Whether it is giving up drink, cigarettes or any other habits you want to kick, it’s easy to make resolutions about staying healthy. What’s difficult is sticking to them.
Below are ten useful apps to help you sleep better, keep fit and cope with the most depressing month of the year.
Stay Fit
Pact
The Pact app, formerly named GymPact, pays users when they meet their fitness and diet targets and charges them when they don’t. The free app tracks a user’s progress, paying them between 50 cents and $5 a week. But watch out – for every activity you miss, a minimum of $5 is taken from your bank account to be distributed among other members.
The app connects to other fitness apps and gadgets such as Jawbone UP, Fitbit and MapMyFitness, allowing Pact to automatically keep track of what you’re doing. The app has a 92% success rate.
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Fitbit
The activity-tracking wristband can track real-time stats from the number of active minutes you’ve walked or ran. Users can access the data by touching a button on the left hand side of the screen or via an app on their Android-based smartphone or computer. The water-resistant watch is also the first-ever to include a small OLED screen, while another feature allows users to screen and keep track of calls on the move.
Fitbit Force, which has seven days of battery life, can also be integrated with other social fitness apps such as Map Muy fitness, Endomondo and Run Keeper. Users can earn achievement badges the more they work out.
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Sleep Well
Aura
The Aura is the latest smart sleep system from Withings that promises to help you fall asleep and wake up more naturally. The system has a sleep sensor, which slips underneath the mattress to check how users move, breath and also their heart rate. Another bedside device monitors noise pollution, room temperature and light levels in the bedroom.
The two sensors then send data to the smartphone app, allowing users to find out in detail how well they’re sleeping. The Aura, which is priced at $299 (£182), can also generate light and sound programmes, helping users drop off and wake up more naturally at any specific time.
SleepCycle app
If you cannot afford the Aura system and want to wake up refreshed and renewed, the SleepCycle app is one to consider. The $2 app is not only an alarm clock but also measures your sleep cycle by reacting to your movements. It then gradually wakes you up when you are in a lighter state of sleep, helping you awake feeling fresher rather than groggy. It also keeps a graph that shows you when you are in your deepest phases as well as logging the time you went to bed and woke up, how long you slept for and the quality of your night’s rest.
Give up Smoking
MyQuit Coach
Livestrong’s smoking app, which is available for the iOS, helps users ease off cigarettes gradually or quit the habit at once. The free app tracks how often you smoke and experience cravings hourly by counting cigarettes smoked, cravings felt and your budget as well as rewarding any milestones with badges. If users experience a craving, the app provides helpful facts and tips as well as connecting the user to supportive communities online.
Quit Pro
The free app, which launched a year ago for iOS, has helped more than 130,000 people stop smoking. Now available for the Android, the app allows users to share their progress with friends, monitoring how long a person has quit for or how much money has been saved. There are also 170 motivational quotes from health organisations, helping smokers stay on track.
Track money better
Mint
The personal finance app for iOS and Android syncs your bank details and other financial details together, showing you how much you spend in real-time. Once you set up your starter budget, based on three months of spending history, the app starts categorising your transactions, providing graphs to show you where their money is going. If you spend more than you’ve allotted, you can also set it up to receive an email or a text message.
Saved
The latest budgeting app for the iOS 7 and Android lets users set a budget and input what they spend. Saved then provides analytics via graphs or a calendar about your expenditure with no other complicated settings. Lentor, the team behind the app, said the app can work in multiple currencies, allowing users to track what they’re spending wherever they are.
Get smart
Duolingo app
The language tutorial app helps users learn a new language for free by adding mini games like experience points and images to help them learn and write down words. Dulingo offers courses for English, Spanish, French, German, Italian and Potuguese with more to come on the horizon.
DailyArt
The free app for Android and iOS sends users one painting everyday along with a description or anecdote, helping users familiarise themselves with masterpieces.
