Normal blogging will resume tomorrow. Today is all about my favorite smart phone apps that will help keep you in that healthy lifestyle you’ve adapted! (Or maybe help start you in that lifestyle too!) There are in no particular order and I’ve tried several different varieties of some of these so I can indeed call them my favorites!
My Fitness Pal
My Fitness Pal is yet another free tracking website for calories and exercise. There are a million of these out there, right? I know I am a die-hard Spark People fan but I do have to say that I really love the My Fitness Pal app. It is so pretty first of all. Also, your friend feed is right there when you open it so you can see how your buddies are doing. Also, of course the more important thing, how many calories you have left is displayed right at the top. It is super easy to use and very fast too! I have used several different nutrition apps and this one is by far my favorite. Bonus is that I discovered that you can sync it with your FitBit account to update your calories burned! And if you enter a workout into MFP, it will send it to FitBit! Sweet!
Endomondo
Endomondo is a GPS app for tracking workouts. My Garmin is sometimes finicky and this is my back up plan. I haven’t done a ton of things with this app but what I have, I love. First, there is a countdown timer for a start button (so you can put your phone away before taking off). Again, you can add friends on their website (and app), making you accountable to others. The GPS I find is pretty accurate too (I’ve had some bad ones that measure a 2 mile run as 4!). Also, you can have it play music from your phone while you jog. The website really kicks butt for this too for when you want check your stats later. It also syncs with FitBit so when I do an Endomondo workout, it sends the data to FitBit (which sends calories burned to My Fitness Pal). Everything is working together! Seriously though, even if you aren’t a runner, this is a great app. I often use it for lunch time walks and you can even use it for bike rides. I also believe it has different workouts (intervals) but I’ve never used it. I really love it though!
Restaurant Nutrition
This app when you first open it doesn’t look like much. The platform is very simple. No fancy stuff. But the app is amazing. They have compiled the nutrition information for I don’t even know how many chain restaurants. There is even a search option. So say I’m at dinner with friends at Applebee’s. I can go search Applebee’s and give it a calorie range (or fat range or carb, etc.) and my options will pop up! Or if there is something I want to order, I can look it up by restaurant. Also, you can select your favorite restaurants so they will show at the top of your list first so you don’t have to scroll through all the ones you never go to (or don’t have near you). This is really a life saver when you are eating out!
Drink Water
I wrote a whole blog about this one already but I will tell you again. This is simple enough. You just want to track how much water you drank during the day. You can set the number of glasses you want to drink and go! But then, it reminds you to drink you water! If it has been a while, your phone will vibrate, a water glass will show in the notification bar, and you phone will make a water pouring sound. You can set what time the notifications start and stop so its not doing it at 3AM too. I have been so much better at drinking my water since I got this app! I almost feel guilty when the phone has to remind me!
Smart Coach
This is a strictly running app but pretty neat. There are a lot of free resources out there for finding running plans but sometimes they don’t work for you. This app tries to make it more personalized. You plug in your stats (previous race time, how much you run a week, etc.) and it gives you a customized training plan based on those numbers. I have played with it enough to find flaws (trying to find them on purpose, teehee) but for the average runner, this is a great app that will really help you train for any upcoming event at any level. You can use it up to 16 weeks in advance though so for events like the marathon, you want to make sure you are training a bit prior to that! So if you ever struggled to think about training, this app is for you!
Zombies, Run!
I have not tried this app yet but I want it!!! It is actually a game that you play. You put it on while you run and it tells you a story of a Zombie Apocalypse. It apparently has sound effects and everything. You collect things and run away from Zombies (think speed intervals). When you get back home, you have to play the game. Say you collected medical supplies, you have to decide who to give them to. What fun! I am waiting to get this app though because I heard its expensive, I can’t find it in the Android market, and the website says they are going to integrate with RunKeeper! Meaning I can have it track my run in addition to telling me stories. Here is their website if you want to read more about them: https://www.zombiesrungame.com/
On top of just the coolness of a smart phone and having the fun apps is that they really keep you motivated! I don’t know about you but when I have a fun app on my phone, I want to use it! And having them right on my smart phone makes it super easy to stay healthy too (tracking throughout the day, away from a computer say). Anything to make it easy to lose weight!
What are some of your favorite health and fitness apps?
I am intrigued by this Zombies, Run! app, I checked my app store and it’s $7.99. I’m going to see if Joe knows anything about it tonight. It could be fun, or traumatizing considering my ridiculous fear of zombies…
Here is a blogger review that my friend Missy sent me. Its how I learned about it
http://www.theclothesmakethegirl.com/2012/03/07/review-zombies-run/
~Ang
Well, it might make you run a hell of a lot faster away from the Zombies. LoL!
~Ang
I’ve been preaching MFP for about 3 years now! It’s so much better than it was when I first started, too, but even back then, it was “better” due to a) off-line sync b) “quick tools” (SP has copied!) and c) their database was FAR superior.
Now, most seem to have about the same items but if they’re all similar (now), I’m sticking with MFP. They didn’t used to have the social networking side on app, just desktop. They’re really expanded!