(Scale – Withings Smart Body Analyzer, FUEL – Nike Fuelband, Other Wristband – Fitbit Flex, Chest Strap – Under Armour Armour39, Fork – HAPIfork)
We’ve heard all the fitness cliches before: “There’s no substitute for diet and exercise”, “If it doesn’t challenge you, it doesn’t change you”, or “It’s called a ‘WORK’ out for a reason”, and while these overused pump-up phrases are generally true, it doesn’t mean that there aren’t little things that can make getting healthier a little easier. While of course “there is no substitute for a proper diet and exercise”, there is some pretty fancy tech out there that can enhance your journey to healthy living.
The first item on the list is something everyone’s heard about. The Nike Fuel Band has been advertised everywhere by Nike. In fact, it’s probably one of the first things you see when walking into a Nike store. What does it do exactly? Well for starters, it’s not just meant to be worn for when your working out. The Fuel Band is meant to by worn throughout the day, keeping track of your activity and calories burned and converting the measurements into a simple easy to understand number that Nike has very cleverly named “Nike Fuel”. It also functions as a watch for when you don’t have your phone with you.
You may think of the Fitbit Flex as just a less popular version of the Nike Fuel Band, but you would be vastly oversimplifying the Fitbit’s function. While it also keeps track of steps, distance, and calories, the Fitbit also takes sleep into account. Sleep is one of the few things that people forget to consider when trying to live a healthy lifestyle. Well with the Fitbit, you can keep track of your sleep cycles and measure the quality of your sleep. It also functions as an alarm clock, for (again) when you forget your phone.
The Under Armour Armour39 is a work-out chest strap, that unlike the Fuel band or Fitbit, was made purely for keeping track of your workouts. It keeps track of your heart rate, calories burned, and a new measurement that Under Armour calls WILLpower – a rating from 0.0 to 10.0 on the quality of your workout. The Armour39 transmits all the information to your iPhone and displays it on the Armour39 app.
The sleek looking scale is known as the Withings Smart Body Analyzer. This may seem just like a fancy new way to describe a weight scale, however, the Smart Body Analyzer does more than just measure a person’s weight. It takes more important measurements that are more directly related to a healthy lifestyle, specifically Body Mass Index (BMI) and (resting) heart-rate. For some reason it also measures the quality of the air in which it is placed, which you wouldn’t exactly expect from your scale, but is still handy for making sure you stay healthy. Like the Armour 39, the Withings Smartbody Analyzer sends Data directly to your mobile device.
The last tech gadget looks deceptively simple however the HAPIfork may be a stroke of genius. It is essentially an eating utensil that tells you when you are eating too much. Okay maybe that’s an oversimplification. The HAPIfork is a Bluetooth enabled “smartfork” that keeps track of your eating habits and sends the data to your personal Online Dashboard. While online, you can see trends in your eating habits and advice on how to modify your diet to get the healthy results you want.
And of course there are dozens apps for mobile devices that can offer advice on workout routines, keep track of calorie intake and expenditure, and virtually every aspect of healthy living.
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