Five Must-Have Apps to Help You Get Healthy

We're breaking down the best mobile apps for healthy living. At Fit Fresh Real, we swear by all five of these apps, to keep us focused, accountable, and, most importantly, motivated to stick to the plan and transform our lifestyle.

Best Grocery List App: AnyList  

Want to really stick to your meal plan? Don't impulse buy!  Going into the store with a plan is the best way to keep yourself from picking up the junk food you don't need, which is why we rely on AnyList,  our favorite grocery list app.

As you enter the various items on your list, it will automatically group them by aisle. You can even set it to arrange the aisles in the order you walk through the store. (Seriously, how cool is that!) With simple notes and quantity feature, you can remind yourself what recipes the item is for, what brands to buy, how much you need, etc. It even remembers what you included in the notes previously, so when you go to add an item again you'll get the same reminders.

Plus, you can share an account with others in your household to easily build collaborative lists that anyone can shop from.  (BONUS: The app updates in real time on all phones so if you need to send your husband to pick-up half the list while you get the other so you can both get a screaming toddler out of the grocery story pronto, hey, you can do that!)

Best Food Tracking App: MyFitnessPal 

My Fitness Pal is the top rate digital food tracking app with one of the largest food databases around. And this is one case where size matters! The fact that you can find nearly everything you eat, down to the brand level, makes tracking your meals so much more convenient. Plus, they're continually adding nutrition information from restaurants, too!

You can import recipes from websites or create your own then share with friends by letting them copy from your food diary.  And if you're eating the same meal plan as your significant other, do what Brandon and I do -- copy each others meals then simply adjust the serving size.

Best Healthy Recipe App: Fit Men Cook 

This is THE website that led to Brandon's appreciation for cooking. Growing up working in restaurants, I always loved to cook, When I discovered Kevin Curry on Instagram, I started following him to keep up with his healthy recipes and get inspiration but it wasn't until his app came out that Brandon finally jumped on board. It was this app that helped Brandon start contributing to our household's meal prep after Nora was born. It's this app that got us started down the path we're on today. (Bet you didn't know that, did you Kevin?)

We love Kevin's simple, macro-balanced recipes and his approach to meal prep is what inspired us to rethink lunch and food on the go.

Best Activity Tracking App: FitBit 

Most of you are probably already familiar with this fitness tracker as it is the industry leader. We love FitBit because it does way more than track your activity.  I know, I know...10,000 steps...is that seriously motivating?

Well, today I took a 30 minute meeting outdoor, walking around the building and I'm ending the day with a whopping 5,500 steps.  So let's be REAL (because, hey, that's what we're all about here) and say the 10,000 steps is a bunch of BS. It's an arbitrary goal set by people who clearly don't work an office job, sit in the car commuting for over an hour a day, and chase a toddler around the kitchen for 2 hours before passing out, waking up to an annoying alarm, and doing it all over again...

But, FitBit is seriously a great motivator. Maybe a ribbon around your wrist could serve as just as good a reminder to get up and move, but for me, the social gamification layer helps. You set your own goals for everything from steps, to workouts, to sleep, and can create challenges among your friends that actually work. (Want to participate in our challenges? Send us an email at FitFreshReal (AT) gmail.com and we'll add to our friends list!)

The best part? There are apps out there that will pay you to hit the goals you set for yourself on FitBit. "WAIT, WHAT," you say? "Truth," I say. See next point...

Best Motivational App: Achievement 

Here it is folks, one of those amazing apps that will actually pay you for hitting your fitness goals (read: sharing your activity data with them).  Sure, you have to tell them what activity you're doing (if you're worried about big brother, this might not be the app for you, but lets be real, the government put eyes on Bin Laden from hundreds of miles away, through multiple concrete walls, if anyone really gave a crap about how many steps you took in a day, they'd find a way).

But seriously guys, just do you, connect your apps to this one, and YOU GET PAID!  It is in very small increments  but every little bit counts, right. Once you hit 10k points you get $10...that's lunch! Or a movie ticket!

BONUS: Retail Apps that Pay!

Kind of like AchieveMint, we've discovered two retailer apps that will also pay you to share your activity data. It's a simple, one time connection on your phone and both will let you rack up rewards points in their respective loyalty programs just for taking steps. More free money, just for moving people!

• Dick's Sporting Goods
• Walgreens

(Disclosure: Because Walgreens is one of my clients, I have to disclose I work with them while promoting their app.  Of course, that doesn't change the fact that they will reward you for telling them you walked so it would be silly for me not to shout that from the rooftops!)