Progress is a forward or onward movement toward a destination. Journaling and tracking your walking miles are essential for several reasons. By recording your walking mileage, steps, exercises you do during your walks and journaling any insights you have, you will gain a wealth of knowledge about your physical and emotional progress.

For years I never put my thoughts down on paper. I never viewed myself as a writer. It was something other people did. In high school, I looked at my classmates as being more intelligent and more talented when it came to writing. In my mind, they had that specific something that I lacked. This negative attitude stopped me from writing formally, and unfortunately, it kept me from writing informally as one does in a journal.

Once I began walking and wanting to express myself and teach about this great form of exercise, I had to put these childish fears away, face the challenge head-on to write my first blog post then have the guts to hit the publish now button on my website.

Then the magic happened. I began writing like a fiend! Mostly during my mid-walk coffee stops at Dunkin Donuts or Starbucks. I'd take out my folded sheet of printer paper and a pen and begin writing informally, to-do lists, blog post ideas, marketing strategies, and social media posts. Then, later on, I began to write short stories (I'm not confident enough to publish them just yet, but I will someday), business ideas, walking article ideas, video scripts, and more.

I Started So Can You

The point of telling you this is that if you're not a writer, try journaling. Your journal is your private "thought vault." The place where you can hide your mental treasures. You've got nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Here is where my later-in-life writing has led me. My latest book is the Walking Logbook Journal. Like most logbooks, it will give you space to write in your walking miles, times, and distances. But I give you more than just a chart. I've added my weekly walking, health, and fitness insights to provide you with "food for thought" and space on each page to write those thoughts.

When I look over my walking logs, I get an excellent overview of the work I've put into my fitness. I see my progress from when I started recovering from my back injury and could only walk down the block and back to doing long walks of over ten miles! The training log significantly boosts my motivation when I see, on paper, just how far my fitness walking has progressed.

You've put in the work consistently, and you've developed a routine that is efficient and effective. You can walk more daily miles than you thought you'd ever walk. That is awesome; if I were with you, I'd pat you on the back, but that's not possible so do the next best thing.

Pat yourself on the back as you see how much improvement you've made to your health and fitness!

I found the journaling process so beneficial that I wrote a book about walking and journaling. The Walking Logbook Journal is available on Amazon. It contains 52-Weekly Walking Charts and 52-Weekly, and more about walking, health, and fitness. 

Excerpt from the Walking Logbook Journal by Frank S. Ring, page 96:

Idea Catcher – A Bonus That's Free with Every Walk
Your walking time allows you to think. With all this thinking time, you will be amazed at the number of ideas that come to mind. Take advantage of this "bonus" and capture those great ideas before they slip away.

I like to write freehand. After your walk, while you enjoy the endorphins still pumping through your brain, take out this journal and continue thinking, dreaming, and writing. I refer to this time as my "mind-dump" time. It allows me to mark up the page quickly with random thoughts that I connect by drawing lines, shapes, etc.

It's essential to write longhand. There is a connection between the brain and the handwritten word that imprints the ideas and action steps on your subconscious mind. Typing out these post-walk thoughts is stifling. The red squiggly line of my typos is distracting. Pen on paper gives me a physical connection to my thoughts. It's a critical component that enhances the "mind-body connection."

I have the world's worst handwriting and rarely write out anything longhand, yet doing this exercise makes me love this freehand writing process.

8 Benefits of Journaling and Tracking Your Walking Miles

Regularly journaling and tracking your walking miles is vital for these eight benefits:

1. Journaling makes it more likely to reach and surpass your goal: Reading your goals throughout the day and journaling about them allows you to focus on the result and measure your walking miles. A goal gives you direction and something to aspire to, a clear idea of what you want to accomplish. It makes you work harder because you are passionate about it. Goals help measure your progress to keep you motivated. Knowing you want to walk a certain number of miles will help you get out the door on less-than-ideal days. It keeps you accountable. The more you share your goals, the more encouragement you'll get. Also, if you do not accomplish your goal, you can better analyze why, make adjustments, and complete them the next time you set a goal.

2. It Allows you to be more efficient with your time and workouts: Monitoring your walks and how you feel will help you recognize health patterns. If you feel great during your walks, then a clue to why may be how you prepared for the walk. Was your gear out and ready to be quickly put on? Did you drink enough water before going out? Were you well rested? 

3. Journaling Lends accountability to yourself and your goals: If your goal is to walk 20 days per month and log 80 miles per month (4 miles per walk average), then you know that if you walked only two miles one day, you'd need to add more to a future walk. Goals will keep you on track.

4. Allows for easier modifications: From the example above, if you feel sluggish, then cutting back on your mileage may be the right decision for today. Then, when you are feeling stronger, you know you can make up the mileage by walking more to complete your goals.

5. Journaling is motivating to remind yourself why you are doing what you are doing: Looking at our logbook over a few months will show you how much you've walked and allow you to reflect on the notes to relive how you felt then. Day to day, you may feel like you are not making much progress in your fitness level. But when you add up the miles you've walked in 3 months, that total will impress you enough to make you strive to walk even more miles. The longest journey begins with a single step.

6. Helps to drive the focus and direction of your Fitness program: Keeping a journal gives you a place to write your thoughts about why keeping fit is so important. This daily reminder will help you focus on what is essential and how to best achieve your goals.

