As we march deeper and deeper into the grasp of winter, it becomes more and more difficult to stay healthy and active. The days grow short and cold and Netflix bingeing becomes increasingly more appealing. However, the iPhone in your pocket is a great tool to get (or stay) in shape during the winter lull. There is a cornucopia of apps that can assist in either generating workout plans or keeping track of your calories. Today we will explore a few apps that make an active lifestyle easy to achieve.
Map My Run
Flying under the Under Armour banner, Map My Run is a running app that utilizes GPS technology to track your route and distance. Armed with an intuitive user interface, the app is great for city runners or those traveling to a new area. The app also can keep track of calories burnt and you can opt-in for “motivational talk” to stay engaged after a few days.
Full Fitness: Exercise Workout Trainer
This app is tailored toward those who a gym membership or a home exercise setup. If it’s been a few years since you were in high school and forgot an exercise or three, this app is for you. With the app you are able to select a part of the body you want to focus on and the app provides several exercises for that muscle. You can select for a preset workout or create your own. Additionally, you can track your progress with a diary-like feature. It should be noted that there is a free version and also a paid version for this app.
MyFitnessPal
Another Under Armour app, MyFitnessPal is the ultimate food tracker and calorie counter. The app allows you to enter in your breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks and keeps track of how many calories you have consumed. You can also get upgrades that will track sodium intake or cholesterol. If you cannot find your meal in their database, you can manually enter the recipe and the app will calculate the nutritional facts based on your inputs.
This is a great first step into a healthier lifestyle. Being able to see the calories associated with the foods you typically eat can be a real eye opener.
Meditation Studio
Looking to wind down after a long day? Or wanting a focused energy to start off the day? This app specializes in mediation and mindfulness. Mental health should not be overlooked whenever you are looking to make lifestyle changes. This app offers tons of guided mediation that are specific to your mood and they are generally pretty short episodes. There are about 30 or so teachers you can select mediations from so you can hear a variety of styles. The app is relevantly cheap at $3.99 for the amount of content it offers. It’s a good app if you want to get into a healthy headspace fast.
There are so many apps out there designed to help you get healthy, it can be a bit overwhelming. These apps listed are good jumping off points into different aspects of health and hopefully they can point you in the right direction for discovering your own niche of apps.
