5 Apps That Make Being Healthy Fun
With challenges, goals, badges and rewards — these five health apps aim to help you maintain habits, remember your medication, be physically active, take care of your mental health, perform rehabilitation exercises and manage your weight while having fun.
1. MANGO HEALTH
Mango Health was created to use automation to help users remember to take their daily medication and to remove the hassle relying on memory. Users earn points and rewards just for maintaining healthy habits featured in the app and for keeping track of their medication. It also includes a database with information on drugs, supplements and more so users are fully aware of the precautions they should take.
2. CPF CHALLENGE
The CPF Challenge was created by the Cerebral Palsy Foundation to raise awareness for cerebral palsy and raise the pulse of individuals with physical disabilities. The app offers 57 different exercises for varying physical abilities that users are lead through by three different instructors: Nike Master Trainer Isabelle Derond, Jessy Yates or Kyle Khachadurian, two individuals with cerebral palsy. Select the exercises that feel right for you and CPF will build a daily workout that fits your personal needs.
You can even email cpfchallenge@yourcpf.org if you have any adapted exercise suggestions and or specific requests on which exercises you’d like to see!
3. HEADSPACE
Meditation has been scientifically proven to provide many health benefits including reduced stress, improving immune systems, and reducing physical and emotional pain. Headspace is a guided meditation app that keeps track of your meditation minutes, allows you to set goals and creates a timeline of your progression from when you first started meditating.
Try Headspace for yourself with the free Basics pack that will teach you the essentials of meditation and mindfulness with short sessions guided by a former monk and mindfulness guru, Andy Puddicombe.
4. RESPOND WELL
Respond Well uses Microsoft’s Kinect motion-sensing device to engage rehabilitation and physical therapy patients in their programs while at home, including recovering stroke and post-surgery patients. The app was created after seeing that patients often neglect their recovery regime when they must rely on their own motivation at home to complete them. Doctors are informed on the user’s progress as they earn points for completing challenges and using proper form.
5. MYFITNESSPAL
MyFitnessPal is a popular weight management app that integrates daily calorie counting and nutritional information as a tool for users to take control of their diet. Users log they eat throughout the day from a nutrition database of over 5 million different foods and see where they measure up to their goal to either lose, maintain or gain weight.
MyFitnessPal provides a breakdown of the calories and nutrients that are consumed throughout the day for those looking to limit sugar, sodium and fat or increase fibre, vitamins and protein. It also creates several reports including a pie chart that gives you an overview of your total fat, carb and protein consumption to see how balanced your current diet is and help you decide what changes need to be made for your health goals.
The rise of health tracking and management apps has made it easier than ever to live a healthy lifestyle, be informed on the decisions we make and stay connected with healthcare providers. Do you use any health apps? Let us know in the comments below!
