Bearly Fit
Blog
This is the blog, It's where we share updates and stuff.
What were you expecting?
- Dev Log
- Data
- architecture
- react-native
- migration
- testing
- Features
- UI
- ux
- food
- Search
- Exercises
- Reflection
- nutrition
- Release
- Update
- Announcement
- Workout Wizard
- workout-plans
- Milestone
- Building in Public
- workouts
- native-modules
- wizard
- iOS
- onboarding
- Life Logs
- Activity
- Goals
- Android
- Performance
- Optimization
- Home Screen
- Export
- Quick Menu
- Reporting
- Launch
- Widgets
- Community
- Patch
Testing Database Migrations
Aug 15, 2026How I test Bearly Fit's on-device database migrations - seeded databases, restoring previous backups and verifying them from a custom React Native debug menu.
Testing Database Migrations
Aug 15, 2026How I test Bearly Fit's on-device database migrations - seeded databases, restoring previous backups and verifying them from a custom React Native debug menu.
Testing Database Migrations
Aug 15, 2026How I test Bearly Fit's on-device database migrations - seeded databases, restoring previous backups and verifying them from a custom React Native debug menu.
Read moreFood Photos in the Log View
Aug 03, 2026Final touches to the Bearly Fit food UI - food images in the log view, an info button, and a richer barcode scanning screen with Nova, Nutriscore and Ecoscore grades.
Food Photos in the Log View
Aug 03, 2026Final touches to the Bearly Fit food UI - food images in the log view, an info button, and a richer barcode scanning screen with Nova, Nutriscore and Ecoscore grades.
Food Photos in the Log View
Aug 03, 2026Final touches to the Bearly Fit food UI - food images in the log view, an info button, and a richer barcode scanning screen with Nova, Nutriscore and Ecoscore grades.
Read moreSmarter Food Search
Jul 28, 2026Making it easier to find food in Bearly Fit's growing database with meal-period presets, smart defaults based on the time of day, and Most Recent and All Food filters.
Smarter Food Search
Jul 28, 2026Making it easier to find food in Bearly Fit's growing database with meal-period presets, smart defaults based on the time of day, and Most Recent and All Food filters.
Smarter Food Search
Jul 28, 2026Making it easier to find food in Bearly Fit's growing database with meal-period presets, smart defaults based on the time of day, and Most Recent and All Food filters.
Read moreRevamping the Exercise View
Jul 27, 2026Revamping the Bearly Fit Exercise View - removing the double menu, making core information prominent, naming targeted muscle groups and improving the guides.
Revamping the Exercise View
Jul 27, 2026Revamping the Bearly Fit Exercise View - removing the double menu, making core information prominent, naming targeted muscle groups and improving the guides.
Revamping the Exercise View
Jul 27, 2026Revamping the Bearly Fit Exercise View - removing the double menu, making core information prominent, naming targeted muscle groups and improving the guides.
Read moreRedesigning the Food Screen
Jul 20, 2026Sitemaps, indexnow, and redesigning the Bearly Fit food screen to show all the information without overwhelming you.
Redesigning the Food Screen
Jul 20, 2026Sitemaps, indexnow, and redesigning the Bearly Fit food screen to show all the information without overwhelming you.
Redesigning the Food Screen
Jul 20, 2026Sitemaps, indexnow, and redesigning the Bearly Fit food screen to show all the information without overwhelming you.
Read moreNutriscore, Ecoscore & Nova
Jul 02, 2026Adding Nutriscore, Ecoscore and Nova classification to Bearly Fit's food section - showing the nutritional and environmental impact of the food you're eating.
Nutriscore, Ecoscore & Nova
Jul 02, 2026Adding Nutriscore, Ecoscore and Nova classification to Bearly Fit's food section - showing the nutritional and environmental impact of the food you're eating.
Nutriscore, Ecoscore & Nova
Jul 02, 2026Adding Nutriscore, Ecoscore and Nova classification to Bearly Fit's food section - showing the nutritional and environmental impact of the food you're eating.
Read moreBuilding an Offline Food Database
Jul 01, 2026Building Bearly Fit's offline food database - 2300 searchable items with nutrition, dietary flags, Nutriscore and varied portion sizes, all without an internet connection.
Building an Offline Food Database
Jul 01, 2026Building Bearly Fit's offline food database - 2300 searchable items with nutrition, dietary flags, Nutriscore and varied portion sizes, all without an internet connection.
