Top Ten Tools to Be Healthier

Organize for Success® Turns 10 

In honor of 10 years of business for Organize for Success®, I will be posting a "top 10" list to this blog each day through Wednesday, May 31st. Each Sunday, my team will randomly select from those who commented on the prior week's "top 10" blog posts for a gift card giveaway and free download of one eBook via OrganizeForSuccess.biz/shop The grand prize for celebrating Organize for Success, LLC's 10 years will be awarded on Thursday, June 1st, randomly selecting from all those who commented on any of the month's "top 10" blog posts as well as those who have subscribed to my eNewsletter for a winner to receive downloads of all 5 eBooks, a pass for my Stress and Time Management online video course as well as a 60-minute video productivity consultation.

Rising temperatures often encourage healthier habits. As this is Memorial Day, I thought you'd want some tech tools to make it easier to adopt healthier habits. Here are my top 10 such tools:

10. App to Suggest Healthy Recipes - The ShopWell app is a great place to start as it helps you better understand the nutrition in what foods you are already eating or evaluate a product you are interested in eating while at the grocery store. Fooducate offers healthy alternatives to foods you love and empowers you to achieve your goals with recipes to eat better. With Foodfully, track what food you have in the fridge and craft your meals around what is closest to spoiling. By using a Real Plans subscription, you can choose from recipes suggested for your family's size, schedule and preferences or import your own recipes. Through a gatheredtable subscription, you can create customized weekly meal plans from the healthy recipes provided to meet every taste or diet requirement; then, create your grocery list from the indicated ingredients and choose if you'd like to schedule delivery of the necessary groceries. Or be inspired with recipes on Allrecipes, BigOven, Epicurious, Food Network, Real Simple and Yummly.

9. App to Save on Supplies for Recipes - Flipp lets you easily browse flyers for the brands you prefer, clip whatever you want directly to your shopping list and highlight deals that will save you even more; based on advertised prices and coupons, you will know how much your total will be before even entering the store. Every time you shop, Wallaby tells you which of your credit cards will maximize rewards, minimize interest and take advantage of special bonuses; plus, this tool tracks your spending data, alerting you to suspicious activity or increased spending. Both Ibotta and Shopkick will reward you for shopping with cash or gift cards, and Slice Drops will securely access your e-receipts to automatically request a refund whenever the price drops for something you bought.

8. Grocery Delivery Service - Sometimes, a hurdle to eating healthier is getting out to buy fresh fruits, veggies and lean proteins. If you shop at Food Lion, Harris Teeter, Lowes Foods, Publix or Safeway, your local grocery store might already offer the option of home delivery. Yet, the options don't end there. If you are in a market that has launched with Shipt or Instacart, there are additional options; plus, many metro areas have added Amazon Prime Now service, where your groceries can be delivered for free within about 2 ours of placing your order if you are a Prime subscriber. Alternatively, consider a concierge service; here in Raleigh, choose from Errand Girl, Metro's Other Woman or Sweeps.

7. Hand & Stone Mobile - Whether to alleviate certain areas of discomfort or rejuvenate from everyday stresses, expert massage therapists offer a service that is of huge benefit when aiming to live a healthier life. With Hand & Stone Massage and Facial Spa's mobile app, you can find a spa, book an appointment or simply learn more about massage services, which include Swedish, Deep Tissue, Sports, Hot Stone, Trigger Point and Pre-Natal options.

6. Sleep Cycle or Pzizz - The Sleep Cycle alarm clock tracks your sleep patterns and wakes you up during your light sleep, which leads to awaking more naturally rested instead of waking during REM cycles. On the other hand, Pzizz allows you to fall asleep quickly, stay asleep more easily and wake up feeling refreshed.

5. App to Suggest Workouts - I'm a big fan of music so I like how Fit Radio pairs your workout to the perfect playlist for pace, goals and workout specifics. The Nike+ Training Club App lets you challenge yourself with 100+ workouts from Nike Trainers and athletes, including 15-minute options, so you can create the plan that works best for your needs. The Yoga Wake Up app delivers yoga audio sequences you can do from bed for an easier transition from sleep to be awake and alert. If you want to get started running, follow the Couch to 5K running plan to be ready for a 5K race within 2 months. If you already like to run or walk, Runkeeper provides a community with whom to set goals, track your workouts and stay motivated to see ongoing progress. Zova communicates with you as your personal trainer, combining all your workouts to five you a single score for staying on track to success. Additionally, there are plenty of subscription options you can access from anywhere via your mobile device. Tone It Up provides free, daily workouts and fitness tips. Aaptiv combines the motivating instruction of a personal trainer with playlists that match your preferences to keep you going. Pear Sports uses Performance Enhancing Audio Research to put a trusted voice in your ear that goes beyond tracking your workout data so you can make sense of your results, adjusting as needed for your goals. YogaGlo offers yoga and meditation classes online for all experience levels, styles, length of class, teacher preferences and interest.

4. Meditation App - The top-rated app for making mediation simpler is often Calm, which gives each day a keyword to fuel your meditations towards your goals for breathing, sleeping and boosting overall relaxation. The Headspace app teaches you to meditate in 10 minutes a day over a 10 day stretch. Then, designed by a team of Harvard psychologists and meditation experts, Simple Habit meditations are 5 minutes and personalized for all kinds of life situations, which more easily empowers continuing this new skill. Both the Buddhify and OMG I Can Meditate apps work cross-platform to provide meditation options for any location or experience, tracking your results each time your designated device is connected to the Internet. A subscription to the Gaia app lets you stream over 7,000 exclusive videos, all of which are designed to boost your consciousness. Finally, the suite of applications from Meditation Oasis offers various options designed to meet many different goals.

3. Workout App for Folks with Limited Time - Time is a very limited resource, and you might need to adjust your tools for getting moving based off the amount of time you have available. Seven offers short workouts that will dramatically improve your well-being using nothing more than a chair, a wall or your own body weight. Likewise, 7 Minute Workout Challenge app is another app designed with your busy life in mind, providing a different portfolio of workouts that provide results when you are short on time. Sworkit offers fitness options that match a wide variety of interests, including options that are as short as 7 minutes.

2. Sweat - The largest female fitness community offers resistance, cardio and recovery workouts to be done anytime and anywhere, like 28-minute workouts that fit into super-busy schedules. Plus, it offers meal plans with weekly shopping lists and provides healthier options for foods you like best. Choose from weekly, quarterly and package subscription options with a community to support you.

1. MyFitnessPal - This app offers a free calorie counter for tracking all that you eat. Coupled with a record of all your physical activity that shows how many calories are burned by each movement, it helps folks lose weight the good, old-fashioned, healthy way, burning more calories than consumed.

With which areas of your life do you struggle most to be healthy? What is your favorite tool to aid in your efforts at healthfulness? Are you going to try any of those listed here?