If you’re like us, this time of year is especially difficult to keep to a healthy diet and maintain your home workout regime. And don’t get us started on the stress of finding the perfect gift for everyone on your list.
Thankfully, there are many health-focused apps to help. The following five apps can help you manage stress, keep a balanced diet, and gain some extra motivation during your workouts.
- Sweat Coin
The tagline of Sweat Coin is “the app that pays you to get fit.” The app counts your steps by using your phone’s GPS location and accelerometers. Your steps are then converted into the app’s currency: Sweatcoins.
You can use Sweatcoins to purchase health-focused services and products like anti-gravity yoga classes, shoes, and even iPhones and Apple Watches.
One thing to note: your steps need to be outside.
If you often walk your dog or enjoy jogging around your neighborhood, this app could help motivate you to get outside and moving. Add some friendly competition by adding your friends on the app: you’ll see how your steps stack up with a daily scoreboard.
- My Fitness Pal
If you’re having a hard time keeping to a healthy diet, the app My Fitness Pal is designed to make calorie counting easier.
The app is meant to act as a digital food diary. One of the benefits of using My Fitness Pal is the app is made to adapt to what you eat. After you input the information for your typical morning yogurt once, the system will remember the item, so the following yogurt logs are simple.
The app also has a fitness community and a personalized diet profile that is customized based on your inputted weight loss goals.
- Calm
Do you suffer from anxiety and depression, have a hard time falling asleep at night, or find yourself constantly running through the people you have left on your gift list? The Calm app may help.
Calm offers guided meditation sessions. Plus, the calendar showcasing the days you’ve logged sessions is very motivating.
Calm also offers sleep stories — made to help you drift off to sleep —, relaxing music, and videos that walk you through mindful movement and stretches.
One thing to note is the app is best paired with a subscription. A free seven-day trial is available if you want to give it a try before purchasing a premium account.
- PEAR Personal Fitness Coach
Have you ever tried to follow along with a fitness video on your phone? You probably got frustrated with trying to perform the instructed movement while staring at the small screen.
The PEAR Personal Fitness Coach app focuses on giving hands-free, eyes-free guided workouts. That way, you focus more on the workout and less on your phone.
Their free version has a limited number of workouts, but their premium subscription is just $5.99 a month.
- Zombies, Run!
Add some motivation to your jogs by downloading the app Zombies, Run! Because nothing gets you moving like the chill of an undead army on your heels.
The app puts you in the middle of a zombie apocalypse by playing a series of music and audio stories. Think of it as part podcast, part thrilling music.
With these “missions,” you’ll be entertained and motivated during your run. Start with the four free missions, you can unlock all 200 missions with a fee.
These five apps can help you stay healthy this holiday season. If you’re having a hard time keeping to your home workout regime because of pain, physical therapy can help. Contact us to schedule an appointment.
