There’s an app for that!
Technology offers many options when it comes to health and fitness tracking. So many, in fact, that it can seem extremely overwhelming sometimes. These are my top 10 habit forming apps for health and fitness.
App #1: MyFitnessPal
This food tracker has a paid and free version, and there are plenty of benefits to downloading and using the free version alone. When using MyFitnessPal, you can track calories, macros, and update your food log. While this isn’t giving you the guidance and feedback of a real person like our nutrition programs, it can give you a ton of insight into your nutrition habits.
When tracking food, you can search the library to find the food you’re looking for. You can also get hyper focused and specific and scan barcodes on your items and you can weigh foods and put in ounces, grams or other measurements to get a much more accurate estimation of calories.
Keep in mind that when it comes to nutrition tracking, there are levels to your methods. Not everyone wants to weight and measure everything they eat. The three levels of tracking your food are eyeball, measure, weigh. Think of these levels as good, better, and best. All are helpful to understanding nutrition habits.
The same goes for how you log your nutrition. You can eat all your food one day then log it the next day, eat your food then log it directly afterward, or log your food before you eat it. This again can be thought of on a scale of good, better, and best; but keep in mind all options are helpful.
If you’re eating out and tracking, I recommend tracking al la cart (track each thing). For instance, if you’re having a taco, you would track the cheese, sour cream, tortilla, 3 oz chicken, and any other toppings by weight instead of looking up “chicken taco.” That will give you a more accurate picture than looking up the menu item as the app will have a general chicken taco that may not include all of the toppings or ingredients you have with yours.
Additionally, the app has a place for you to track water as well as exercise.
While I do recommend you track water and food to see where you’re at, I do not recommend tracking exercise in MyFitnessPal. The app doesn’t learn enough about you, so you will also want to ignore the default numbers it gives you as it is not an accurate representation of what you should be consuming. If you want to know what your macros are, ignore their targets and goals then chat with a coach to get individualized targets.
App #2: Map My Run
The Map My Run app can be used for walking, hiking, snow shoeing, trail running, mountain biking, or more. If you go more than a mile, it will track your splits (how long each mile took).
This is a great app for building habits and getting better at an activity where you are covering distance. If a goal like 3 miles is too much for you, try just getting around block first. See how long that is by mapping it in the app, then start to expand slowly each time you go out. Suddently, you have done a mile.
The app can also talk to you while you move (ex: “Mile one complete. It was 10 mins 25 seconds”). It’s nice to have a little coach in your ear letting you know how far you’ve come and where you are for time.
App #3: InsightTimer
InsightTimer is a great meditation app that includes not only meditation, but also meditative and relaxing music. You can do guided meditation that is short or long. Try a three minute meditation to reset your brain or try an hour for full meditation. Enjoy some zen music if you just need to calm down or relax a little.
App #4: I am
I am is a paid positive affirmation app. There is a free one-week trial so you can check it out. It has a ton of affirmations on various topics including finances, relationships, health, depression, anxiety, and more. You can choose what types of messages you’d like and the timeframe in which you’d like to receive them.
I get 6 to 8 affirmations a day. Sometimes it sends an affirmation that is perfect for me at that time. You can click the heart and favorite an affirmation so you can go in if you’re feeling down and look at the old ones you’ve received.
#5: Charity Miles
Charity Miles is a great app my husband told me about a few years ago. This app is free and sponsored by big corporations. You choose the charity you’d like to support. If you’re going for a walk or a hike, you might as well support a charity.
When you turn on the app, it will track your time and distance and for a set amount of time and distance, the app will donate to your charity of choice. I love this app because I can move while making a differnce. For walking, hiking, or running, I turn on Spotify, MapMyRun, then Charity Miles.
App #6: Good News Network
Most news apps are full of doom and gloom. The Good News Network is positive, happy, and sometimes silly news. Read a story about penguins or learn about gut feelings. I highly recommend this app for positive news and stories.
App #7: myColorado App
If you’re located in Colorado, which is where our studio is located, this app is great.
Planning and organizing helps stress levels. While this may not form a habit directly, it does help with planning and organization and offer some convenience when you need certain documents at your fingertips.
The myColorado app offers convenience and stress-free traveling. If you happen to be vaccinated, you can store your vaccination record. You can also have a license or other ID on there for convenience. If you’re comfortable having your ID on a phone app, this is a convenient way to have proof of ID, vehicle registrations, and more.
App #8: BeFunky
BeFunky is a picture collage and photo editing app. This one helps me once a month and clients once a month for progress pictures. Don’t just use the scale for determining progress with health and fitness; you need measurements and side-by-side comparisons. With this app, you can put pictures side by side (front, side, back). You can do all 6 before and after images and collage them so you can see progress from all angles in one image. When it comes to habit forming apps, this app makes it easy to stay consistent with measuring progress.
App #9: AllTrails
Wherever you are locally, this app can help you find hiking, biking, or running paths. The AllTrails app lets you filter trails by difficulty, water, high elevation, and more. You can filter by length (2 miles, 4 miles, 10 miles) or just search the local area and all the trails that are available. Planning a trip to the mountains? Search that area in the app so you can see what is around you and plan ahead.
The free version of this habit forming app is great, and the paid version allows you to download maps before you head out in case you lose signal and need guidance when you don’t have connection to the internet.
App #10: Period Tracker
The last app is a period tracking app. We have a predominantly female community at Feed Your Soul Fitness and some of us have periods, some of us have ghost periods, and some are in menopause. The free version of this calendar can track symptoms – cramps, bloat, fatigue, emotions and more. I have started to understand my symptoms throughout my cycle when using this app. Tracking has allowed for me to see consistent patterns within my cycle. The more we know about our hormones and cycles the more we can understand our bodies and how we operate.
Habit Forming Apps for Health and Fitness
There are so many beneficial apps out there. While these are some of my personal favorites, there are many options that may help you build stronger habits on your health and fitness journey.
If you’re looking for other ways to form health habits, feel free to contact us to chat about your goals.
