Friday Five Apps/websites

Today I'm going to talk about five apps/websites that have been helpful with my fitness journey.

1. The first is Weight Watchers for tracking my food intake.  It's amazing how much mindless eating I did before I began tracking.  I still eat unhealthy things some times (pizza for dinner yesterday) but at least I do it knowingly and with intention.  Of course, weight watchers isn't the only app out there that will let you do this.  I have friends that use a free site called sparkpeople.com and they're very happy with it.

2.  The second is Runkeeper for tracking my running.  It's a free app though you can upgrade to the paid version.  I'm still using the free version though I may upgrade at some point.  The free version allows you to use your phone to track your running as far as miles and pace.  You can also dig deeper to see splits and elevation on your runs.  It allows you to put in intervals for your run and it has training plans available as well.  Some of the training plans are free and some have a cost.  But this is a great way to track progress.

My first runkeeper entry

3.  Next, I love my fitbit!  There is an initial investment as you have to buy the fitbit.  The fitbit syncs wirelessly with your mobile device and you can see your steps for the day.  Some models also track things like stairs or sleep as well.  This allows me to see how active my day is outside of exercise.  I try to get at least 5000 steps per day with just my daily activities, so I take extra walks at work, park further, etc.  My overall goal is 10000 steps a day which I generally make on days I run but struggle with on other days.  You can link up with friends and see who's winning on number of steps so it has a social element as well.

Almost hit the goal this day!

4. This is a new one for me so I'm not sure yet how I'll like it.  It's Fitocracy and it's an app which makes fitness into a game.  You get points and can level up for logging activities that you've done.  You can also engage in challenges, earn badges, etc.  The reason I joined is because I wanted a way to track my strength training activities, and this should work for that.

5.  Facebook doesn't technically have anything to do with fitness, but I find that a lot of people share interesting things on there, whether it's personal accomplishments, tips, motivations, or articles.  This definitely helps to keep me engaged and inspired!

Any apps/websites you would recommend?  I'd love to hear about it!