Let us help you get on track and stay in shape with seven top health and fitness apps that will keep you honest with yourself and support you along the way. From getting fit to healthy recipes to super charging your brain power; we’ve got your covered.
MyFitnessPal: Calorie Counter & Diet Tracker
Cost: Free
It’s an oldie, but a goodie. MyFitnessPal helps you keep your weight and fitness goals on track and is the fastest and easiest-to-use calorie counter on the market. With the largest food database by far (over 5,000,000 foods) and amazingly fast and easy food and exercise entry, MyFitnessPal helps you shed those extra kilos – if that’s your goal. Just enter your age, gender, weight loss goals and this clever app will help you reach those goals in your specified time frame. It’s a trainer, life-coach and personal chef all in one. It lets you keep a food diary, tracks the amount of exercise you do, and after all your hard work it tells you how much room for manoeuvre (such as a glass of wine) you have left at the end of the day – which we LOVE. MyFitnessPal also lets you connect across social media and the App itself with your friends who are also on MyFitnessPal – and we all know how much better we perform individually when we train as part of a community!
MapMyRun: GPS Running & Fitness Tracking App
Cost: Monthly/Annual Subscription (free plan available)
We all know that sometimes it’s hard to get cracking with the motivation to go for a run. Sometimes you just need a little kick up the backside, or a buddy to push you to new heights (or distances!) If you’re looking for a new running route, want to log the distance travelled or find someone nearby to run with, then this app is a must-have. This version also suggests the foods you should eat before and after your workout and logs the number of calories burned. Now that’s motivating!
Yoga Studio:
Free plan with in-app purchases starting at $4.49.
Yoga Studio is the ultimate award-winning yoga App. Play, create, customise and schedule easy-to-follow high definition video yoga classes. With 65 ready-made yoga sequences that can be easily customised to create your own classes and scheduling, with a library of over 280 poses with detailed advice and instructions, Yoga Studio is perfect for beginners and equally as awesome for experts. Works on iPhone and Android.
Glow: Period Tracker, Ovulation Calculator & Fertility Tracker
Cost: Free
Glow is the world’s best period tracker, fertility and reproductive health App. Glow’s menstrual and ovulation calendars help women learn about their fertility, whether avoiding or attempting pregnancy. Glow is a period tracker that also records your ovulation, mood, symptoms, sex, and medications, and assists those undergoing fertility treatments like IVF or IUI. Another award-winning app, Glow is an elegant, data-driven ovulation and period tracker designed to help you take control of your fertility and reproductive health. Glow also puts you in touch with a like-minded community for support and advice, gives personalised tracking data and reminders for your medications, birth control or other contraception and health checks.
Breath Of Light: Meditation App
Cost: $2.79
Meditation is totally trending and now you can get your hands on this stunning new locally (two Aussies based in Melbourne) developed App, Breath of Light. It is categorised as a game but it’s unique and inspired by meditation and yoga principles. Unlike other games that are designed for you to speed up response time and reactions, Breath of Light was developed to put the user in a beautiful meditative state. It started off as a feng shui idea but the developer wasn’t content with the initial concept (they took two years to perfect it). The development process was back to front – they wanted the player to feel relaxed and unwound (something of a luxury in our crazy busy world) so they worked backwards from that feeling. And voila, Breath of Light was conceived. This app achieves just what the developers were dreaming of — gentle and slow interaction using flowing energy and specially selected music (Hobart-based musicians Winterpark) which is very much part of the all-immersive experience – the App even recommends you put your headphones on.
Luminosity: Brain Training App
Cost: Free. In-app purchase available, starting at $17.99.
We all know our minds and bodies are intrinsically connected, so it’s crucial that we keep that grey matter firing. Luminosity is a beautiful App that trains your memory and attention and is used by over 60 million people worldwide to create training programs that challenge your brain. Luminosity is designed by neuroscientists to train memory, attention and much more. With foundations in the study of neuroplasticity, Luminosity games are used in research, and have been incorporated into studies done by top scientists worldwide – now that’s a great recommendation!
Clean & Green Eating: Healthy Recipes App
Cost: $4.49
Let’s face it, there’s not point busting a gut at the gym if you’re not going to be mindful of what you put in your mouth. The Clean & Green Eating App makes eating healthfully easy and fun with an abundance of healthy recipes for the whole family to enjoy! The recipes are simple and mostly designed from basic ingredients to encourage you to have more fun in the kitchen. But, don’t be fooled, just because they’re simple and easy, don’t think they’re not packed full of taste! Clean & Green Eating is a lifestyle where you are inspired to nourish your body with the healthiest foods – fresh or closest to their natural state with the least amount of processing. Organic meats, fish, fruit, vegetables, dairy, nuts and whole grains top the list. Less processing and buying local and in season helps to support a reduced carbon footprint and organic products equals less chemicals for you and the earth! There are hundreds of recipes to choose from with regular additions, nutritional information for each recipe, recipe search function using items you already have in your pantry, specific dietary information and the ability (of course) to share your recipes with your friends on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
Photo: Unsplash – Fitsum Admasu
