Best Apps That Assist With Weight Loss

"Keep Your Goals In Front Of You" 

In order to accomplish any goal, it's vital that we constantly remind ourselves why we started in the first place, especially when trying to lose weight.  It's no surprise that losing weight can be difficult.  We can become tempted, tired, or hit a plateu at any given moment.  

In most cases, we are on our cell phones 24/7 whether it be texting, emailing, surfing the web etc.  What we are constantly looking at and listening to affects us more than we can possibly imagine!  It becomes a part of who we are, it starts to define us.  This is why I think it is so important to keep a few apps on your phone that can not only assist you in your weight loss journey, but apps that will also keep you on track and motivated. 

1.  My Fitness Pal- Free 

This app is both iPhone & Android friendly.  This is one of the most useful apps you can use! From the beginning it takes your weight, height, goal weight, and lifestyle and then gives you recommendations.  This app completely takes the "guessing game" out of eating and eating out.  Not to mention.. its VERY simple to use.  You can scan the barcode on all the food items you eat throughout the day instead of having to enter and search for what you are eating.  It also has a plethora of restaurant menu items making it easy to track what you are eating when dining out (it even  has local restaurants!) My fitness pal also tracks carbs, fats, sodium & cholesterol so you are aware of exactly what you are putting into your body.  There is so much more that this app does.. I could go on and on, however if there is one app that you decide to download, it should definitely be this one. 

2.  Map My Walk/ Map My Run- Free 

These two apps track just about everything when it comes to walking and running.  They track route, pace, calories burned and distance.  It's simple to use and has several tools to keep you motivated throughout your workout.  Map My Run and Map My Walk feature voice prompts that give you updates throughout your workout but don't worry, the voice comes on in the background so you can still listen to your favorite workout playlist! 

3.  My Model- Free 

This is just a fun app.  You enter in your height, weight, goal weight, skin tone, face, hair, body shape and outfit. This app creates an image of what you look like now, and what you will look like when you reach your goal weight.  It also give you the option to track your weight loss so it will show model like figures as you get closer and closer to reaching your goal!  Like I said earlier, keeping your goals in front of you is powerful!  

4.  7 Minute Fitness- Free

  The challenge is to do 7 minutes a day for 7 months. This app gives you 7 minute workouts that require zero workout equipment.  Sounds easy right?  This app was designed to provide the maximum benefit of working out regularly in the shortest time possible.  The workouts include a variety of cardio, fat burning, strengthening, and stretching routines.  You can also upgrade later on to an app that costs a few dollars and provides more workouts but it's not nessecary.  

5.  Juicing- Free 

I like this app because it's free and offers thousands of juice recipes.  You can hit one button 'Add Ingredients To Cart' and it provides you with a grocery list.  It also shows the calories in each recipe and offers anywhere from a 1 day cleanse to a 30 day cleanse.  You can set reminders on this app and it will notify you of when you need to drink your next juice! 

6.  Bible Encouragement- Free 

Love this app! It provides encouraging Bible verses to accommodate you through the roller coaster ride of weight loss.  It's easy to use and it's so satisfying to tell God exactly how you are feeling.  There are over 35 different emotions to chose from, all of which provide Bible verses and a quote that correlate with what you are feeling.  

 7.  Daily Fitness Motivation 

This app shows motivational images and allows you to set reminders with motivational affirmations and images.  The affirmations and quotes will always put you in a positive mindset! 

8.  Songza -Free 

Have you ever gone to a workout, spin class, yoga, or aerobics class and LOVED the music?  This is the only place I have been able to find similar pump up playlists and the REAL artists are singing (not a knock off version of a song, a lot of the remixes online sound like kids bop) You can choose playlists based on your activity or your mood.  My favorite playlists are Massive Pop Hits: The Remixes and 00s Club Bangers ;) 

I hope you enjoy some of, if not all of these apps! I use most of them daily and I absolutely love them.  Don't lose sight of your vision and your goals.  Set those daily reminders to trigger your motivation and most importantly, remember why you started! Weight loss is a journey and all you can do is take it one step at a time :) You can do it! 

XoXo 

Ashley 

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Game Planning

Author Karen Lamb said it best when she said, “A year from now you may wish you had started today.” 

