I came across this article just this morning and it's a banger if sustainable changes is what you're after.
I track every a bloody lot of things from my own training currently and always have in some shape or form.
Back in the 2000's I'd write down everything I'd eat and drink every single day, as well as all the calories that entailed although I was never really aiming to eat at a certain calorie level or anything.
I've tracked all my training since even before then.
Currently I track my heart rate variability each day and from that I get 5 separate readings per day.
I have an excel spreadsheet that has all of my training logged into it from as far back as December 2013.
FYI I've missed about 475 days out of about 2050 of training since January 2014!
(Self back slap...)
In my training log I also note any days missed that were unscheduled such as sickness, house moving etc.
Getting back to the best part of this article, results from some study showed that those who tracked their steps for just 12 weeks, had maintained their activity levels long after the tracking had stopped.
For many they had even increased their activity levels by about 30mins.
That's mammoth as far as behavioural change is concerned because you've accomplished something you couldn't do otherwise, with pretty much zero extra effort or cost - the 2 biggest barriers to any sort of change you want to undertake.
Those in the study who were the control group and didn't do any activity tracking actually decreased their activity levels over time - ouch.
For the cherry on top, those who maintained/increased their activity levels also saw a huge drop in heart attack, stroke and stress fracture risk.
What implement and also what you track doesn't really matter, it's the process of goal setting and self monitoring that I think is the biggest factor at play here.
Lastly it goes on to say that the intensity of your activity is more important then the volume of your activity but that's a blog for another day!
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