(photo courtesy of Patrick Hendry via Unsplash.com)

Building a healthy lifestyle is important. It isn’t about following the latest diet or workout trend, it is about creating a lifestyle that is healthy and suits your daily schedule. For me, one of the biggest ways I feel motivated to continue working towards my goal of a healthier lifestyle is by tracking my progress.

Right now I am training for a half marathon and let me tell you, sometimes waking up and running is not number one on my list of things I want to be doing that day. However, through a running app on my phone, I record every run and it helps encourage me to keep pushing when I look back on all my previous runs and how far I have progressed since then. Instead of just running and not recording anything, keeping a history of my previous runs really helps me remember that I am doing better than I sometimes feel.

As for anything else, tracking your progress can be really helpful. It is really nice to look back on the day before and applaud all the goals you reached, whether it be making it to the gym, including more vegetables into your meals, or get more sleep.

Having little rewards at the end of you weekly goals is also a great way to stay motivated to reach them. Maybe if you reach your weekly goal you could treat yourself to buying a smoothie with friends, or go see a movie or something. Anything that keeps you moving forward is great.

When you are working towards creating a healthier lifestyle, just remember that progress is what is important, not perfection.

Collegian blogger Katy Mueller can be found at news@collegian.com or on Twitter @katymueller13.