7. It keeps you committed to your plan: Putting a goal number where you can read it every day will give you a constant reminder to get out the door and walk more. But it goes deeper than that. Reading your goal number often each day will also remind you to maintain healthy habits throughout the day. You'll drink more water, make better food and beverage choices, get more rest, and generally make better health decisions knowing that you have to get out and walk to reach your monthly goals. 

8. You see your progress: Tracking your walking miles and writing about your experiences and feelings will give a tangible account of your time and effort. Day-to-day living tends to blur together unless we have markers to distinguish the days. Holidays, birthdays, and anniversaries are great time markers, and by keeping a journal as your time marker, you'll remember the details of your day. Imagine looking back on your journal four months from now and rereading the compliment a neighbor gave you as she admired how fit you have been since you started walking. With a journal, that great motivating compliment was written and remembered.

As an example of keeping a logbook & journal over a long period, read about “My Virtual Walk Around the United States.” I began this journey as a visual experiment to track how many miles I ran in 2004.

I set up maps and tracked my progress with Photoshopped images of me running in various locations around the United States. I continued adding more maps as I "walked" around the U.S. year after year. I would goof on my students when I ran in those places. "See, that's me in the picture." Later I would admit that "yes, I ran/walked all those miles but not in those locations."

I enjoyed the process so much that I continued the experiment until I reached over 11,000 miles completing the journey in June 2020. Without keeping track of my mileage on a spreadsheet, I would have no idea how much I could accomplish over the long run or, should I say, a long walk.

Types of Journals

Journaling after walking is especially effective due to walking and exercise's effect on the brain. There are many types of journaling styles. Choose one or experiment with various kinds.  

• Fitness journal: Tracking your walking miles and workouts will help you stay committed to your physical fitness goals and maintain a healthy lifestyle. Over time, you see just how much progress you have made.

• To-do list: Write down your to-do's, prioritize them, and feel great as you cross off as each one is accomplished.

• Day's events journal: Make a note of daily conversations, experiences, feel-good moments, or anything noteworthy. 

• Dream journal: keep your journal on your nightstand, and immediately upon waking up, write down your dreams. This will take practice, but you will reap great rewards as you tap into your subconscious mind.

• Stream of consciousness: Write down your thoughts as they happen. Don't worry about making sense; keep writing.

• Food journal: record what you eat and how you feel after eating. Documenting your diet can offer insight into maintaining a healthy weight.

• Sketch journal: Doodle, draw or sketch your ideas, thoughts, and feelings.

• Gratitude journal: A growing body of research shows keeping a log of what you are thankful for can lower stress and help you sleep better. Feeling grateful positively affects your mental health and quality of life. Before going to sleep, reflect on your day and write down three things you are thankful for.

Excerpt from the Walking Logbook Journal by Frank S. Ring, page 32:

Keep a Gratitude Journal
Country singer Willie Nelson said, "When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around." End each day by writing down three things you are grateful for. You'll identify what matters to you and end your day positively.

Use this logbook, gratitude app, or writing journal, or create a folder of photos on your phone.

There is no right or wrong way to keep a journal. Find the style that gives you the most satisfaction. It's essential to use your journal time to get in touch with your mind-body connection.

Why It's Important to Write Longhand in A Journal or Logbook Physically

Writing by hand has many benefits. The act of putting pen to paper helps you develop a greater mind-body connection. When you write longhand, especially after a walk, you'll be surprised at how quickly your thought come and how satisfying it is to put them down on paper. 

While typing your thoughts can work, the words on the screen look similar to a book, which may force you to type the words to perfection, limiting your creativity. Also, the red squiggly lines of auto-correct can be distracting to the point of making you backspace to correct the misspelling and inhibiting the flow of ideas.

Your handwriting may be sloppy when you write longhand, but your journal is for your eyes only. Writing longhand allows you to cross out, draw lines connecting thoughts, sketch in an idea, or circle main points and sentences. 

The style of your longhand journaling will be as creative as the thoughts you put in it. Since your ideas will come so quickly, there is no need to worry about them looking perfect on paper. 

Six Benefits of Writing Longhand

Writing longhand has many benefits as you record your thoughts in your journal. I have the world's worst handwriting, yet I've let this go when I write longhand and focus on the ideas enhanced by my walking time.

1. Writing longhand boosts your creativity: Writing longhand forces you to slow down, allowing you time to express your feelings with greater creativity.

2. Writing longhand aids in memory: The sequential movements of forming of letters when writing longhand activates the region of the brain responsible for working memory.

3. Writing longhand helps you express yourself better: Writing longhand in a journal takes you away from the distractions of the computer screen allowing. A journal replaces all your open tabs, apps, and others' opinions.

4. Writing longhand helps relieve stress: Therapists recommend writing longhand to combat depression and anxiety. Writing boosts mindfulness by slowing down your thoughts and increasing a sense of calm.

5. Writing longhand helps you focus: When you form letters on the page, you can concentrate better as your brain considers what is being written. Also, your brain blocks unnecessary information during the writing process.

6. Writing longhand slows mental aging: You keep your brain active by mentally challenging yourself through writing and reading. The activity of writing slows cognitive decline.

Your Next Step:

Keep a logbook and journal of your walking miles. My latest release, Walking Logbook and Journal, was designed to give you the space to track your miles, walking time, and, most importantly, your thoughts and creative ideas.

Walk on,
Frank S. Ring
Author: Walking for Health and Fitness, Fitness Walking and Bodyweight Exercises, Walking Inspiration, and Walking Logbook Journal.