We are almost to the 3rd week in January also known as the point at which New Year’s Resolution’s start losing steam.
What if you had a little buddy to help turn it around and make your Resolutions stick? A friend to cheer you on and maybe walk you through how to reach your goal? With these 13 apps your cell phone or tablet can become that buddy!
Many of these apps have optional community features, where you can connect with a community to cheer on your weight loss, healthy eating, budget goals, or even gas deal finding.
Most of these apps aim to not just help but educate as well, enabling us to change our habits for good.
Diet, Eating Healthier
Fooducate
Touts itself as more than a calorie counter and exercise tracker. Fooducate will teach you how to eat “real food”. Scan the barcode of 250,000 food products and Fooducate will give a food grade of A-D, then suggest a healthier alternative.
Fooducate allows you to personalize the app with not only the usual height and weight, but food allergies, health conditions, the rate at which you hope to achieve weight loss, to name a few. However, some of the personalization may require an upgrade to the premium feature.
IOS and Android- Free
Daily Water Tracker: Hydration
With our bodies being about 60 % water, staying well hydrated is critical. Researchers have found water to aid in weight loss, improved skin, joints, and so much more.
Daily Water Tracker takes the thinking out of hydration. Choose whether to measure in ounces or milliliters. Log your water intake with the tap of a screen.
They will help you recognize your water goals and celebrate you as you work toward them.
IOS and Android- Free
Lark 24/7 Health Coach
For busy people or someone on a budget, Lark 24/7 is the Health Coach that fits into your life, purse, or pocket depending where you keep your phone.
Lark 24/7 will motivate you, communicate with you, and help to revamp your health.
Lark 24/7 has won numerous awards and it is easy to see why. As the name implies, a Lark Health Coach is available 24/7 to answer your fitness and nutrition inquiries within seconds. As well as to text motivations to you throughout the day.
Lark has free sleep and activity tracking; as well as free Stayfit coaching. From there you can move up to memberships that include nutritional coaching, mood and condition check-ins, diet analysis, blood sugar, and carb tracking.
IOS and Android- Free for basic features
Oh She Glows
The Oh She Glows app is brought to us by Angela Liddon. Angela is a New York Times best seller and award-winning food blogger. Her blog Oh She Glows is filled with gorgeously photographed plant based recipes that have been taste tested and approved by her family and friends. Her app does not disappoint.
Oh She Glows app presently has 95 plant based meals and 75 gluten free meals. As new recipes arrive to her blog, they will also make their way to the app. In addition, there are free recipe bundles for you to “unlock”.
An important note, the app allows you to filter your search by food allergy, very handy. Now go ahead and figure out how you can prepare that chard in the fridge so the whole family will enjoy it. Or is that just me?!
IOS and Android- $0 .99-1.99
Exercise More
My Fitness Pal
My Fitness Pal has been downloaded way over 1 million times, making it the most popular fitness app out there. There is not much this app doesn’t do!
My Fitness pal has exercises, they will track your water intake, food, nutrients, movement, recipe importer, food insights, goal setting, habit changing, and so, so, much more. It is a very comprehensive app, like I said, there isn’t much it doesn’t do.
IOS and Android, Starting at $9.99 a month
7 Minute Workout Challenge by Fitness Guide Inc.
With 7 Minute Workout Challenge we no longer have an excuse to not work out! Whether you are in your PJ’s or workout clothes, in 7 minutes this app guides you through 12 interval exercises.
7 Minute Workout Challenge has both male and female instructors that motivate and guide you through these effective, no equipment need exercises. The app also tracks your progress and you unlock rewards as you continue to exercise.
IOS and Android- $2.99
Down Dog by Yoga Buddhi Co.
Get your Zen on with the #1 rated app for yoga. With more than 100 classes for free, you will have plenty of time to see if you would like to pump up to a paid membership level.
Down Dog allows you to customize your yoga level and length of time you would like to practice that day. Never practiced yoga? No problem! Down Dog has an intro level class for newbies complete with detailed instructions.
On the road and afraid you might not have a good internet connection? Never fear, download your practice ahead of time. Down Dog makes it easy to practice selfcare almost anywhere.
