How to start posting a Journal

Since more and more people are beginning journals on the forum, I thought I would share ways in which you can make your journal more successful on the forum.

Why would you want to keep a journal in the first place?
- Keep track of your numbers to make Progress!
- Get feedback from peers and professionals on how to improve things
- Make health goals that are achievable and reach them
- Consistent motivation from various forum members
- Make friends in the online Sikh community

These are just some of the reasons a journal is a great idea to keep, and here are some tips on how to make a journal:

Subject Title:
- The title should have your forum identity or name in it, the date (most commonly the year), some catchy phrase of what your journal means to you
- Here are 2 examples:
http://sikhinspiredfitness.forums-free.com/canuck-singh-pcfg-power-comes-from-god-journal-08-t7.html
http://sikhinspiredfitness.forums-free.com/canuck-singh-q44-quest-4-four-08-t412.html
- :nihangji: or Nihang Singh _ Paintra Journal _ 2009

Introduction/Background:
- A great way to get others to know about you and what your training journal is all about, requires a simple background and some ideas of how long you have been training, how old you are, why you are training, and what your goals are:

Canuck Singh - 25
Started training 5 years ago, had injuries several time to the back
Since starting SIF, now seriously training and trying to build strength, power, and breaking plateaus of numbers
Goals currently are to get a 4 plate squat or 405lbs full range
Totals currently are: Squat 365, Bench 315, Deadlift 455, and Long Term want: 405, 330, 500+
Cardio wise, I want to get down to 10% consistently, while playing various sports
Other things I want to do is promote fitness and health in the Sikh population, and to show that it can be done Naturally, while as a vegetarian. This motivates me to prove myself to others.

The actual journal
- To show this section the best, I am going to show you an example, and teach you how you can make your journal the most effective:
Diet:
- The diet part of the journal should only be posted once a week (ie. weekends). This is because if you are going to take the time to post a diet, post it in advance of the week, and STICk to it.

6AM - Protein shake + Vitamin + Cereal = 200cal
7AM - Pre workout shake + Green Tea = 400cal
8AM - Post workout shake + Antioxidants = 400cal
9AM - Tofu, Rice = 200cal
10AM - Milk protein shake = 200cal
11AM - Fruit bowl + Protein Shake = 100cal
1PM - Oat cereal = 200cal
2PM - Protein snack + flax meal = 300cal
5PM - Fruit & vegetables + Soy Protein meal = 400cal
8PM - Protein Shake + Legumes = 200cal
10PM - Milk Casein shake + Calcium supplement = 200cal
Total = 250g protein, 250g carbs, 80g fat = 3000cal

And then if there are any deviations during the week, you just write the devations
(For example: Say You missed Oat cereal at 1PM on wednesday, then you say Missed 1AM, had a Hunking 500cal Pizza, so +300cal for wednesday)

Then at the end of the week, you simply say, Mon = 3000cal, tue = 3000cal, wed = 3300cal, Th, 3000cal, Fri = 3000cal, Weekend 10000cal splurge. And you total it to 25300cal for the week and you gained 1lb!

Training
Now this is where people make various mistakes, and I'm going to show you 1 workout, over 2 weeks, and the easiest way to post it.

Here is the workout:
Week 1, Monday - Legs
Warmup squat: barx10, 95x8, 135x5, 185x3
Squat: 225x5, 225x5, 225x10
Lunge: 45x8, 135x6
Single Leg Squat: bwx5, bwx5

- And then you go on and say what you want about your workout.

THEN NEXT WEEK: I have broken the process up into steps -->
1. Copy the previous weeks workout
2. Paste the previous weeks workout into a new post

Week 1, Monday - Legs
Warmup squat: barx10, 95x8, 135x5, 185x3
Squat: 225x5, 225x5, 225x10
Lunge: 45x8, 135x6
Single Leg Squat: bwx5, bwx5

3. Now press fill in the new numbers, while keeping the old numbers in brackets

Week 2, Monday - Legs
Warmup squat: 95x10, 135x8, 185x5, 195x2 (barx10, 95x8, 135x5, 185x3)
Squat: 225x10, 225x8, 255x6, 275x5 (225x5, 225x5, 225x10)
DB Lunge: 24x8, 26x8 (normal lunge 45x8, 135x6)
Single Leg Squat: bw+5lbsx6, bw+5lbsx6 (bwx5, bwx5)
- New summary and what you think about your progress

As you can see, now that you are in the 2nd week, the user can see that you have made changes in your training, and the viewer can see if you are making progress and make sense of your comments at the end.

* Here are some extra points to make your journal even better!
- Use formatting such as colour and bold and other editing options to place emphasis and make it look nice (This way when you copy the last weeks journal, all you do is click [EDIT] and copy the edited version of your journal into the new post
- Add pictures of your workout, or even Videos! to make it more interesting

- Complete a weekly progress sheet, of whether you completed your goals, and how you plan to blast them next week!
- Ask for Feedback! So you are refining your training ALL the time. We are all learning something new all the time.