Get fit with your mobile phone Have you ever committed yourself to a 12 month gym membership only to regret it after the first month? Ever committed yourself to a weight loss program just to find that the only pounds you lose are sterling? Well, the answer to your desire to get yourself into shape could be a lot closer to home than you might think and totally free.
Track your workouts with Endomondowww.endomondo.com
If you have a smart phone, you've probably used the built in GPS system (used to tell maps and navigation apps where you are). Well, there are apps available that will use the GPS to track your workouts. By knowing your position at every step of your workout, these apps will not only map out your workout, but they will give you a wealth of stats such as speed, distance, time as set distances, pace and calories burned to name a few. Many of these apps are backed up with a strong website for you to view, share and modify your data. Endomondo is my such app of choice. I've found the app to be the most reliable and versatile one available on Android (vs RunKeeper and SportsTracker). I found others more likely to crash or stop recording a workout prematurely (when tested on my old Xperia Play, I now use the Galaxy S3). Versatility is where Endomondo really shines. You can record exercises under every category you're ever likely to need. From running and cycling to swimming and skiing. The idea of recording the under different category means that you can review your workouts by such category or by total. For example, I can check how many miles I've cycled this week, how many miles I've ran this week and the total for the two together. Simple stuff, but very handy. By tracking your workouts and regularly reviewing your progress, you are likely to be more motivated to continue. If, however, that's not enough to motivate you, you can enter challenges. This can be done on the site or even on your phone. The challenges might be to burn as many calories or run/cycle as many miles as possible. You can enter a public challenge or start a new private challenge to get competitive with your 'friends'. Get in touch with me here to let me know what you think of the app or if you want somebody to challenge. Track your calories with MyFitnessPalwww.myfitnesspal.com
If you've ever dieted, at some point in your quest to fitness you will have attempted calorie counting. Bits of paper here and there. Forgetting how many calories in this or that. Not having your diary with you when you ate out. It's not as easy as you may have initially thought. And then you have to know how many calories you should be consuming in the first place. Well, meet MyFitnessPal. It's another smart phone app that'll guide and motivate you to fitness. At first glance, it's an electronic calorie diary. Well, okay, it does start off pretty smart. It asks you for your current weight, your target weight and the amount of time you'd like to achieve that target. Based on what you tell the app, it'll set you your personal daily allowance (rather than using a textbook one figure for all). It's when you come to add your first foods that this app comes to life. One of the best features of this app is its amazing database. You can search for and find almost any food via the app or the website. What makes it even easier is that you can use your phone's camera to scan the barcodes of foods too! It's as simple as pressing 'add', scanning a barcode and entering the portion size (if not the default). Of course, there will be times where you'll have to weigh and measure foods. The only way around that is to purchase all of your foods in ready to eat portions (which is ridiculous). A set of kitchen scales (and maybe a measuring jug) is all you need though. Simply tare (zero) the scales after adding each ingredient. When you make up a meal from scratch, you only have to work out the total nutritional count per portion once. You can add it to 'my foods' where you'll be able to find it again when you need it. Pretty convenient eh? If you want to, you can even use the app to record workouts you've done to earn back some calories. Like Endomondo, this app is backed up with a powerful website where you can tune your profile, foods and exercises. All of your details are automatically synced from your app to the website and vice versa. If only they could work together.... Okay, so you're smashing your workouts with Endomondo and clocking up those calories burned. You're also cutting and monitoring the calories consumed with MyFitnessPal. Well, surprisingly, the two apps can be set up to share their information (technically, it's one way communication). So, if you burn 500 calories whilst using Endomondo, you'll see the exercise recorded on MyFitnessPal and the calories added on to your daily allowance.
This is more than just convenient. It's amazingly motivating. Got a big meal planned in for tonight? Well, you'd better not skip that workout. Two amazing free apps giving you genuine rewards for sticking to your targets. You're also likely to find that, if you're aiming to lose some weight, and you do, your workouts will improve. This is because carrying weight requires effort. The less you have to carry, the easier exercise will become to do. To sum up Weight loss and fitness are not going to come over night. They're also going to require effort. While these two apps will take away some of the barriers to you achieving your goals and provide many of you with that bit of motivation you'll need, they don't perform miracles. You ultimately have to do the hard work. These apps will only work if you allow them to. That means accurate and honest tracking and being willing to make changes. After all, change never came from doing the same thing. Good luck!
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