It’s not a secret that we have our cellphones on us at most times. Whether you are using your phone for your work, school, or just for fun, you should also be using it to meet your health goals! Today we’ll discuss a variety of ways you can use your phone to meet your health goals including tracking your water, food, and fitness.
Track Your Water Intake
There are a lot of apps on smartphones today that make it easy to track how much water you are consuming in a day. One great app is Waterlogged. This app is visually appealing and you simply try to fill the water bottle on the screen to meet your water goal. You can customize the app with the specific size of your water bottle and customize the goal you set for yourself! The app also stores your data so you can reflect on how much water you were drinking in the last week, for example.
Track Your Food
It may seem silly to track your food on your phone, but there are many health benefits to doing it! The first benefit is that if you track the food, you are less likely to overeat or reach for things that you know are bad for you because you will then have to log it in the app. Another great reason for tracking your food is to get a baseline of how much nutrients you are getting from the food you are currently eating.
If you haven’t tracked your food before, you should eat as you usually would for the whole day and track everything into an app like MyFitnessPal. MyFitnessPal will then give you a break down of how many calories you are eating per meal. You can also enter your height, weight, and weight loss goals and the app will suggest a calorie deficit for you.
MyFitnessPal also stores all of your data and will even save your favorite meals so you can easily enter them. Another feature of MyFitnessPal is the nutrient feature. This feature shows you a breakdown of how much of what you are eating is protein, fat, and carbohydrates. You should approach this section of the app with caution because the data gathered here comes from information that individuals have entered into the app, which may not always be accurate. However, if you are not looking for specific percentages, the nutrients section of the app can give you a great overview.
Track Your Exercise
Most of us have our cellphone in our hands, pocket, or bag at all times. This means that your phone can easily track your exercise! One great app for tracking exercise is Goals-Fitness. This app is great for tracking exercises including walking, running, nordic walking, cycling, and even mountain biking! Another great feature of this app is that you can set a goal (for example one mile) and it will give you verbal updates of how close you are to meeting your goal. This app also connects with Spotify so you can listen to your favorite playlist while you exercise!
Goals-Fitness provides a nice overview of your exercise for the month and allows you to see what different kinds of activity that you logged. Something else that is great about this app is that it logs your exercise on a map so you have a visual description of where you exercised. This can be a great motivator and help you to plan future exercise routes!
Schedule a Wellness Appointment
In addition to downloading apps on your phone, you can also use your phone to visit QCA’s website and schedule your first Health and Wellness Appointment. At this appointment, you’ll get the chance to meet with a medical professional to discuss your health and fitness goals. They’ll be able to guide you through your journey whether you are trying to eat healthier, lose weight, or maintain your weight! Click here to schedule an appointment.
All of the apps mentioned here are available for free download in the app store.