If one of your New Year’s resolutions is to live a healthier lifestyle, good for you! You’ve made a choice that will help you live a longer and healthier life, and probably help you control your medical expenses, too.
Now you just need to get started. You could certainly do it the old-fashioned way, by making charts and graphs or trying whatever fad diet is popular with your friends. But why not choose to utilize technlogy instead? Human innovation aims to improve all of our lives by making daily tasks quicker and easier. Try these six tools to get yourself into the best shape of your life.
Choose a calorie counter. If you’re trying to lose a few pounds, you need to get an accurate picture of your eating habits. Most people have no clue about how many calories their food actually contains! Rather than tracking your diet habits on a cumbersome notebook, and calculating everything with a nutrition book and calculator, simply enter everything you eat into a calorie counting app, and let the program do the work for you!
Download a fitness app. As long as you’re measuring calories in your food, you should also measure calories expended through exercise. Try several of the popular fitness apps available through iTunes or the Google Play store, and choose one with a format that feels right for you. You can use the app to log distance, time, type of exercise, and more.
Remember to turn on your smart phone’s GPS function. Many fitness apps will work without the GPS function, but turning it on helps to map your route and distance as you walk, run, or hike. It could also get you out of a jam if you get lost in the wilderness – or the middle of a city!
Join a Meetup. Meetups are the modern-day answer to our need for socialization. We’re all so busy that it can be difficult to meet like-minded friends with similar interests. When you join a Meetup online, you can participate in just about any kind of club you can imagine. If you’re trying to put together a running club, a mom’s fitness group, or a group of pals to go hiking, Meetups probably has an answer for you.
Try a fitness tracker. Products like the Nike Fuelband, FitBit, and similar copycat products, are designed to motivate you to reach your goals. Program your goal for the day, and the red light on the band will turn green when you’ve accomplished it.
Grab a pair of wireless earbuds or headphones. You already know that music can motivate you to get through a difficult workout. But those dangling wires can get caught in equipment, or just feel plain annoying! A set of wireless ear buds or headphones will solve that problem, and you will be amazed at how free you feel.
