Guest Post: 5 Awesome Apps for Health and Fitness

I upgraded to an iPhone 5C back in April. It's got more memory than my last iPhone, and since we've chosen to reserve that for my daughter's apps, I've got even MORE room for fun. But I have no clue what apps are good, other than the ones I've been using. So when Kate offered to supply a list of awesome apps for health and fitness, I did a little happy dance.

Hi everyone! I’m Kate from KateMovingForward and I’m so excited to share with you today while Tara is enjoying her new little one! She has been such an encouragement to me in having a healthy pregnancy and getting back into fitness afterward! (Blushing. Thanks, girl!) Today, I wanted to share five awesome apps for health and fitness with you! I don’t know where I’d be without my smart phone and these apps make exercise and smart food choices so easy!

1) MyFitnessPal
I love this app. It is designed to help you track your calories in order to lose, maintain, or gain weight. It has a barcode scanner so it’s simple to add in foods and the database has seriously everything out there so it’s incredibly easy to track calories even while you’re out and about! Plus, you can also track all your workouts there and add and cheer on friends! If you want to follow me I’m katiescott1309

2) Nike Running
This is my favorite app to track my running and walking workouts. You can calculate mileage and receive your pace as you go. You can also upload your runs to social media to get “cheers” from your friends and keep track of your runs over time. I’ve never had trouble with the satellites working on my phone although, if you live somewhere without 3G, you might be out of luck.

3) 30 Days
Want to challenge yourself to do more pushups, lunges, or planks? This app tests your starting point and then builds a daily workout program for you to follow to improve making small daily changes that add up over time—I love that!

4) Yummly
This is a super cool way to find new healthy recipes! Basically, it is an app that shares recipes and food photos that you “yum” or like and then it gives you more recipes in the same vein. So it is kind of like a food-only Pinterest that predicts food you’ll like! You can access the recipes, which are garnered all over the Internet, right from the app. You can also see how many ingredients they call for and build a shopping list. So cool!

5) Lumosity
Of course, you can’t neglect training your brain! I downloaded this app after hearing SO much about it and it really is a fun way to exercise your noggin! The games are fun and challenging and you can pick areas to focus on like memory, recall, prediction, concentration or more.

For what it's worth, guys...I second the MyFitnessPal recommendation! This app is widely used, which means you might already be using it. But if you're one to track calories and weight gains/losses and you're NOT using it, then I highly recommend you check it out! And while you're at it, check out Kate on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram to see how she's doing with all of her health and fitness goals (and to cheer her on, too)

Question: What apps do you use to help improve your health? Do you think having a smart phone makes your more or less healthy?