We’ve all grown to rely on our smartphones for a lot more things, lately. Aside from keeping in touch with our loved ones, they’ve also played the role of entertaining us, connecting us to the web, and even helping get our work done. However, for those of you looking to improve your health with diet, exercise, and other methods, your phone can be just as useful in this, as well. Here, we’re going to look at how you can use your phone to live your best possible life.
Sticking to your schedule
This is one of the few tips here that you’re not going to need to install any extra apps for. The vast majority of smartphones come with alarms and calendars that can help you set reminders. As such, if you’re creating a fitness schedule, be sure to make sure that you’re noting it down on your phone at the same time. You can create alarms to help you keep to a healthy morning schedule and reminders for when you’re going to work out to make sure that you don’t inadvertently or unconsciously get in the way of your own plans.
Staying on top of what you eat
They say that diet is 90% of all physical improvement, and exercise is the other 10%. As such, you don’t want to leave that 90% to chance, do you? It’s important to make sure that you’re tracking what you’re eating with the help of nutritional tracking apps. Not only can they help you see how many calories you’re eating for a weight control diet, but they can also track macro and micronutrients to make sure you’re eating a fully balanced diet. Perhaps even more important, they make you more aware of your eating habits by writing down every single thing that you eat. That way, you’re more likely to notice harmful eating patterns that you can then actively work to get rid of, or find better alternatives for. You may also wish to switch to a diet plan, meaning you will need to find replacements for certain things that are not compatible with your new plan. For example, those following a keto diet may wish to take a look at this Primal Kitchen Buffalo Sauce review so that they can continue to enjoy their chicken wings while staying on track with this particular diet.
Learning how to make healthy meals
Tracking what you eat is one thing. However, a lot of people lack the basic knowledge of cooking that they need to make healthy meals in the first place, or they might simply not have recipes that are designed for a healthier life. To make sure you rely less and less on unhealthier foods, it’s important to know how to make healthier replacements, from daily snacks to the main meals that will comprise the bulk of your nutritional gains. To that end, make sure you’re checking in with healthy recipe apps that constantly update, teaching you the tricks you need to keep making yourself food that will really do your body some good.
Be sure to buy healthy
Learning how to make healthier meals is one thing. However, you also need to make sure that your shopping habits are fitting well with your meals, too. Meal planning is an important skill to learn. It helps you cut the costs of shopping by making sure you’re only buying the ingredients you need, as well as helping you avoid waste by buying ingredients that are used between multiple meals. Most importantly, meal planning apps can help you ensure that you’re completing a full shopping list, not leaving any space for you to buy any unhealthy snacks. It’s important to find healthy replacements for treats as well as focusing on new and improved meals. That’s how you ensure that you’re not likely to slide back into bad habits.
Learn how to exercise
If you’re a true newbie to exercise, then it can be surprisingly intimidating to look at how you’re going to start getting active. You want to make sure that you’re pushing yourself, but you also want to make sure that you don’t hurt yourself. There are beginner’s workout apps that can teach you the ropes. These will show you a step-by-step of how to do different exercises, and even track your progress so that they can help you build your entire workout program from scratch. As you get more confident, you’re going to eventually leave these beginner tips behind you. However, when it comes to building your competence and comfort with exercise, they can be very helpful, indeed.
Keeping track of your workouts
Aside from the apps that can teach you various kinds of workouts, you should also keep an eye out for those that can track your progress as well. Continuously improving your results and pushing yourself further is the key to improving your fitness (providing you’re getting enough rest to recover, as well.) There are various apps that can help you track and ensure progress in your workouts, no matter what type of exercise you’re doing. Take a look at these 4 running apps that keep you going, or for the equivalent if you’re exercising in the gym, by cycling, or by any other means. There are apps designed to track your progress with all kinds of exercise.
Keeping you motivated
Anyone who has tried to stay active and healthy in the past (and hit a few stumbling blocks along the way) will be able to speak to the importance of motivation. If you can’t stay engaged and enthusiastic about your efforts, then it can become easier and easier to simply skip them. Some of the fitness tracking apps above can help with your motivation, but so too can it be wise to give yourself goals. There are fitness gamification apps that work under precisely that principle. They create health goals and key performance indicators and then offer you experience points for completing the tasks that they demand of you. This can add an extra sense of achievement, helping you get the boost of motivation that you need to keep going.
Staying on top of your emotional health, too
While we might not focus on it as much as we should, your mental health plays just as important a role in living your best life. Being able to deal with stress, improve your mood, and take a little time for self-care can reflect in a whole host of physical improvements. It can help you manage chronic pain, improve your sleep at night, and help you stick to your dietary goals. While there are all kinds of things that go into improving your mental health, meditation has been shown to be helpful to a very wide range of people. As such, it might be worth looking at some of the guided meditation apps available out there.
Keeping your brain active, too
Your brain is much like any muscle in the body. If you don’t use it, you are liable to use it. There are plenty of brain training apps that can help you improve your critical thinking, memory, and problem-solving. Aside from keeping your brain sharper and decreasing your chances of being diagnosed with dementia in the future, this can have a slew of benefits throughout your life, too. For instance, brain training has been linked to better mental health, as well. It can also make it much easier for you to gain and retain information. Given that much of living a healthier lifestyle is about learning healthier habits, it should be no surprise that improving your ability to learn can result in better long-term results.
Hydration is crucial as well
Another aspect of healthy living that is often overlooked. Of course, we all know that we have to replenish the fluids that we lose in exercise. Most of us won’t forget our water bottle when we go on a run or step into the gym. However, that same water discipline can become a little lax when it comes to other areas of our daily life. Drinking more water can do a ton to improve your daily life, from helping you avoid headaches to improving your digestion. There are apps that help you keep track of how much water you’re drinking, giving you reminders when you need them to stay topped up.
Put some sounds on
When you’re in the middle of a heavy workout, listening to good music can do you a whole world of good. Music has been shown to not only improve motivation but also improve your results. When you’re listening to music, you are better able to stick to intense workout sessions for longer, and to push yourself harder, thus improving the kind of results you can expect from your workout. There are a plethora of music apps you can use on your phone. Fewer people have a collection of MP3 or FLAC files on their computers nowadays, so looking to streaming options is going to be your best bet. Many of them even have fitness playlists built into them.
Of course, your phone isn’t going to prepare healthy food for you, nor is it going to get up and run for you. You still need to be ready to put in your fair share of work. However, there’s no denying that it can play a very helpful role in shaping a healthier life for you in all manner of ways.
