My Favorite Apps To Help With Fitness/Weight Loss

All of these apps, I personally use to help me with my weight loss. I know these well so that's why I'm recommending them to you! These are in no specific order and all of the apps are free.

• My personal favorite is MyFitnessPal.com. There is an app available for iphones and androids and you can also use it from the website. 
• MyFitnessPal asks for your age, height and weight, and daily activity levels to determine a good amount of calories for you to take in during the day. You can set it to losing anywhere from 0.5 pounds per week to 2 pounds per week. **Just a warning, I set it to 2 pounds per week about 2 years ago and it ended up not being enough for me, and as a result, I started gaining weight because my body was taking up everything I ate. So it's better to go slower than faster. I am currently set at 1500 calories per day, and usually I go over anyway, but I'm fine as long as I stay under 2000 calories per day.
• MyFitnessPal also sets how many sugars, fats, and dietary fiber you need per day, so you can look for foods with those nutrients in them to keep your diet balanced.
  
• Next, another one I love is MapMyFitness.com, MapMyRun, MapMyWalk... etc. They're all the same app. I personally have MapMyWalk on my android and it gives you options like running, walking the dog, biking, etc. So whatever one you get doesn't limit you to that specific exercise. You can use these on iphone, android and just as a website as well.
• This app uses your GPS on your phone to track where you workout. If you provide your height and weight, it will estimate how many calories you burned during the workout. This app can be connected to MyFitnessPal, so that as soon as you complete a workout, it enters it into MyFitnessPal.
• I also like this app because it accounts for elevation. I live in a hilly area, so you obviously burn more calories running up a hill than running flat and if I enter that I ran for 30 minutes into MyFitnessPal, it just assumes that you're running on a flat surface.
• I also like this app because it tracks your pace per mile, and overall average pace. It tells you when you've completed each mile and what your time was.
• This app is free, but you can go MVP for added features. I just use the free version.
  
• Another app that's good for strength training is iMuscle Home.  I have this on my ipad so it's available for iphone. I can't find it on the Google Play store, so I don't think it's available for android yet.
• This app allows you to click on the part of the body that you want to improve, and gives you exercises to help strengthen that muscle. It also gives stretches for that muscle. 
• This app has a lot of free content, but you get more from it if you purchase some content. I personally use the free version.
  
• Finally, an app that is overlooked for fitness is Youtube.com. Obviously YouTube isn't strictly for working out, but there are many channels that specialize in fitness. There are channels that have 30 minute workouts for you to do, yoga channels, weight lifting channels, etc... 
• Some of my favorite channels on YouTube are:
• BeFit - Get high-quality, free workouts on BeFit! Transform your body and workout with top fitness trainers Jillian Michaels, Denise Austin, Jane Fonda and more. Slim your waistline, tighten and tone your arms and get a great butt for free. Are you ready to be fit? Subscribe for updates and transform yourself today with BeFit, exclusively on YouTube.
• ToneItUp - Share, Love, Inspire, Sweat!
• Blogilates - Full length POP Pilates and fun Bootcamp Sculpting workouts to Top 40 Hits with certified fitness instructor Cassey Ho.
• Livestrong - LIVESTRONG.COM is a new online destination designed to inspire people to change their lives, help themselves and help others.
• LivestrongWoman - Your personal guide to becoming a better, healthier you.

Why You Should Cool Down After a Workout

A common thing for people to skip when they workout is the cool down. Most commonly, people want to get done with the workout as fast as possible, or get done the cardio and move to the strength training. Skipping a cool down is a very bad habit to get into. A cool down is much more important than a warm up.

Reasons Why You Need to Cool Down

• Cooling down allows your body to decrease lactic acid buildup in the muscles.
  After you stop working at a high intensity, your body goes into a phase called OBLA, onset of blood lactate accumulation. This is when lactic acid, which is produced in anaerobic respiration (achieved during high intensity workouts) is built up in the blood faster than it can be removed. If you go from a high intensity to sitting down without a cool down, lactic acid builds up in greater quantities in the muscles. Lactic acid buildup leads to soreness. By cooling down, you're allowing the some of the lactic acid to be cleared out of the blood, preventing as much soreness as possible.
  
  
• Cool Downs are Good for the Heart.
  Your heart is a muscle, so it also needs to cool down after exercise. A cool down after exercise will gradually lower your heart rate. This will put less stress on the heart, therefore, keeping it healthy. Cool downs are still exercise, so the body will send more blood to the muscles than any other part of the body. Because you're catching your breath and switching back to aerobic exercise, the heart will have more oxygen to deliver to the blood, and the blood can deliver more oxygen to the working muscles, allowing them to recover better.
  
