The iPhone, iPad (Mini), and iPod Touch are fantastic devices to help you set up and follow through with fitness and diet goals. Here are 11 apps that will help you achieve your new year’s goals. As an aside, my advice is to set goals that will stretch you but not to be too ambitious that you will not be able to follow through.
1. Calorie Counter & Diet Tracker (MyFitnessPal.com)
This is an app that helps you enter your current weight and your target weight and then helps you set goals to reach your target weight. The app gives the number of calories you should eat in a day. As you eat food throughout the day, you record what you are eating and the app calculates and tallies your total calories. You can also enter your exercise and this will offset the number of calories you can eat for the day. Click here to find the app in the App Store: Calorie Counter & Diet Tracker
2. Couch to 5K (C25K Free)
This app helps you work up to run a 5K in 8 weeks. That means you could be fit enough to run 3 miles by the end of February if you started on January 1st. This is a very effective app to help get you in shape. Click here to find the app in the App Store: Couch to 5K
3. RunKeeper
This is one of my favorite fitness apps. It utilizes the built in GPS to track your workouts: running, biking, hiking, etc. The app totals up your weekly and monthly workout routines. You can see all kinds of statistics about your exercise routine like calories burned, elevation gain, and average pace per mile. Click here to find the app in the App Store: RunKeeper
4. Fooducate
The goal of this app’s goal is to help you lose weight, eat real food, and get healthy. It will grade your groceries and explain what is really inside (all those ingredients you can never pronounce). You can scan barcodes on the food you purchase and have the app automatically describe the ingredients and nutrition information. Click here to find the app in the App Store: Fooducate
5. Pocket Yoga
Yoga has a lot of benefits for decreasing stress, increasing flexibility, and helping you lose weight. This app gives various levels of yoga routines from beginner to advanced. It also provides 3 different time frames: 30 minutes, 45 minutes, and 60 minutes. Click here to find the app in the App Store: Pocket Yoga
6. Mint
Mint.com is one of the best budgeting websites out there. Mint pulls in all of your financial accounts (bank, credit card, investment, etc) and compiles all your transactions. You can set a budget and set financial goals. The free Mint app that accompanies the Mint.com website makes it even easier to track your spending. Click here to find the app in the App Store: Mint
If one of your goals for the new year is to read more of the Bible, then this is a great app for you. It contains access to the Bible in 237 different languages and has dozens of reading plans from reading the whole Bible in 90 days to reading the Bible in a year. There is also a verse for the day and a bunch of other helpful resources. Click here to find the app in the App Store: YouVersion Bible
8. Sooner: to do list & weekly planner
This is a fantastic to do list application that has a simple user interface to help organize your world. All of your to do list items sync with iCal so you can access your to dos anywhere. If you are looking to be better organized this year, definitely get this app! Click here to find the app in the App Store: Sooner: to do list & weekly planner
9. QuitNow!
This is a simple app that will help you stop smoking. Once you quit smoking, the app tracks the number of days you have gone without smoking and how much money you have saved by not buying cigarettes. QuitNow is also social, bringing in other quitters to help you along the way. Click here to find the app in the App Store:
10. DuoLingo
If you have ever wanted to learn a second language, this is the year to start. DuoLingo will help you learn a second language. As a byproduct you will help translate the internet into a different language to be accessed by millions of people who can’t access the internet in their own language. The app is completely free, no adds or anything. Click here to find the app in the App Store: QuitNow!
11. JobMo
JobMo lets you compile all your job searches into one convenient place – from Monster, Simply Hired, Indeed and others. You can also put the jobs on a map to compute your commute. The app provides info on salaries, companies and career trends. Click here to find the app in the App Store: JobMo
Do you have other apps that you are planning to use to help you keep your New Year’s goals? We’d love to hear about them. Let us all know in the comments.
