These habit tracking tips from Peloton's Robin Arzón will help you stay focused

These habit tracking tips from Peloton's Robin Arzón will help you stay focused

During a recent family trip to the Bahamas, Robin Arzón, head coach and vice president of fitness programming at Peloton, said she had a moment of clarity — one that highlighted the problem with New Year's resolutions and goals from her perspective. While training with her sister, she noticed a climbing frame, she explains. “When you're on the monkey bars, grab the next rung lightly,” she says. “You don’t launch yourself from the first [only to] land your face in the sand.”

It's this kind of "new year, new you" pressure that drives so many people to catapult themselves into new fitness routines, diet changes, and lifestyle changes, often all at once—aka attempting to traverse the entire jungle gym in one giant leap. While Arzón wears many hats herself—an ultramarathon runner, author, and new mother—she says she's not an advocate for tackling too many goals at once. “Sweeping changes are absolutely possible,” she says. "I've witnessed it. I've done it, but it's much harder. Break that figurative reach of the jungle gym into stages so that it's challenging, but it doesn't feel like you're throwing yourself off a cliff." (See also: Robin Arzón shares how a near-death experience inspired her to become a trainer)

However, this does not mean that personal development or self-work is not worth your effort. It's just a matter of applying a few key strategies to help you manage your expectations and outcomes—and it all comes back to habit tracking, says Arzón.

Would you benefit from a habit tracker?

“Habit tracking defines what your finish line looks like and then creates markers and processes along the path to checking in,” she says. "And that can be anything from a literal finish line to [checking in] how your self-care routine or your exercise routine is going."

Arzón says she finds that many people who are successful at habit tracking have two schools of thought in common. First, the idea is to prioritize “consistency over intensity,” which basically means “little by little adds up to a lot,” she says. "It's more important what you're willing to do 10,000 times than what you're willing to do once or twice. I'd rather someone take small, iterative steps than try to make wholesale changes, and I think that's where [people] stumble. And consistency begets consistency - once you start feeling that self-generated momentum, that's a direct path to success resolve and take back the narrative.

Second, successful habit tracking often involves a willingness to question, examine, and overcome obstacles, says Arzón. “The second really crucial part is analyzing the barriers that are holding you back from consistency when you notice yourself falling off,” she says. “You have to have honest conversations with yourself.”

Robin Arzon

Consistency begets consistency - once you start feeling this self-generated momentum, it's a direct path to disengage and take back the narrative.

– Robin Arzon

When it comes to actually keeping track of her healthy habits, Arzón prefers to do things old-school. "I like putting pen to paper; I'm a big diary person," she says. "Most mornings I journal - sometimes just a two-minute brain dump. But that's my gut check. I have one for strength training, where I analyze how I'm feeling, what I want to do, where I want to go on a weekly or monthly basis. And then I have one for mental health. Like, 'How do I talk to myself?' What stories do I tell? How do I dream?” I think it's helpful to keep a journal and then sometimes look back at where you were at a certain point in time." (Related: The Benefits of Journaling and How to Get the Most Out of Your Practice)

Arzón says she also sometimes writes down thoughts in the notes app on her phone. And while she uses an Apple Watch to track fitness metrics and health stats, she has been outspoken in the past about the potential pitfalls of obsessing over numbers. “I prefer to focus on ‘process goals’ rather than ‘outcome goals,’” says Arzón. "Process goals keep things within the realm of what you can dictate and what you can control. I can control my commitment. I can control my effort."

She also emphasizes the importance of how you formulate your goals and habits. “Pay attention to your words and how you characterize not only the finish line but also the path to get there,” says Arzón. "I don't think a number on the scale is inherently a bad thing, but what story do you tell around that number? A distance for a marathon isn't inherently bad, but what is the process? What story? Are you telling roughly that number? Metrics are important, data points help - but they should empower you to feel that forward momentum rather than feeling like you're under the weight of someone else's definition of success stand."

