I recently read that about 46 percent of Americans own some sort of smart phone.
This statistic is not really surprising to me because everywhere I go everybody is always on their phone but it is interesting to see what people use their phones for.
I feel like every time I discover a new app, somebody has already used that one and has five other suggestions for new app downloads. Is there really an app for everything? I cannot keep track of everything in the app world, so I started looking at the health and fitness ones and tried them out.
The one that is my absolute favorite is My Fitness Pal. This app makes calorie counting and recording a breeze because you can literally take pictures of the barcode to reveal the complete nutrition break down.
There is a way to calculate necessary net caloric intake to reach different goals and the database is huge. Almost everything that you could eat, is covered by this app.
The best part is that it is free and fun. You can also log your workouts on this app to figure out calories burned and how many extra calories you need to eat in your meal plan. I like to use this app so that I can post the nutrition facts of the different recipes that I create, putting that information on my blog or in my column.
Map My Run is another app that I use a lot on my iPhone. It has a GPS tracker and can track the miles and pace of your run, walk, jog, bike ride, etc.
It can also give you different distance routes in your area and you can post your results to different social networking websites to share with your friends.
I like to use this so that I can tell how far I run and at what pace when I am training for a race or just trying to get in a run for a workout. You can save your running statistics and try to beat your times on the same routes -- a great personal competition if that is something you are into.
Fit Radio and Pandora are also two apps that I love to use while working out.
Sometimes I will take the time to make a workout playlist but other times I just want to switch it up and let the application decide.
Fit Radio is a free app that allows you to choose a genre and it creates a workout playlist, without commercials and without breaks in between songs. The songs flow one to the next so that you can just keep going strong in your workout. The only thing that bugs me about this app is that it cuts in and out a lot if I go somewhere that doesn't have the best service signal.
Pandora will do this also, but it seems to have a little bit of a better service signal; maybe because of the commercials. My favorite Pandora station is Linkin Park and Rihanna for my workouts.
So many people have smart phones and, like myself, rely on them for many things. I figure putting a little bit of fitness and health on my phone is just another way to incorporate it into my life.
Plus these apps are a lot of fun and really easy to download and use. Let me know what your favorite fitness and health smart phone applications are.
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I just wanted to take the time to add some background about last week's column regarding Lean Simplex by Musclewerks. I heavily researched this product, and I am also the author of the written content on the company's website, www.hansdrake.com. I decided to use that written content for my article in the Merced Sun-Star last week, with a little bit of reader-friendly rewriting. This is a product that I talk and write about because I believe in it. I am receiving no monetary compensation for sales of this product. I have worked with this company traveling the country to do in-store promotions for another of its products. I apologize for any confusion that this may have caused readers and appreciate the feedback.
Lunden Souza can be reached at lundensouza @gmail.com.
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