Fitness...There's an App for That!

Christmas morning I was minding my own business sitting at my desk surfing the web and watching the boy's play ball. I didn't think anything of it. It was a Nerf ball. Playing ball in the house on Christmas with dad...no problem.

No problem until the ball dumped my coffee all over the desk. What a mess as I hurried to get the papers off so they didn't get soaked. My phone was not so lucky. I accidentally knocked it on the floor in the rush to save the papers. It did not survive the fall. I had only dropped it about 100 times or so prior. So I ended up with a new iPhone for Christmas.

As a fitness professional no iPhone would be complete without the addition of fitness apps. I thought it would make a neat blog post to review a few of the fitness apps. I have been trying a few out and have found a few favorites.

Calorie and exercise trackers

There are quite a few fitness and health apps out there! I tried a few different calorie trackers. Online I used The Daily Plate which is Livestrong's calorie and exercise tracker. I have plenty of recipes that I entered into Daily plate so I looked for the iPhone version. The biggest disappointment with it was the app was not free like the online version.

My fitness pal is available online as well and the mobile app. My fitness pal is free and it works just fine. Lose it and Daily Burn are free as well. It always good to enjoy the free apps. I am not a runner but Run Keeper is a free app that has very good reviews. It uses your phones GPS to track. It even keeps track of routes.

GPS Computer for Road Cycling & Mountain Biking is not a free app but has really greay reviews. I have not purchased it yet. I am going to though. The reviews have me sold."Best Cycling App" says one.."Exceptional! Replaced $480 Garmin GPS with $5 app" It was named best Healthcare& Fitness App at 2011 Appy Awards(I had no clue they had Appy Awards). It tracks time,distance speed, and elevation. It can even be used for other activities running,walking, skiing skating and more.

Nutrition

Food on the Table was recommended online as a good free app. You can make grocery lists. It even gives you recipes based on what's on sale that week. That sounded like a cool app to me but I was disappointed that it only came up with Kroger and Meijer for store given the 48430 zip code. No , or Holly food stores came up in the search. I know VG's is not the cheapest store around but it's what is here in town so it would have been nice to see that as a choice. It still gives you recipes so it's nice.

Fooducate is a fun free app. It has a barcode scanner to scan the labels and gives you info on the food you scan as well as a food rating.For instance you can shake phone for a random product too.Log cabin syrup was given a D for a grade. It gives you the reasons for the grade as well...8 tsp of sugar, contains sodium benzoate/benzoic acid etc.

Whole Foods Recipes is an awesome free app. You can search by course, category (such as budget,kid friendly,no cook, make ahead, one pot and more) and by special diet (gluten free,high fiber, low fat, vegan, sugar conscious). You can even type in what you have on hand to cook with and it will give you recipes.

Pepperplate is another recipe finder. If you go online you can sync recipes from various sites. I was a little disappointed it didn't support Clean Eating Magazine recipes or Cooking Light magazine. But you can easily just copy and paste the recipes as I did to add them to my phone. It also make a grocery list for the recipes you put on your menu.

There are also several free restaurant guide apps. Restaurant Nutrition  and Dining out Guide Jenny Craig are two of the better ones.