World's Greatest Fitness and Weight-Loss Apps

Back in the old days, if you were really serious about losing weight you would have to get a food calorie dictionary and start keeping an old-fashioned pencil and paper list. If you wanted to keep track of your heart rate, you’d put your finger on your wrist or neck and attempt to take your pulse while running.

A lot has changed in the past 25 years. Heck, a lot has changed in the past 25 weeks. So, knowing there are a lot of other geeks out there, I decided to put together a list of some of the best apps around for nutrition and exercise.

Exercise:

Loops (Livestrong): Web : This app allows you to search for and create exercise loops wherever you happen to be. This app is especially good if you travel a lot to large cities and have no idea where to go for your daily walk or jog.

Target Heart Rate Calculator (American Cancer Society): Web : I recommend working out with a heart rate monitor to be sure you are keeping the right intensity level. This site will calculate your target heart rate for you.

Physioadvisor (iphone): This app helps you develop your work out program with common physical therapy exercises. You can search by numerous categories and body parts to help you develop a comprehensive program.

GPS Motion X (iphone): I used this one a lot before Susan bought me a new Garmin watch for our anniversary (I know, she is quite the romantic!). However, if you don't have a watch and are going to run with your iphone anyway, this app will give you your pace and a plethora of other workout tracking info, all while still playing your music. Obviously, though, this app is worthless if you have an ipod touch...unless you just run circles in a wifi hotspot.

Nutrition:

Calorie Tracker (Livestrong): Blackberry / iPhone / iPad: One of the problems with using a calorie tracker is the frustration with not having the foods you need to track. I have found the livestrong app to have a pretty comprehensive data base so that you can find just what you are looking for, or at least get pretty close.

Menu Planner (National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute): Web. This menu planner is only available online, but helps you plan your meals. There is a large variety of food options and serving sizes and calculates the number of calories for you. This one may be really good to help you pre-plan those dangerous holiday meals.

Text-2-Eat (Livestrong): Text messaging. This one is fun, and you don’t even need a smart phone! You just text a food you are considering (or just ate J) to 35242 and they will text you back with the item, calories, fat and protein.

If you want more ideas, I got most of these from an online story by MD Anderson. It has several other categories including kids nutrition and smoking cessation. So, follow this link and "app" to your healthy hearts content:

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Insanity Workout Chronicle: Week 1

With fear and trepidation, my wife Susan and I started the “Insanity” workout this past week. Insanity is a 2 month program led by trainer and former pro athlete, Shaun T. For the next 2 months I will be journaling through the program and give my thoughts on this popular home workout.

Insanity is quite a bit different from P90X* in that it is VERY heavy on the cardio and sport drills training. In fact, there is very little upper body resistance exercise, in my opinion, though my legs were definitely given a good workout. The set did come with a separate upper body weights workout, but it is not a part of the official “plan”.

The great thing about Insanity is that Shaun makes you dig deep to find another level of intensity and with each set he pushes you harder and harder. If you thought you could sit on a recumbent bike and casually read a book and lose weight, Shaun tries to coach you past that natural passive attitude and show you it is necessary to push yourself to succeed.

Prior to beginning Insanity, we did know that there was going to be a lot of jumping involved, so Susan and I purchased a couple of jump mats on Amazon, and I am pretty glad we did. This workout can be very hard on your joints and if actually done on a gym floor as shown on the video, month 3 would be the “Insanity Joint Replacement Recovery Series”.

If you are trying to use Insanity to lose weight, definitely utilize the meal plan as well. Since the workouts are a bit short, you will need to keep a strong focus on nutrition and perhaps add a few resistance workouts as well.

 *see previous post rating experience with P90x

Top PT Tips Part 2: Taking advantage of every moment: getting enough rest

Part 2 of the Top PT tips series is about getting enough rest. Ironically, I am writing this at about 9pm and my bed is calling my name after a very long day. I am truly exhausted, so I will stop rambling and get started. 

