SmartPhone Addicts Anonymous

According to my mother, I am addicted to technology.  She bases this ‘clinical’ diagnosis on the following observations:   my smartphone is never more than 24 inches away from me, it takes every ounce of willpower I have to refrain from grabbing the phone and immediately responding when I hear the chirp that announces that I have a new email or text (for some reason she finds it rude if I would do this during dinner out at a restaurant:), that on quite a few occasions when asked a question my nephew has responded with “Aunt Carrie will just google it,” and the fact that I consider it pure torture to have to sit and watch a television show without playing on my ipad or phone at the same time. I, however, consider all of these practices completely normal and justify them as the evolutionary survival tactics of the modern professional woman- aka multitasking at its finest.

I will not ask you to choose a side between my mother and I (because the truth is she almost always is right 99% of the time), but I thought I would share a few of the  tools/apps/websites that Lexy and I love.

-         Pinterest: I have to be honest and admit that I was a late addition to the pinterest bandwagon.  People would describe it to me and I would think, “really? Why would I want a ‘virtual’ bulletin board to ‘pin’ things to? Doesn’t my internet browser already have a bookmark function?” However, Lexy convinced me to try it and I love it.  I am always looking for new recipes to try, and there is no easier way to collect them all in one location then to “pin” it to my board.  Then when I am trying to decide on something I want to make, I simply go to my pinterest boards and find something that sounds good- one click and it directs me back to the website where I originally found the recipe.  I also pin tons of motivational quotes or things that inspire me. If you want to check out our pinterest boards, here are the links: http://pinterest.com/carrie213 and http://pinterest.com/lexylily

-         Twitter: My favorite thing about twitter is it connects me with some of my favorite health or fitness people and the interesting articles that they post. Free to follow Lexy (@lexylily) or I (@lexrouse) on twitter or to browse the list of people that we follow.

-         Running Log: I use the free edition of this app on my iPad and I love it.  After every run I add in my mileage and time so that I can keep track of how many miles I have run by week/month/year.  My goal for 2012 is 800 miles and according to my handy dandy app, as of this morning I am at 288.81. What I like about this app is that the information is displayed in calendar format and there are a ton of different symbols that you can use to notate the type of run (for example H=Hill, IT=Interval training, Tr=Treadmill), whether it was a group run, and also where you can notate what effort level the run was on a scale of 1-10.

-         Myfitnesspal: this is the website/app that both of us use to track our calories/nutrition/weight.  I stopped using Weight Watchers e-tools awhile ago and switched to myfitnesspal, because I wanted to make sure that I was tracking more than just points- I wanted to have an idea of how many calories and other nutrients I was eating and also to track the calories I burned through exercise.  The great part about myfitnesspal (besides the fact that there are millions of foods already entered in and also that you can add in/create your own recipes to get the nutrition facts) is that you can link your profile so that you can see what your friends are eating and others can see what you are eating.  That may sound a little intimidating or “stalkerish”, but actually I never look at people’s food diaries to monitor their calories- I look to get ideas for new things to eat, new healthy snack ideas, etc.  Many of you have asked Lexy and I what we eat every day, so if you are curious, here are the links to our myfitnesspal accounts: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/Carrie2139 and http://www.myfitnesspal.com/lexylily

-         Runkeeper:  This is a great GPS app to use when you are walking/running and you want to track your mileage/pace/etc.  All you do is start the app when you start your run/walk and then at whatever interval or time you set (I have mine set for every 5 minutes) and the app will interrupt your music and tell you your distance/pace/time. At the end of the run you can save the run (you will be able to view all of your runs on www.runkeeper.com; the site will show the route/elevation/etc of your route) and you can also choose to  post the run to facebook or twitter.   

Paprika is great- it is pricy for an app at $4.99, but it is WELL WORTH IT

-         Paprika: I love love love this app.  In fact, I love it so much that it probably deserves its own blog post/review, but I would feel too guilty writing about apps that I use or love and not including Paprika.  Basically, Paprika is this awesome app that has a browser built in- so when you surf the web or search for recipes and find one that you like, you can click “save recipe” and if it is one of the 100+ sites it recognizes it will immediately save the recipe into your recipe collection (picture, directions, ingredients, nutrition facts, etc!). No worries if you find a recipe on a site that is not recognized, all you do is highlight each different section of the recipe (i.e. click on the ingredients- hit copy) and then hit the word ingredients on the bottom of the page and save the recipe that way- you can also type in your own recipes.  The best part about this app- you pick which recipes you want to make from your recipe book, hit the little grocery cart icon and a grocery list will pop up of all of the ingredients from the recipe- then you delete which items you already have in your pantry and hit add- and automatically a grocery list is created for you, divided by food section (produce/dairy/meat etc).  I take my iPad with me to the grocery store and check off the foods as I put them in my cart (this is also helpful if I have to go to multiple stores- it is an easy way to keep track of what I have purchased and what I still have left to get).  And when I’m ready to cook there is no running around trying to find where my recipes are or what websites they were on- all I do is open my paprika app and they are all right there!

These are just a few of the ways that my technology addiction has helped in my health/weight loss journey! Let me know if you have any questions about any of the apps/websites- and also let us know if there are apps or websites that you guys use or love!