In this week's show we talk about using your Amazon device (like a Dot $45, Echo $180 an Amazon Echo Show the Amazon Dash Wand is more for just adding things to your shopping list. We also talk about an article about important it is to log every single bite

In the past I've used Loseit, Spark People, MyFitness Pal, and I now use a combination of Fitbit with Nutritionix 

Amazon Skills To Help You Stay Healthy

1. Nutrition Label: “Alexa, how many calories are in a piece of pizza?” Whether you're meal-prepping or planning to eating at a restaurant, you can use this skill to quickly find the fat, calories, carbohydrate and protein content of virtually any food.
2. Fitness Guru: Simply choose upper body, lower body or core, and the Fitness Guru will guide you through exercises and poses to sculpt and strengthen the target area.
3. Save the Food: How long do avocados stay fresh? Should you refrigerate asparagus? Save the Food answers these and countless other food storage questions. “This is going to save me the time of going back to the grocery store so frequently, and the money spent on getting the same things every week without storing them properly,” one user raves.
4. Breathe Therapy: Use this skill to recharge, de-stress and increase oxygen levels. “This app is perfect for helping you relax and unwind!” says one reviewer. “I love how it guides you through the breathing exercises.”
5. Sweet Dreams: Sounds and Meditations for Sleep: Lack of quality sleep can hinder your weight-loss goals. This skill features relaxing sounds to help you fall asleep faster and meditation programs to help clear your mind.
6. Health Facts: We can all use some extra motivation to stick to a healthy lifestyle. Health Facts provides interesting information to help you choose the right combination of nutritious foods.
7. Water Log: Tell Alexa how much water you're drinking throughout the day and Water Log will track the running total.
8. Go Hiking: Use this skill to find hikes based on your location, desired length, and type of environment.
9. Is Paleo? On a Paleo diet and wondering if a certain food or ingredient is acceptable or off-limits? Just ask Alexa! This skill has more than 700 items in its database.
10. Healthy Habit: Simply tell Alexa to open this skill and she'll deliver a healthy habit to adopt for that day.
11. My Workouts: The next best thing to a personal trainer, this skill creates custom workouts tailored to your fitness level and goals, then steps you through each exercise with energizing music.
12. Healthy Snack Tips: When time is tight and cravings creep in, use this skill to get tips on making healthier snacking choices.
13. 7-Minute Workout: This popular skill serves up bite-sized workouts designed to burn fat, reduce stress and boost energy and metabolism.
14. Fitness Facts: Distract yourself from those tempting cravings and grueling workouts with interesting fitness facts. Great for when you’re trying to impress your new gym buddies after your rowing class.
15. Sergeant Tabata: Tabata training is a form of high-intensity interval training that consists of eight rounds of 20-second exercise sessions followed by 10-second rest periods. Sergeant Tabata tells you when to work and when to rest.
16. Healthy Diet Trivia: Test and build your nutrition knowledge with this fun, interactive nutrition trivia game.
17. Recipe Remix: Who doesn't want to cook and cavort at the same time? Recipe Remix reads you delicious recipes step by step, while also playing energizing music to keep you cheerful while you chop.
18. Sugarmate: Diabetics can use Alexa to track their latest glucose readings from the Dexcom G5 glucose monitoring system.
19. One Rep Max: Alexa will help you find your one-rep max for any weight-lifting exercise, so you can keep challenging yourself to grow stronger.
20. Fitness Motivation Quote: When the couch beckons and you're tempted to skip your workout, get a dose of encouragement with a hand-picked motivational quote.
21. Daily Pledge: Take a moment each day to focus on your wellness by taking a new pledge for self-improvement

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Today I share my first impression with a new app Beeminder which I'm using to replace the PACT app. The pact app was slick, polished, and I loved it (you pledged to give money if you didn't hit a goal and it was distributed to those who made their goal). Beeminder works similarly in that it takes money out of your bank account if you don't hit your goal every time you miss your goal (so it could get expensive) and it's not giving any money back.

Their intro video look at first like someone is going to share ghost stories (there is no official beeminder channel only the channel of one of their creators). I get they did the best they could with whatever budget they had, but why does someone with a lapel mic sound like it was recorded in a bathroom (and putting music in the background doesn't make this point go away)? Then they give you a ton of information on a graph that looks like you ate a mouthful of Skittles and then sneezed them on to a piece of paper.  Here is a sample

To understand that graph, I need to look at the legend. They have a legend that helps you understand all the dots, dashes, etc, but holy cow what is up with the big 50 cent words like “Akrasia horizon” Sheesh. You need a legend for your legend. So my first impression was not a great one. However, after using it for a few days I think I'm getting the hang of it. You can have it remind you to update your goal. I'm using a withings scale which updates my fitbit which updates the app. By syncing it with m fitbit it brought in a lot of data points that I'm not sure were helpful. So in the end, I started off a little confused.

They do let you try it for free, and if you “Drive off the road” there is no fee, but if you want to continue, you need some skin in the game.  Every time you miss your goal it raises the penalty. You can set a limit on how high it can go.

I do like that it someone “gamifies” your goals, and it keeps you posted and can alert you when you're about to go off course. I just think its a little busy at this point, but what do you expect for free? It has potential, and my guess is going to be that they didn't see the boost of PACT users coming their way, and they get caught with their pants down a bit.

Overall, this could be useful, but their graphs introduce a learning curve.

Check it out at www.beeminder.com

Realistic Lifestyle Change – Tips

New study from Harvard with tips on achieving Lifestyle Change. Read the full story  

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