Social media is a great way to share information and build relationships online but did you know that it can also be a great resource for improving your health? There’s no questioning the growth of mobile apps in the past year but despite what many people think, there are applications that can do much more than turn your cell phone into a glow stick.

The first step to a healthy lifestyle is setting goals. It seems easy but many times these goals can fall short in hours, days or months. What seems realistic at the time may not be possible when put to the test in real life scenarios. It’s one thing to say you’ll start every morning with a healthy breakfast but when you remember what a whirlwind the morning can be as you race around getting the kids ready for school, it can fade away quickly as you find yourself in the McDonald’s drive through.

Re-consider “On-The-Go”
Life can be hectic and if you find yourself on the go a lot, the app Restaurant Nutrition will make it a lot easier to stick to your goals. What you will find within this app is plenty of nutritional information from your favourite fast food joints and family restaurants. Information such as sodium content, fat and calories are broken down for each item and compared to your maximum daily intake so you can figure out just how big of a deal that extra hash brown will be. Personally, I use this app religiously. I find that it actually alters my decisions so as I read through the content in some of the sandwiches at Wendy’s, I change my mind and opt for Subway instead. It’s a great tool to have in your pocket as many restaurants can’t seem to grasp the fact that they need to post their nutritional information publicly now.

Add Some Spunk!
Sometimes not meeting your goals can be directly related to boredom and lack of creativity in the kitchen. Eating out often has an exciting appeal; always going somewhere different, trying new flavours and new cultural dishes. If you’re preparing the same boring meals over and over again at home, it’s no wonder your taste buds have wandered! 160,000 Recipes – Big Oven gives you plenty of recipe options across different categories. The best part about this app is that it gives you the option to enter what ingredients you have on hand and it will automatically produce a list of recipes that you can use based on what is available to you. It’s a great way to try something new without going to the grocery store armed with a list of ingredients you’ve never heard of before. Plus, this app provides access to food buying and handling tips and comments about specific recipes so you know how best to handle the chicken for your quesadillas and what other people thought of the recipe. Spicing up your cooking regime doesn’t have to be rocket science. There are thousands of great recipe apps available so you’re bound to find limitless inspiration wherever you look.

Stretch It Out
It’s one thing to have your nutritional needs down pat, but when it comes to exercise, it can be very difficult to squeeze some physical activity into our every day routines. Working in an office is never a pleasant experience for your body. You get back pain from the chair you sit in for up to 8 hours straight every single day, you get a sore neck and wrists from typing or working on a computer for long hours at a time, you get stiff joints from lack of movement and migraines from the poor lighting and the constant office chatter. Luckily for all of our office comrades, there is hope, and it goes by the name of iStretch. This app provides office yoga exercise videos that allow you to stretch out and work muscles that become tense throughout the day because of repetitive movement or immobility. Five minutes of iStretch videos every day will have you relieving lower back pain, neck stiffness, shoulder tension and wrist, arm and leg soreness. Not to mention it will also allow you to burn fat, increase your blood flow, eliminate headaches, and reduce stress. Working long hours every day in an uncomfortable environment can have serious side effects on your body! By keeping up with stretches during the day you can drastically improve your mood and your well-being all from the convenience of your office chair!

Track Your Progress
Once you have nutritious eating and exercise working on your favour, weight loss will undoubtedly follow. Sometimes it’s difficult to track progress without spending hours in Excel creating a complicated chart or diagram and that’s where apps like Weightbot come in handy. You can use this app to enter your weight daily and see your trends get plotted on a graph so you can set goals, watch your progress and view interesting analytical data about your weight changes. No need to calculate anything complicated just customize your graph type and view and watch as the app tracks your progress for you.

Ditch The Stress
Many medical studies have linked stress to weight gain and other ailments but sadly enough, stress is a part of our lives whether we like it or not. It’s impossible to remove stress completely, but there are ways to counter its effects and clear your mind of the clutter that weighs you down on a daily basis. Relax is an app that is designed to utilize the audio and visual power of the iPhone and provide you with multiple relaxing destinations to choose from. You pick from the options (night in paradise, campfire, under the sea etc) and simply relax as the audio and video transport you to a stress-free zone. It makes for a great escape during your busy day!

Utilizing a device such as the iPhone and its vast array of applications to help you set health-related goals is easier than ever. Find which apps work best for your lifestyle and offer the features you consider most important. Tracking, measuring and staying positive are a lot easier when you have the appropriate tools at your finger tips so don’t be afraid to harness the power of the iPhone and become the healthy person you’ve always wanted to be.