Use these 5 apps to get fit and healthy

You set your goals and start your workout program, but then life happens and you lose focus and become less motivated. Does that sound familiar? Give yourself some extra support and check out these apps to get fit. In a dream world, you would have a personal fitness trainer or yoga instructor come to your home everyday and give you the perfect workout or yoga flow to help you stay inspired. That luxury may not be available to all of us, but fortunately in this digital age you can get fit right on your smart phone. Not only do gadgets like FitBit (which we LOVE) and fitness apps help us stay focused on our goals while measuring our progress, they are also available to use anytime, anywhere. How cool is that!? Not sure which app to download? There are hundreds out there so we’ve narrowed down a few cool picks we either use or can’t wait to tap and get.

Charity Miles

Exercise feels good and helping other feels good. Put these two feel-good activities together and you have Charity Miles. This app helps you earn corporate sponsorships for charity when you walk, run or bike; all you need to do is choose a charity and begin. We love their mission: “We like maps of where we ran. But we’re inspired by a vision for where we’re going.” Start giving back and getting fit with this app. (Free; iOS and Android)

MINDBODY

Pretty much every studio we go to these days has their class schedule connected to the Mind Body platform. With the MindBody app you can book, find and pay for classes near you. What's even cooler, is it can connects to your Fitbit activity tracker so you can log your exercise data. (Free; iOS and Android)

MyFitnessPal

Calorie counting can seem so daunting but now it’s fun with MyFitnessPal app that helps you log and track your daily water, food, exercise and nutrient intake. It’s easy and fast to do while also educating you about how your diet choices effect your weight goals. (Free; iOS and Android)

Rise

Another luxury we would love is a personal nutritionist letting us know if what we’re eating is actually good for us or not. Rise app is the inexpensive solution! Simply take photos of your meals and the nutrition coach pinpoints the problem areas and provides tips to get you nutritionally on track. After all weight lose is 90% diet, 10% exercise. ($20/week; iOS)

Sleep Cycle

If you’re in the habit of hitting snooze in the morning, you may think you are doing your body good by waking up slowly. However, during the short snooze period you can fall back into a deep sleep (REM cycle) causing you to actually be more tired when you rise. Help your body and mind by waking up slowly with the Sleep Cycle app. Sleep Cycle uses your phone's accelerometer to measure movement in bed and pinpoint REM cycles, so it won’t wake you up when you're in a deep sleep. ($0.99; iOS and Android)