises you do and what weights you use. This will allow you to work different parts of the body on different days, and you can slowly increase the level of effort at which you're working.