Though it is not, strictly speaking, an athletic event, a wedding does require that you get in shape. Fortunately, we live in an age of apps, and there are plenty of fitness apps to help you achieve peak performance on the big day.
As your wedding approaches, you will have a lot on your mind. Planning a wedding is essentially taking a second job, and between the stress and the time-crunch, you’ll probably lose sleep and gain weight. By the time you get fitted for your suit, you may notice you are pot-bellied, sunken-eyed and balding. You are out of shape.
You may also think, yeah, but who has time for the gym now—or the extra money for a personal trainer? Valid points, which is why God invented the fitness app. These user-friendly bits of code are a money-saving way to help you get in shape from the comfort of your own home. And working out doesn’t have to be a solitary activity.
In general, these apps do three things: log food consumption, keep track of activity, and offer motivation. Most are free, although they tend to offer premium upgrades for a cost. They take advantage of motion sensors that are common in most smartphones, and use the camera in your phone to scan bar codes on food to help you log calories. (Most work for iPhone and Android.) Here are some of our favorites.
The Nike Training Club
The Nike Training Club app is our personal favorite. It’s free and comes loaded with videos that guides you through a diverse range of workouts, from weights to yoga. You can search by workout duration, intensity level, and focus (flexibility, endurance, strength, etc.)—which helps if you only have 20 minutes to spare. This app is flexible and packed with a great range of different exercise programs.
Lose It Weight Loss App
This free app aims to help you achieve sustainable healthy weight loss by creating a personalized plan. You can set your target weight as well as other wellness and fitness goals and the app provides you with nutrition information to help you make better eating decisions (it also has a food database for calorie tracking). It can connect with other fitness apps, devices and scales, and has a social component so you can get support from other people who are trying to get fit.
MyFitnessPal
Owned by Under Armour, MyFitnessPal is one of the most popular apps in this field. It’s simple and easy to use, keeps track of what you eat and how much you exercise, and, if you like, serves as a social media network connecting you to other like-minded souls struggling to stay on point. MyFitnessPal also connects to FitBit, Runtastic, Pact and the Apple Watch.
Diet Hero
How many nights have you come home after a long day, opened the fridge and found nothing but the same old Chinese food, an empty milk carton, and some sausage packets? Diet Hero is perfect for guys like you, guys who don’t want to count calories and add up carbs. Instead, you just tell the app what you have laying around in your fridge, and what you like to eat. Diet Hero comes up with recipes based on you randomly stocked food supply, dictates appropriate portions, and sends you shopping lists of food you should buy. At time of writing, Diet Hero is only available for iPhones (for $1.99), but we assume an Android version is on its way.
The NYT 7-Minute Workout app
We don’t care how busy you are, you have 7 minutes. But what you might not have is the NYT 7-Minute Workout app. This workout maximizes your time by coaching you through the most effective ways to get fit in just 7 minutes a day. Because when we think of super-muscular, ultra-sexy beach bodies, we think of the New York Times.
Technology can’t give you a better body, but it can help steer you towards one. You just have to start living the fitness app life.