And last year that’s exactly where I was.  After a year of not paying attention to what went into my mouth, I finally came to the harsh realization that summer was creeping in and needless to say I was far from feeling comfortable struttin’ my stuff around the pool.  I was frustrated, embarrassed, and fed up with myself.  I absolutely had to make a change, although making a permanent lifestyle change is never easy especially when it comes to food.  Whether you are trying to lose weight or just trying to start living a healthier lifestyle you have to “Sacrifice what you are, for what you will be become” –Eric Thomas.  I think THE most important thing a person can do when starting this journey is to remember that it is a JOURNEY.  It’s a process and it’s far from easy, but it’s completely possible to achieve those dreams and goals.  There will be good days and there will be bad days, there will be easy days and there will be hard days, but a year from right now will you be so happy that you started today.

The Mental Part 

For me personally there has always been an emotional attachment to food that I never realized I had before I started to cut certain things out of my diet.  For example, I like going out to eat on the weekends, I enjoy curling up on the couch with some popcorn while watching a movie, and when I find a sweet recipe on Pinterest that I can make for others, I feel like I hit the jackpot.  When I started to cut those things out of my life, I almost started to feel empty! How weird is that?!  On Friday night (a night that I would typically go out to eat with my parents) staying in felt foreign.  This to me was the hardest part about continuing to live a healthy life-style…. The mental part.  I’ve heard many people say before that diet is 80% of losing weight and the gym is the other 20%.  Well, my own personal opinion is that diet is 98% and the gym is 2%.  I constantly have to remind myself of a quote by Bill Cosby “Decide that you want it more than you are afraid of it” because that’s what it really comes down to…We are afraid of missing out, or not afraid of not tasting something.  We MUST cut ties with what our “norm” was and accept the new!

Getting Discouraged

We all get discouraged at times.  It’s just a part of the journey.  Getting discourage can hit us out of nowhere and sweep us right off of our feet!  These are the times we have to remember why we started in the first place.  If you fall off track with your diet… it’s not the end of the world. It’s so important to take BABY STEPS.  If you eat healthy for one day, you are not going to see results immediately (very unfortunate, I know) it’s a process that takes time.  And likewise, if you have been eating very healthy… one “bad meal” will not cause you to gain 10lbs.  If you end up cheating at lunch that doesn’t mean you have to cheat for dinner as well.  Someone once said to me, “If you dropped your phone on the floor, would you keep smashing it until it was completely broken?”  Of course my answer was no, and their reply was, “Well then why would you do that with your diet?”  It’s something that we all do at times… We have a slice of pizza that we weren’t intending to have and we think “well I already cheated… now where’s the dessert?!”  There will be days when you give in but that doesn’t mean you should give up.  Keep going, keep striving, keep dreaming, and keep reaching to achieve those goals!

Making a Game Plan

I am a firm believer in game planning.  It’s so important to sit down and actually take the time to write out your goals.  “A goal without a plan is just a wish” There is something about writing your goals down on paper that makes them so much more realistic.  I highly encourage you to do this! Once you have your goals written out, hang them somewhere so that you can look at them everyday! I have mine on my bathroom mirror and I read them every morning while I brush my teeth.  I also like to set mini goals.  If my ultimate goal is to drop 10lbs by a certain month I will divide the pounds by the amount of weeks I have and then I will set mini dead lines.  For example:

(Let’s say you weigh 135)

You want to weight 120
by May 1^st, 2014…Which means you have to lose 15lbs in 3 months.  That is about 1.25lbs a week. 

 I like to make mini deadlines so every two weeks I would set a different goal.  This
helps keep you on track and holds you accountable. 

I also like to sit down on Sundays and write out my meal plan.  I mean like, to the T! Every meal and every snack down to the portions! If you do this, there will never be any question on what you are going to eat, leaving minimal room for error! We fall off of our diets when we’re confused and unprepared.

Create A Dream Board

I know this may sound like a silly and tedious task but I am telling you it’s so worth it! (and I think it’s fun :) )  Make a copy of your goals and paste them into the middle of a blank poster board.  Once you have done that go thru magazines and cut out anything that inspires you! It could be a quote, a food item, or maybe someone’s physique.  I also like to print out pictures of people who are close to me that inspire me.  Giving your dream an actual vision is a powerful thing! Hang your poster in a place where you can look at it everyday and constantly be reminded of why your making
these changes!

What You'll Need 

I'm not finished yet but here is what my dream board is starting to look like. 

 I hope you all have a wonderful, wonderful week! 

xoxo

-Ashley

For Daily Tips and Recipes follow me on: 

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