Building an Offline Food Database
Jul 01, 2026Building Bearly Fit's offline food database - 2300 searchable items with nutrition, dietary flags, Nutriscore and varied portion sizes, all without an internet connection.
Read more
Version 2.3 - A Wizard Is Never Late
May 30, 2026The Workout Wizard has arrived! Build a complete workout plan directly in the app with smart filtering by experience, type, and the muscles you want to hit (or avoid).
Version 2.3 - A Wizard Is Never Late
May 30, 2026The Workout Wizard has arrived! Build a complete workout plan directly in the app with smart filtering by experience, type, and the muscles you want to hit (or avoid).
Version 2.3 - A Wizard Is Never Late
May 30, 2026The Workout Wizard has arrived! Build a complete workout plan directly in the app with smart filtering by experience, type, and the muscles you want to hit (or avoid).
Read more
1 Year Old Today
May 28, 2026Bearly Fit turns one. A year of building in public, the development and business numbers behind it, and what's next.
1 Year Old Today
May 28, 2026Bearly Fit turns one. A year of building in public, the development and business numbers behind it, and what's next.
1 Year Old Today
May 28, 2026Bearly Fit turns one. A year of building in public, the development and business numbers behind it, and what's next.
Read moreLove When a Plan Comes Together
May 10, 2026Revamping the workout plan management UI now that the wizard can generate them - plus info buttons, session awareness, and what's coming next.
Love When a Plan Comes Together
May 10, 2026Revamping the workout plan management UI now that the wizard can generate them - plus info buttons, session awareness, and what's coming next.
Love When a Plan Comes Together
May 10, 2026Revamping the workout plan management UI now that the wizard can generate them - plus info buttons, session awareness, and what's coming next.
Read morePlaying With Dark Magic
May 04, 2026Calculating sets, reps, weight and time scaling for generated workout plans - with a bit of progressive overload and de-loading thrown in.
Playing With Dark Magic
May 04, 2026Calculating sets, reps, weight and time scaling for generated workout plans - with a bit of progressive overload and de-loading thrown in.
Playing With Dark Magic
May 04, 2026Calculating sets, reps, weight and time scaling for generated workout plans - with a bit of progressive overload and de-loading thrown in.
Read moreThe Suns Out
Apr 29, 2026The workout plan summary screen is almost done - and the next bit is figuring out how to calculate sets and reps from your history.
The Suns Out
Apr 29, 2026The workout plan summary screen is almost done - and the next bit is figuring out how to calculate sets and reps from your history.
The Suns Out
Apr 29, 2026The workout plan summary screen is almost done - and the next bit is figuring out how to calculate sets and reps from your history.
Read moreBearly Holding It Together
Apr 22, 2026Android's 16KB page size deadline is forcing a full React Native upgrade, so I'm extracting the native modules into self-contained libraries first.
Bearly Holding It Together
Apr 22, 2026Android's 16KB page size deadline is forcing a full React Native upgrade, so I'm extracting the native modules into self-contained libraries first.
Bearly Holding It Together
Apr 22, 2026Android's 16KB page size deadline is forcing a full React Native upgrade, so I'm extracting the native modules into self-contained libraries first.
Read moreWorking Some Magic
Apr 01, 2026Polishing the Workout Wizard's UX and thinking about how to break the Bearly Fit codebase into self contained modules.
Working Some Magic
Apr 01, 2026Polishing the Workout Wizard's UX and thinking about how to break the Bearly Fit codebase into self contained modules.
Working Some Magic
Apr 01, 2026Polishing the Workout Wizard's UX and thinking about how to break the Bearly Fit codebase into self contained modules.
Read moreOff to See the Wizard
Mar 26, 2026Today on James-is-unemployed... I've been mostly working on the Bearly Fit workout plan creator and figuring out how people pick muscles when they don't know muscle names.
Off to See the Wizard
Mar 26, 2026Today on James-is-unemployed... I've been mostly working on the Bearly Fit workout plan creator and figuring out how people pick muscles when they don't know muscle names.
Off to See the Wizard
Mar 26, 2026Today on James-is-unemployed... I've been mostly working on the Bearly Fit workout plan creator and figuring out how people pick muscles when they don't know muscle names.
