Are you searching for a way to track your health and fitness? With all the apps are the market it can be hard to find a good fit. It seems like every time I log onto the app store there are 10 new health and fitness apps. Sure, some of them have lots of fun bells and whistles that I want to try out- but I am a big fan of stick with what has worked for me over the years. Curious what apps I use the most to track my health and fitness? Well I am here to share my top 9 with you. 1) Health Health is available on iOS and it is probable my favorite app. This app tracks all kinds of health and fitness stats, and it collects the data from other apps you already use. Whenever I log a run with Nike Run Club- that information syncs to this app. The health app allows you to see all your stats from multiple sources in one convenient place. The Health app also revolves around 4 components of a healthy life style. Activity, Mindfulness, Nutrition, and Sleep. I really like that it has a mindfulness aspect to it, not many apps have that. Also- if you are looking for suggestions for different apps, the Health app has suggestions for other apps that might benefit you that can be integrated with the apps tracking system. 2)Road iD Road iD is an app that is a safety must have if you are an outdoor runner. Every time I go for an outdoor run, I will turn this app on. It has so many safety features I am not sure I can even list them all in one or two paragraphs. First, when you log onto the app, it will ask you how long you plan to run. You also can set it up to notify up to 5 people when you start running. When you choose that have your family contacted when you start running, they will get a text with a link. From that link they can live track your location. How cool is that? Not only will it allow your family members to track your location. If you stop moving for more that 5 minutes, it will automatically send them a message alerting them you might be in trouble. Remember how it asks how long you plan on running when you start? Well, the reason for this feature is, if you are out running longer than expected- again- it will automatically alert your family that you haven’t made it home yet. Now, I will admit, this is one feature that kind of annoys me, just because I never really know how long I plan to run. I typically set a default time of 1 hour. Once you are done with your run, just hit the finish button and it will send out messages to people on your contact list that you have finished your run. Just remember- Make sure when you finish your run that you finish it on the app. I can’t tell you how many times I have received phone calls from worried family members because I had been stationary for too long (You can change a sitting in the app where it will give you a warning tone at 3 minutes). 3) Walgreen's I don’t know about you, but I like to be rewarded for my healthy life style. Walgreens is a great app because you can use it for a lot of different things, but the reason it has made it to this list is because this app will sync with your apple watch (and possibly other smart watches) and will give you reward points for reaching your step goal. You can also receive reward points for other health tracking such as blood sugar checks, blood pressure, and sleep. Now, you don’t get very many points, but always earn 1000 ($1) each month just by having it automatically track my activity from my apple watch. Who doesn’t like free money? 4) Activity This is an app that automatically came with my apple watch. Honestly it isn’t the most useful app out there, but it does have some features that I really like. Namely, the stand feature, or better yet a reminder to stand feature. If you are like me you spend your day sitting at a desk. We all know that having a sedentary life style is really bad for your health. This app will notify me on my watch when I have been sitting too long. It gives me a little physical nudge to get up and move for about a minute. The other fun feature of this app is at the end of the day when you “close your circles”, the alert tone and face display make me feel very accomplished (Imagine a trumpet sounding a fan fair for getting all your steps in for the day). 5) Nike Run Club I haven’t been using Nike Run Club for very long. I just started using it right after I gave birth to Emmett. Honestly, I down loaded it because a lot of my friends were using it and I like how it showed on a map how hard you are working. What is really awesome about this app, even though it uses GPS to track your run when you are running out side. You can also use it to track indoor runs on treadmills. Do you know how hard it is to find an app that can do that and do it somewhat accurately? It is a little off when compared to the treadmill, but it is never off by more than a tenth of a mile- which is really good compared to other apps. I will warn you, and this is why it is kind low on my list of favorites- be prepared for some headaches with this app. I have had quite a bit of trouble with it crashing. With that being said, after their last update it seems to be doing better. 6) Healow Not everyone is going to be able to use this app or find it useful. However, this is an app that my doctor’s offices use. When I was pregnant this app was a god send! I could see when my next appointment was, the medications I was taking, my test results, notes from my doctor visits, vitals, pretty much anything involving my health. What I found really awesome is, a lot of times I would be able to see my test results and lab results the day before my doctor would call me with the results. Again- if your doctor uses this app or an app like it- HIGHLY recommend downloading it. 7) Map My Run This was my go-to running app. I have used it for years and years and years. It really is a tried and true app for tracking runs. However, you can’t really track indoor runs with this app. The one thing that I do like about this app, is the website that is associated with it. From the web site you can create running routes to get a pretty good estimate of where to run if you are aiming for a certain distance. 8) Health4Me This is a really good app to have, however, it won’t be beneficial to everyone. This is the app for my health insurance company. From this app I can check to see rather or not I have hit my deductible. I can view claims. I can even contact a nurse from the app if I needed too. However, since everyone has different health insurance companies it is pretty low on the list. But, if your insurance company has an app, I suggest downloading it because it really does come in handy. 9) P Tracker Alright ladies, I think we all know what this is. Not my favorite health and wellness app, but a necessary one none-the-less. I remember back in the day we used these little pocket calendars to track our period. But this app does a lot more than just track when your last period was. It also tracks the days you are fertile (if you are trying to have a baby). It also allows you to track a variety of symptoms often associated with hormone levels. Added bonus- I like watching the tree bloom throughout the month. So there you have it, My top 9 health and fitness apps. What are some your go to apps when it comes to health a fitness?
