The Personal Trainer in Your Pocket

by Joanna

At one point I had 77 apps on my phone.  Yes, 77!  I’m an app hoarder.  I’ve been trying to cut down and only keep on my phone only the apps that I actually use on somewhat of a regular basis.  Some are wellness related that I use frequently that you might like, too.  BONUS: They are all FREE!

My Fitness Pal. I use this daily. This is a great mobile app to track not only diet, but exercise and progress as well. Based on your current height, weight, age, and gender, My Fitness Pal will suggest how many calories you should eat depending on your goals. The website version has been around for quite awhile and both the website and app are free. Their database houses over 3 million food items, so searching for food to log is a breeze. A great feature of the app is the bar code scanner that reads the UPC from a food package and automatically adds nutritional information to your food log.  In addition to calories, you can track carbs, sodium, calcium, iron, sugar, fiber, cholesterol, and other vitamin and nutrients. They also have a great community message board that is inspiring, helpful, and sometimes just downright hilarious to read through. When you exercise and log it into My Fitness Pal, it calculates an estimate of how many calories you burned and adds those calories back into your daily calorie allowance. The more you exercise, the more you can eat! I recommend My Fitness Pal to many people because tracking is fast and easy.  

Seven. Got seven minutes? This fun app leads you through seven minutes of fitness activities. All you need is a wall and a chair. The exercises are basic (like pushups, squats, planks, etc) but a coach guides you through each set, making seven minutes of exercise a no-brainer. I haven’t tried to accomplish any of the “achievements” (using the app for a week straight or finishing three circuits in one day) but if I need to stay motivated to use the app, it would be a great feature to utilize!

 

 

Map My Run. This is a great series of apps that also have a website. The mobile app is a little different than the website because it uses your device’s built in GPS system to track your run and calculate not only how far you’ve gone, but also your pace and speed. It can also do things like track your calories burned, save routes that you’ve take in the past (or create routes before you go) and track your nutrition habits. In addition to MapMyRun, there is also MapMyFitness, MapMyWalk, MapMyRide, MapMyHike and even MapMyDogWalk. Woof.

And WAIT - hold the phone! MyFitnessPal and MapMyRun are partnered together, so all of the calories burned and workout details tracked with any of the MapMyWhatever apps will automatically sync to your exercise diary in MyFitnessPal. NOW what’s your excuse?

What wellness related mobile apps do you use? How many apps in general do you have on your phone? More than 77? Less? I am now super curious what the average is…let me know!

 

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