Let’s be honest; the fitness journey is hard. We all need help along the way. Thankfully, there are a few fantastic apps out there that do a great job of helping you reach your goals. Here are the ones we recommend giving a try.
Lose It
A great thing about Lose It is that you can get great benefits from it without paying for the premium subscription. They have an extensive food database, so most things you would enter on a daily basis will be available, and from what I can tell the calorie numbers are fairly accurate. You can save meals you have often for easy re-entry, set your own personal goals, and get daily reminders to log your food.There is even a new feature to track your food by taking a picture of it, as well as a barcode scanner to easily enter all the nutritional info for boxed goods.
If you want every shred of information you can get to help you out, the Premium option does offer quite a few insights into your diet and eating habits, as well as meal planning and data analysis. The price is not outrageous if you deem that the benefits are worth it.
It is well known that tracking calorie intake is one of the best ways to stay on track with fitness goals, and we here at Complete Running Shop have found it to be true. Give Lose It a try if you aren’t where you wish to be in your fitness journey.
RunKeeper
Most runners probably know about RunKeeper, or at least a similar app. Like Lose It, you can get extraordinary benefits from RunKeeper without paying for the upgrade. Freely and accurately track all of your runs, walks with the dog, biking excursions, and even things like rowing can be tracked with RunKeeper. It is certainly not just for running, it is an all around fitness app. Track calories burned, pace, time, distance, splits, elevation, and more for every run or activity. You can easily see weekly, monthly, and yearly totals for a variety of stats, and easily view every activity you have ever tracked. However, without the upgraded RunKeeper Go, it is slightly difficult to track trends- you just have to be aware of where you started vs. where you are at.
They also have a slew of challenges to keep you motivated, as well as being able to see your friends activity. Overall, RunKeeper is a great way to track progress and stay motivated. RunKeeper Go is reasonably priced if you wish to more easily see trends, as well as get training plans and insights into your activities.
Calm
Calm is different that what you typically think of with a fitness app, but it is relevant none the less. Many of us lead extremely stressful, chaotic, busy lives where some days it can be difficult to find time to think, let alone work out, let alone eat a salad instead of a bowl of pasta and a soda. And, we all know stress is a leading cause of a slew of health problems. And lets be honest- it is difficult to work out and eat healthy when you are wound like a ten day clock. Enter, Calm.
Calm is an app geared toward meditation, sleep, and destressing. Even opening the app treats you to the sweet sound of water lapping and birds tweeting, or ocean waves, or a soft thunderstorm. They have a large amount of free content teaching you how to meditate and de-stress your life. They have music that is slow and relaxing and so wonderful to listen to after a long day at work. And, my favorite feature, is their Sleep Stories. So many of us have a hard time turning off our brains when it is time to go to sleep. With sleep stories, listen to relaxing stories before bed to help you fall into a deep, natural sleep.
A key part of health and fitness is not being so stressed out that it feels like you can barely breathe. Calm is a great way to begin the process of de-stressing, and ensuring you take a little bit of time each day to take care of yourself and condition your body to be ready for diet, exercise, or anywhere else your fitness journey takes you.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.