Read more
The Really Little One - Version 2.01
Feb 28, 2026Quickly fixing my failures in life, this release just fixes a bug with certain versions of iOS preventing the app from launching
The Really Little One - Version 2.01
Feb 28, 2026Quickly fixing my failures in life, this release just fixes a bug with certain versions of iOS preventing the app from launching
The Really Little One - Version 2.01
Feb 28, 2026Quickly fixing my failures in life, this release just fixes a bug with certain versions of iOS preventing the app from launching
Read moreThe Big One - Version 2.0
Feb 20, 20266 months and a whole lot of new features. BearlyFit 2.0 brings Life Logs, enhanced goals, a revamped activity tab, and so much more.
The Big One - Version 2.0
Feb 20, 20266 months and a whole lot of new features. BearlyFit 2.0 brings Life Logs, enhanced goals, a revamped activity tab, and so much more.
The Big One - Version 2.0
Feb 20, 20266 months and a whole lot of new features. BearlyFit 2.0 brings Life Logs, enhanced goals, a revamped activity tab, and so much more.
Read moreNatural Language Search
Jan 24, 2026Last night I was just chilling and making improvements - implementing natural language search for exercises and life logs.
Natural Language Search
Jan 24, 2026Last night I was just chilling and making improvements - implementing natural language search for exercises and life logs.
Natural Language Search
Jan 24, 2026Last night I was just chilling and making improvements - implementing natural language search for exercises and life logs.
Read moreBuilding in Public
Jan 23, 2026Reflecting on the journey of building Bearly Fit publicly - from an abandoned side project to a comprehensive fitness platform.
Building in Public
Jan 23, 2026Reflecting on the journey of building Bearly Fit publicly - from an abandoned side project to a comprehensive fitness platform.
Building in Public
Jan 23, 2026Reflecting on the journey of building Bearly Fit publicly - from an abandoned side project to a comprehensive fitness platform.
Read moreTesting on Older Devices
Jan 12, 2026Testing on older and less powerful devices can be humbling. Here's how I optimized React Native charts for Android.
Testing on Older Devices
Jan 12, 2026Testing on older and less powerful devices can be humbling. Here's how I optimized React Native charts for Android.
Testing on Older Devices
Jan 12, 2026Testing on older and less powerful devices can be humbling. Here's how I optimized React Native charts for Android.
Read moreGoals UI Improvements
Dec 31, 2025Improving the Goals UI with a more intuitive sentence-like structure and better time input selectors.
Goals UI Improvements
Dec 31, 2025Improving the Goals UI with a more intuitive sentence-like structure and better time input selectors.
Goals UI Improvements
Dec 31, 2025Improving the Goals UI with a more intuitive sentence-like structure and better time input selectors.
Read moreGoals on Home Screen
Dec 23, 2025Today I continued to improve goals on the home screen - showing the start, current progress, and target goal.
Goals on Home Screen
Dec 23, 2025Today I continued to improve goals on the home screen - showing the start, current progress, and target goal.
Goals on Home Screen
Dec 23, 2025Today I continued to improve goals on the home screen - showing the start, current progress, and target goal.
Read moreExercise Search Improvements
Oct 23, 2025Tonight on Bearly Fit I have mostly been doing some small search improvements.
Exercise Search Improvements
Oct 23, 2025Tonight on Bearly Fit I have mostly been doing some small search improvements.
Exercise Search Improvements
Oct 23, 2025Tonight on Bearly Fit I have mostly been doing some small search improvements.
Read moreExport Functionality
Oct 12, 2025Today on Bearly Fit I have mostly been improving the export system - CSV and JSON exports for all your data.
Export Functionality
Oct 12, 2025Today on Bearly Fit I have mostly been improving the export system - CSV and JSON exports for all your data.
Export Functionality
Oct 12, 2025Today on Bearly Fit I have mostly been improving the export system - CSV and JSON exports for all your data.
Read moreQuick Menu Customization
Oct 03, 2025Today on Bearly Fit I have mostly been improving the quick menu - making it fully customizable.
Quick Menu Customization
Oct 03, 2025Today on Bearly Fit I have mostly been improving the quick menu - making it fully customizable.
Quick Menu Customization
Oct 03, 2025Today on Bearly Fit I have mostly been improving the quick menu - making it fully customizable.
Read more
One Year of Building Bearly Fit
Sep 30, 2025Today is 1 year since I took the leap to build Bearly Fit. A reflection on the journey and encouragement to just start.