  
• Cool Downs Help Return to Normal Breathing Rates
  If you have trouble catching your breath at the end of exercise, you should cool down until you have obtained a normal rate of breathing for at least 5 minutes. This will help with the lactic acid buildup mentioned before, also help your heart, and give you a good idea of how long you should cool down for. How long it takes you to return to normal breathing is also a good indicator of how in shape you are. If it takes you longer, you're not in great shape. Depending on the exercise, it should take you less than 45 seconds to return to a normal breathing rate if you're in shape. This can vary from person to person and also depends on the length of exercise.
  
  
  

How to design a cool down depending on your workout.

• The cool down should be done at a slower pace than the workout.
  
  
• The cool down should last for about 5 minutes.
  More if the exercise is very strenuous, less if you were doing something such as walking.
  
  
• The cool down should be less strenuous than the workout.
  For example if you were running/biking/walking up hill for your exercise, you will want to cool down on a flat or downhill area.
  
  
• Avoid abrupt changes in pace.
  Going from jogging to walking is a good change of pace, not too abrupt. Going from 100% intensity to walking would not be a good change. If you're working out at a high intensity, go from high to medium, stay at medium for a couple minutes, then you can switch from medium to low and stay at low intensity for the rest of the cool down.

Things Everyone Needs to Realize Before They Begin:

So you decided that you want to start working out, here are some things that you need to be aware of before you start. These are the most common things I see people doing wrong when they start working out.

1. Unless you're considered obese and you rarely do physical activity, you aren't going to see your body drastically change in a month.
   I can't stress this enough. Losing weight and getting fit happens over a decent amount of time. The ads that you see for losing 30 pounds in 30 days are not only highly unlikely, it's also unhealthy for your body to go through such a drastic weight change in such a short amount of time.
   
   
   
   
   
2. If you are obese and sedentary and begin to exercise, you're probably going to lose a couple pounds a week, but this high of a weight loss isn't going to stay consistent after you start to get in shape.
   Don't get discouraged, this is normal, just have patience and keep working out. You will continue to lose weight, but the change week to week won't be as drastic as it was.
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. You don't need to go buy a bunch of equipment to have a successful journey to getting fit.
   If you don't have a treadmill, you can run outside. If you don't have anything like a Bow-flex, you can do exercises that don't require weight resistance. This being said, purchasing a dumbbell or two is recommended, just don't go overboard.
   
   
   
   
   
4. A lot of people believe that skipping meals/not eating will help them lose weight. This is an extreme misconception.
   Skipping meals consistently sends your body into starvation mode and everything that you eat, your body will hold on to, rather than the body flushing out the things that it doesn't need. Also, skipping meals is extremely bad for you if you're going to be working out. The body needs nutrients (especially carbs and fats) to make energy for you to use during exercise. Skipping meals and working out can lead to passing out, or more extreme health concerns.
   
   
   
   
   
5. When you decide to start, you're going to be sore for the first couple of days.
   Keep exercising through the soreness. You can lower the intensity or time period for which you exercise, but to get yourself used to the routine of exercising, you need to push through the first couple days of soreness.
   
   
   
   
   
6. Don't overdo it on the first day.
   It's common for people to want extreme results, so they push themselves so hard on the first day that they can't move for the next day or two. It's OK to start out small, just remember tip number 1, it's going to take time to see results.
   
   
   
   
   
7. If you drink a lot of drinks with calories in them, try to switch to water, coffee or tea.
   Drinking only water is distasteful for some people, so tea can help you get the taste without the calories. It's a waste to drink your calories. To start out, try switching one drink a day to tea or water. Coconut water is also a good alternative, but I don't find the taste to be appealing.
   
   
   
   
   
8. Just because something has 0 calories does not mean that it's healthy for you.
   This also goes for things with high calories. Quinoa has a high caloric content per serving, but it has many nutrients that are good for the body. Artificial sweeteners have 0 calories per serving, but they have no nutritional value. Counting calories alone will not provide optimal results. This being said, a cheeseburger is high in calories, but it's also not healthy for you and spinach has close to 0 calories per serving and it has many nutrients that are good for the body. You just need to realize the high caloric, healthy foods and the low caloric, bad foods.
   
   
   
   
   
9. Completely cutting out any food group is not recommended in the slightest.
   If you cut out a food group completely, your body is going to crave that specific food group. For example, if you eat a lot of sweets, completely cutting sweets from your diet over a short period of time is not going to end well. Your body will crave those sweets and it's extremely likely that you're going to cave and eat an obscene amount of sweets. This is extremely counterproductive. If for, some reason you feel the need to cut out a food group (not recommended except for medical reasons), you should ween yourself off over a long period of time to avoid overeating of that food group as a result of cravings.
   
   
   

Personally, I think that tip number 1 is the most important. People often expect to lose 30 pounds in a month and when that doesn't happen, they get discouraged and quit. If you plan to lose a significant amount of weight for an event, start as early as possible. If you end up losing the weight you want before the event, it's always easier to stay at the same weight than it is to lose 15 pounds in two weeks.

These are all my tips for now, I will be sure to post an updated one if I think of more!