Apps to help you get healthy...

It's been two weeks since the beginning of the new year.. Have you started to work on making small changes to meet your new year's resolution? or have you already lost steam and forgot about your resolutions?
My resolutions this year is centered on getting healthy with making small changes in my lifestyle.
To make my resolutions into reality, I've enlisted a few iPhone apps to help me get there.

With so many apps out there, which one to choose??? So my search began with trying to find apps to help me track or keep a log of my exercise or the food I ate.

MyFitnessPal

MyFitnessPal has a calorie counter, a barcode scanner to scan your foods, exercise tracker, track progress on your goal and social network to track and motivate each other. Your account can be accessed from your smartphone or from the we at myfitnesspal.com. The information syncs nicely between the two and the app is available free for Apple, Android, Blackberry and Windows phones.

So each day you can search their food database for meals or for certain products you are eating. It will count the calories and see how you're doing towards your goal over time. It's amazing to see that one Double Chocolate Chip Frappuccino from Starbucks makes up all my calories for the day.. INSANE right?? There goes my Starbucks sweet fix..

Then I add in exercise routine for the day and it helps you track how many calories you burned and subtracts from your calorie intake. The trick is to not eat more just because you just burned a few calories from exercise. :-)
Connect with your friends and see how they are doing or help to motivate each other. It's always better to have a exercise buddy to help you through those lazy times.

30/30

30/30 is a great app to help you manage your time. It's a to-do list and timer blended into one app. You setup a list of tasks and a length of time for each of them. When you start the timer, it will tell how much time you have left and when to move on to the next task. I was trying this out to help me take a break from my desk so I put in two tasks to start with. Task 1- Work, 50 mins. Task 2- Break, 10 mins.

So these two tasks repeat all day long to remind me to take a 10 min break from looking at my computer screen through the day. The timer counts down Task 1 and gives an alert as it moves on to Task 2. You can set the tasks to auto repeat or not. So I started to use this also to schedule my exercise to make sure I can get at least 30 mins of exercise twice a week as part of my resolution goals.

Office Fit

This is a great little app that shows you how to do some exercises to help relieve work related pain and stress all in the comfort of your office or cube.
This great for anyone who spends a lot of time on the computer. When you sit all day, your body, brain and eyes can become fatigue. This app can setup reminders for you to stop for a quick exercise break and shows you with pictures how to do the exercises to help you distress and rejuvenate for the rest of the day. So take a mini break from your day and to some stretches to rest your eyes and mind.






Hopefully these apps can be of use to help you get healthier this year.. If you have a favorite app to get you closer to your fitness goal, please share.

~~Words of Encouragement~~
We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment.
Romans 5:4-5 (NLT)

My realistic New Year's Resolution - Get Healthy

As 2012 comes to an end, it's time to make those New Year's resolution lists finalized (or started?). It's easy to make a resolution list but typically people don't accomplish anything on that list at the end of the year..

So this year, be commited to making a realistic resolution list that you can actually accomplish. The key is to make small changes and scheduling them into your calendar.

Resolutions doesn't have to be life changing or grandiose; it can be small changes but might have big impact in your life. So this year my resolution is to "Get Healthy" and here are the 4 steps I want to take to get there.

1. Get at least 8 hours of sleep per night
Who sleeps 8 hours now a days, it's hard enough getting 6 or 7 hours but sleep is essential for the body to rest and rejuvenate for the next day. With more stress during the day, the best counteract is getting a good night sleep. I noticed that I was better at dealing with the stress if I get good consistent 8 hours of sleep. It's definitely not easy to do but it will be on my list to accomplish this year. I was reading this article on how can you tell if you're sleep deprived?
You may be sleep deprived if you...

• Need an alarm clock in order to wake up on time
• Rely on the snooze button
• Have a hard time getting out of bed in the morning
• Feel sluggish in the afternoon
• Get sleepy in meetings, lectures, or warm rooms
• Get drowsy after heavy meals or when driving
• Need to nap to get through the day
• Fall asleep while watching TV or relaxing in the evening
• Feel the need to sleep in on weekends

2. Drink 3 bottles of water minimum per day by making it a habit
Drinking enough water is difficult to do regularly. I usually don't drink enough though out the day but it's also to help minimize the bathroom breaks I need to take with by busy schedule. But after finishing up the Ultimate Reset, I've seen the benefits of drinking enough water for what your body needs. So I'm committing to forming a habit to drink more water by getting a reminder and carrying a bottle of water every where I go.

3. Make an exercise plan
Without a goal or a plan, exercise doesn't become a priority for me. So this year, I'm going to make a small plan to start slow and work my way up if I can get motiviated. I signed up for Free Team BeachBody membership where I can set goals and it will help me keep track of it. By logging the progress, it will increase awareness and helps you ensure that you're staying on track. This year, I'm going to start with aiming to do some cardio 2x week to get my heart rate up.

4. Cut back on wheat
I've been reading this book "Wheat Belly" by Dr. William Davis and it's scary to see how basic ingredients like wheat has been genetically modified to increase crop yield. The side affects of genetically modified organism(GMO)are not being looked at as much. The Wheat Belly talks about how the body cannot digest the food after it has been modified. Wheat can cause bloating, inflammation, diabetes, just to name a few. So this year, I want to try to eliminate wheat from my diet. Wheat is in everything so it will be difficult to start but the benefits will out weigh the pain.

So wishing you all a happy healthier New Year in 2013.

~~Words of Encouragement``
Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works.
Hebrews 10:24 (NLT)