Health and Psychology

There are many helpful applications for the iPhone, iPad, and Mac that can help with weight loss.  There are a couple of strategies that health psychologists suggest to assist people wanting to lose weight.

STRATEGIES

1.  Don't think of weight loss as a diet.  Think of it as a permanent lifestyle change.  

2.  Keep track of what you eat.  

3.  Eat deliberately.  Don't just eat mindlessly on the couch while watching your favorite netflix movie.

4.  Serve yourself portions, don't just eat out of the bag.

5.  Track exercise by time and distance or repetitions and activity.

6.  Do an exercise activity you like.

7.  Build in non-food reinforcements or establish a social support network to help you stay on track and stay motivated.

8.  Keep foods you don't want to be eating out of the house or out of sight.

APPLICATIONS (FREE)

1.  LoseIt--helps track both food and exercise.  Allows scanning of barcodes for calories.  Has lists of common restaurant items.  Allows weight loss tracking.

2.  Fooducate-provides letter grades for foods from scanned barcodes or common food names.  Allows you to make more healthy choices and become educated about food ingredients.

3.  Jillian Michaels Slim-Down Solution-has videos about specific types of exercise.  It has a chat feature if you register.  It provides recipes, and a journal.

4.  iScale-with the actual scale purchased separately-allows for a bluetooth connection between the scale and the application to track food intake and exercise as well as weight.

5.  MapMyRun-uses GPS to track routes, workouts and connect with others.  Has information on nutrition.

6.  WorkoutPlan-provides information on specific exercises and allows you to keep track of exercise routines.  Prompts exercise with notices you are due to exercise.

7.  MyFitnessPal-Allows a diary, searchable food lists, easily repeat menu logs, a barcode scanner, a way to track weight loss, and a connection to friends.

8.  Heart rate-allows you to measure your heart rate through the cell phone camera.

9.  iHealth-blood pressure monitoring-with actual blood pressure cuff sold separately-allows for a bluetooth connection between the blood pressure monitor and the application.  Allows you to track results and forward them to a physician.

10.  MedsLog Light-allows you to track medications and keep a data base.  Information can be exported as email.

11. Diabetes App Lite-allows you to track and log carb intake, glucose, water consumption, and weight on the calendar.  Log glucose levels and monitor injections.

12.  RunKeeper-use GPS to track runs, walks, ski runs, and bike rides and listen to music and take pictures.  Allows interaction with others.  Can track heart rate.  Integrates with other paid applications.

13.  Nike training club-allows specific workout instructions and audio support, plays music, can share results.

14. C25K-allows you to train from couch potato to 5 K runner.  Helps to slowly build strength and stamina.

15.  Healthy Diet & Grocery-allows bar codes to be scanned and deciphered into a 1-100 rating scale coded by color with green being best for your diet.

As always before attempting to change your diet or exercise level you should consult with your physician to be sure the exercise you are planning is something you can do safely, and check with your physician or dietitian to make sure the nutrition goals and weight loss or weight gain goals are appropriate. 

If you are struggling to lose weight or consistently exercise we can help.  Feel free to contact us.