Thursday, November 8, 2012

Favorite Health and Fitness Apps

Before I get started let me show you this weeks homework. It was a project for the whole family but ended up just Beth and I working on it. (Which was actually nice to have some one on one time) 

She brought home this turkey and he's super scared because Thanksgiving is coming. The mission is to disguise him. Past disguises have included hula dancers, Santa, football players, etc. Beth decide on a princess and then half way thru she added bride so it ended up a princess bride. Here is the final project after much hot glue and burned fingers (mine, not hers). 


So I've been meaning to post this for awhile now because I'm always looking for useful apps for my iPhone. I'm super cheap so I usually only buy the free ones so I can delete them without guilt if I'm not using it. 

So lets get started:

My first app I want to share is Fooducate. I use this app just about every time I'm at the store. You scan the barcode and it rates it for how healthy the item is. It really comes in handy when comparing items and you'd be surprised at some of the things being advertised as "healthy" and then you find out its not so healthy. 






This is a great app and you can browse similar items or find out why it got a low rating. Since I started using the app I try to only buy "A"and"B".  Snack items are tougher so my kids don't get a lot of snacky type items anymore. But it has really helped clean up our diets. They also have a new Gluten Fooducate if you are gluten free.  I haven't looked into it but it might be helpful to people sensitive to gluten. Check out their website as well. Fooducate.

The next app is Couch to 5K. I love this app as it got me off my ass and convinced me that even I could be a runner. Love love love it. Super easy and you can listen to music and just wait for the little British accented voice to encourage you to run for a few minutes. 

After I finished the program I ran my first 5K and seriously hoped they had a Couch to Half Marathon (sadly they do not). 

After I graduated from Couch to 5K I got Runmeter. I didn't have a fancy Garmjn watch so this worked perfectly. I could listen to my music and similar to C25K a voice told me my distance and pace. It logs all runs and has elevation, maps, pace. Everything. 



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JogFM is great for music. It analyzes your music and then matches   BPM to your pace. Totally awesome. Go check out their website for more info. JogFM. On their website you can enter your pace and it gives you playlists that match. The app has a bunch of options that I really haven't explored it all but I really like it. 





Cool features. Check it out. 

If you are really watching/tracking your diet and exercise check out Nutrition Menu.


You can track everything you eat, exercise, even water you drink. I don't use this app for tracking but love it for eating out. Here in California chain restaurants are required to have nutrition info available which comes in handy. But if you are trying to decide what to eat when your out and about this app comes in handy so you can make better choices. 


That journal is neat if you are tracking your diet. We had to do this in college in Nutrition. For days we had to track out diet, enter it into a computer program on campus and then it analyzed it, and we had to write a paper on the findings. Very insightful. Now years later this is so much simpler. Instant feedback to see where you are meeting your needs and what you are lacking. 

If you are into Crossfit or just looking for some DIY workouts check out the WOD app. At Crossfit their workouts are named after people. Mostly heroes, soldiers that have lost their lives, or have other inspiring stories. 



So the app tells about the hero the workout is named for and some of them (not sure if all of them) have a video and a description of the workout.



Ok this one was chosen at random. Lol. Not all of them are this hard. But a lot of them are able to be done at home or traveling with no equipment needed. It also has news stories, timers (tabata, stopwatch, and interval).

Ok. I think that's about it. The only other recommendation I have isn't for an app but a website for free downloadable playlists. It's called Rock my Run. 
You get credits that go toward downloading the music. Great way to get new music. 

Any suggestions for healthy apps?


1 comment:

  1. Cool apps! I really want to try Fooducate and JogFM. Thanks for sharing these!

    ReplyDelete