Way back when I was running cross country, a long time ago, we didn't have all of this technology stuff. We wore sports watches that told you your time and if you had a nice one it told you your lap times. We had to get in our cars, set the tripometer and drive our route to find out how far it was. If you wanted to listen to music, ha ha, strap your walkman to your waist and hope it doesn't jiggle off and break. These days all you have to do is take your phone with you and you'll have music made from your own playlist, a gps to tell you where you are and how far you have gone, it will tell you your pace, calories burned, and if you need to call someone to come pick you up because you were over ambitious and don't have the strength to get back, just call someone, your phone is right there with you. Isn't technology wonderful... mostly anyways. Well, another advantage we have these days is apps. I've found some awesome apps that can be very useful when trying to change our lifestyles. Just like anything out there, none of these are 100% error proof, but they are still a very big help.
Running apps:
MapMyRun and RunKeeper are two great running apps. They have GPS, keep up with your mile pace, you can play your music and it will cut in and update you every mile. At the end, they give you all of the stats from your run, including elevation, time, pace, etc. You can also be friends with other people using this app and compare your times on the same routes or post your run to Facebook.
Want to try the Couch to 5K program? The app 5K Runner:0 to 5K run training seems to be a good one. I haven't used it yet, but it has great reviews and it's another one that you can listen to music and they will cut in and coach you as you run. I'm going to try it this week, I'll take this off if it's not a good one.
ZombiesRun is an app for the nerds out there, including myself. It's just something different then just listening to music the entire run. You are a runner in a story where you are being chased by zombies every once and a while and have to out run them. It's good interval training and you get to listen to your own playlist while running. They just cut in with the story line every few minutes. Pretty cheesy, but fun and it makes you sprint in the middle of your runs.
Food apps:
ShopWell is an app to help you at the grocery store. You can either scan the item and it will give you the nutritional info and better options to look for, or you can look up what would be like the best chips to buy. You enter in your information, like health concerns and diet restrictions and this app will help you find the right choice for you. I've only had it about a week, but it has already come in handy. I think I'm going to really like it. Fooducate is another tool to help you in the grocery store. It's along the same lines, scan the item and find out all of the info on it or search by category or name.
Looking for healthy recipes? Whole Foods Recipes is a good app. Select a course like dinner or dessert, pick a category, like on a budget or make ahead. Then choose any diet restrictions you may have. It will pull up any recipes they have that fit those categories. Two down side, it randomly closes out and you have to get back into the app and no pictures for those of you who like pictures with your recipes.
What are your favorite health apps?
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