Shopping
The 8 Best Fitness Journals For Crafting A Wellness Routine That Works For You
We only recommend products we love and that we think you will, too. We may receive a portion of sales from products purchased from this article, which was written by our Commerce team.
Keeping a journal is a great way to track your wellness goals. In fact, studies have shown that keeping a routine log can make people more knowledgeable about their health and more aware of what they can do to improve it. This is one reason that you might want to pick up the best fitness journals, which allow you to set goals for a chosen time span and record your progress. There are a lot of journals out there with a wide range of different approaches, so before you choose one, be sure to consider what features will keep you motivated to work towards your personal goals.
Most fitness journals cover time periods between 12 weeks and one year and have daily open templates for you to fill in so you can start any time of year. The daily pages in the journals below are all undated, so you can choose to only write entries for the specific days that you want, and all contain a variety of prompts and structured pages to keep you motivated. Some are focused on logging your fitness activities, along with trackable metrics like hours of sleep, water intake, and steps. Others take more of a mindful approach, with space to track your mood, self-care, weekly wins, and overall life goals. Some simply prepare you to set a productive routine, which could include fitness or any other area of your life. If you’d like room to keep track of nutrition, make grocery lists, or meal prep, there are also options for that. And if you’d like to track your daily health and fitness habits, some journals include options to track your daily habits, or you might consider a habit tracker that cuts out the long-form writing element altogether. Finally, if templates don’t appeal to you, a blank bullet journal can be a great way for you to create a personalized fitness journal that’s truly tailored to your own unique objectives.
Whatever your reasons for keeping a journal, these highly rated planners, trackers, and more on Amazon can help empower you to work towards your mental or physical wellness goals.
1. A 13-Week Fitness Journal & Meal Planner
The Life & Apples Wellness Planner is a journal that has space to pursue physical and mental wellness goals along with helping with meal planning. Daily pages allow you to focus on getting enough sunlight, air, water, joy, and sleep, while writing down your daily activities, positive thoughts, gratitude, and more. In the weekly review section, you can look back at your successes, insights, and perceived areas for improvement while tracking any desired health parameters and habits. There are areas to celebrate progress and plan your month, plus stickers, an inner pocket, and a ribbon bookmark. One reviewer explained that they loved how the journal goes beyond fitness in its focus, writing, “I like that it’s a lifestyle book.” The journal is formatted for 90 days, so if you have goals in that time frame and would like help with meal prep, this wellness planner is a solid bet.
Helpful Amazon review: “At last! a wonderful combination of nutrition, mental wellbeing and fitness! [...] This wellness planner has it all, and it's doing a great job at balancing physical and mental health!”
2. A Journal To Track Your Running
Both casual joggers and ultrarunners can find something to love in this 365-day running journal. You can list your goals, races, results, and personal records while logging your weekly runs, noting vital info like location, time, weather, distance, nutrition, and any aches and pains. There are essays on motivation and form throughout the journal, as well as weekly tips to keep you inspired and prevent injury. Multiple reviewers report that they like the journal’s compact size (just 5 by 7 inches), and the undated pages make it easy to return to the journal if you take a break. It’s also just a really effective tool that’s pleasant to use; one reviewer training for a marathon went so far as to note, “taking time each day to log and reflect on my runs is making the process and experience so much more enjoyable and memorable.”
Helpful Amazon review: “This journal is unlike any other in its way to hold the athlete accountable to their journey. The colors are beautiful, quotes are motivation, and the tips are informational; leaving the consumer to only want more. I can't put my journal down. I also appreciate how flexible the dates are, allowing the athlete to start at any time.”
3. A Habit-Tracking Journal That Focuses On A Morning Routine
Whether you’re a morning person or not, this Habit Nest journal can help. The brand promises to assist you in establishing a morning routine by offering space to track and hold yourself accountable for sleep and wake goals, identify nightly distractions, and map out morning rituals. Unlike some other options, this journal isn’t just a template you fill out every day; there are 66 daily challenges with tips and curated content, plus a guided journal and habit tracker, to help you reach the morning routine of your dreams. One reviewer who used to have rushed, chaotic, and unpleasant mornings has had great results with this journal, writing: “It’s amazing how much down time I now have with my family since I’ve started utilizing the early morning hours.”
Helpful Amazon review: “Spectacular! The Morning Sidekick Journal has changed the way I look at my whole day. Easy to follow, great tips, plenty of room to make extra notes or jot down ideas. Coming in early to work to make sure I have extra time to start my day off with positivity and purpose. Ending my days at home with a sense of accomplishment. I have just one word for you...order! It'll transform your life.”
4. A Habit-Tracking Journal That Focuses On Your Evening Routine
What goes best with a morning routine? An evening routine, of course. Also made by Habit Nest, this sleep-focused journal guarantees to help you get great shut-eye on a regular basis. There’s daily guidance to set and track the amount of sleep you’d like to get for the night and when you’ll turn the lights out, as well as space to plan a routine, and self reflect. With 66 days of tips, you’ll get a better understanding of your sleep identity, circadian rhythm, and more. Broken up into three phases, the journal also offers recaps so you can look back on your progress and implement new techniques moving forward.
Helpful Amazon review: “This is the perfect journal to guide you back to caring for yourself. It has given me a lot to think about and has totally changed my nighttime routine! Thank you for saving me from burning myself out.”
