Experts say it takes about 21 days to kick a habit. Sounds simple, right? That’s until you try it and realize that while it is not impossible it takes commitment and monk-like discipline. It is likely why New Year’s resolutions, no matter how well-intended, tend to fall on the wayside by March.
Nevertheless, when you are determined to make a change, having some guidance could go a long way. This is exactly what innovative apps can offer you. When you have daily targets, real-time data feedback, or a guide on how to effect change, you tend to feel more motivated.
To get you started, here are some lifestyle app categories that you could try.
Diet Apps
Diet apps give you control and information about your food consumption. Using this information you can make wiser nutritional decisions.
If you are trying to lose or gain weight, aim for diet apps that help you keep track of calories in various foods. That way you would be able to develop meal plans that are in line with your weight goals. Some niche apps like Shopwell even allow you to scan barcodes of food products while shopping and give you nutritional data on the spot.
Dietary choices can also be a tricky affair if you suffer from various allergies. Every time you pick up a product you have to worry if it contains nuts, gluten, or dairy. It is simply no way to live. Therein lies the beauty of food intolerance apps. A quick product barcode scan will let you know if a product contains any of your indicated allergens.
Meditation
Studies show that meditation is effective for pain management, alleviating stress, and improving all-around wellness. However, if you have not tried it before or attended a class, you may be stumped about where to begin. First-timers often report feeling distracted by all the silence and not really gaining anything from the experience.
Meditation apps can guide you on the steps you can take to having a fruitful session. It is just like being in a class only that the teacher is reaching you through a speaker or your earbuds. Once you have an understanding of how it works, you can alternate your guiding app with one that offers meditative sounds.
Screen Timing
Almost every medical department has issued advisories against the prolonged durations of screen time currently prevalent in society. The more hours you spend facing screens the higher your chances of:
- ‘Text neck’
- Chronic backaches
- Vision problems
- Agitation due to lack of sensory rest
- Poor sleeping patterns
What is even more worrying is that children are also getting incorporated into living life glued to screens. It would be of great benefit to you and your loved ones if you learned to limit your screen time.
Consider installing apps designed for limiting screen time on all your devices. They give you data on your usage patterns and help you to stay off devices after your cut-off time.
Sleep
According to medical experts, the quality of your sleep matters almost more than the quantity. If you wake up exhausted even after the recommended 8-hour sleep time, the odds are, your sleep quality is poor. Some key indicators of good sleep quality include:
- Falling asleep easily and shortly after getting into bed
- Staying asleep for most of the night
- A feeling of being rested when you wake
There are mainly two kinds of sleeping apps. Some help you sleep better by using lulling sounds to relax your mind into a state of rest. Alternatively, to understand your sleeping patterns, you could opt for a sleep tracking app. Given as both kinds perform different functions it would be ideal to use both to manage your asleep health.
Heart Health
A recent study showed that at least 48% of American adults suffer from some kind of heart disease. The conditions vary from hypertension, prehypertension to blood vessel blockages, and full-on heart disease. Each of these conditions requires long-term blood pressure monitoring to track treatment progress and ensure patients do not deteriorate.
Blood pressure monitoring apps offer an extra mile of heart health vigilance. They enable you to share readings from your BP apparatus with your doctor for monitoring. They are also helpful for personal observation. Summaries of BP data can help you understand lifestyle patterns that cause your BP to spike and make changes accordingly.
Fitness
Fitness is too often intertwined with weight. It would be a false assumption to believe that you are fit if your weight is within recommended BMI parameters. A person that weighs more than you do could be healthier than you are if they live an active life while yours is sedentary. The goal here is not to shame anyone, but rather to make you aware of how a lack of fitness can creep up on you.
Fitness apps assign you goals every day to help you keep up your fitness. You can also plan daily workouts, map out routes for runs, monitor your step count, among many other options. It all depends on which fitness activities you are willing to sign up for.
Conclusion
In as much as these apps are helpful, they are just resources to guide you. The results you are hoping to achieve will take some work on your part. If you stay committed you will be able to conquer even bigger goals than you had planned in the beginning.
A professional writer with over a decade of incessant writing skills. Her topics of interest and expertise range from health, nutrition and psychology.