By Dr. Jen Newell, ND

Health support is available at our fingertips these days. If you want to lose weight, get in shape, track your diet or your menstrual cycle there’s an app for that! Fitness apps have revolutionized how we get fit and connect with those that motivate us to keep striving for our personal goals. Below are 3 of my favourite fitness apps:

MyFitnessPal

This is a free diet and activity tracker app that I regularly recommend to patients and friends. This app is incredibly easy to use and is customizable based on age, gender, activity level and goals. It also provides a realistic and healthy time frame in which you can reasonably expect to reach those goals. This app offers access to an astounding database of foods and ingredients so you can track each meal to ensure you are making good nutrition choices based on your goals.

Nike Training Club

I love this app for quick and efficient workouts. It offers a wide variety of workouts for all levels and has great videos demonstrating the exercises. The workouts range from 15-45 minutes so you can fit in a quick workout or get your butt kicked by a longer one. What I particularly love about this app is that you can sync the workout to your own music rather than listening to something that may not motivate you. Nike Training Club is basically a free personal trainer on your phone!

Fleetly

Fleetly is a free app that aims to turn your workouts into a game. Users earn rewards (medals) for completing workouts while the app keeps track of calories burned, body type, body mass and workout style. You can also join challenges to reach certain goals and allows you to compete against other users (and friends J). I like that this app allows you to customize a workout for your individual needs rather than simply relying on pre-created programs.

Dr. Jen Newell is passionate about helping people embrace health, feel amazing and easily incorporate “real” food into their busy lives. Her mission is to make health accessible and achievable, and to inspire patients to live an active, vibrant and healthy life.

Jen has a clinical focus on digestive health, food sensitivities and healthy nutrition; mental health and stress-related illness; women’s health, hormone balance and fertility; optimal aging; and dermatology. She focuses on integrating healthy foods into one’s diet in a medicinal and therapeutic capacity and providing individuals with nutritional support that is easy to incorporate into a busy day. Dr. Newell practices at the Integrative Health Institute in Downtown Toronto.

main image via Jason Howie via Compfight