Alllo, everyone. And welcome to another series where I build cool stuff, then show you how to do it.

My philosophy is that the best way to learn something is to try to build it — or rebuild it — and that’s exactly what this is!

Today, we’ll be building a Personal Fitness Coach in Notion. No more MyFitnessPal, physical entries or Noom. Matthias Frank blessed us with a way to turn Notion into your own personal fitness coach and I’ll break it down here how to do it yourself. Also, since the release of his YouTube video, Notion has released Formulas 2.0, which changes things slightly.

But first, story time.

Merging fitness and productivity is a tall oder—from the analog (the real) to digital (the virtual).

I’ve been writing down and calculating my nutrition on scraps of paper, binders, apps—you name it— for years. Now with the world feeding us “solutions” for every ailment, you can end up spending a massive load of time, and money, trying to figure out which system works the best for you.

But finding a system that works for you is not a one-size-fits-all process. It requires patience, trial and error, and an understanding of your own body and lifestyle. That's where the beauty of Notion as a personal fitness coach comes in. It's customizable, adaptable, and designed to fit my specific needs and preferences. Maybe it can help yours too.

The idea is simple: write down what you ate in Notion, and have AI breakdown the details and send weekly reviews/coaching.

We’re not counting every macro, but I like this approach because it builds on the idea that a sound diet is built on choices over a long period. You don’t need to make adjustments everyday and be hype sensitive about what you eat. Just small adjustments per week. Plus logging everything makes us aware of what we’re ingesting and how we can treat our bodies better.

Also, I had cool GIFs I built for this newsletter but the file size was too big 👎 so you'll have to deal with these terrible screenshots.

Here’s the cookup:

Automation build for data breakdown:

Automation build for weekly analysis via email:

Here’s how it looks in Notion:

What do you need to build this?

1. Database backend to record meals
2. Automation tool to breakdown meal data
3. Automation tool for weekly report
4. Beautify, baby

How to set it up?

1. Download template
2. Sign up for make.com
3. Sign up for ChatGPT
4. Connect automation tool to breakdown meal data
5. Connect automation tool for weekly report

How to use?

1. Everyday, @Today page will be created
2. Throughout the day, or at the end of it, type what you ate in that page
3. Daily, the automation will run and let you know your calories for the day
4. At the end of the week, you’ll be sent a report based on what you eat and a tip to improve for the next week

Until next time,

H