Since we are betrothed to these little computers that we carry around on us at all times, it only makes sense that they should make our lives easier and more enjoyable. Here are some of our favorite apps that do just that!
Category: Health
Carb Manager
What it is: A food, macro and nutrient tracker
Why I love it: It tracks protein, fat, calories, fiber and carbs. It also has fantastic recipes.
When/How to use it: I view everything as data. This app is just another tool to keep yourself informed about how much of what we are putting into our bodies.
Enter your food once and it will store it for quick use the next time. I do a lot of repetition of my favorite meals and foods because it's easy and quick to whip up when I'm busy or temporarily tired of thinking about food.
Cost: Free & Paid: $8.99/month
Fit Bit
What it is: The app that goes along with the Fit Bit smart watch. Includes workouts and meditations.
Why I love it: I'm obsessed with this app. There, I said it. This is not the fit bit of 2018. The old fit bit was a glorified pedometer, but this one is a little wrist laboratory. Not only does it give you stats on your steps, heart rate, zone minutes, it also tracks your sleep, your stress readiness and your heart rate variability. (This is not your heart rate, this is new speak for how your body handles stress.)
When/How I use it: Here is the BEST PART. The Fitbit app now has workouts and meditations! Cue fireworks!
Everything is organized and categorized which makes my attention-deficited brain joyfully calm.
Cost: Free / Premium (Paid) 6 month free with the watch then $8.99 / month
Lazy Keto
What it is: A recipe and meal planner app
Why I love it: Stay with me here on the keto thing. I am not advocating this as a diet lifestyle on here, HOWEVER, I'm gonna come clean with you. I am insulin resistant because of all the limit-pushing I did to my body over the years, and I have eliminated gluten, grains and sugar from my food repertoire and I focus on getting at least 150 grams of protein in a day. These recipes fit the bill.
When/How I use it: I like to look up the user-rated recipes and then add the ingredients to the shopping list on there. Super quick, well organized and easy to use.
Cost: This little gem is totally free. There are ads, but they are down below the ratings and are completely unannoying!
FlavCity
What it is: You scan the barcode at the store to see if the item has "best-in-class" ingredients. Bobby Parrish, cookbook author and creator, is an advocate for clean, nn-chemical-laden foods without preservatives and added sugars.
Just point your camera, scan the barcode and get the scoop. I have poured myself into knowing what ingredients in food do to the body, but it can be exhausting. This app does that for you!
When/How I use it: If there is something I don't recognize in an ingredient label of something new I want to try, or the stores are very people-y and I need to get through quick, this is my go-to shopping assistant.
Cost: Another delightfully free app. There are upgrades, I don't use them.
Category: Mindfulness
Insight Timer
What it is: A meditation app with a huge free library of over 130,000 guided meditations.
Why I love it: There is so much content offered here for free. If you love one of the meditations you can give a small amount to the teacher, similar to "buy me a coffee."
When/How I use it: All of these guided meditation apps take the confusion out of meditating and help with the how to do it. Meditating, in my opinion, is super hard because the world is so noisy now and we are all struggling with attention deficit all the time. I like to quiet myself in the afternoon with these or give myself a good heave ho with an uplifting meditation if I'm struggling in the morning.
Cost: Free.
Soul Space
What it is: A Christian meditation app
Why I love it: It's a five-to-seven-minute break to anchor your thoughts to the love of God.
When/How I use it: Usually in the morning while I go outside to get
my morning sunlight. Either while just standing on the porch or starting my walk. (When walking, after I listen, I put my phone away so I can focus on the sights and sounds around me. This counts as time in nature and I treasure it.)
Cost: The basic version is Free. Paid is $18.99/year which give you access to incredible courses and longer versions of the meditations. Well worth it!
Fit Bit
Fit Bit gets another mention here for the mindfulness section. The meditations are fantastic.
