How to use Evernote for your health and fitness goals + GIVEAWAY

As some of you may remember, back in December I was delighted to be announced as one of the Evernote Ambassadors. I have been a fan of Evernote for several years, using it daily for a range of things. I honestly could not imagine life without it! I use it to support my healthy living goals, as well as keeping myself organised, managing my health coaching business and collecting useful information.

What is Evernote?

Evernote makes it easy to remember things big and small from your everyday life using your computer, phone, tablet and the web. Evernote is free! You can sign up for an account here, and then download the app to your phone and the programme to your computer (or computers!) I have Evernote installed on my home laptop, work PC, iPad and iPhone.

While you are at it, also download and install the webclipper to your internet browser.

In Evernote you can create ‘notes’ and then assign these notes within ‘note books’. Super organised or what! You can find out more about how it all works on the Evernote site.

Now you should be all set to start using Evernote to its maximum potential!

As I said I use Evernote in a variety of ways to support my healthy lifestyle. Here’s a few of the way’s I make it work for me:

Scheduling – meal planning and workouts

I have a notebook which I label as ‘Everyday’. In this I have notes labelled SCHEDULE and SHOPPING LIST. I periodically use these notes to plan out meals, for example:

This is how I tend to lay out my meal plan, which actually becomes more of general organisational schedule as I add in when I plan to workout as well as any routine altering meetings (such as evening meetings where I will be out of the house). So I will list out my day like this:

Monday – (I put things I need to remember to do here)

• pre gym
• Gym
• Breakfast
• Lunch
• big snack
• Late night meeting
• Dinner

Some times I plan all meals, sometimes I don’t, and sometimes I change them even when I have something planned. But I find that it is the whole process of planning in the first place that keeps me right.

Once I have my schedule laid out I will add ingredients I may need to buy to the SHOPPING LIST note:

I just keep a simple list and use the tick box feature so that I can mark things off on my phone as I walk around the supermarket. As you can see from these Evernote for Windows screen shots, you can add frequently accessed notes to the top bar which is a really useful feature.

Exercise

I use the Evernote webclipper to save workouts and other fitness information I come across on the web to my FITNESS notebook. Then I tag each note depending on its features, for example ‘strength training’ ‘yoga’ ‘running’ etc. This means that I can easily sort through and search for any specific info I’m looking for.

For my current workouts I might have a note listing out my routine, for example a strength training plan. Then I can look at this on my phone in my gym so I know what I’m doing. If I’m not sure on how a movement is performed I can clip a web page that demonstrates it to my FITNESS note book so that I can consult it at the gym when I need to. I use these notes in conjunction with my SCHEDULE note to help stay organised when it comes to having planned workouts.

Recipes

One of the best things about Evernote for me, is being able to clip recipes from the web – food sites or other blogs. I have over 2000 notes in my FOOD notebook!

I tag each recipe for example, ‘breakfast’ ‘lunch’ ‘snack’ etc as well as ‘baked’ ‘raw’ ‘soup’ ‘salad’ etc. This makes meal planning and trying out new recipes as easy as pie ;-) When I come across a recipe that I want to try out, I will tag it with ‘make’. Then I can consult all the notes with my ‘make’ tag when I’m planning my meals in my SCHEDULE note! I can then use my iPad and view the recipe while I’m making the meal in the kitchen. FYI, this is also a great tool for us bloggers as if you are basing a recipe on another one then the source link is saved in the note for easy access to the original web page or blog post. Magic!

Goal Setting

In my Everyday note book I have a note labelled GOALS. Here I write in any goals I may be working on so that I can easily access them and see how I’m getting along. This is not the same as general day to day ‘To Do’ lists (yes I have a separate note for that, and other notes that keep me organised with writing this blog and managing Uniquely Healthy) but more short and long term personal goals. Don’t forget to make them SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time scaled).

Gratitude or Love List

A great way to look after your mental health is by practicing gratitude and focusing on the positive things in your life. I keep a ‘Love List’ note where I keep a list of things I’m grateful for in life, and some of the little things that make me smile. Whenever I need a lift, I just look at that list and genuinely, it does make me feel better.

Using Shared Note Books for Motivation and Inspiration

Another great feature from Evernote is the ability to share notes and note books. This can be a great way to work together with a friend and keep yourself accountable. If you share a notebook with your goals then it can be fun to do that with others to keep you on track.

KHGS Shared Evernote Notebook

I have set up a shared KHGS Notebook. Please join it and add your goals, share any useful info you come across, recipes etc. It will be fun to support one another in 2013 using Evernote!

GIVEAWAY – Win a free upgrade to Evernote Premium

Evernote Premium gives you bigger upload capacity, offers greater sharing options, gives you access to note history, and more. Plus, you get PDF searching, faster image recognition, and no ads.

I have 2 one year upgrades and 4 three month upgrades available to giveaway to lucky KHGS readers.

To enter (each counts as a separate entry so make sure you leave separate comments for each one for more chances to win!)

• Leave a comment below telling me if you use Evernote, how you use it, and if not, how you think you would utilise it
• Like Keeping Healthy Getting Stylish on Facebook and leave a comment below stating you have done so
• Tweet this – ‘Check out @lauraagarwilson GIVEAWAY for the chance to win a Premium Evernote Upgrade http://bit.ly/Tq10NZ ’- and leave a comment below stating that you have done so.
• Blog about this giveaway with a link to back to this post and leave a comment below stating you have done so.

Giveaway open Internationally and ends 12am GMT  31st January. Good Luck, and get clipping!