Living a healthy lifestyle includes eating right and getting enough exercise., but it also goes beyond your physical health. There’s your mental and emotional well being to worry about too and sometimes balancing all the things you need to do to be your best self can be overwhelming. Luckily, there’s an app for pretty much everything you can imagine, so you might as will put a few of them to good use to improve your health. Here’s of few of the best to get you started:
MyFitnessPal
Counting calories and making sure you’re burning more than you’re consuming on a daily basis is by far the most effective way to lose weight—and to maintain a healthy weight. CICO (calories in calories out) might not be glamorous or trendy, but it works because you can still treat yourself to not-so-healthy things—you just have to budget for them in your daily calorie allowance. MyFitnessPal is like a food diary that tracks your calories and exercise so you know you’re on track instead of having to guess how many calories you’ve eaten. People tend to underestimate how calorie dense foods are, so using MyFitnessPal can help you learn what the right sized portion for you looks like.
Headspace
Meditation has been found to help people deal with stress and anxiety, focus more and sleep better. Learning how to meditate doesn’t have to take a lot of time and effort. With Headspace, you can learn the art of meditation and mindfulness just by dedicating a few minutes a day to it. The app works by teaching you the basics and guiding you through the process with a daily meditation. The more you do it, the easier and more natural it will feel and you’ll start to notice the benefits in no time.
Carrot Rewards
Healthy habits are even easier to stick to when you’re getting something tangible out of it. The Carrot app rewards you for completing health-related challenges, like trivia and walking a certain number of steps per day to motivate you to be more active and take an interest in living a healthier lifestyle. You can choose to get Scene Points, Aeroplan Miles, Petro Points, More Rewards or Drop Points and just by walking you’ll earn points towards free stuff. You can also sync the app to your Smartphone or your FitBit to make sure you’re getting the most accurate step read and earning maximum points.
Sleep Cycle
Sleep is essential for overall physical health and mental health. It gives your mind and body a chance to rest and recharge for the next day. Lack of sleep over the long term is linked to increased risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes and many other chronic problems. Over the short term, it can affect your daytime functioning, hormonal balance, appetite and immune system. Sleep Cycle tracks your sleep patterns and wakes you up when you’re least likely to be in the middle of a REM sleep—that way you’ll feel refreshed and ready to start your day. It also shows you the quality of your sleep and tracks how often you’re waking up in the night.
Couch to 5K
For most people, running is an acquired taste. It takes time and practice to work up to being able to run a 5K race, but it’s doable for anyone who really wants to it. A couch to 5K app (and there are a few different ones to choose from) gives you a weekly plan to take you from sedentary to being able to run for thirty minutes without stopping. It will be hard at first, but if you stick it out, you’ll find it gets easier and your cardiovascular system will improve, along with your overall fitness and endurance levels.
