Recently, I was thinking about all of the ways that the web and my iPhone help me to stay “on track” and to practice what I preach when it comes to maintaining healthy habits. If you are challenging yourself to take on better habits, there are a lot of simple, fun, and free resources out there that you should know about. I use social media, food blogs, and a few iPhone apps every single day to stay inspired and motivated to try out new healthy foods and workouts.
Here are some of my favorites that I personally use and recommend that you give a try.
#1 Food Blogs
Many blogs have really simple ingredients, clear directions, and honest opinions. They are kind of like free healthy cookbooks that keep building and building!
I love checking out different food blogs because there are so many people out there who are really inventive and creative when it comes to new healthy recipes. Sometimes, I come across a recipe on a food blog that is so original and looks so good that I wonder to myself, “Why have I never thought of that before?” Just when I think I “don’t feel like cooking this week,” I come across a recipe on a food blog that sounds like exactly what I’m in the mood for and my mind changes very quickly.
I am always finding new great food blogs online, but there are a few that I usually check out every week. The great thing about “following” a food blog is that you get to see a person evolve and hear about their experiences firsthand. You tend to build some trust in them and take their word when they say that a recipe, product, or restaurant is great. Once you find a food blogger you like and share a similar taste in food with, you can use them as a great cooking resource.
I know that the bloggers I follow are just like me, ordinary women trying to cook simple healthy food, and not professionals, which makes me feel less intimidated about trying out their recipes. Because I know we like the same types of foods and tend to cook with the same staple ingredients, I can easily browse through their posts and find inspiration for what I want to cook next. The best part is, unlike a cookbook, food blogs are free inspiration and they are always evolving.
Don’t get me wrong, I love buying cookbooks. But there is something great about reading a post that was just published, maybe because it usually involves food that is seasonal and feels like something I am craving at that time, or because it’s cool to see what people are cooking and eating “in real time.”
Some of my favorite food blogs to follow are Ohsheglows, Nutritonstripped, and Deliciouslyella. There are tons out there though for all types of tastes, so look around a bit.
#2 Instagram and Pinterest
The reasons I like Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest are very similar to why I like food blogs. They are great visual pieces of healthy inspiration. There are so many health coaches, chefs, food bloggers, personal trainers, nutritionists, etc. who are on these social media outlets constantly offering up free advice and little tips all the time. That’s a pretty cool thing if you ask me.
When you start following healthy like-minded people in your area, you can check out where they are eating, what they are ordering, what recipes they have been making, and what healthy products they like. This is an easy way to get recommendations and inspiration from people you trust and have things in common with. Oh yeah, and again it’s totally free and always being updated!
Some of my favorites to follow are Jenny Sancouci, Ashley Neese, Tara Stiles, the food bloggers I mentioned above, and various chefs and restaurants in my area that I like, like Haven Kitchen and Hu Kitchen for example.
#3 My Fitness Pal
My Fitness Pal is a website and mobile app that acts as a virtual food diary. You use the website and app by signing up for a free account and entering in all of your unique information such as gender, height, weight, etc. The app then gives you a customized recommendation for how many calories you should eat every day, as well as all other nutrients to aim for (carbs, fats, etc.). You can enter the food that you eat every day into your profile and the app will track your progress.
I don’t think it is necessary to track your calories obsessively every day, but this app can serve as a great wake up call. Maybe you have no idea how many calories you are currently taking in on an average day or what appropriate portions are for foods that you eat frequently. Using an online food diary like this could be a very valuable eye opener for you.
The fact that it is digital makes it pretty easy to use because you can search the website’s food database and easily select the things you are eating. For example, search generic things like “apple” or specific brands like “Trader Joe’s whole wheat bread.” There is also the option to enter in your workouts for each day, and the app will tell you how many calories you approximately burned and how this in-turn affects your calorie needs for that day.
The website/app is made to be a social sharing site, so you are able to share all of your progress and entries with friends, which can help you to keep each other on track. This can serve as great motivation, since you are holding yourself accountable each day and displaying to friends what you’ve been up to. I would highly encourage people who are trying to lose weight to try out a virtual food diary like this. Studies have shown they really do help people lose more weight.
I personally use the website most to enter in custom recipe information. The site allows you to generate and store custom recipe nutritional information by inputting each ingredient, how much you are using, and how many portions you want to make. It tells you the nutritional information for each serving of your custom recipe, which would otherwise be pretty hard to know. This can be very valuable if you are making a healthy homemade version of one of your favorite foods and want to do a side-by-side comparison of your healthy version vs. the original!
I love to think of a classic dish, say lasagna, and then play around with healthy alternative ingredients and enter in my own version of the recipe to see how the two compare.
#4 Endomondo
There are tons of great fitness iphone/android apps available to download on your phone for free that can really come in handy. The one that I personally use on my iPhone is Endomondo. This is a free app that tracks your workouts for you and reports back information like how long you worked out, how many calories you burned, your distance, etc. The app then stores all of your workout information in your “Personal History” so you can see how your workouts are progressing. If you have a heart-rate monitor or strap, you can easily link this to Endomondo and it will then have an even more accurate reading of your workouts that are based on your heart rate.
The app is meant to be a social sharing app, similar to My Fitness Pal. So you and friends can share your workout information with one another to keep each other motivated and hold everyone accountable.
I like using this app most when I go for walks or runs. Afterwards, it’s fun to see an image on a map of the route that I walked and to track things like how fast and how far I traveled. Sometimes I am just out and about walking around and doing errands and I will turn on the app, then when I head home and check my Endomondo, I am surprised to see I actually walked 4 or 5 miles that day and burned hundreds of calories without really even trying to. Its great motivation to do a little more each day, even things that aren’t thought of as traditional exercise.
Of course, it’s rewarding to go to the gym and track your workouts there, too, but for some reason I find it feels even better to do something fun or practical (like errands, cleaning etc.) and then see how this is actually good exercise, too. This tool can help you from getting bored with your workouts and will help push you even further when you do formal workout.
Those are my favorite ways to use the Internet and social apps to stay healthy, but there are so many ways out there, so look around and ask people what they use!
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