(Forgive the corny post title. A former supervisor/editor of mine used to say I that I perhaps had too much of a knack for coming up with puns.)
I’m working on a future health column for Faith & Family magazine,* and I’m looking for some good Smart Phone/iPad/iPod apps that help to keep you healthy. I’d also love to hear about any other forms of technology – whether it’s a website, nifty pedometer or food scale, or a computer program – that helps you stay fit and healthy and/or makes it easier for you to keep tabs on your own and your family’s health. Feel free to leave a comment, or shoot me an email at kmwicker[at]gmail[dot]com.
I personally love having a pedometer on my phone to keep track of my steps during a given time frame (0 steps lately given my slug status due to bed rest, but that all ends Saturday! Woo-hoo!). I also love the Locavore app that helps make it easier to eat local, fresh food. I have lots of other favorites, but you’ll have to stay tuned for my health column slated for the fall issue of Faith & Family.
Oh and so long as I’m asking for help, I’m also in need of some of your family’s favorite fish/seafood recipes for another article. The recipes either need to be family originals or adapted somehow. If you’ve adapted the recipe from a website, cookbook, etc., please include its original source.
Thanks for your help! I look forward to seeing your recommendations.
UPDATE: I totally forgot to mention that I’d also like to see if anyone has any apps, websites, etc. that they use to assist with NFP. Thanks!
—
*What’s that you say? You don’t subscribe to Faith & Family yet? Well, get on it. It is the quintessential magazine for wives and mothers looking to live a Godward life while managing a home, staying healthy, and raising happy, spiritual kids. Subscribe here (and while you’re at it, gift a friend with a subscription, too!).
I like the Lose It! app which tracks calories eaten and calories burned through exercise. It tells you how many calories you can eat based on your weight loss/maintenance goals, and gives you more calories when you enter exercise, including housework. http://www.loseit.com/ The website is free, and I think the app was too.
Oh, forgot to mention that, besides calories, it will tell you how much protein, fat, fiber, etc you have consumed for foods where this info is known and give you percents (like today’s diet was 20% fat).
Are you open to any no-tech ideas? Plant a vegetable garden and make it big enough so every member of the family has enough work to do to keep fit.
I have found that machines, especially “screen” technology, impede rather than assist my physical fitness, and that of my family. Doing things by hand, like building a chicken yard as my husband and boys did this summer, are the things we look for to keep us fit in mind and body.
Hi, Kathy. These are great ideas. My health column usually features just these sort of things. For instance, my most recent article talks about the importance of incorporating strength training into a woman’s fitness routine, and I’ve written articles about how to squeeze exercise into your life as a mom (living room dance party, anyone?).
However, this specific article is looking at how technology can complement or, in some cases, even help us achieve our health goals. For example, there are websites and apps now that help you store your family’s health records, online running journals that replace the old, paper kind, and apps to help diabetics keep track of their diet and blood sugar levels – that sort of thing.
All that said, I see where you’re coming from that “screen time” keeps us from moving together! :-) Hope the angle of my article makes more sense to you now.
For apps (iPhone) I like C25K for fitness, Fooducate and Dirty Dozen for helping with food choices. For NFP, I like the FMC app for use with the Fertility Friend software.
Katie —
LOVE my pedometer, which I wear every day. Helps me set “movement” goals, etc. Also just discovered RunKeeper – a website and an app. It tracks all sorts of fitness workouts, and keeps track of what you have done. If you use it as an app, you can take your phone with you and it will map your route for you and everything. Very cool. The app is a free download. Can’t help you on the fish/seafood recipes – no family ones here. Just what I can find in books or online.
I use the MyFitnessPal app, available on both Android and iPhone. It has a website where you need a free account. What I particularly like is that you can create your own recipes to get the calorie count of a recipe that you make.
Hi Kate,
I will look forward to your health articles!
The best apps I use…..my running shoes, my watch (tracks calories burned & heart rate) & my calendar to write the mileage in.
Okay, for real…I do use the Ab Workout on droid. I have my fitness pal downloaded but it was way to cumbersome to track every little thing I ate. I pretty much know how many calories are in each thing and can add that myself.
All the best to you with your new articles.
Hi, Kate: I use an Escali digital scale to weigh all my portions of food. This can be found at Amazon. I also use collapsible measuring cups (they are rubber) that you can get at REI for when I travel or camp. For NFP I use the FMC IPhone app for use with Fertility Friend. Sounds like a great article.:)
Thank you for all the great suggestions!
My husband can’t stop raving about Map My Run which tracks your actual route using GPS and calculates distance, time and offers much more related to overall health. Here is the site :
http://www.mapmyrun.com/
I look forward to your article!
P.S. Lifting you and baby in prayer. :)
I use an app called Sympto to track NFP. The creators are Swiss/German and some of their English translations are awkward, but the app itself is not bad and is free, which I think is awesome.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/tuna-salad-recipe/index.html
Best tuna salad I’ve EVER had.
Yum!
Lose it!! I have lost 10 plus pounds just because of counting calories.
Theresa, is there any way I could email you to get a little more info about your success with this app for the article? Thanks!
iPeriod is decent for tracking fertility
Hi Kate, I have gotten so much from the website http://www.wellnessmama.com. She (another Katie) is a Catholic mom and nutritionist who has a wealth of health info, recipes, and other healthy links on her site.
By the way, saw a pregnant woman at Mass the last two days who made me think of you, so sent some prayers up for you and your beautiful family, especially that little baby!