The new year is here. The ball dropped, and people cheered and made New Year’s resolutions. While our goals change ranks every year—saving money leads the 2017 pack—the same ones almost always appear: spend less and save more, live life to the fullest, stay healthy and fit, lose weight, and spend more time with family and friends.
Unfortunately, people often start the year strong but fizzle out by mid-March. Not you, however. Your resolutions will stay fresh because you have health and fitness apps that will keep you on track with your goals all year round. Here are twenty-five apps that will help you keep your fitness, health, mental wellness, food and diet, and safety resolutions. We’ve also called out five apps as Safewise’s Top Safety Picks.
Fitness Apps
Regardless of where you are on your fitness journey, one of the apps below will keep you motivated all year long. These apps cater to a variety of fitness activities, so one is sure to match your fitness level and preferences, keeping you safe and injury-free.
Couch to 5K
Available on iTunes and Google Play
Couch to 5K (C25K) makes it simple to get ready for your first race. The nine-week series includes three weekly workouts to prime your legs and lungs for action.
Unique Feature: You can share progress with the online community and review personalized analytics.
SafeWise Top Safety Pick: We chose C25K because it ensures your safety and well-being. You gradually progress toward running three miles, rather than strapping on shoes, hitting the pavement, and scraping a knee or getting shin splints. And since you’re running the miles, you might as well record them with a quality fitness tracker.
Charity Miles
Available on iTunes and Google Play
Charity Miles lets others benefit while you exercise. You select your favorite nonprofit organization, and miles you walk, run, or cycle turn into donated dollars.
Unique Feature: Charity Miles partners with nonprofits like Feeding America and Habitat for Humanity. You can earn money for your favorite cause without worrying about misappropriated funds.
Strava Running and Cycling
Available on iTunes and Google Play
This app uses your competitive nature to boost your fitness level. Depending on what you prefer, you can compete with yourself or others.
Unique Feature: Strava tracks all sorts of information, from distance and elevation to heart rate and calories burned. The app compiles the data in easy-to-use and understandable graphics.
Sworkit
Available on iTunes and Google Play
If you want an app that delivers different kinds of workouts, Sworkit is for you. You can choose from cardio, strength training, yoga, and stretching programs.
Unique Feature: Sworkit fits into your schedule. If you have only five minutes to spare, Sworkit offers a workout that will get your quads burning in three.
Daily Yoga
Available on iTunes and Google Play
Yoga is for everyone, from MMA fans to runners. It limbers and tones muscles to prevent injuries and make you a leaner fitness machine. Daily Yoga offers a variety of classes as well as detailed instructions about poses.
Unique Feature: You can forget about grainy YouTube videos. Daily Yoga records its classes in HD.
Health Apps
To keep track of annual medical appointments and prescriptions, draw upon one of these five health apps. Some monitor overall health, while others focus on specific needs, such as diabetes, sleep care, and medical emergencies. Because many of the apps monitor prescriptions and medical conditions, you can use them to avoid allergic reactions and unwanted side effects.
First Aid by American Red Cross
Available on iTunes and Google Play
When an accident happens, it can be easy to forget your first aid training. The American Red Cross’s app makes sure you’re always prepared for skinned knees, broken bones, and asthma attacks.
Unique Feature: The American Red Cross preloads all its safety-related content upon installation, so you’ll always know what to do even if cellular coverage drops.
SafeWise Top Safety Pick: Our choice is the American Red Cross. Taking the app wherever you go helps keep you and your companions safe. Pair it with a first aid kit to be as prepared as possible.
MyChart
Available on iTunes and Google Play
MyChart turns your phone into a mobile medical record. You can log in at any time to see if your vaccinations are up to date or if it’s time to schedule an appointment with your primary care provider.
Unique Feature: Many physicians and clinics use MyChart to stay in touch with patients and improve health outcomes. You can use this app knowing that medical professionals vouch for it.
OneRx
Available on iTunes and Google Play
OneRx has one objective: to keep you healthy without breaking your budget. OneRx compares prescription drug prices and directs you to the pharmacy with the lowest-priced offering.
Unique Feature: OneRx benefits people with and without insurance, finding coupons that work with co-pays and pharmacies.
Sugar Sense
Available on iTunes and Google Play
Sugar Sense allows diabetics and pre-diabetics to track their glucose levels throughout the day. Users can look at blood sugar averages over a week, a month, or the last ninety days and see how the numbers impact their H1C.
Unique Feature: Sugar Sense syncs with some fitness trackers, allowing users to monitor how physical activity affects their glucose levels.
SleepBot
Available on iTunes and Google Play
SleepBot watches over your sleep via a motion tracker and sound recorder. It identifies deficits and potential solutions to things that interrupt your rest.
Unique Feature: SleepBot features a smart alarm that rings during a light-sleep cycle, ensuring you wake up refreshed and recharged.
Mental Health Apps
Mental health includes relaxation and well-being, and helps you lead a fuller, safer, and happier life. Many of these apps will alleviate stress and anxiety at home, work, and anywhere in between. Those positive effects add up: when you’re stress-free and sleeping well, you won’t nod off in meetings or during your daily commute.
Headspace
Available on iTunes and Google Play
Headspace seeks to improve your focus and overall well-being through mindfulness exercises and meditation. It is a favorite on iTunes and Google Play.
Unique Feature: Besides regular meditation exercises, Headspace provides two-minute SOS exercises meant to calm the stormiest head and heart.
SafeWise Top Safety Pick: We like Headspace because you can use it anytime, anywhere. When you’ve had a frustrating day at work, you can go through an SOS before heading home. It clears your head and keeps your mind on the road rather than the workplace.
