January brings a new year and a new chance to dedicate ourselves to living a healthy and active lifestyle. As truck drivers, you spend most of your year on the road with not much time to think about going to a gym or grocery shopping. Luckily we live in the age of smartphones and tablets. There are hundreds of health and fitness apps that can help you meet your health and fitness goals easier by doing most the work for you. No, the apps won’t lift the weights or eat your spinach for you, but they can cut down the time you need to research and manually track your food and exercise. Apps are constantly changing and some can cost a lot of money, but here are 11 of the best apps of 2015 for under $1 that can help you meet your health and fitness goals in the new year.
Endomondo – FREE
Endomondo is a free app for both Android and iPhone users that allows you to track routes, record stats and share your workouts with your friends. The app can track almost every distance-related activity, such as walking, running, and cycling, and view duration, speed, distance, and calories. You can get audio feedback of the workout at regular intervals and it can track your heart rate if you have a compatible heart rate monitor. To keep yourself motivated towards reaching your health and fitness goals, you can share results and workouts on Facebook with your friends. Endomondo does offer a premium version for $2.50 a month that gives you additional benefits, such as a personal training plan and weather information in your workout summary.
Lose It – FREE
Lose It is a weight loss app that aims to help you create a daily calorie budget, track your food and exercise, and connects to multiple devices and social media accounts. The Lose it app has thousands of foods in its food database and a barcode scanner to make track your calories easy. It not only tracks calories, but nutrients such as protein, carbs and fat content. Lose It connects with devices such as the Nike FuelBand and Fitbit One for more accurate tracking. Lose it offers a premium subscription for $39.99 a year that allows you extra benefits such as challenges and additional tracking measurements.
Pact – FREE
The Pact app is available for both Android and iPhone users. There are some people that value money as incentive to stay motivated. Pact allows users to pledge a set number of days they plan to work out that week along with an amount of money. The user gets paid every time they workout, but if the user misses a workout, they must pay. For example, you pledge to work out 3 days in one week and put $12.00 into the pot. If you work out 2 days then you get paid $8, but since you missed one workout, you have to pay $4. It’s kind of like playing poker, but in a healthy way. Pact now offers a veggie challenge to encourage you to eat more fruits and vegetables too!
HealthyOut – FREE
As truckers, many of your meals are spent on the road. Finding healthy food options can be difficult, but this Android and iPhone app can help you find healthy options on the road easier. The app allows you to enter a street address or use your phone’s GPS and select either delivery, pickup or dine out options. It will then find restaurants nearby. You can then filter out choices by applying filters such as low fat, vegetarian, or many others.
Sleep Cycle - $0.99
The sleep cycle app is available through Google Play or iTunes for $0.99. The app is described as an “intelligent alarm clock that analyzes your sleep and wakes you in the lightest sleep phase.” You place your phone (while plugged into its charger because it will run out of battery) under your pillow as you sleep and the app will monitor your movement during sleep using the accelerometer in your smartphone. Based on your sleep movements, the app will find the optimal time to wake you up during a 30 minutes window that ends at your set alarm time so you won’t be late for work either!
iTriage Health – FREE
iTriage is a large healthcare and medical database that was created by two ER doctors and reviewed by the Harvard Medical School. The app allows you to search by health-related symptoms, learn about the potential causes and help you determine the most appropriate treatment for the condition. The app will also help you search for any doctor, and nearest healthcare facility or hospital in case you need to seek medical care while on the road.
MyFitnessPal – FREE
MyFitnessPal is one of the oldest and most popular fitness apps available for smartphones. It is one of the best all-in-one calorie counter, food tracker, and exercise tracker for both iPhones and Androids. The app has a very robust food and nutrition database, barcode scanner, and allows you to track both cardio and strength training. You can also connect with friends via the app to keep you motivated to reach your customized goals based on the data you inputted into the app.
Drugs.com – FREE
Drugs.com is a free app for both Android and iPhone users that provides you with accurate and valuable information about medications. Through this app, you can personalize your own drug list to keep track of what medications you’re taking and also receive relevant medical information about each medication and potential side effects and drug interactions. The app has a pill identifier where you can identify any meds by simply entering the imprint, shape and color. The app is great if you take multiple medications and need help keeping track of them while on the road.
FitnessFast - $0.99
The FitnessFast app is available only through iTunes for $0.99. The app not only allows you to track your workouts in one place, but it contains an exercise library with instructions and animations. The app has a pre-built workout library or you can create your own custom workouts. The app has a built in set and rest timer and allows you to track your progress. Data can be exported to your computer and you can share workouts and connect with your friends on Facebook and Twitter.
Headspace – FREE
Headspace is a free meditation app for Android and iPhone users. The app offers its Take10 program, or its level one program, for free. The Take10 program teaches you the basics of meditation in just under 10 minutes a day to help you reduce stress and anxiety. If you benefit from the free program then there is a paid subscription for other programs. The app has received high praise from the New York Times and Wired.
Rolling Strong – FREE
The Rolling Strong app is available only through iTunes and is designed to help professional truck drivers with the health and fitness goals. You can access your health database on the road and find the nearest clinic locations, health check stations and coaching sessions. You will have access to the Rolling Strong wellness newsletter and it even has a built-in pedometer.
Technology can be a headache at times, but it can also help you reach your health and fitness goals. Try out a few apps and see if they can help you become a healthier you in the new year!
What apps do you use?