iPhone and iPod Apps to Make You Healthy
By Erin Giebler Hill, for Revive Your Life
Photo by Don Hankins
An iPhone App that can make me healthy? No way. Impossible.
Well, you’re right - you need to take some action and put these Apps to use to actually see any health benefits. You can browse all the health and fitness Apps in iTunes by searching the Healthcare and Fitness App category, but be sure to check out these free or inexpensive, but totally beneficial, Apps:
Workout Apps
iFitness ($1.99) is one of the most popular healthcare and fitness Apps on iTunes, iFitness provides you with over 200 exercises complete with instructions, images and video to help you through your workouts using free weights, cables, gym equipment or no weight at all. You can choose from these workouts to create your own custom workouts or use the routines provided with the App, including full body workouts and targeted exercises. You can also track and view your progress. If you don’t feel like looking at your device for each new exercise, you have the ability to print out your workout on a computer by e-mailing it to yourself. iFitness provides you with all the important tools you need to workout anywhere.
With Yoga STRETCH ($0.99), which uses the Vinyasa flow, you can predetermine the length of your workout by choosing and organizing your favorite poses into a practice. You even get to choose what music accompanies your practice. Each pose has an image and a description and it’s up to you whether you want the instructor to guide you throughout your practice or not. This App is so helpful to those who like a class setting and aren’t too familiar with yoga, but will eventually grow in their practice without the need for too much guidance.
GymTrainer ($.99) provides you with over 30 workouts with videos and instructions. You can also enter your own workout if you’ve found one you like outside of the App and use the App to track the sets, weight and repetitions you perform. No more big notebooks and pencils to get left behind at the gym.
Tracking Apps
WeightTrack ($.99), if you can believe it, tracks your weight. Actually, you can track more than one person’s current weight and other information, such as starting weight, goal weight, starting date, BMI, weight lost so far, how much is left to be lost and how many days are left to your goal based on a deadline you enter. The App is extremely easy to use and takes seconds to enter in your weight and see your progress. If you join the Web site, OKCMillion.com, you can view a chart that maps your progress.
Lose It! (free) will help you keep your diet on track by being your pocket food and exercise log. Simply enter in your information, starting and goal weight, height, and birthday, and select a plan to maintain your weight or lose a certain amount each week - no more than two pounds a week. The App tells you how long it will take you to reach your goal weight and the total calories you should consume in a day.
The food log is easy to use and allows you to enter your food eaten by day and meal type. The search is very detailed allowing you to enter the actual brand of whatever food you ate to ensure accuracy. Food you’ve previously entered is saved so you don’t have to search for it again and you can add recipes right into the App so you can track meals containing more than just one ingredient. You can view your log by day or week and track other nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fat and protein. The log shows how many calories you can eat and the count adjusts to what you’ve entered so far. You can also track your exercises and the contribution of each to the amount of calories burned.
Let’s not forget RunKeeper Free (free) and Fitino ($1.99). Using the GPS in your device, if available, these Apps help you track any of your outdoor fitness activities where you’d want to record your distance, such as running, walking or cycling. They’re much more than a tracking device, though, as these handy Apps can measure your average speed, total miles, total time, average pace and calories burned. Use the Apps or go to runkeeper.com or fitnio.com to view past workouts and see your progress.
With RunKeeper Free, you can even see your route using the map functionality.
The Fitino App has the added feature of setting up a playlist using the music on your device so you can use the App and listen and skip through your music at the same time. The App separates activities - walking, running, cycling - and tracks how many of each activity you’ve done for easy reference. It also offers you the ability to enter in an emergency number or just call 911 with a screen tap without having to exit the App and dial a number.
Health Reference Apps
Wellness (free) is a handy and powerful App. What happens if you’ve gone to a Mexican restaurant and you must have the tortilla chips and salsa while waiting for your meal? With the Wellness App, you can search for the nutritional value of the chips and salsa before you dive in to see how much you really can allow yourself. This App eliminates this common diet nightmare and the shock you realize when you get home and look up how many calories you’ve actually had before the main course arrived. In these kinds of situations, search for something general (tortilla chips), and you get a list of choices (plain, baked, salted, flavored, etc) allowing you to view the nutritional information you’re interested in. If you’re at a chain restaurant, you can easily enter the name of the restaurant and many of the menu items are available. The App gives you the typical serving size or you can enter your own. You can also save the food you eat often to your favorites.
With these and many useful Apps available, how can you possible say you don’t have the time or resources to fulfill your goals with a straight face? There are many more tools out there on iTunes and more are added all the time. So, go out there and search for whatever interests you. You’ll most likely find it and a lot more to download onto that wonderful gadget of yours. Allow it to pay you back in good health!
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