Five health and fitness apps for the new year

GLOBAL – With the Christmas festivities over, it’s time to put away the sherry and throw out those mince pies and start working at reducing that extra weight we’ve put on over the past few weeks. Saying and doing are two different things, though. We’re here to support you through this tough time, with some handy apps that will make the process a little easier to achieve. We’ve got five apps that you’ll want to load up to keep you on track, from Ovi Store.
2011 Resolution Reminder

Making a list of what you want to achieve in your fitness-filled year is the key to success. Without actually really writing it down, it’s all too easy to forget and pretend the six-pack you desire can wait until next year. It’ll never happen. 2011 Resolution Reminder has a really simple interface, pressing + Add resolution does exactly what you would expect. Once you’ve added a couple of things you want to take care of this year, you can now add reminders to them to help you not forget. Pressing the clock item next to one of the listed items lets you set a time and a day to remind you. You can choose every day, just one day a week or just on the weekends, so you’ve got the flexibility to choose when it’s convenient to do that task. Find yourself one week in and feeling proud that you’re sticking to the resolutions? Hit the Share on Facebook button to tell all your friends about it.

Speedhero Football Lite

Kicking a ball with your friends in a park on a Sunday morning is a fun way to burn off some of those unwanted calories. So is just kicking a football as hard as you can. Install Speedhero Football Lite, place your phone on the ground a few feet away from the ball and give yourself a long run up to the ball. Run to the ball and give it the biggest kick you’ve got and this app will give you the top speed of your shot*. Using sound recognition technology, this app listens to the speed of the ball, or more accurately, the sound of the thump as your foot hits it. Clever stuff. This free version offers you ten hits and if you want to continue using it you’ll need to purchase the full version; Speedhero Magical Games, for £8.00.

*Please don’t try this indoors, outdoor use is essential.
Wellness Diary

Having a diary to keep track of your eating habits and exercise routines is a must if you’re to ever truly beat the bulge. Wellness Diary keeps a record of your height, weight, BMI and the types of food you eat in any given day. Most of it you have to manually update, as there’s no way an app can know what you’ve eaten otherwise. The steps counter is something I found useful, as I’ve no idea how many steps I take in a day, apparently the average should be 10,000. Knowing I now take about half of that, generously, leaves me with the desire to walk more. And with it being the easiest type of exercise, we’re sure you would like to start your training-regime with something as simple as walking.

The Vitamin Widget

If you’re trying to cut back on the sweets and want to start eating more fruits or vegetables, you’d probably like to know what are the benefits. This app is a database of most of the common fruit and veg you’re going to see in the supermarket and gives you details on what vitamins they contain. Really quite useful if your trying to control the intake of certain vitamins such as vitamin C, it is flu season after all. The smoothie section of the app is a good little add-on, as it tells you how mix your favourite fruits into near-liquid form for easy consumption. You can even share and upload you own recipes, but you’ll need to create an account for that, which is free.
Sports Tracker

If taking to the streets with running, cycling or roller skating is your thing, Sports Tracker is a great way of logging your workout. Create your profile, select the New workout option and you’ll be taken to the workout page. It’s here you’ll see the clever bits, like distance you’ve travelled, your pace and even a map of your route using the built in GPS on your phone. If you’re fortunate enough to own the Sports Tracker heart rate transmitter, you’ll even be able to keep an eye on your heart rate on the phone while your doing your exercise. Workout complete, you can upload all the training session’s details to the Sports-Tracker.com server or even your friends on Facebook.