Tracking Progress Helps Us To Achieve Our Goals

This is particularly so when it comes to our health. Take our food consumption, for example. A 2008 study from Kaiser Permanente's Center for Health Research found that tracking the food we eat can double our weight loss.

Tracking does the same for our exercise goals. Pedometers, smart-phone apps and wearables may be new technology, but already millions of us are using them to get real fitness results. These devices make a difference - a recent review of some 26 published studies showed that "the use of a pedometer is associated with significant increases in physical activity and significant decreases in body mass index and blood pressure."

We can expect even better results if we also track our blood pressure and the things that affect it.

The tellbeth app, for example, can track weight, steps, blood presssure, food, life events and much more.

Health tracking works. And for these reasons it makes sense that it should...

• It sets goals for us. Tracking produces personal bests and other milestones that we then try to maintain or better.
• It gives us a dose of reality. Sometimes we delude ourselves into believing things about our lifestyle, our circumstances and our achievements that just aren't true.
• We get self knowledge. We discover and understand the circumstances and events that trigger pain, affect our mood, or give us the great sleep and energy we need to go harder.