I have a dirty little secret to admit. I record my exercise stats religiously, and I mean like I have a mild anxiety attack if I don't have my little notebook to write down what I did during my workout that day. I record time spent, calories burned, distance accomplished, and resistance/incline levels. Not only do I write them down on a little notepad at the gym, I transfer all the data to an Excel spreadsheet so that I can do analysis of the numbers. I've even done bar charts like any good Powerpoint junkie. I don't do anything remotely like this with my calorie consumption, only with exercise.
Now, at some level, I think it is good to record your exercise stats because you can see how you are improving and you can make sure that you are not upping your exercise by more than 10% a week. If you start pushing yourself beyond the 10% increase per week, you are putting yourself in injury territory. In running for example, you can start stressing your knees way too much.
...in maintenance mode like I am, there really is no need to track the stats, religiously like I do ...
Tracking your exercise during a weight loss program can be good too because if you start plateauing, one source could be that you are not pushing yourself at all or you are doing the same pace, doing the same resistance and incline levels at the same amount of time. To bust through the plateau, you need to start pushing yourself and seeing the data can help with that.
Now, however, when you are in maintenance mode like I am, there really is no need to track the stats, religiously like I do. And there definitely ain't no need to do geeky pie charts unless you're making real pie and eating them all the time. When, I'm at the gym and was working on dropping the 25 lbs, I made it a habit to write everything down, so now I find it hard to stop. I don't need to analyze the data any more, and yet I keep jotting down. It's almost feels competitive or like I don't trust myself somehow, or perhaps it's just simply become an addiction like to caffeine or sugar.
No matter, I have to start weaning myself from this habit because I'd like exercise now to be about enjoyment and maintaining my new weight. Also, there is no need to get anxiety over not writing down the stats. I've gotten exercise and that should be good enough info on its own. I'm still wondering why or what is causing this neurosis. So, with the Great Walking Experiment, I made one of the caveats that I would not write down any of my exercise stats except amount of time walked. I think this will help me wean from the jotting of the stats of the workouts I do at the gym.
So, how about you all, anyone obsessive about tracking all their exercise stats? And, if you were and broke yourself free from the habit, what did you do that you found most helpful? Tips would be great!
