Hey guys guess what? I finally came up with an idea for special Friday posts that I think I can actually stick too and will be interesting for you (hopefully). I love healthy phone apps, I think they have the potential to make sticking to a healthy lifestyle and healthy weight much easier. Each week I will use a new app for one week and then I’ll post my review on Friday to let you know what I thought. I have an iPhone but I will do my best to pick apps that are available on the Android market as well.

Motion X 24/7

The first official phone app review kicks off with Motion X 24/7. This application works a lot like the recently popular fitbit (for a fraction of the price) by tracking your daily steps, weight, sleep, and heart rate.

Sleep Log

The sleep log was one of my favorite parts about this app. You can strap the phone onto you if you want or use its optimum phone positioning function to have the phone lay next to you in bed. Then it tracks all kinds of cool things like your time spent in bed, total time asleep, deep sleep, and light sleep. It will also conveniently calculate your 30 day average, 7 day average, and total sleep for the night before. Plus, it has a fun little function that records any snoring/apnea/talking for your listening pleasure. You can even share these recordings via email (#blackmail). Although I aim for 7 hours of sleep per night I usually get between 6 to 7. Since I’m injured right now I know my body needs more sleep for recovery, so this ap was really motivating me to get closer to 7.

Step Log

The step log is probably only semi accurate for me since I don’t have my phone strapped to me all the time. I tried to make more of an effort to keep it with me even when I ran to the restroom or to heat up my coffee, but I didn’t always remember.

I really like the function that allows you to record walks separately from normal steps. I also used Map My Run on my recovery walks and they usually matched up in distance and calories pretty well.

Other Functions:

– Almanac- length of night, sunrise, sunset

– Heart Rate Tracker- track and log heart rate

– Weight Tracker- track your weight and the app will show you a graph plus a 7 day average

– Goal Setting: allows you to set a daily sleep goal, get active alerts if you’ve been idle for a set amount of time, and daily step goal.

– Powernap: allows you to record a powernap, you can set an alarm to wake you up at a specific time or after the apps calculated optimal nap time (usually 30 minutes.)

Motion X 24/7 Pros-

• Cost is 4.99 cents, about $100 dollars cheaper than a fitbit

• No advertisements

• Many functions which are customizable to fit your goals

• User friendly interface

Motion X 24/7 Cons-

• Accuracy of daily steps and sleep log is somewhat questionable

• iPhone must be attached to user at all times

Overall: If you’re like me and don’t have the $100 bucks to shell out for a fitbit right now, but would like to get a snap shot of your daily steps, weight, and sleep then this is a great ap. The application pretty much blows any other pedometer program out of the water and is definitely worth the $4.99 I paid for it. I found it motivating me to get more steps in (although sometimes that wasn’t good since I need to be taking it easy) and to get more sleep. My official app review rating? 5 stars.

Hope you have an awesome Friday!