It’s nearly summer time again: the season of sunshine, barbecues, and barely-clad beach goers. So what better time to channel your envy and bitterness toward the inevitably approaching spectacle of youthful flesh than by taking charge of your health and finally living up to that New Years’ resolution you made six months ago? Here are the top 8 apps of 2012 that will help you do it:
NutritionTips
A great way to expand your knowledge of nutrition, this free app provides insightful tips to help you take charge of your health without frills or hassle.
Calorie Counter and Diet Tracker by MyFitnessPal
With a database of over a million foods, this free app will have you shedding pounds in no time. It offers nutritional info, helps track caloric intake and calories burned from exercise, and allows you to develop your own custom caloric intake schedule.
WebMD
WebMD for the iPhone puts the huge online medical database conveniently into your pocket (for free), allowing you to access nearly endless information to help answer those daily health and wellness questions that are always popping up.
iSmoke too much
An inexpensive, non-demanding app for smokers on the casual path to quitting. It helps set a daily smoking schedule, and tracks your progress by number of smokes per day. A great way to monitor and control your habit.
Wellness Tip of the Day
Another free app, Wellness Tip of the Day gives you a helpful physician-approved health hint every day. It offers ideas on everything from improving your sleep quality, to getting the most out of your fruit juice, to improving your mood.
Fooducate
This free app interprets and explains nutrition info from grocery store items, helping you see past the numbers and fat percentages to find out which foods are good for you, which are bad, and why.
Restaurant Nutrition
Ever wonder what’s in that fast food burger you’re eating? This free app gives nutrition info about menu items from popular restaurant chains, helping you track your protein, fat, carb, and fiber intake even when eating out and on the move.
Pzizz
This app is a powerful auditory sleep aid featuring binaural beats, relaxing words, calming music, and a special algorithm to vary the music with each use. Great tool for the insomniacs out there.
Of course, taking charge of your well-being requires diligence and a desire to live healthily. Unfortunately, there are no apps for that. What there are, though, are these helpful tools to keep you motivated, educated, aware, and organized in every facet of your health––whether it be sleeping right, eating well, or smoking less––which means that, if the desire is there, you no longer have any excuses.
I know that feeling, Edward! Keeping an eye on your calorie intake is one thing, but doing something about it is another matter entirely!
I’ve not used the Nike+ running app before; I’ll have to check it out, thanks for the tip!
I’ve never had much luck with calorie trackers. I would add the Nike+ running app to your list.