We all know how it goes: on the 1st of January, vows to improve our lives and wellbeing send hordes of people to the gym and the organic sections of Whole Foods, but come the 1st of February, eighty percent of us are back to our couch potato ways. We’ve put together a list of apps that will help you stick to all those resolutions… at least until March.
Fitness
If your resolution is to get fit this year, and Santa didn’t bring you a FitBit, a fitness app could be the answer. Using a fitness app allows you to log your progress along the way. Seeing your efforts written down can help you stay motivated to reach your goals!
1. MapMyFitness is a workout tracker that allows you to log your run, walk, bikes and other various workouts. Simply choose your activity from the list (from jump-roping and running to hang gliding) to log your fitness and calories burned. This app doubles as a nutrition tracker to log your meals for that day.
Healthy Eating
Speaking of nutrition, if your goal is simply to eat healthier (abs are made in the kitchen, afterall), Fooducate is an app you want to look into.
2. Fooducate contains a list of over 200,000 foods and products, each with a letter grade based on its nutritional value. Either scan the barcode with your phone or search through the food categories in the app to see how healthy it really is. This way, when you’re wandering the isles of the grocery store or pondering lines at Eick, it’s easy to tell which option is the healthiest, even if you know nothing about food labels. The app also lists healthier alternatives to similar foods and products.
Waking up early
Sure you’ve got a standard alarm built into your phone, but if your resolution is to wake up early, clearly standard isn’t enough.
3. Sleep Cycle is an advanced alarm clock that measures your movements throughout your sleep cycle. By tracking your cycle, the alarm wakes you up when you’re in your lightest sleeping stage, allowing you to wake up easier and feel better rested.
Save money
Whether you’re saving for your spring break trip or just realizing how low your bank account is, Left to Spend and Mint are two apps that can help you spend less.
4. Left to Spend allows you to set a budget for each day. By tracking spending, you can easily see how much or little money you have left to spend for that day.
5. Mint is an app that connects securely to your bank account and automatically tracks your purchases. The app gathers all of your spending information into a simple pie chart so you can see which categories you spend the most on (ahem, Starbucks). The automatic tracking helps with those who are more forgetful or just don’t want to admit that they spent $9 on a caramel macchiato and croissant.