Tracker Guide

Every tracker in BodySitRep follows the same basic pattern. Once you understand one, you can use all of them. This page explains how trackers work, then walks through three common trackers in full detail.

How Every Tracker Works

Opening a tracker

From the Home screen, tap any tracker card. You can also tap a tracker from the Daily Checklist or the Quick Log buttons. All three take you to the same place: the tracker form.

The form

Every tracker form has these common elements:

• Date and Time. Defaults to right now. Change it if you are logging something that happened earlier today or on a previous day.
• Main fields. These vary by tracker. Blood Pressure has systolic and diastolic. Headache has pain scale and location. Nutrition has meal type and what you ate. Fill in what applies.
• Chip selectors. Many fields use tappable chips instead of dropdowns. Tap a chip to select it. Tap again to deselect. You can select multiple chips for fields like symptoms or triggers.
• Notes. A free-text field at the bottom of the form. This is where you write anything worth remembering: what happened, how it affected your day, what helped or did not help.

Most fields are optional. Log what you know. It is better to save a partial entry than to skip the day entirely.

Saving

Tap the Save button at the bottom. Your entry is encrypted and stored. The form resets so you can log another entry if needed. You will see your new entry appear in the history list below the form.

The log list

Below the form, you will see all your past entries for this tracker, sorted newest first. Each entry shows a summary line (the key value like pain level or reading) and the date. Tap an entry to see full details.

Charts

Most trackers show a chart above or near the log list. What the chart shows depends on the tracker type:

• Numeric trackers (Blood Pressure, Glucose, Weight) show a scatter plot with dots for each reading. Reference lines show normal ranges so you can see if your values are trending up, down, or stable.
• Sleep shows a bar chart of sleep duration for the past 7 days, plus summary stats (average per night, number of short nights).
• Daily count trackers (Water, Caffeine) show how much you logged each day.

Charts update automatically as you add entries. The more data you log, the more useful the charts become.

😴 Sleep Tracker

What it is

The Sleep tracker logs when you go to bed, when you wake up, how well you slept, and what interrupted your rest. It calculates sleep duration automatically and shows you how long you stay awake during the day.

Why it matters

Sleep affects everything: pain levels, mood, blood pressure, cognitive function, and recovery. Without tracking, most people can only say "I slept badly." With tracking, you can say "I averaged 5.5 hours this week, woke up 3 times from pain, and had nightmares on 2 nights." That level of detail helps providers make better decisions.

What you log

• Bedtime. When you went to sleep. Tap "Log Bedtime" on the sleep page. A date/time picker appears so you can confirm or adjust the time.
• Wake time. When you woke up. Tap "Log Wake" the next morning. The app pairs this with your bedtime and calculates duration.
• Sleep quality. Rate from Very Poor to Excellent after you wake up.
• Times woken. How many times you woke up during the night.
• Wake reasons. Tap chips for what woke you: Pain, Nightmares/PTSD, Noise, Need to urinate, Anxiety, Breathing issue, Restless legs, Temperature, or Unknown.
• Nightmares. Toggle on if you had nightmares. This is especially relevant for PTSD documentation.
• Naps. Log naps separately during the day. The app tracks nap time and subtracts it from your awake duration.
• Notes. Anything else worth remembering about your sleep.

How to use it step by step

1. Open Sleep from the Home screen or Daily Checklist.
2. At bedtime, tap "Log Bedtime." Confirm the time and save.
3. In the morning, open Sleep and tap "Log Wake." Confirm the time.
4. After waking, fill in the details: quality, times woken, reasons, nightmares.
5. Tap "Save Details."
6. If you nap during the day, tap "Start Nap" when you lie down and "End Nap" when you get up.

What you will see

The Sleep page shows a bar chart of your sleep duration over the past 7 days. Below that, you see summary stats: average hours per night, total nights logged, and how many nights were under 6 hours. If you have logged both bedtime and wake for multiple days, you also see a Sleep Trend (whether you slept more or less than the previous week) and a Time Awake breakdown showing how long you were awake each day.

Tips

• Log bedtime right before you set your phone down. Log wake first thing in the morning. Make it a reflex.
• If you go to bed after midnight, the app handles it correctly. A 1:30 AM bedtime counts toward the previous day.
• The wake reasons field is especially useful for VA documentation. Log nightmares as a reason every time they happen.
• Do not stress about exact minutes. Approximate times are fine. The trend over weeks matters more than one night's precision.

