health blog

There are no rules when it comes to taking control of your health: there are times that come when you need to do whatever it takes to add exercise to your routine and keep your diet on track. Weight gain, heart disease, diabetes, and other health complications come when your life gets out of balance and your health is no longer your priority.

However, self-care is the most important kind of care you can do. If you do not care for yourself, you certainly can’t care for others. From fitness trackers to apps on your cell phone, there are a ton of ways for you to keep track of your health goals and stay accountable. However, there are some creative ways as well.

One of these is to start a blog or use your existing blog to help you take control of your health. Of course, you will need to set up a domain name and select a template or templates to use for your site. Once you have those things in place, you’re ready to begin. But how do you use a blog to take control of your health?

Recording Your Fitness

Yes, you can record your fitness in a number of ways, including apps on your phone, your Fitbit wearable device, and even your Apple Watch. However, sharing this on your blog means that your workouts are posted in a more public space.
There are a few reasons for this.

  • A Visual Progress Chart: Whether you share your fitness goals weekly or daily, you can easily look back on a blog and see visual progress, something you can also chart in frequent updates. Seeing progress visually is one of the keys to accomplishing your goals.
  • Accountability: The readers of your blog, even if they are just friends and family, will help you be accountable, as they will expect updates, and can express concern for you if they do not see them.
  • Determining Plateaus: When you do the same workout for a long time, often you will plateau, and a visual progress chart can show you these times, and let you know when it is important to change it up a little bit.

Weekly updates on a fitness blog are often the best. They show progress, obstacles, and allow others to comment and encourage your progress.

Sharing Your Diet

Any good trainer will tell you that fitness is 20% what you do, and 80% what you eat. This means that although exercise is important, diet is even more important. This is not only related to caloric intake but to the percentage of carbs, the refined sugars you consume, and your water and sodium intake.
Why is it important to share your diet on your blog to take control of your health?

  • Figuring Out Missteps: As much as you know about diet, there will be those who know more than you do. Trust them, and if they comment that certain items in your diet should not be there, ask why and then reevaluate.
  • Staying Accountable: If you have to write it down and publish it, you are less likely to “cheat” and eat things you should not.
  • Encouraging Others: The fact that you are sticking to a diet plan can certainly serve as an encouragement to others, and if you share the times you fail, it excuses to them that everyone is human and makes mistakes. This will make them more likely to make an effort themselves, and they may even reach out to you for advice.

Sharing your diet means your journey will have a more significant impact on both you and others.

Progress Photos

Ah, the before and after and everything in between. These photos tell a story on their own, and while at first they can be a bit humiliating, sharing them shows courage and also encourage you and those who read your blog to keep going.

When you look at yourself in a mirror every day, you don’t always see changes happening, and even those who see you all the time don’t always notice until they are significant. However, looking back can help you see your own progress and share it with others.

Like the visual charts of your fitness project, this serves as another visual motivator. Since you can see progress, you will want to continue to see it.

Making a Little Money

Health is more than just physical. It is mental, emotional, and spiritual as well. Along with these things, your financial health is important as well.

The likelihood is that if you are losing weight and working out, you are probably using certain books or programs, diets or planners, and devices and fitness machines to do so. Even certain apps can be your greatest partners along the way.

Of course, you want to share these with your friends and your audience because you want them to be successful too. What if there was a way to do so and make money too?
There is. In fact, you have a few different options for making money on your blog while you share your health journey.

  • Affiliate Links: Some programs or books have affiliate link programs. If you share links to their product with a unique code, if someone buys the product through your link you get paid. This includes Amazon if the books or products are sold there.
  • Site Sponsorship: If you develop a large enough audience, one or more of the products you use may even offer to sponsor your site to keep it going. This can be a great source of steady income.
  • Native Ads: Native ads are offered by Google, Amazon, Outbrain, and other ad vendors. They offer your users ads related to their interests and search history. When they click on an ad from your site, you get paid.

These sources of income probably won’t be enough for you to quit your day job, especially from just a single website. But they can put some money in your pocket, motivating you not only to keep on top of your health, but to keep blogging about it as well.

Using a blog to take control of your health may not be for everyone. But it can serve as a great source of encouragement for you and others, keep you accountable to diet and food, and help you chart and see your progress throughout your journey to a healthier lifestyle.