Printables make you pay attention.

There are plenty of websites and gadgets that can help you get fit. But sometimes all you need to do is go back to basics with pen and paper. An app may be fighting it out with other apps for your mind, but a humble printable makes things easier with a single stroke of the pen.

Stick them on the refrigerator door or insert them in your journal. They can be powerful reminders against bad health habits.

These 10 printables give you a great place to start.

1. Weekly Weight Loss Check-In

If you're looking for a colorful option for your weekly weight loss check-in, blog Sunny Sweet Days has a set of printables that includes a great way to capture a snapshot of your progress.

The Weekly Check In sheet tracks the number of pounds and inches lost, number of workouts, daily caloric intake, as well as your measurements and daily workout. The set also includes a weekly meal plan printable that will help you plan meals in advance and a journal page printable.

2. Kicking a Soda Habit

If you have a soda habit you want to kick, this free health and fitness planner printable includes a sheet that makes it easy to track your water and soda intake. Good habits are built on healthy micro-actions and this printable will help you start fresh.

The printable takes you through a five-week hydration schedule for increasing your water intake on a daily basis. with the goal of reaching 8 glasses a day.

The set of printables also includes a weekly meal planner, a daily food and caloric tracker, your fruit and vegetable intake sheet.

3. Healthy Habits Tracker

If you want to develop more good habits aside from cutting back on soda, you can use this monthly healthy habits tracker.

The tracker logs your water intake, nights you didn't snack, and tracks your daily weigh in, meal planning, and more.

Be sure to check out the rest of Weight to Maintain printables listed here.

4. Couch-to-5K and More

Darebee is a great all-in-one option and is one of the free options that will probably appeal to men and women. Darebee's printables are conveniently divided into six categories, some of which do overlap a little: Workouts, Programs, Challenges, Running, Fitness, and Meal Plans.

The first five categories focus on getting you in shape with a workout routine for just about everyone: Couch to 5K, 30 day abs challenge, cardio routines, and much more. You can also find a fitness and meal diary printable to log your monthly efforts.

The running section is particularly robust with tips on how to get more out of your running routine, as well as several different kinds of 30 day running challenges.

For meal plans, you can find printables with weekly meal plans, each catering to different lifestyles. In addition to printables, Darebee also offers recipes and nutrition tips.

5. Healthy Food Lists

The 21-Day Fix is a nutrition and exercise routine which takes the guesswork out of portion control by providing color coded Tupperware. This makes it easy to figure out how much food you should be consuming per day.

Even if you don't follow the program itself, you could still use this 21 Day Fix printable list of healthy foods, color coded by their category as a guide to what foods you should be eating.

If you'd rather avoid the 21-Day Fix altogether, this Clean Eating Grocery List might do the trick. The lists are divided into food types, pantry staples, herbs, and baking supplies.

6. Healthy Foods for Kids

If you want to get your kids excited about eating healthy food and avoiding  junk, this Healthy Foods for Kids Printable encourages children to sort the various foods they eat into food groups, as you teach them about a balanced an healthy diet.

You can print the sheets and cut out the images of food so kids can sort them into their appropriate groups. During the week, together with their parents, kids can keep track of their balanced meals. If you happen to have a Silhouette machine, you can also use printable sticker paper and have the machine cut the stickers out for you.

8. Work Out Plan

Life of Paper's printables include a workout plan and a meal plan. You can list the time, place, and activity of your choice for each day of the week. It also has a list of lower body, upper body, and core excercises.

9. Food Log Template

If you want to keep track of everything you eat, you could use an app, but sometimes writing things down really helps with accountability. So if you're trying to cut back on unhealthy snacks, a food log will also come in handy. This set of food log templates is a great place to start.

There's lots of designs and colors to choose from but they all focus on what's important: giving you a place to track your eating.

If you'd prefer a daily log rather than a weekly option, this colorful daily food journal gives you plenty of space to track your eating habits.

10. Meal Planner and Grocery List

To get this free meal planner, you are going to have to fork over your email address. It's worth it because not only do you get a sheet for a weekly meal plan, you also get grocery lists, recipe cards, +15 recipe category divider sheets, and more.

The free planner is almost an entire inventory log for the contents in your fridge. There are thoughtful bonuses like a holiday meal planner and a baking conversion chart.

11. Planner Stickers

If you already have a planner system that you like to use, you could just incorporate planner stickers into your routine for keeping track of your health and fitness progress.

These Fitness Planner Stickers can be used to add your workout, weigh in, and water intake tracking to your calendar. Maintain a journal? Bring them into it and power it up.

The designer has also explained how you can use this printable to create your stickers. It also might be a good idea to follow her Pinterest board for more inspiration.

Why Use Printables?

Printables are great for several reason. Print them out and put them on a cork board or on your wall where you can see them every day. They will quietly serve as a reminder of your daily, weekly, and monthly goals.

Writing things down is also a great motivator. If you eat something you're trying to cut back on, writing it down might be a good way to hold yourself accountable.

There is a little convenience you might miss out on that you get with gadgets, phones, and fitness trackers. Having all that information in an app that goes everywhere you go can be handy.

That said, you can always get the best of both worlds. You can log your steps and workouts using a fitness tracker like the Fitbit, and write it down in a personal journal or an exercise log that gives you a weekly overview of your achievements.

What are your favorite printables to use for getting fit and staying in shape? Do you find that writing things down helps you stick to your goals? Let us know in the comments.