This week I started something new.

Not a fitness app. Not a spreadsheet. Just a notebook.

I’ve called it my Strength & Health Log.

At first, I thought I was creating a simple exercise diary. Somewhere to record push-ups, squats, and bicep curls as I work on rebuilding strength while living with kidney failure and attending dialysis three times a week.

But as I sketched out the pages, it became something more.

Each day now has space to record exercise, meals, medication, energy levels, weight, steps, notes, and a simple “Win of the Day”. The aim isn’t perfection. The aim is to notice what is happening and to build consistency over time.

The exercises themselves remain modest.

This week included:

• Incline push-ups
• Knee push-ups
• Goblet squats
• Bicep curls
• A new addition: doorway-assisted pulls to strengthen my back and balance the workout

The numbers are not spectacular. They don’t need to be.

For someone who has spent more than seven years on dialysis, progress is measured differently. Progress is showing up. Progress is doing the exercises. Progress is eating breakfast before training and discovering that it actually helps. Progress is adding a pulling exercise because it makes the workout more balanced.

One of my favourite parts of the notebook is the “Win of the Day” section.

Sometimes the win is completing a workout.

Sometimes the win is remembering medication.

Sometimes the win is simply:

“Bowl of Frosties. No added sugar. Good boy.”

Strength is not built in a single workout. Health is not transformed in a day.

Both are built one small decision at a time.

The notebook won’t make me stronger on its own.

But it helps me notice the small gains.

And small gains, repeated often enough, become real progress.