Do New Year healthy living vows leave your wallet looking off-colour? Could be time to give the well-being guru in your pocket a try. Today's phones and tablets are packed with great healthy living apps - and all for a lot less than a gym membership. |
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JUST DO IT!
It can be difficult to find time for exercise in today's hectic routines. These apps make it easy to get started - and come with lots of social features to help keep you encouraged. |
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FitFu
This hugely popular app is built around the conviction that 5 minutes of intense exercise twice a day is a lot better than none at all. And it uses every trick your iPhone has to offer to get you moving: motion detection counts sit-ups, push-ups, lunges and more. Motivation comes in the form of trophies, new exercises to be unlocked - and nudges from friends through social media. There's even a multi-coloured half-anteater, half-toucan to act as your personal trainer. |
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CrossFit Travel
Travel can seriously undermine fledgling fitness programmes. CrossFit Travel is designed to keep you on track, even when you're crammed into a cheap hotel room. An off-shoot of the popular Cross-Fit Android series, it allows you to compile a Workout of the Day from exercises like squats, pull-ups and push-ups, then track your progress with graphs and share with friends on Facebook™ and Twitter®. |
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Download app for £3.99 for:
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Download app for £1.28 for:
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RunKeeper
Running remains one of the simplest and most effective forms of exercise out there - and RunKeeper takes even the simplest jog to the shops to the next level. You can track and replay your progress on maps using your phone's GPS technology, monitor your speed and check how many calories you've burned. There's even the option to set your own soundtrack and include audio alerts to provide that bit of extra motivation. |
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My Fitness Friends
Getting fit doesn't have to be a lonely exercise. My Fitness Friends works with BlackBerry® Messenger so that you can share your progress with friends - and work together to design your exercise routines. There are 36 simple exercises to work from as you put together your perfect workout - and use it to inspire others. |
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Download your FREE app for:
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Download app for $3.99 (available for equivalent price in UK):
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BREATHE DEEPLY
With its roots in Indian meditation techniques, Yoga is a hugely popular tool for exercise and relaxation that may help with anxiety, depression, insomnia and the management of back pain. It's also the subject of some of the richest and most in-depth apps for tablets and phones. |
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All-in Yoga HD / All-in Yoga
All-in Yoga HD for iPad is the complete Yoga experience, immersing you in audio and video guides with a huge range of exercises and techniques for all levels. The app includes an interactive yoga magazine, plus session timers, yoga soundtracks, even live help and support from experts. The iPhone and Android versions lack some of these features but still offer a very complete introduction to Yoga. |
Download All-in Yoga HD for £2.99 for:
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Download All-in Yoga for £0.69 for:
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Download All-in Yoga for FREE for:
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Pocket Yoga
Start with a pre-loaded, 60-minute Yoga routine and then customise your own exercises with detailed info and explanations for each pose. Pocket Yoga also comes in a free trail version, which you can download first to see if Yoga really is your thing. |
Download app for $3.99 (available for equivalent price in UK):
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Yoga Coach
Easy, step-by-step Yoga training for beginners, with simple diagrams and animations. |
Download app for £1.00 for:
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HEALTHY EATING
Eating healthily shouldn't be about self-denial. Make the most of fresh, nutritious foods with these inspirational apps. |
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Healthy in a Hurry
Fresh from Eating Well magazine, Healthy in a Hurry comes with 200 quick and simple recipe ideas - and the option to buy more from within the app. Each comes with full nutritional information, and you can email a list of ingredients to whoever is doing the shopping. |
Download your FREE app for:
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Seasons
Seasons helps to ensure your food is as fresh as nature intended, with an exhaustive guide to what's currently in-season around the world. There's even a GPS-enabled guide to local farmers' markets to help steer you towards the freshest local produce. |
Download app for £1.49 for:
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In Season
Find the freshest and most nutritious foods available in the shops this month - and get some great ideas for healthy recipes to make the most of them. In Season shows the key dates for popular foods throughout the year. |
Download your FREE app for:
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BRINGING IT ALL TOGETHER
Balance your exercise with your eating habits through apps that keep track of both. |
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Burn and Eat
The genius of Burn and Eat lies in linking your body's inputs and outputs, using a record of the exercises you perform to calculate how many calories you can eat. It's a simple approach that promotes a healthy, balanced lifestyle. The 'sports' stretch from running and cycling to mowing the lawn and vacuuming - and you'll be surprised how many calories you can get through just by doing chores. |
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Daily Burn
One of the most comprehensive fitness and nutrition apps imaginable, Daily Burn includes nutritional information for over 350,00 foods, along with a wealth of training plans and exercise guides. It links to an online fitness community, complete with trainers ready to offer advice - and there's even a Food Scanner add-on to provide instant info on the foods you encounter in the supermarket. |
Download app for £0.69 for:
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Download your FREE app for:
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CHECK THE RESULTS
Heart rate monitors are an ingenious use of phone cameras - and a great way to keep track of your health. |
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Instant Heart Rate
Incredibly simple, incredibly clever. Instant Heart Rate uses your phone's camera to detect the pulses in your fingertip in a technique similar to that used by hospital equipment. Within seconds you'll have a real-time graph monitoring your heartbeat, plus a time-line recording changes in the rate and a stress level calculator. It's great for monitoring the effects of exercise - or just keeping an eye on how your heart is doing. |
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HeartRateMonitor Live
In a similar approach to instant Heart Rate, HeartRateMonitor Live uses your phone's camera to provide a simple heart rate reading. |
Download your FREE app for:
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Download your FREE app for:
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