friendship bracelets are so 2000 + late. friendship fitbooks are where the real magic happens. just ask best friends nikki and veronica - not only do they work together at the Aspen Clinic for medical weight loss, they work out together too, journaling their way to BFF bliss.

a faithful food journaler, nikki was always testing out different diets + meal plans in order to give her patients a realistic idea of what to expect, but she just couldn’t seem to find the motivation to squeeze her workouts in with the same consistency. then, after a stressful year + subsequent, unwanted 15-pound weight-loss, she knew she needed to take control of the situation. her goal: to put back on a bit of the weight she lost + increase muscle mass.

on the flip side, veronica got really into weight training two years ago + has never looked back. however, despite relatively clean eating habits, she was experiencing head + stomach aches. her goal: to see where she could make improvements in her nutrition.

enter fitbook + the art of accountability. numerous studies have shown what we’ve known to be true all along - the very premise of fitbook itself - people are more likely to stick to a workout program or diet + thus achieve their goals when they have someone or something to hold them accountable. in fact, you're 76% more likely to reach a goal if you write it down and also tell a pal.

we chatted with veronica + nikki to find out how fitbooking with a bestie upped the efficacy big-time.

[fitbook in veronica’s words]
“i decided to fitbook when nikki came up with the idea of starting one as a new year’s resolution at the beginning of the year. in a way, we figured we could help each other out. i wanted to get better with my diet and learn how to fuel myself properly, which was nikki’s expertise, while she wanted guidance in her workouts at the gym, where i was able to help.

together we push each other to go up in weights and really focus on performing each movement correctly. because of that, we both developed lean muscle, we both find ourselves getting stronger everyday, and personally, i’ve gained a lot more confidence.

fitbooking with a friend made it so much more fun and kept us motivated to push each other to reach our goals. nikki and i would both get to work in the morning and the first thing we would do was catch up and write in our workouts and meals from the previous day. we loved it so much we decided to do a second one not only for ourselves, but hopefully to motivate our patients to do it too.”

[fitbook in nikki’s words]
“at the start of this year, veronica was struggling with her diet and i was having the worst time motivating myself to go to the gym, so we decided to start a fitbook together in january 2017. we completed two back-to-back, then took about a month break and now we are working on our third book for the year!

having a friend use the fitbook with me made it so much easier to stay on track. veronica and i go to the gym and work together, so it is very easy for us to keep each other on track. we typically come in to work and the first thing we do is catch up on our fitbook from the day before. veronica helps me stay on track with workouts and i help her with meal planning each week.

the gym is without a doubt where i struggle. i love to sleep. i mean, i’d skip dinner every night just to go sleep earlier if i could, so making time to workout every day seemed pretty inconvenient at first. using the fitbook was the first time i actually stuck to a workout plan long term. i can’t lie: the main reason is because i HATE checking “oops missed it” on a day i was supposed to go to the gym. this was the first time i was really holding myself accountable. if i set my goal to workout 5 times that week, i did it. no matter what. i also got this little feeling of satisfaction to flip the pages and see so much writing on the workout pages.

also, having veronica there with me figuring out what we should bring for lunch that week, etc made it much easier to stick to it long term. i used the fitbook as a tool to make sure I ate enough protein, increased water, and was more committed to a workout plan.”

and all that hard work + accountability definitely paid off! after nearly 10 months of logging, nikki has succeeded in increasing her muscle mass (lowering her fat percentage by almost 5% in the process), while veronica has upped her weights in the gym, as well as her confidence. congrats, you beautiful + buff BFFs! we are so happy to have been a part of your accountability quest!

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