One Year of Building Bearly Fit
Sep 30, 2025Today is 1 year since I took the leap to build Bearly Fit. A reflection on the journey and encouragement to just start.
One Year of Building Bearly Fit
Sep 30, 2025Today is 1 year since I took the leap to build Bearly Fit. A reflection on the journey and encouragement to just start.
Read moreLife Logs Reporting
Sep 20, 2025Today on Bearly Fit I have been working hard on reports for Life Logs - compare measurements, see injuries, and view charts.
Life Logs Reporting
Sep 20, 2025Today on Bearly Fit I have been working hard on reports for Life Logs - compare measurements, see injuries, and view charts.
Life Logs Reporting
Sep 20, 2025Today on Bearly Fit I have been working hard on reports for Life Logs - compare measurements, see injuries, and view charts.
Read moreActivity Section Improvements
Sep 18, 2025Today on Bearly Fit I have mostly been improving the Activity section - making it easier to get digest workout, nutrition and life log stats.
Activity Section Improvements
Sep 18, 2025Today on Bearly Fit I have mostly been improving the Activity section - making it easier to get digest workout, nutrition and life log stats.
Activity Section Improvements
Sep 18, 2025Today on Bearly Fit I have mostly been improving the Activity section - making it easier to get digest workout, nutrition and life log stats.
Read moreLife Logs UI Improvements
Sep 12, 2025Today on Bearly Fit I have mostly been cleaning up the UI for Life Logs - restructuring into Progress, Injury, and Other logs.
Life Logs UI Improvements
Sep 12, 2025Today on Bearly Fit I have mostly been cleaning up the UI for Life Logs - restructuring into Progress, Injury, and Other logs.
Life Logs UI Improvements
Sep 12, 2025Today on Bearly Fit I have mostly been cleaning up the UI for Life Logs - restructuring into Progress, Injury, and Other logs.
Read moreBearly Fit is Now on iOS!
Jul 24, 2025After 10 months, 100s of hours and 4 rejections, Bearly Fit is finally available on iPhone!
Bearly Fit is Now on iOS!
Jul 24, 2025After 10 months, 100s of hours and 4 rejections, Bearly Fit is finally available on iPhone!
Bearly Fit is Now on iOS!
Jul 24, 2025After 10 months, 100s of hours and 4 rejections, Bearly Fit is finally available on iPhone!
Read moreBearly a Month - Version 1.3
Jul 14, 2025Android 1.3 is rolling out with automatic exercise updates, home screen widgets, and a bunch of UI and performance fixes.
Bearly a Month - Version 1.3
Jul 14, 2025Android 1.3 is rolling out with automatic exercise updates, home screen widgets, and a bunch of UI and performance fixes.
Bearly a Month - Version 1.3
Jul 14, 2025Android 1.3 is rolling out with automatic exercise updates, home screen widgets, and a bunch of UI and performance fixes.
Read moreBearly a Week - Version 1.2
Jun 07, 2025Version 1.2 is now live! This includes most of the bug fixes, 50 new exercises and a couple new features people asked for.
Bearly a Week - Version 1.2
Jun 07, 2025Version 1.2 is now live! This includes most of the bug fixes, 50 new exercises and a couple new features people asked for.
Bearly a Week - Version 1.2
Jun 07, 2025Version 1.2 is now live! This includes most of the bug fixes, 50 new exercises and a couple new features people asked for.
Read moreDay 1 Patch & What's Next
May 30, 2025Our first patch is live with all the bug fixes from launch day. Plus a sneak peek at upcoming features including new exercise types and iOS development.
Day 1 Patch & What's Next
May 30, 2025Our first patch is live with all the bug fixes from launch day. Plus a sneak peek at upcoming features including new exercise types and iOS development.
Day 1 Patch & What's Next
May 30, 2025Our first patch is live with all the bug fixes from launch day. Plus a sneak peek at upcoming features including new exercise types and iOS development.
Read moreBearly Fit is Live!
May 27, 2025After 8 months and 100s of hours, Bearly Fit is live! An app that I started as a way to help keep better track of my fitness is finally available on Android!
Bearly Fit is Live!
May 27, 2025After 8 months and 100s of hours, Bearly Fit is live! An app that I started as a way to help keep better track of my fitness is finally available on Android!
Bearly Fit is Live!
May 27, 2025After 8 months and 100s of hours, Bearly Fit is live! An app that I started as a way to help keep better track of my fitness is finally available on Android!
Read more