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I have wanted to write this post for quite some time. I have started writing this post on several occasions, hit the back-space button repeatedly. Hit the delete button after several full posts. Not willing myself to share this. Why? Because this post is about dealing with Generalized Anxiety Disorder. It is exposing my mental illness and shining a bright shinny spot light on a dark corner of my mind. I hate being vulnerable, showing weakness, and being the center of attention- which is what I feel this post is going to do. You see, I have struggled with anxiety for most my life. But I didn’t realize that not everyone had these constant thoughts of worry.
I thought everyone played conversations over and over in their head days afterwards wondering if they had said something wrong and made themselves look foolish. I thought everyone experienced a nauseating feeling when entering crowded rooms, I mean, everyone that wasn’t an extrovert. It wasn’t until I had a panic attack during a practical exam while in Occupational Therapy school that I realized that my level of anxiety wasn’t normal and that it was more of a problem than I realized. I did learn a valuable lesson through that experience. With the help of my instructors I learned how to get a handle on my anxiety. I found natural ways to reduce my anxiety. I developed coping mechanisms that allowed me to live a relatively normal life, medication free. These coping skills served me well for many years. I thought everything was grand and it was. Until I went back to school in 2017 for Exercise Science. Don’t get me wrong, I loved being back in school. I loved meeting new people. However, I thought I would be able to work full time while going to school full time, and make good grades. To top it all off, I was taking college algebra, anatomy and physiology, English Comp II, and Developmental Psych. All those classes demanded so much study and homework time that my coping mechanisms failed, but I didn’t even realize what was happening. I kept telling myself I was stressed, that I just needed the semester to be over and everything would be fine. I found myself exhausted, crying in the shower, crying myself to sleep. Praying that some catastrophe would happen so I could just stop stressing out about everything... It was until several months of complete and total misery that I realized, that my anxiety had led to straight up depression. It was awful and I was miserable, but it had gone on for so long that I didn’t even know how to reach out for help. I hide my depression from my husband, my friends and family. I don’t know if it was because I was ashamed or embarrassed to admit that I needed help, but for whatever reason, I battled the darkness alone in complete and utter misery for most of 2017. Towards the end of 2017 I was listening to a personal development book and it came to me that I was choosing to feel the way I did. I didn’t have to feel miserable, I could choose to focus on the good things in my life. I started practicing daily gratitude. I would say positive affirmations every morning. I rediscovered my coping mechanisms. I started to see the sun peeking through the clouds of my depression and things were looking brighter every day. I was beginning to feel like my old self again. Then, in late January 2018, I discovered I was pregnant. I thought the unexpected pregnancy would be the undoing of my newly found happiness. The first few weeks of my pregnancy was absolute hell. My husband didn’t take the news of pregnancy well, we were both in shock and neither of us were ready to be parents again. A week after I told him, went on a date- and it was the worst and best date I think we have ever been on. Everything that could go wrong, did. We got pulled over, the restaurant didn’t have the dish we ordered, Josh got really upset because it was just the icing on the cake after a really shitty week., I started crying in the middle of the restaurant, it was truly an awful date. But, as we drove home from that date, we had one of the best heart-to-heart talks we have ever had. I told him all about my depression. He was completely heartbroken that I kept it from him. He was devastated that I had kept it from him. I had no idea that it would affect him that way. I thought I was doing the right thing by keeping it from him. I didn’t want him to have to worry about me, but by keeping it from him, I had hurt him more than if I had just told him. I promised him that if I ever started to have problems again with anxiety or depression, I would tell him. For the most part, the rest of my pregnancy was nothing but happiness and joy. I chose to place my son up for adoption. I found the most absolutely best couple I could ever ask for, my sister and her wife. And the thought of bringing a new life into the world and helping a family grow brought a whole new purpose to my life. However, as my pregnancy come close and closer to an end, I worried more and more about the possibility of postpartum depression. I didn’t develop postpartum depression, but my anxiety reared its ugly head in totally new ways. In my entire life, my anxiety never quite got ahold of me like it did after birth. First it was over the complications at delivery. The constant researching trying to figure out what went wrong. Then it was my gallbladder not functioning. Then it was EVERY. LITTLE. THING. I didn’t even realize that I was starting to lose control. It was after picking my