5. A Journal For Yoga Lovers
If you’re a yogi who wants to track your practice, look no further than this minimalist yoga journal. Whether you’re doing your sun salutations at home or a studio, there are 121 numbered, undated pages for you to fill out whenever you want. Each page features a template to log the length of your practice, your intentions or positive thoughts, poses of note, and what was going on in your body and mind both before and after your practice. There are no frills here, so you can focus on your sequence, how it made you feel, and any other thoughts you might have about your yoga session.
Helpful Amazon review: “Perfect to log and journal my daily practice. Well made!”
6. A Highly Rated Productivity Planner For Long-Term Goals
With over 16,000 reviews and a solid 4.7-star rating overall, this productivity planner is beloved on Amazon. And while it’s not explicitly meant for fitness tracking, it is a great way to keep track of your wellness habits and set specific goals that work for you. On the outside, it has a faux leather hardcover (available in 19 colors), a pen holder, and elastic band enclosure. On the inside, it starts with an illustrated user manual to help you assess your dreams and life goals for the long term and set short term goals in the areas of health and fitness, career and business, finance, personal development, family and friends, romance, fun and hobbies, and spirituality.
There’s a weekly work to-do list, personal to-do list, habit tracker, and an area to write down weekly wins and goals. For the month, there’s a calendar section, and a place for monthly reflections. If that wasn’t enough, it also includes journal pages for added notes and 109 stickers. This planner will help you track your goals for an entire year and will help hold you accountable with check-ins every three months. Even one self-proclaimed “planner snob” raves, “I love the look, the quality, the setup, the functionality of it... It's all great. I'm only sad it took me so long to find it.”
Helpful Amazon review: “I’ve tried to find a planner that helps me achieve fitness and health goals for years but I always think I fall off track or am not good enough. With this planners yearly goals, tri monthly goals, and weekly goals and habit trackers I can say I’ve had a solid 2 weeks of feeling nothing but confident. I can write the things I’ve done good and what needs to improve in designated areas and it’s honestly the best planner I’ve ever gotten to help keep me on track of who I want to be!”
7. A 6-Month Planner That Keeps Your Eyes On The Prize
If you have a single specific goal in mind (fitness-related or otherwise) and need a journal to keep you accountable, the Evrim Pursuit Goal Journal might be what you’re looking for. The set up is simple – write down your goal, set a monthly objective, and give yourself three weekly targets. There are areas for weekly reflection, planning the week ahead, open journal space, and inspirational quotes to keep you motivated. The pages are undated so you can start whenever you like, and one fan on Amazon felt that this planner “avoids over-complicating the process and encourages realistic goals” while allowing you to see how you’re progressing and adjust your goals or schedule as needed.
Helpful Amazon review: “I am planning a thruhike of the Foothills Trail six months out. I needed help keeping on track [...] This helps me by breaking down the overarching fitness goals into bite sizes I can manage each month/week/day. It is helping me stay on track by reminding me of habits of practical things I can do daily that will help me meet the ultimate goal. This is best used for a specific goal. Be prepared to think through your goal and set milestones. Breaking it down into “check off-able” steps will help you achieve it. I added the sticker to remind myself of why I’m doing this.”
8. A Bullet Journal You Can Fully Personalize
Templates aren’t for everyone, and if you like to create your own personalized fitness notebook, a bullet journal can give you unlimited possibilities. This highly rated journal has 128 dotted pages with a bookmark, faux leather hardcover (available in five colors and patterns), and an elastic band enclosure. The cream-colored paper has a thickness of 120 grams per square meter (GSM), which reviewers felt worked well with, even with fountain pens, though some noticed that Sharpies caused some bleed-through and ghosting. Reviewers also reported that the A5 size (5 by 8.25 inches) is convenient and that the journal lies flat when open. Track your goals, habits, and just about anything else in this notebook — it’s really all up to you!
Helpful Amazon review: “This is a perfect journal to use for organizing my habits, goals, and anything else I want to jot down. I love journaling at the end of the day to calm down my mind. The paper is sturdy, and the book comes with a bookmark string , and a band to hold the notebook shut. Its the perfect size, not too big, and not too small.”
Also Nice: A 1-Year Habit Tracker
For times you don’t want to journal, but would like a visually interesting way to track your goals, consider this sleek habit tracker. Spiral bound and undated, you can track up to 10 daily habits, 10 weekly habits, and five monthly habits. Each month features a new habit suggestion, but the beauty here is that you can easily envision the progress and consistency of anything you’d like to track. A fan on Amazon raved, “I am a huge procrastinator, but this tool is truly helping me reach my goals! I love it.” The tracker doesn’t come with stickers, but with 120 GSM paper it can withstand most markers – one reviewer pointed out that even Sharpies don’t bleed through the pages.
Helpful Amazon review: “I’m so glad to have this tracker! I’m a visual learner, so reminders and alarms on my phone were not prompting me to get things done because I could easily ignore them. Knowing that I have something to check off each day/week/month creates motivation. I want this page FULL!”
Studies referenced:
Figueiredo, M., Caldeira, C., Chen, Y., & Zheng, K. (2018). Routine self-tracking of health: reasons, facilitating factors, and the potential impact on health management practices. AMIA Annu Symp Proc. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5977566/