IOS and Android- Free
Lose Weight
C25K 5K Trainer
C25K 5K Trainer is a couch to 5k trainer app. Don’t let the 5k in the title intimidate you. C25K is made for the new runner or would be runner. Their program starts out with a combination of walking and running. Their goal is to increase your confidence and stamina with 30-minute training.
This app is easy to use. It tracks your stats for you as well as being compatible with some pedometers.
If you like to listen to music while you train, C25K is compatible with Spotify, Pandora, and more.
IOS and Android- Free, 1.99 to remove ads
Noisli - Focus, Concentration & Relaxation
You might be wondering why I have included a relaxation app in the weight loss category. Science has found that stress and lack of sleep can actually cause weight gain and impede out ability to lose weight. I learned this the hard way.
The Noisli app is a color and relaxation sound app that can be useful during work or travel. Decide on the ambient noise you would like and help drowned out the noisy people around you.
You can tailor your Noisli experience by setting timers with a fade out function, selecting from a variety of sounds to suite the occasion, and it can be used offline.
A little relaxation and good sleep might just be the little extra that your weight loss plan needed.
IOS and Android- $1.99
Mediation apps Zen Friend and MindFi : Eye Opening Meditation
Mediation is another way to calm and destress our minds and bodies. Meditation also allows us some quiet time to listen to our bodies and how they are feeling so that we may better address those needs.
Doctors have found that mediation can lower high blood pressure and help you manage stress. Managing stress can help us to avoid stress eating and high cortisol levels both of which help us to hold onto unnecessary fat stores.
I’ve included two meditation apps, Zen Friend and MindFi, because I feel they both are good for novice to more experienced mediation practitioners. Both are easy to use, have timers, and the ability to track your meditations in some form. The big difference between the two is that MindFi is meant to be done with your eyes open.
MindFi has meditations as short as 3 minutes. The hope of the MindFi app is that you can use it in the office, on the train, in the bathroom, all without drawing attention to yourself. You pop in your ear buds and re-center discreetly and effectively.
Zen Friend also allows you to meditate for shorter intervals also. After your meditation, you can record your thoughts in the app and set a meditation remainder for a later date.
Both apps aim to help their users develop a schedule friendly meditation practice.
IOS and Android- Free
Save More, Spend Less
Gas Buddy
Gas Buddy is the #1 gas saving app claiming to save its users an average of $340 a year on gas.
This app allows you to filter your gas station search by price, location, and amenities such as car washes. Gas Buddy will also alert you to price hikes.
IOS and Android- Free
You Need A Budget (YNAB)
The app, You Need A Budget has a goal for you. YNAB wants to help you stop living paycheck to paycheck. Once YNAB is done, they hope to see you paying for March’s mortgage with February money. You Need A Budget is so confident, that they offer a 34 day free trial. To further show you how confident YNAB is that you will save money and learn to budget, while using their app, YNAB offer’s a 100% money back guarantee!
So how do they expect to teach us to budget and like it? They have a four-rule approach to budgeting:
- Give Every Dollar a Job
- Embrace Your True Expenses
- Roll with the Punches
- Age Your Money
YNAB syncs with your credit cards and banks. They have goal setting tools and debt paydown tools. An added bonus, they have personal support as well as over 100 free workshops. They want to teach and encourage their users to have a healthy relationship with money.
With this unique approach to budgeting, You Need A Budget’s app users, on average, save $600 in the first two months and more that $6000 in the first year.
IOS and Android- Free for the first 34 days.
Digit
Digit wants to help you start a savings account, effortlessly. If you have a goal of saving, but your mind glazes over at the mere thought, let Digit help.
Digit is a smart app that analysis your income and daily spending habits. It then moves money to your FDIC insured Digit savings account every day, if you can afford it.
You can withdraw from your saving account whenever you like, without penalty. However, if you leave the money it will accrue 1% annually, which is paid out every 3 months.
Digit securely protects your sensitive banking and personal information with Bank-level SSL 128-bit encryption.
IOS and Android- Free for the first 100 days, $2.99 after
Resolutions aren’t Easy
How are you doing with your New Year’s Resolutions? Do you already use apps to help you with your goals?
I’ll be honest, I have yet to use my crock-pot, but I did cook at home every night this week, woohoo! I am continuing to work on saving more, paying down debt, and slowly getting organized.
I look forward to hearing how all of you doing!