1. Sleep with a pillow between your knees- do this while sleeping on your side. It will keep your spine in a more neutral position and help you have a more restful night sleep.
2. Use a towel roll in your pillow- a pillow can cause your neck to crane upward when sleeping. It can be very effective to use a towel roll in the part of the pillow that fits under your neck. That way, the cervical spine can be supported, and the head can rest in a more neutral position. For some, a down or memory foam pillow can work better since it will conform to the curves in your head and neck.
3. Don’t go cheap on your mattress. If you are trying to save money, get a used car. Unless you are an over-the-road trucker or a salesman, odds are you will spend much more time on your mattress than in your vehicle. So, it is crucial to your well-being to invest wisely. Susan and I just ordered a new mattress that we are very excited about, although we have to wait six weeks to get it. When “trying on” mattresses at the store, we quickly realized how badly we needed a new bed. Our old one is 17 years old. Despite religious flips and turns every 3 months, eventually a mattress does not exert the same force on your body and will sag. This causes creep and strain on joints and ligaments over a long night. You wake up sore and tired because all night your body has been fighting gravity. So, look for a bed with a combination of proper support and one that conforms well to your body.
4. Get to bed early and get up early to do your work out. It’s such a timeless phrase that it is cliché, but Mr. Franklin said it best…. “Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man HEALTHY, wealthy and wise.” Getting to bed early so you can work out early will help you beat the million distractions and other priorities that prevent people from accomplishing their goals. I know for me that if I don’t get a work out in early in the morning, then it just won’t happen. If you want a critical transformation, than a good, hard, productive workout has to happen!  

Nightime for my toddlers can be a battle because they don’t want to miss anything. But we should be older and wiser and know that if we don’t get enough rest we won’t have the energy to fight the battle of the bulge. Be sure to take advantage of every moment of the day, whether your eyes are open or closed.

The Spiritual Warfare of Weight-Loss: A Christian Perspective

“The thief has come to steal, kill and destroy. But I have come that they might have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10:10)

Why is it so darn hard to lose weight? Once you lose it, why is it so hard to keep it off? While it is certainly true that many temporal factors such as self-control, chronic pain, medications, and genetics make weight-loss difficult, for those of us who are people of faith, we know that it can be a spiritual battle as well. Something we often forget is that we have an enemy. According to the Bible, this enemy seeks to “steal, kill and destroy.” If you think that the devil only seeks to utilize tools that are typically thought of to achieve his outcome, think again. He is going to attack wherever he thinks he can gain an advantage, as any impactful warrior would. With over 2/3 over-weight and 33% of American’s being obese, this has been a very effective weapon. (National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2003)

What does obesity steal?

ENERGY: What more could we do to impact the world for good if we had some? How many times do you avoid opportunities to serve because you are too tired or just can’t physically do the task?

BEAUTY: The devil loves nothing more than to steal this from us since he used to be the most beautiful of all God’s creations until he fell, according to the book of Ezekiel. To see that God has granted a bit of his image to mankind that we can carry on this legacy must really spur him to steal this from us.

HOPE: If we have given up control over our own body, what else will we give up on?  Many feel that being healthy is a lost cause.

INDEPENDENCE: Too often, as a PT, I have seen the end stages of obesity. Some have lost so much independence they become completely confined to a specialized hospital bed. Of course this is the worst case scenario. However, do you avoid flying on an airplane because you have to pay for two seats? Do you have to sacrifice the memory of roller coaster rides with your kids because you can't fit in the car? Do you avoid taking vacations or even trips to the mall because you can't walk reasonable distances? If you can't do things you want and should be able to do, this is a victory for the Enemy.

What does obesity kill?

Obesity related disease is one of the most common causes of death in the United States. Annually, obesity causes 112,000 excess deaths due to cardiovascular disease, 15,000 excess deaths due to cancer, and over 35,000 excess deaths due to other obesity related diseases in just the U.S. alone. (1)

What does obesity destroy?

MARRIAGES: While a study in the Journal of Biosocial Sciences did not find a significant link between divorce and factors related to health (other than high risk behaviors such as smoking and drinking); anecdotally, surveys reveal loss of physical attraction as significant. Divorce expert Gary Blanchard lists this as the number 3 cause of divorce behind “abusive relationship” and “lack of communication.”

FAMILIES: Sadly, without energy, hope, and independence, many eventually “check out” of their significant relationships. Speaking from experience, as a dad who was 50 pounds over-weight, it was much easier to collapse in the easy chair and give into the “tube” than to physically engage with my kids. This was one of the issues that turned me around. I finally refused to be “that” dad and husband.

Farther down the line, since obesity causes needless early death, how many children are left fatherless or motherless because of this preventable disease?

However, the good news is the conclusion to the Bible verse: “but I (Jesus) have come that they might have life, and have it to the full.” James 4:7 says, “If we submit to Christ and “resist” the devil, he will flee from you.”

The key is, submit and resist are verbs and require action on our part. When we realize that we have an enemy that wishes to steal, kill and destroy us, we will realize what a fight we are up against. Take up your swords and put down your forks! This is a battle we must win!

1. Flegal KM, Graubard BI, Williamson DF, et al. Cause-Specific Excess Deaths Associated With Underweight, Overweight, and Obesity. Journal of the American Medical Association. 2007; 298(17):2028–2037.
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