Deep Sleep with Andrew Johnson
Available on iTunes and Google Play
You should pair the SleepBot app, which identifies sleep deficits, with Deep Sleep. Andrew Johnson walks users through evening meditations, lulling them to sleep.
Unique Feature: You can customize Deep Sleep to match your unique sleep patterns and needs.
Talkspace
Available on iTunes and Google Play
After a free consultation, this app grants you with unlimited and on-demand access to counselors and licensed therapists. You can text a licensed professional any time anxiety, stress, or another strong emotion threatens to bowl you over.
Unique Feature: Talkspace also offers counseling services for couples.
Happify
Available on iTunes and Google Play
Happify acts as a sort of mood ring for your phone. You tell the app how you’re feeling, and it proffers a professionally curated list of activities that range from simple games to meditation exercises.
Unique Feature: Happify features games designed to boost positive emotions and combat negative thinking. You can track your progress, too, with in-app analytics.
Buddhify
Available on iTunes and Google Play
Buddhify incorporates elements of Happify and Headspace. When you first open the app, you see a color wheel listing common activities like waking up, waiting around, taking a work break, or going to sleep. You select an activity, then choose a guided meditation suited to the context.
Unique Feature: With Buddhify, you can go solo or meditate with a partner.
Food and Diet Apps
Exercise is good; exercise combined with healthy eating is better. When you attack your health and fitness resolutions from all angles, you reach a healthier lifestyle overall. These food apps assist with shopping for healthy ingredients—a sometimes confusing and time-intensive endeavor—and managing food and water intake. Some help with food allergies, too, preventing potential reactions and complications.
Fooducate
Available on iTunes and Google Play
Fooducate simplifies your shopping experience. You can use the app to scan barcodes and see nutritional information at a glance.
Unique Feature: If you opt for one of Fooducate’s premium versions, you will receive access to a range of diets, including allergy-specific, gluten-free, and Paleo.
SafeWise Top Safety Pick: Fooducate makes it simple to track your allergies and other food restrictions, which keeps you safe at home or when buying snacks on the go.
MyFitnessPal
Available on iTunes and Google Play
MyFitnessPal is a longstanding contender in the health and well-being market. It is primarily a calorie counter and food diary, helping you stay on track with diet goals.
Unique Feature: MyFitnessPal provides fitness programs designed for various activity levels and preferences. The app also offers suggestions for people wanting to lose, maintain, or gain weight.
Lose It!
Available on iTunes and Google Play
Lose It! is a weight loss app. It follows your diet and exercise regimen, helping you reach or maintain a healthy weight.
Unique Feature: Lose It! now includes Snap It, a food-diary tool that lets you take pictures of the food you’re eating. The app then figures out the calories, fat, protein, sugar, and carbs.
Yummly
Available on iTunes and Google Play
This is a must-have app for people with food allergies and dietary restrictions. It simplifies finding allergy-free recipes to ensure health and safety.
Unique Feature: Yummly not only discovers recipes, but also adds the ingredients to your shopping list. It even categorizes them so that you don’t wander aimlessly around the store.
WaterBalance
Available on iTunes and Google Play
WaterBalance customizes to your unique health profile. You enter your weight, age, and other personal information, and the app determines how much water you need every day to stay hydrated.
Unique Feature: The app is fun and easy to use. As you drink water, a digital silhouette fills from the tip of the toe to the top of the head.
Personal, Home, and Neighborhood Safety Apps
Safety might not show up on your list of 2017 resolutions, but it plays a part in living life to the fullest. When you feel safe, you’re happier and healthier because you aren’t worried about yourself, your kids, or your neighborhood.
Nextdoor
Available on iTunes and Google Play
Nextdoor creates a private, secure network for your neighborhood. Neighbors can use the app to share information about flooded roads, power outages, and neighborhood watch groups.
Unique Feature: Neighbors become friends through Nextdoor as they share information about lost pets, top babysitters, and weekend barbecues.
SafeWise Top Safety Pick: Nextdoor combines safety with camaraderie. Plus it introduces you to neighbors who can watch your home or pet the next time you go on vacation.
bSafe
Available on iTunes and Google Play
bSafe allows you to create a network of “guardians” who can follow your activity via GPS. If you are in danger, you press the emergency alarm, and the app automatically notifies your guardians and begins recording audio and video.
Unique Feature: bSafe includes a timer, which proves useful when you want to go for a run or bike ride without your phone. The app issues a message to guardians if you fail to make it back within the set time period.
OnWatch
Available on iTunes and Google Play
OnWatch acts similarly to bSafe, but with an added bonus: it has the ability to call campus police. This app is perfect for students, professors, or staff with evening schedules or daily walks to the commuter lot.
Unique Feature: OnWatch also has a timer. However, it first sends you an alert. If you fail to respond to it, the app contacts your emergency network.
Family & Friends Locator
Available on iTunes and Google Play
Family & Friends Locator lets you monitor kids, friends, roommates, or coworkers without having to send a text asking, where are you?
Unique Feature: In addition to basic GPS tracking, you can create safe zones for home, work, and school. The app also features group messaging, which comes in handy when you’re visiting a theme park or attending a conference.
Presence
Available on iTunes and Google Play
Presence turns old smartphones and other devices into home security networks. If the devices detect motion inside the home, the Presence app sends you an alert.
Unique Feature: You can add other users to the Presence network. If you go out of town, they can monitor your home and respond to any alarms that sound.
With the twenty-five health and fitness apps listed here, you can stay healthy, fit, and safe in 2017. Now, head to iTunes or Google Play. You have apps to download and resolutions to keep.
*SafeWise has conducted impartial research to recommend apps. This is not a guarantee. Each individual’s unique needs should be considered when deciding on chosen apps.
