Getting fit and healthy can be a daunting task, especially if you’re just starting out. But in the age of the Smartphone you can get some great free motivational tools that will help you on your journey. Here are four…
Calorie counting apps
Apps such as MyFitnessPal allow you to accurately record your calorie intake and exercise levels. By delving into these apps’ enormous food databases you can record the nutrition and calorie levels of everything that passes your lips, as well track the calories you burn each day, whether through walking, running, cycling or doing the housework. These apps act as handy guides, but you should always consider the nutritional values of your foods. For example, a bag of crisps and a biscuit may contain about the same number of calories as a chicken steak and some veg, but nutritionally they couldn’t be more different.
Exercise apps
These provide a cool way of learning new ways to keep fit and they usually offer teaching videos and guide you through good progressions. If you don’t have access to a trainer these can certainly help and give you ideas. To get the ball rolling, just think what sort of exercise you enjoy and choose one of those. Be careful to start at the level you feel comfortable with – don’t start too fast – and slowly progress.
The photo app that everyone’s heard of can be a fantastic motivational tool. Simply follow your favorite sports or fitness stars to see what they’re getting up too and how they train. Loads of people post healthy meal ideas on there too. Also, if motivational quotations float your boat, there are stacks of them to give you that extra push.
This messaging app can also help with your fitness. Why not start a fitness group with your friends and text each other to boost everyone’s motivation every day? You can also share cool meal ideas, but best of all, if you’re all involved and one of you doesn’t feel like training, you’ll be more likely to pop those trainers on knowing the group are doing the same.
Strava
My personal favorite, this is a biking and running app that will log all your rides and runs using GPS. The best thing of all is the segments. Strava divides your ride or run into short sections and, when completed, tells you if you’ve beaten your last time. And for those who thrive on a bit of competition, this app even puts you in a league of everyone who’s ever ridden or run that route. We all get home, have a look to see if we’ve beaten our time, or even better got in the top 10, or won the holy grail of a KOM (king of the mountain)