“Celery juice, an online business and lifting heavy poundage. These are just three of a multitude of things that keep sisters, online health and fitness influencers and Western University alumni Hayley and Chelsey Liske moving all day, every day.” I read about Hayley and Chelsey in the Western Gazette. While I was excited to hear about their success, I was nervous about the details.
And I confess I was both shocked and amused by their daily schedule which included their meals, their workouts, time for gratitude journalling, social media, and meditation.
List of things to do each day 
Getting Stuff Done (VERY PINK)
It reminded me of the new pink planner, pictured above, that I got over the holidays. I like the pink and it’s nice paper and a good size but the categories put me off ever using it. There are spaces for tracking food and exercise, fine, but also you have to write in your own motivational quote and track “self care.”
On the one hand, here at the blog we’re all about an expansive account of fitness that includes sleep, mental and emotional well being as well as having fun. But there’s something about tracking glasses of water alongside meditation, and gratitude rituals that rubs me the wrong way. Can’t I just go to the gym and fling some heavy weights around? Do I really have to meditate and list the things for which I’m grateful as well? Can’t I just have a hot bath without calling it “self care.” It feels to me like TOO MUCH.
It’s also precious and in this case, pink, and only available to a very small group of women.
Thoughts?
Not sure tracking everything enjoyable is the way to go. Methinks enjoyable stuff happens a bit more spontaneously during the day. As long as it’s done, that’s good enough for me.
They are disciplined..wonder what they will be like in 10 years re such documentation.
This is kind of my issue with fitness watches. I want maybe heart rate, and tracking mileage when I hike. I don’t want to know how little sleep I got, when my watch thinks I’m feeling stressed or reminders when I don’t hit a step goal or decide to curl up with a book. Ugh. Do we have to track Everything? And it’s very similar , for me anyway, of a diet mentality. If I forget to log something, what’s the point? Did i ruin the month? Should I just quit tracking this week? And on a on and on
My first response, even before reading the article was, “No, no, NOOOOOooooo!” But, I couldn’t tell you why.
But you put your finger on it–diet mentality! Here is another way we can transform self-care into a big pile of guilt, obsession, and struggling with minutia instead of focussing on the big picture. No thank you.
Choose one or two boxes. Focus there for a while. When that’s good, move on to a different box for a while. That’s the only way I can imagine using that journal sanely.
Anything is a hassle before it becomes a habit. But habits take time. One thing at a time sweet on line friend. As a FITness professional I would lose clients if I asked them to tackle all of this as new practice. Baby steps. Implement one at a time. What works for you and what you like and enjoy tracking. Im not a calorie counter or calorie tracker. Too much math! But I have enjoyed at one time diet journaling. I hate tracking miles and I don’t weight on a scale. Do you! Be you! ENJOY!
xo Angi