The Best Healthy Living & Eating Apps

by Kathryn M. D'Imperio

Almost like clockwork, the New Year rolls around and people get excited about healthier, fitter, more organized lifestyles. From the big picture down to individual stores and restaurants, there?s usually an app for that. Using smartphone apps to help you lose weight, meet fitness goals, eat healthier, try new recipes, or generally stay organized can make your life simpler while helping you achieve your New Year’s resolutions. No matter if you have an iPhone or the latest Android device, you can find dozens of mobile apps to help you live healthier, or at least with more conveniences.

Eating & Food Mobile Apps

Recipe and shopping apps make life a bit easier, especially when you are trying to plan meals for a week or find a restaurant in the area that suits your family’s unique food preferences and requirements. Here are some helpful food-related apps to try on your smartphone.

 

 

THE WEGMANS APP

If you?ve ever wished for an easier approach to creating your grocery list, you may find it in the Wegmans app. Offered for both iPhone and Android, this app allows you to create your grocery shopping list from your recent purchases, and you can sort by department, most popular, and other factors as well. This app also stores your Shoppers Club card and gives access to countless recipes, which allow you to add ingredients to your list on the fly. ‘wegmans.com/mobile

FOODUCATE

Imagine if you could compare all the different brands of a specific product on the shelf and choose the healthiest option using just your smartphone. Now you can with the Fooducate app. This app provides nutritional information when you use the phone?s camera to scan the product’s barcode, and may also even suggest a healthier alternative or a recipe you can try. The database inside the Fooducate app is massive, containing more than 200,000 different foods, all rated and stored with helpful information and alternate choices. fooducate.com

OPENTABLE MOBILE

If dining out is a regular occurrence for you, the OpenTable Mobile app may be a great addition to your app drawer. This app enables you to search for restaurants nearby, view them on a map, and sort by cuisine, price, points, and availability; make reservations; invite other diners via email, get directions to the restaurant; and even earn dining points for your OpenTable account. opentable.com/mobile

WHOLE FOODS MARKET RECIPES

Check out more than 3,000 recipes, searching by cuisine, course, special diet, ingredients you have on-hand, and more. The Whole Foods Market Recipes app makes it easy to craft shopping lists from those recipes and also allows you to rate and review recipes, adding your own photos, and saving your favorites for future use. This app is currently available to Apple users, but an Android version is said to be coming soon. wholefoodsmarket.com/apps

A number of mobile apps focus on the flipside of healthy lifestyles & exercise, or they may include aspects of both diet and exercise. Here are some top healthy living apps.

MyFitnessPal

This app combines the power of food journaling and exercising to help people attain their ideal weight loss goals. The free app leverages a nutrition and calorie database hosting nearly 4 million different foods, including specific menu items from well-known restaurants. The app and website are integrated, keeping your information readily available on both platforms. MyFitnessPal makes it easier to choose foods at the grocery store or when dining out by empowering app users with knowledge on the best nutrition and the healthiest choices. The Calorie Counter & Diet Tracker by MyFitnessPal incorporates both diet and exercise, offering more than 350 cardio and strength-training exercises to push you toward your goals. myfitnesspal.com

BMI Calculator

It may be easier than you think to get a handle on your body mass index (BMI), your body fat percentage and your calorie consumption. This app measures your body fat according to a weight-to-height ratio and helps you to achieve your desired weight more quickly. Use this app for free on your Android or Apple device. migoapps.com

FitBit

This app approaches healthy lifestyles holistically, focusing on good health as a result of the activities you do, the food you eat, and also based on your weight and your sleep habits. The app itself is free, but you will need to buy the FitBit tracker in order to chart your progress toward your goals. FitBit can become even more motivational as you sync up with friends who are also working toward their goals. fitbit.com?

Running Apps

Too many running apps are available to list them all, but most allow you to track your miles, routes, and pace, and some even include fun games to help distract your mind from the toils of running. Free and paid versions of different apps are available for Apple and Android smartphones, with some of the most popular running apps being Nike+ Running, MapMyRun, Endomondo, RunKeeper, Couch-to-5k, Strava Running and Cycling, iSmoothRun Pro, and Zombies, Run!, to name a few.

“Mobile apps are very helpful because most people always have their phone with them, which means that they can easily use a mobile app to help keep them on track, staying motivated with their fitness goals,” says Jessica Rapp, owner and personal trainer at Unique Physique for Life off of route 100 in Gilbertsville.

Depending on your own personal lifestyle needs, you can find apps for just about anything to improve your health, diet and overall wellness. Apps exist for meditation, optimal sleep cycles with alarms, sleep talk recording, and systems to help people quit smoking, among countless other things. To help you find additional useful apps that can improve your health, visit your phone’s app store and check out some of the most popular apps in categories that make sense for your own lifestyle.