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Neon Tommy - Annenberg digital news

There's An App For That: Top 9 Apps For A Healthy Lifestyle

Ashley Seruya |
April 24, 2014 | 11:52 a.m. PDT

Staff Writer

Stick to your health guns with The Whole Pantry app, a mostly vegan recipe index that includes these scrumptious raw nut butter chocolate cups (@TheWholePantry/Twitter).
Stick to your health guns with The Whole Pantry app, a mostly vegan recipe index that includes these scrumptious raw nut butter chocolate cups (@TheWholePantry/Twitter).

Sticking to our health goals can be difficult, even at the best of times. There are moments when we all need a little boost or motivation to get us going again.

An easy way to monitor your healthy lifestyle and motivate healthy changes is with your phone. On us at all times and getting more face time than any real person on occasion, our phones can be the perfect way to keep us accountable for our actions.

Apps facilitate this accountability. From Angry Birds to apps that stop you from drunk dialing your ex, there’s an app for everything, and health and fitness apps have become extremely popular. 

Whether the app is helping you find new and innovative healthy recipes, track your daily food intake or get you to squeeze in the ever-elusive workout, there are hundreds of apps out there supported by both Android and iPhone platforms. 

To help you weed through all the muck, here nine apps that are Neon-Tommy-approved to keep your healthy lifestyle on track.

Prices provided are based on the iTunes app store listings.

Watching that Waistline

1. MyFitnessPal (Free)

Focusing on calories counts, MyFitnessPal helps users keep track of what they put into their mouths. Full of useful tools, the app computes your estimated required daily intake of important food groups such as proteins and fats and creates graphics to illustrate your food breakdown for the day. It also has various ways to set goals, and has a handy algorithm that estimates your daily caloric intake requirement for wieght loss. Another huge motivator is the "Finish logging for the day" feature, which gives you a five week projected weight loss based on your calorie intake for the day. Even better, MyFitnessPal has partnered up with many popular fitness apps just as FitBit and RunKeeper to help users track their physical activity along with their food intake.

2. The Whole Pantry App ($2.99)

Finding new and exciting recipes that are both nutritious and delicious can be difficult, especially when food preferences such as vegetarian and vegan lifestyles are factored in. The Whole Pantry App takes care of this problem with a beautiful and useful recipe app that also includes helpful links and resources for healthy lifestyles. Focusing on mostly vegan recipes, the entire index is coded with allergen information. Encompassing some raw, gluten free, dairy free, vegan and vegetarian recipes, the app has something for everyone. A notable raw dessert titled Macadamia and Caramel Cheesecake is drool worthy, and the app also includes natural beauty recipes, such as a fresh orange and clay face mask.

3. Fooducate (Free)

Fooducate focuses on educating users about the health "grade" of their food. Scan any barcode and up comes a Fooducate grade, A through D, which has been determined by a careful algorithm based on the nutrition facts panel and ingredients list. The app also shows the user if their product has artificial additives or has been heavily processed. The goal of the app is not necessarily weight loss - though it does have a nady food and exercise tracker - but to help users make healthier daily choices. That gets an A in my book.

GymPact motivates users with money; fit in your scheduled workout, you get paid. Miss it, you pay someone who did better than you. Genius (@PactApp/Twitter).
GymPact motivates users with money; fit in your scheduled workout, you get paid. Miss it, you pay someone who did better than you. Genius (@PactApp/Twitter).
4. The Green Kitchen ($4.99)

Green Kitchen Stories, a popular vegetarian cooking blog, launched their very own recipe app. Focusing on plant-based meals with whole food ingredients, Green Kitchen is accessible for almost any cook. Breaking down the recipes into classic sections, such as soups, salads, breakfast foods and main dishes, the graphics of the app speak for themselves. Careful not to drool on the screen.

5. Healthey Desserts by The Green Kitchen ($2.99)

From the makers of the Green Kitchen Stories website and app comes a recipe index devoted to healthy desserts. Including creations such as Hazelnut Cake with Frozen Saffron Yogurt, the recipes are innovative, surprising and best-yet, healthy. Indulge your sweet tooth while keeping smart choices in mind with this app.

Working on My Fitness

1. Zombies, Run! ($3.99)

Indugling users in the Zombie Apocalypse fantasy, Zombies, Run! motivates users with a virtual world. Planned around 5K training or other workout conditioning programs, the app creates a community of runners all trying to survive the zombies. Utilizing audio and story arcs, the game is extraordinarily immersive and interactive, making your workout more like the video game that glues your butt to the couch every afternoon. Give it a try to kickstart your workout regimen.

2. PaceDJ ($2.99)

If making the perfect workout playlist is a frustrating experience that can make or break your workout, PaceDJ is here to help. Focused on creating workout playlists that match to the pace at which you want to go, the app keeps you moving with a very simple motivator. It has been shown that if your songs are at a high pace, your feet follow suit. The effect is unconscious, making the extra work seem natural. Avoid having to do the work yourself, and let PaceDJ cultivate the perfect playlist for you.

3. RunKeeper (Free)

Tracking your pace, distance and route with your phone's GPS system, RunKeeper makes tracking your workouts easy. Not only does it track your workouts for you, but it has partnered with many fitness apps. Integrating RunKeeper with an app like MyFitnessPal helps users to more accurately track their daily calorie burn, motivating them to move more and get in the daily sweat sesh.

4. GymPact (Free)

Using money as a motivator - which is, quite frankly, genius - is the method to GymPact's madness. Users set weekly fitness and health goals and are then held accountable for these goals by other users. Goals include going to the gym four times a week or eating three servings of veggies a day. When these goals are met, the users are paid by users that did not meet their goals. When goals are not met, the user must pay a pre-determined amount to the community. Accountability is factored in with a photo-of-proof-requirement and GPS location enabled to ensure no one is cheating or getting out of their commitments. If you need a break, no problem; goals reset each week.

Reach Staff Writer Ashley Seruya here or follow her on Twitter here.



 

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