Category: Entertainment and Fun
imDB
What it is: IMDb is the world's most popular and authoritative source for movie, TV and celebrity content. It's an online database of information related to films, television series, podcasts, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, plot summaries, trivia, ratings, and fan and critical reviews
Why I love it: You know how you're watching a show and you recognize an actor, but you just cannot place them and you know there is absolutely no way you're going to be able to sleep tonight unless you can figure it out? You can thank imDB for the REM sleep you'll be getting.
When/How I use it: I like to see if a show has been renewed when I get to the end of it, find out who that actor is and what else was she in? And of course, get the dish on show reviews to see if it's worth a watch.
Cost: Free
Google Podcasts
What it is: An app to access the millions of podcasts.
Why I love it: It's easy to use, subscribe and download. More user friendly than Spotify.
When/How I use it: In the car, at the gym, on a flight. The download is a great feature so you can listen offline. This is also how you can save your favorite podcasts that you want to go back and listen to.
Cost: Totally free.
Find it on iTunes Store Find it on Google Play Store
Google Lens
What it is: A creepy, yet mystical app that pulls up info based on a photo you take.
Open the app, take a picture of the item you're curious about (or want to find cheaper). Lens will return Search results related to the object, including shopping results for the product.
Why I love it: It's time saver and I love to hunt for a deal without driving all around to find it.
When/How I use it: If i find something I love and want to know where I can find it. Also, when I'm in full-price store
and looking for a place that sells it or a similar item that is less expensive.
Cost: FREE!
Audible
What it is: Amazon’s Audio Book App. $14.95/month for 1 credit. A credit buys you a book of any price.
You can download the books onto your device if you are on a plane or somewhere without wifi or have limited data.
Why I love it: I spend my days on a computer so I’m not a fan of reading on a kindle.
I’m an auditory processor. I retain information better and faster if I can hear it.
When/How I use it: In the car, on the beach, at the pool, before bed when I don’t want any bluelight and my eyes are tired.
Cost: $14.99/ Month. You can pause it.
Snapseed
What it is: A photo editing app.
Why I love it: It's easy to use and makes photos look so much better to post.
When/How I use it: Mostly for work to make food pics pop, but I will unabashedly use that smooth filter on my face. Don't at me, I'm not cropping my chins, ok?
Cost: Free
YouTube
What it is: If you don't know what YouTube is, you're in for a real treat! By definition, it is an American global online video sharing and social media platform. In layman's terms it's the greatest invention ever made and utilized.
Can't figure out how to open the hood of your Pilot? YouTube it!
Want to learn how to frost a cake, activate your vagus nerve, factory reset your phone, do a kettlebell workout, defend the pickleball net, cook a Thanksgiving turkey (the list is infinite), YouTube!
Why I love it: Because there is an answer for almost everything, and often it is at no cost.
When/How I use it: You name it... Yoga, Breathwork, Lifting routines, Nutrition and health videos, figuring out my car, and improving my pickleball game to name just one percent of its usefulness.
Cost: Free with ads.
Category: Productivity
Evernote
What it is: Evernote is a great place to keep notes organized beyond you Notepad.
Why I love it: I can keep practical ideas in my notepad app, and creative ideas in Evernote.
My brain likes things separate for some reason.
When/How I use it: Article ideas, book thoughts, journal entries (if I don't have a notebook handy) and random thoughts.
Cost: Free version is great.
Trello
What it is: An organizational app to help manage many project of areas of your life.
Why I love it: I can organize my work and blog, online and in one place.
When/How I use it: Each "card" is a To Do Category, then you list the tasks for that category.
Cross them off when they're done and they disappear. So satisfying!
Cost: Free version is great.
Canva
What it is: Online graphic design
Why I love it: Canva literally changed my life. I was able to unleash my inner graphic designer.
When/How I use it: I create everything with Canva: Logos, business cards, eBooks, menus, posters, postcards, newsletters, social media posts and pins, invoices, invitations, and more.
Cost: Free version is okay. Paid version is $12.99. I'd pay more. Don't tell them that.
Hopefully a few of these are new to you and you'll find something to make your life a little or a lot easier! Tell me below in the comments what you love!