2 Of The Best Apps You Just Gotta Have!

Jonny
Jun 13, 2018
4 min read

I'm a huge fan of fitness and food apps. Like most things, some are great and some are 'not so great'.

I believe the right app can greatly help and assist people's goals, hence I regularly use many for myself and my online and offline clients.

Consequently, here are 2 of my favourites that I consider to be the best of a large bunch.

(1) SMART WOD

I'll start with a superb timer.

Unsurprisingly, your app store is fully equipped with a ton to choose from but how do you know which one to go for?

For me, it's all about ease of use.

A common problem I've found with timer based apps are their user friendliness, or lack of.

Many are complicated and too time consuming, meaning you'll likely fiddle with it for 5 minutes, get bored, and resort back to your trusty timer already supplied by your phone.

However, this isn't the case with the SmartWOD app.

It already has four of the most popular methods of timing workouts programmed...

1. AMRAP (As Many Rounds As Possible)

2. For Time

3. EMOM (Every Minute On The Minute)

4. TABATA

These are particularly popular with those who like circuit based sessions such as bootcamp, HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) and CrossFit.

The interface is great too as it's large, easy to navigate and simple to follow.

In summary, you'll be hard pressed to find a better timer app that provides so much simplicity, yet is so effective at what it actually does.

(2) BEST FOOD APP - SHYE (SEE HOW YOU EAT)

It may be a surprise to you but I've actually chosen SHYE and not MyFItnessPal as my current favourite food app. Let me explain why...

MyFitnessPal is a great and quite possibly the most successful health and fitness app on the market today.

It offers so many functions that I used to use it night and day. I particularly became fond of the food scanning function which identifies the nutritional values of foods.

However, for me, this fondness didn't last long.

I ended up disliking the app for many reasons...

1. In the end, it became far too time consuming to continuously enter and/or scan the food I ate day after day.

2. There's a huge initial learning curve! It took me days to get into the flow of how it operates and most people just don't have that kinda time!

3. I actually ended up resenting food.

I found recording what I ate each day a hugely tedious chore. This was also true for some of my clients.

What's more, I didn't like the effect the app had on my own and my clients relationship with food.

Like me, people can end up resenting particular foods and simply not enjoy their meals. That's criminal, as food is a simple pleasure that should be enjoyed.

Now, believe it or not, I'm not a MyFItnessPal hater!

Far from it actually!

I think it's great for those who have the discipline, and can commit to such food plans.

I actually still recommend and use the app with some of my clients who I think can benefit from it.

However, I believe that there's better and more realistic alternatives for most 'everyday people'.

That's where the SHYE (See What You Eat) app comes in.

This app allows you to take pictures of your main meals and snacks throughout the course of the day.

This can be very effective at instilling better eating habits such as portion and food quality control.

By viewing what you eat and consciously taking a quick picture of your meals each day, this can help you...

1/ Be more aware of the exact foods you're eating

2/ Be more aware of how much you're eating

3/ Be more alert to eating good foods

4/ Be more aware of what foods you eat too much or too little of

5/ Track your food habits

6/ Stay accountable!

In summary, like most of the best apps on the market, the biggest success of SHYE simply comes down user friendliness and ease of use.

It's easy to input data/pics as it literally takes seconds.

It's easy to review, evaluate, track and compare exactly what and how much you ate.

I've found this type of food approach far easier to administer for myself and my clients. What's more, it's usually far more successful than that traditional form of counting calories (there's actually a 25% numerical error with this approach in any case).

With this being the case, what better way to track and see your progress than by following portion guidelines, and tracking this by taking relatively hassle free, and quick pics.

SHYE reigns supreme in this instance.