Do you know how you’ve improved since you started getting fit? Can you rely on your memory to tell you how much you weighed before, how much you could lift or what distance you could run? Do you know the quality of your sleep and how you can improve all of these elements of your life?

To find out the answers to these questions, take a look at the quantified self movement, and start tracking your own body data.

What is self-quantification?

It is the method of using technology to record data on various aspects of a person’s daily life; in terms of consumption, body shape, state of mind and physical performance.

What can I track?

The list is endless really – you can track almost everything, the limit being the cost of the technology to do it all. Common aspects of your life to track include you food consumption, water intake, quality of air you breathe, physical activity, blood pressure, sugar levels, sleep patterns, mood, time spent doing work/life activities – and so much more.

Where do I start?

The list above can be quite daunting. So we suggest starting with the basics; for fitness that means the food you eat, the water you drink, the activities you do and the sleep you get. Here’s how you can monitor each one.

• Food and water

Check our My Fitness Pal. The service let’s you track everything you eat, with a comprehensive list of UK foods too – so it will automatically know detailed information (calories, carbs, sugar, fats etc.). You can even use a barcode scanner if you download the mobile app.

• Physical activity

Accessorise your waist with a FitBit Ultra and all the steps you take will be automatically recorded. Better yet, it’ll give you targets each day and let you know if you’ve done enough activity or not. It syncs with My Fitness Pal and even tracks you sleep too.

• Sleep

We’ve already mentioned the FitBit monitors sleep, and a number of apps do too. But if you want to get serious about it then try out the Zeo Sleep Manager. Zeo tracks the quality of your sleep, including monitoring for REM and deep sleep, and then gives a personalized assessment and advice on how to improve.

There’s much more to it than this, but these three elements are great to track as over time you’ll see how you improve, maybe even identifying key events that made the improvement happen. You’ll also see what is lacking and figure out a way to change that. Body data has incredible potential, so start you quantified-self habit now.

What do you think of the quantified self? Let us know in the comments below and join the debate on Twitter.

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