10 Apps to Help Track Your Wellness
Take a look at this article from UAB Medicine. 10 Great apps to help you track and reach your wellness goals.
UAB Medicine News
10 Healthy Apps to Help You Reach Your Wellness Goals
If you’re like many other digitally connected people these days, you probably rely on smartphone applications, or “apps”, throughout the day. Mobile apps help us easily check the weather, search for the cheapest gas prices, listen to music, play games, and communicate with friends. But those tiny icons on your screen also have the potential to transform your health in creative and powerful ways.
Wellness companies and app developers have teamed up to create mobile apps for fitness tracking, healthy eating, vital signs tracking, sleep, meditation, and so much more. The sheer number of health and wellness apps available for download on iTunes and Google Play can be overwhelming, especially if you’re new to the world of apps.
So, here’s a helpful roundup of some of our favorite health apps to get you started. Some offer a basic version for free, while others require a nominal fee to unlock the full set of features.
Available for download on Google Play and the iTunes App Store, the MINDBODY app allows you to find fitness and wellness services in your home community and elsewhere when you travel. With a few clicks, it’s easy to book your spot in a yoga, Pilates, or CrossFit class nearby, or maybe even a salon or massage appointment. With MINDBODY, you can read reviews about studios and instructors, sync classes to your calendar, and connect the app with your Fitbit to view workout activity data.
Would you like to earn money for sticking to your exercise goals? Pact is an app that lets users actually make cash for being active, which is paid for by members who don’t. To start, you’ll make a weekly pact to exercise more or eat healthier and see how much you’ll owe other app users if you don’t reach that goal. Money can be a good motivator for some people, and users are notified about their earnings or losses each week. You can connect Pact with other apps such as MapMyRun and MyFitnessPal as well.
Committing to a meditation routine can be hard, but the Headspace app makes it easier with guided meditations that take the guesswork out of calming your mind. It breaks meditation sessions into easy, 10-minute increments to help you improve your focus, relieve stress, and be more mindful throughout the day.
This is a great app for outdoor enthusiasts and people who want to spend more time in nature. It helps users discover and share outdoor trips based on interests and location. You can see what others have written about and photographed regarding locations near your home or when you travel. Hiking, kayaking, skiing, and rock climbing are just a few of the adventures that you’ll be inspired to do while using this app.
Food cravings are a challenge for many of us, but the CraveMate app can help you control food cravings to achieve and maintain a healthy weight. You start by establishing your goals and setting reminders, and then the app encourages you to resist cravings by expressing yourself creatively with captions, photos, and videos. You can even share your journey and progress with friends and family on social media.
One of the best things about exercise is that you can do it anywhere and don’t necessarily need a gym to get your body moving. The BlockFit app offers fast and simple exercises that you can do at home, in the office, or outside – all in the form of a game. You don’t need any fancy equipment, just this mini-routine that will get you up and moving for an active daily lifestyle.
If you have trouble keeping track of all of the medical records and lab results for you and your family, this app may be able to help. It’s designed to reduce paperwork hassles and keep important medical information at your fingertips, so you’re not searching through stacks of paper when you need it quickly. With this app, it’s easy to share lab reports, prescription records, blood pressure history, blood sugar measurements, and other key data with new doctors and specialists.
Runners and cyclists love Strava because it keeps track of all your exercise data and lets you analyze your progress. If you feel like getting competitive, you can even compare your performance to other people who have done the same route or improve upon your personal best. The basic app to track your runs and rides is free, but there is a premium option that includes personalized coaching, detailed activity analysis, and performance feedback.
This comprehensive nutrition and weight loss app helps you track your calorie intake, hunger levels, mood, exercise, and sleep. You can scan product barcodes to access personalized nutrition recommendations and even analyze information found in nutrition panels and ingredient lists. Fooducate is particularly useful if you want to follow a low-carb, low-sugar, paleo, or non-GMO diet, and it also has a feature to get feedback and tips from fellow users.
Some people think that you have to pay for pricey studio classes just to keep up with a yoga routine. However, Yoga Studio is a great app to use if you want to do classes on your own and wherever you are. It has class options for beginner, intermediate, and advanced yogis and allows you to create custom classes as well. Just choose a duration of 10-60 minutes and whether you want to focus on balance, strength, flexibility, relaxation, or a combination of each of those objectives.