❤️ Blood Pressure Tracker

What it is

The Blood Pressure tracker logs your systolic and diastolic readings, pulse, the position you were in when you took the reading, and any symptoms you noticed.

Why it matters

A single blood pressure reading at the doctor's office can be misleading. Stress, caffeine, rushing to get there, or even the "white coat effect" can raise your numbers. Logging at home over days and weeks gives your provider a much more accurate picture. It also helps you see if lifestyle changes (exercise, diet, medication) are actually working.

What you log

• Date and Time. When you took the reading.
• Systolic. The top number on your blood pressure monitor (for example, 130).
• Diastolic. The bottom number (for example, 85).
• Pulse. Your heart rate in beats per minute, if your monitor shows it.
• Arm. Which arm you used (Left or Right).
• Position. Whether you were sitting, standing, or lying down.
• Symptoms. Tap any that apply: headache, dizziness, chest pain, shortness of breath, blurred vision, nausea, fatigue.
• Notes. Context like "just finished exercising" or "took medication 30 minutes ago" or "feeling anxious."

How to use it step by step

1. Take your blood pressure reading with your home monitor.
2. Open Blood Pressure from the Home screen.
3. Enter the systolic and diastolic numbers.
4. Add your pulse if available.
5. Select which arm and your position.
6. Check any symptoms you noticed.
7. Add a note if there is context (medication timing, stress level, recent meal).
8. Tap Save.

What you will see

The chart shows a scatter plot of your readings over time. Each dot represents one reading. Reference lines show normal range (120/80), elevated range, and high blood pressure thresholds. You can see at a glance whether your readings are trending up, down, or staying stable.

Tips

• Take readings at the same time each day for the most consistent data. Morning before medication is a common choice.
• Sit quietly for 5 minutes before taking a reading. This matches how your doctor measures it.
• Always note if you just exercised, ate a big meal, or had caffeine. These affect readings significantly.
• Export your readings as CSV before a cardiology appointment. A spreadsheet of 30 days of readings is far more useful than one office reading.

🥗 Nutrition Tracker

What it is

The Nutrition tracker logs your meals: what you ate, when, what type of meal it was, and optionally a photo. It connects to Gallery so your meal photos are collected in one place.

Why it matters

Food affects everything. Headaches, energy, digestion, sleep, and mood are all influenced by what and when you eat. Tracking nutrition is not about counting every calorie. It is about having an honest record of what you actually ate so you can spot connections. Did your IBS flare up after pizza? Did you feel better during the week you ate more vegetables?

What you log

• Date and Time. When you ate.
• Meal type. Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Snack, or Other.
• What you ate. A text field. Write whatever level of detail is useful to you. "Grilled chicken and rice" is fine. "2 eggs, toast, OJ" is fine. Do not overthink it.
• Calories. Optional. Only fill in if you know or want to track this.
• Water. Ounces of water consumed with this meal.
• Mood after eating. How you felt after the meal.
• Photo. Attach one photo per entry from your camera or photo library. This shows up in Gallery automatically.
• Notes. Anything else: "ate out at a restaurant" or "felt bloated after."

How to use it step by step

1. Open Nutrition from the Home screen.
2. Select the meal type (Breakfast, Lunch, etc.).
3. Type what you ate in the food field.
4. Optionally add calories and water intake.
5. Optionally take or attach a photo of your meal.
6. Add a note if useful.
7. Tap Save.

If you eat three meals in a day, log three separate entries. Each one captures the meal type and one photo.

What you will see

Your log list shows each meal entry with the date, meal type, and what you ate. If you attached photos, they appear in the Gallery utility page as a visual timeline of your meals. Over time, scrolling through your Gallery is one of the most revealing ways to see your eating patterns.

Tips

• Log right after eating while you still remember what you had.
• Take a photo first, then log. It takes 10 seconds.
• Do not worry about perfect calorie counts. General descriptions are valuable too.
• If you have IBS or food sensitivities, be specific about ingredients. "Pasta with cream sauce" tells you more than "dinner" when reviewing triggers later.

Explore All Trackers

BodySitRep has 80+ trackers organized into categories. You do not need to enable all of them. Pick the ones that match what you are dealing with right now. You can always add more later in Settings.

Tap any category below to see its trackers.