Health

Our fitness expert Sarah Robichaud has picked some of her favourite health and fitness apps to help give you a little boost in achieving your fitness goals.

Apps

Fitness Buddy

The fitness buddy is an app that has over a thousand easy to follow exercises and workout programs.You can click a part of the body that you find weak and want to work on, and the app provides you with exercises that target that specific area.

My Fitness Pal

My fitness pal is a really simple and comprehensive app that helps us track our calories in and calories out. It's the most convenient way to keep track of your food and exercise log. If you're a goal-oriented person, this app is for you. At the end of each day of logging, the app will tell you how many pounds you would lose or gain if you continued eating and exercising the same way for five weeks.

It also has an online forum, which is great for others' motivational stories, tips, tools, challenges and success stories. It gives you a complete nutritional breakdown including fat and sodium for the day, is simple to use, and can be synced with other fitness gadgets and apps.

Nike Training Club

Sarah uses this as her own personal trainer. This app provides you with numerous workout programs and the whole time you're cheered on and corrected by a virtual personal trainer. The tips and pointers are right on target and the trainer tells you to push harder at the perfect moments. All of the exercises can be viewed on video and it is a very simple app to use for any level. Sarah's been using this app for over a year and she's still not bored of the workouts.

Gadgets

Fit Bit Force, $130

This is a flexible lightweight bracelet you wear on your wrist on your  dominant hand and once you've synced it with your computer and smartphone it tracks all your activity and movement for the day.

We all overestimate the amount of calories we burn and the amount of exercise we do. The Fit Bit keep us accountable to reach our daily goals of 10,000 steps. It tracks our daily steps,  floors climbed, activity minutes, and our sleep patterns. After each day it automatically resets and keeps all of your previous day's achievements in a log and charts on your other devices.

Wireless Headphones by Denon, $120

These wireless Bluetooth headphones are great for someone who uses the Nike training app. In a crowded gym you can have these wireless headphones and your hands are free, not getting caught up in the cords to do push-ups and use the freeweights. They're really comfortable, easy to use and easy to set up.

Hapi Fork, $100

This is a health-tech way of eating — a mechanical fork that alerts you when you've eaten too fast. Once you've synced the fork with your smartphone device you will be alerted by vibrating or a message on your screen that the hapifork is not so happy when you're guzzling down your food. It wants you to take 10 seconds between each bite, which is a good way to make us more mindfull when eating.

Hapifork doesn't care what we're eating, only how fast or slow we are doing it.