husband up from work one day that I was telling him that I was worried about going to a dinner because I was worried about my stomach acting up and what I was going to eat. Being the wonderful husband that he is, he picked up on this abnormal thought process I was having and causally mentioned, “You are over thinking this.” That simple phrase stopped my cycle of worry about this dinner and I thought, you’re right. I started to realize that perhaps my anxiety was starting to get out of control and that I should see a therapist so that I didn’t end up where I was in 2017, but I also hoped that it would just go away on its own. A couple of weeks later I realized that my anxiety wasn’t getting any better in fact it was getting worse. I would have cycling thoughts of worry. My mind would jump from one thing to worry about to another. The best way I can think to explain it is imagining five hamsters, each running on a separate wheel. Each rotation of the wheels would bring a new thought of worry. It made it damn near impossible to focus on anything when I had these constant running thoughts of worry. I would go into the grocery store and completely forget what I was there for. I felt nauseated all the time. My muscles would get so tense that it felt like the skin was breaking from the tension. I felt itchy, which has always been a symptom of my anxiety, though I never develop hives. Which makes me think I am crazy, which in turn causes me anxiety. I remember trying to sleep one night and I heard this strange humming noise. I thought it was my night stand light, and worried that it was going to cause an electrical fire. I called to schedule an appointment, and it was going to take three weeks before I could get in. Okay, no big deal, I can handle 3 more weeks... right? The weeks that followed were an absolute nightmare. I would get so tense that I didn’t feel as if I could even work out, for fear of getting an injury. I felt like my body was in a constant state of fight or flight. I would become so consumed with anxiety and worry that I would be paralyzed to the sofa. I went into a gas station, and when the clerk wasn’t behind the counter, my mind automatically went to the store was being robbed and the robbers were killing the clerk and when they found me. I was going to be next. I once broke down crying in the parking lot of my husband’s work because I thought I had missed his dinner break and that he was going to be mad (he wouldn’t have been). I ran out into traffic once because I failed to put the gas cap back on my car and I saw it laying in the middle of the road. I was completely exhausted all the time between the fight or flight feelings and the constant fidgeting. I discovered that my hands would get clammy when I entered stores or even really had to talk to people. As my husband puts it, I was bat shit crazy. After talking to my therapist, he suggested medication. Now, even though I have battled with anxiety for as long as I can remember, I never wanted to take medication for it. I always thought I could handle it on my own. However, the three weeks leading up to the appointment I really did feel like I was losing my mind. I told him I was willing to try anything to not feel this way anymore. Because, quite frankly, I didn’t think I could do it. He wrote me a prescription and let me tell you, I don’t know why I was so against taking medication in the first place. Things have been so much better now. Sure, I still have my bad days. Like the day that I was feeling super anxious and took my nervous energy out on our bath tub. Come to find out, our bathtub isn’t off white. It is a glaring blinding bright white that shocks your senses when you turn the bathroom light on. Our entire kitchen carpet got hand scrubbed one weekend because there were some stains that just wouldn’t come off with the shampooer. But I am not constantly in a state of fight or flight. The hamsters have died and their wheels are collecting cobwebs. My hands are so dry that I find myself reaching for lotion more often than a towel. Going into stores doesn’t send me into a near panic. And I have started working out again. It’s easy to get overwhelmed in life. You may think that you have everything under control. And sometimes you just need a little extra help and support. Even though the infamous date started out so completely awful, by telling my husband about my depression and how anxiety led to it, he was able to point out when I was starting to struggle again. I am so blessed to have him in my support system and beyond grateful that I decided to open up to him about my depression. He is my rock and keeps me sane when I feel like I am losing control. I am also grateful that I put my pride aside and admitted that sometimes my coping mechanisms fail and when that happens, it’s okay to ask for a little help, even if it comes from a pill. There is nothing wrong with admitting when you are struggling with mental illness and there is nothing wrong with putting a spot light on it and destroying the stigma that comes with mental illness. I hope that if you stumbled upon this post because you are struggling with mental illness that you read this story and realize that there is nothing wrong with asking for help. It can be a hard step to take but once you take that first step, it gets better. There is light at the end of the tunnel. |
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AuthorAmber Ames Archives
January 2019
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