Are you feeling reinvigorated to revisit your hopes and dreams for 2022 - even if it's just to feel at peace with what this year brings? Here, Arzón shares some of her other tried-and-true tips for successful habit tracking that can be applied to any goal.

Robin Arzón's ideas and best practices for tracking habits

Be specific and intentional.

Goals are great, but Arzón says the magic is in the details. "I love using a tracker for how many times you've popped up [something]," she says. "What was the goal? Was it three workouts a week? Was it two yoga classes a week plus three rides? Get specific and prescriptive—that will be more useful than [setting a goal of] 'getting fit.'" Then go to the next level to remove any obstacles that are preventing you from achieving those microgoals. “Be honest with yourself about where you need to pick it up,” Arzón says.

Set your goals clearly.

Whether you type them on your phone, write them on the calendar, or doodle across the bathroom mirror in lipstick, your intentions should be clear and easy to see. This way, your habits always stay top of mind. “You have time for what you make time for,” says Arzón. “So plan it, make your goals visible – put something in your phone or where you grab your toothbrush.” (A vision board, which Arzón's teammate Kendall Toole knows well, is another great way to keep track of your goals.)

Invest time now to save time later.

While consistent work obviously requires some sacrifice, you don't have to dedicate a lot of time to your goals to see a big payoff, says Arzón. “When we get a shipment of products, I try my best to put it away right away, set it up, clean a few things, cut a few things, and then there it is [to use],” she says. "I never want to do this, but it usually takes less than 10 minutes - we're not talking about two hours of meal prep. But by taking those extra 10 minutes, I'm setting myself up to potentially save hours that week." So consider how you invest in your future self now, she adds.

Stack new habits on top of existing, healthy ones.

Arzón says she recently made a simple "two-second" change to an already established healthy morning routine by simply adding Athletic Greens' AG1 (Buy, $99, Athleticgreens.com), a powder supplement containing 75 vitamins, minerals, and whole-food nutrients, to her breakfast smoothie. (FTR, Arzón is a spokesperson and investor in the supplement brand.) "It's one of those things that [once] it becomes a staple, you'll know when it's missing," she says. "It's a habit to stack up – I knew I was already making a smoothie every morning, so I thought, 'Okay, I'll add [AG1] so I [only] have to worry about putting in X amount of [other] ingredients."

With this habit optimization mentality, she also incorporates other positive behaviors into her life. “I use my HyperIce products when I’m doing something else,” she says. "Lately I've been feeding my daughter dinner; I'll be using it [the Hypervolt (Buy It, $249, amazon.com)] on my legs. I'm trying to be realistic with the pockets of time I already have and how I can layer something up rather than adding something extra to my day or routine."

Prioritize rest and recovery.

Anyone who's taken one of Arzón's brutal Tabata classes on Peloton knows that she loves to work up a sweat, but she's also a firm believer in adequate physical and mental rest. “You can only train as hard as you are willing to give your body a chance to recover,” she says. "I teamed up with AG1 and Hyperice because I take [recovery] super seriously. It takes confidence to take a rest day." Proper recovery is just as important to your overall exercise program as your workout, not to mention necessary for your mental health and well-being, says Arzón.

"I encourage people to listen to their bodies and bend so they don't break," she explains. “You have to listen to yourself long enough to know what your body actually needs.” Additionally, the physical adjustments you're probably looking for can only happen if you give your muscles the time they need to heal and come back stronger, she explains. “Rest days are a good thing,” says Arzón. “You get stronger after rest days.”

Know when to step back – and when to push forward.

“It’s important to recognize that sometimes you have to pivot,” says Arzón. "And sometimes that involves changing your mind about a goal or objective, the process for achieving that goal, or the timeline for that goal. Moving with a purpose is different than quitting." It all comes down to having another honest conversation with yourself. Ask yourself, “Is it a pivot or do you just not show yourself and then call it something more palatable?” says Arzon. “This nuance is really important.”