Dark Artistry - Health, Exercise, and Weight loss apps

Health, Exercise, and Weight loss apps

Monday, 19 January 2009

I have a short list of some nice applications and on-line resources for tracking health, exercise, and weight loss.

I will be 40 in April and I have lived a very hard life when it comes to health. For many years I liked to party hard and drink a lot, like to the point I thought I was an alcoholic. I drank about 20 cups of coffee a day and no water, ate fast food and a lot of pizza. I also smoked, about 20 years.

I stopped drinking hard in 2003 and now manage to have a few beers here and there, stopped all the other bad things, but my eating was still bad. I stopped smoking a year and a half ago and went from 20 cups of coffee to 3 to 4 a day and none on the weekend. I did noticed I was getting a pot belly. No way was I going to look like a pregnant women with droopy breasts for the neighbors when I cut the grass! I decided to start eating right and exercise too.

I started eating better and exercising the end of November 2008 and as of today dropped my weight from 180lbs to 168lbs! My workouts are showing results also, not really going for body builder, but between the cardio and weight lifting I am starting to look and feel great and my muscles are showing growth. I started logging my food and exercise on LiveStrong and it has really helped in tracking. I looked and many other products and services that are free and wanted to share.

Then last week I ended up at the doctor and found out that I have high blood pressure. Figures, start taking care of myself and I end up in the hospital and find out bad news! This prompted me to look for blood pressure tracking software so I could track my blood pressure. I started to wonder about other health software that was open source. Not much out here I was amazed to find.

Here is a list of some of the better ones, but they are Windows products and freeware. The web services are actually nicer in most cases and work with mobile devices. Some may run on Linux and OS X using Crossover Office or Wine. I am seriously considering writing a Health Tracking application in Python and Adobe AIR that does everything the apps below do, except the binaural beats, plus more! Well, I could include some basic binaurals with timer and the ability to mix with your music or something... Here is a Python script I wrote to do some basic health stats calculations that I 've already started on .

Blood Pressure:

Blood Pressure Tracker (I am trying this one currently): http://www.lifestyletoolbox.com/bpr/

BP Assistant: http://www.pdagear.net/blog/windows-desktop-software/bp-assistant-desktop/

I bought a Omron HEM-711DLX from heartratemonitorsusa.com! They kick ass! They are cheaper than anyone on the net, buy ten to forty dollars for this same device! I ordered on Sunday it was shipped Monday morning! No tax and free shipping on top of all that. I highly recommend them. I am also going to buy a MF-180 Heart Rate monitor from them once I save up the money.

Binaural Beats: (I really like these for help getting to sleep or to relax.)

Gnaural: http://gnaural.sourceforge.net/

SbaGen: http://uazu.net/sbagen/

Calorie and Food:

Ok-Cal: http://www.softcrazy.net/Educational+Tools_detail/Health+and+Nutrition/OK-Cal+4.3.html

Exercise:

Exercise Diary: http://www.topshareware.com/Exercise-Diary-download-7153.htm

Diabetes:

http://www.my-health-and-fitness.org/daily-diabetes-diet-counter.html

On-line resources:

Exercise and Food Tracking (focus on weight loss) : http://www.livestrong.com

Exercise and Food tracking (focus on body building) : http://www.shapefit.com/