Apps That Can Help Support Your Health and Wellness Journey

by Kelly Trapani, Health and Wellness Teacher

The utilization of technology has vastly altered the state of our day-to-day in both positive and negative ways. Though the argument can be made that more screen time can yield to more sedentary and distracted lifestyles, various technological advances can help to make getting and staying healthy easier than ever and as a cyber-school health and wellness teacher, I see those innovations first-hand. Through the usage of applications, health and fitness enthusiasts are able to more readily able to monitor their performance and create more attainable goals for themselves. Taking a holistic approach to overall health and wellbeing, here are a few of the apps that I have found most helpful on my fitness journey:

My Fitness Pal: This is actually the most popular health and fitness app in the world, and for good reason. This is used to record your physical activity as well as your nutrition habits. It will ask you what your goals are and tailor a plan to healthfully reach your goal. It is extremely easy to use and provides instant feedback on monitoring said goals. Also, it will discourage you from eating too few calories, a mistake oftentimes made by those who wish to lose weight very quickly. It will steer you to weight loss/maintenance in a healthy manner. In addition to that, it also provides a social network to encourage and motivate your friends. Occasionally, they will promote a “challenge” and if you log into your account for a certain number of days you will be entered to win prizes. 

Waterlogged: This app is super simple, but super effective. The premise of the app is to ensure that the user is consuming enough water throughout the day. To start, you set how much water you wish to consume, and as the day progresses, you “fill” your water jug. You can allow for push notifications for an additional nudge. The importance of staying hydrated cannot be overstated, and this app makes drinking enough water very simple.

HappyFeed: As I have said before, health is comprehensive and a combination of your physical and mental states. One cannot be healthy without the other being healthy. According to a study conducted by Dr. Robert A. Emmons of the University of California and Dr. Michael E. McCullough of the University of Miami, expressing gratitude daily can cause individuals to not only become more optimistic but also cause them to exercise more and have fewer medical issues. HappyFeed is an app that houses a gratitude journal. The goal is to log three things you are grateful for every day, and you can also include pictures. In addition to this, it creates a running list of all the things you have been thankful for in the past. This can cause a paradigm shift in your mentality when you are having an awful day and can most definitely turn any day around.  

Headspace: Headspace is an app used for meditation beginners. Running on the premise that “10 minutes could change your whole day”, it is ideal for those who would like to practice mindfulness, but are not yet ready to commit to a long program. This guided meditation can help those even with very short attention spans, like me, become more mindful. 

SleepBot: I have been using this app for a few years now, and I honestly cannot imagine my life without it. I wake up every morning at 4:30 a.m. and part of the reason I am able to do so is through the use of this app. The coolest function in my opinion is the “smart alarm”. The app tracks your nighttime movement and wakes you up during a 30-minute time frame you provide. So, because the latest I can wake up is 4:30 a.m., my alarm clock will go off anywhere from 4:00-4:30 a.m., dependent on my movements. Because it monitors your movements, it is able to tell when you are in the “lightest” stage of sleep and will wake you up during that phase. This makes waking up much less painful. I am an actual gremlin in the morning, so I need all the help I can get. In addition, it provides a detailed sleep history it can tell you exactly when you fell asleep and woke back up. You can provide notes to log your slumber in even a more detailed fashion. This can allow you to know how to get the best night sleep possible. Also, it will let you know if you have any “sleep debt” to notify you that you need to be getting more sleep. 

Strava: Strava is a running/biking app that has a fully featured GPS tracking service. It will track your runs but you can also use it as a social networking app to see your friends’ most recent runs and compete with them in various “challenges” like most miles ran in a month or fastest half marathon. You can also compare your run against other random users who have run or biked certain routes. Strava is even more motivating if you are competitive!

Transformed: This is a 12-week weight lifting program created by BodyBuilding.com. It can easily be used from beginners to more advance lifters and is designed for both men and women. I completed this program last month and was really impressed. It creates new plans every week. Each week has 5-7 workouts, with an optional rest day. It also includes videos for every lift to go over how to safely and effectively execute each move. The app also offers nutrition plans to supplement your exercise program. 



These are the apps that have worked the best for me, feel free to share your experiences with one of these apps or any others that you have found.

How Young Adults Can Develop a Growth Mindset

By: Mr. Jesse Danka, Special Education Teacher

“In a growth mindset, challenges are exciting rather than threatening.  So rather than thinking, oh, I’m going to reveal my weaknesses, you say, wow, here’s a chance to grow.”  ~ Carol Dweck  

As we become young adults, many of us are faced with variety of daily challenges. These challenges provide us ALL with the opportunity to learn and grow individually. From the time we open our eyes in the morning, until the time that we close our eyes at night, we are forced make choices that will ultimately determine our journey towards individual success. At the Pennsylvania Distance Learning Charter School, some of these important choices include: attendance in your live learning sessions, participation in these sessions, daily lesson completion and communication with teachers outside of regularly scheduled sessions.  The Iceberg Illusion is a great way help young adults visualize how our choices may affect individual success.  It is not an easy journey around the iceberg, but with hard work, dedication, discipline, sacrifice, failure, and persistence, a young adult can strive to be his or her best and continue to grow as an individual.     

Carol Dweck’s idea of a growth mindset is all of the things that we see happening under the surface in The Iceberg Illusion.  A growth mindset, as Dweck calls it, is exactly what it sounds like: a tendency to believe that you can grow individually in all aspects of life. It is important to understand that individuals with a growth mindset thrive on challenges and view failures as a springboard for growth and for stretching our existing abilities. 

On the flip-side, she explains that a “fixed mindset” assumes that our character, intelligence, and creative abilities are static and are unable to change over time.  These individuals tend to avoid challenges, give up easily on harder tasks, ignore constructive feedback and view effort as pointless.   

The differences between these two mindsets are found in the image below.   

Here are 10 Ways that Young Adults Can Develop a Growth Mindset:

1.  View Your Challenges as Opportunities for Self-Improvement 

(All growth is developed through challenges)

2. Acknowledge and Embrace Your Imperfections/Weaknesses 

(Focus on overcoming your weaknesses)

3. Replace the word “Failing” with “Learning” 

(Mistakes are not failures, they are learning experiences)

4. Focus on Growth over Speed 

(Learning well sometimes requires allowing time for mistakes)

5. View Criticism as Positive 

(Believe that the feedback of others can produce growth)

6. Take Time for Self-Reflection 

(Take the opportunity to reflect on your learning at least once a day)

7. Place Effort before Talent 

(Put forth maximum effort in all that you do)

8. Use the word “Yet” 

(If you are struggling with a concept, understand that you haven’t mastered the concept yet)

9. Think Realistically About Time and Effort 

(It takes time to learn, you can’t master everything in one day)

10. Take Ownership over Your Attitude 

(Once you develop a growth mindset, OWN IT!!!)

Please head on over to https://blog.mindsetworks.com/my-mindset?force=1&Itemid=908 and take your own Mindset Assessment.  This will allow you to determine what your current mindset is at this moment.

Also, please feel free to leave a comment below on how you have individually overcome adversity in the past or utilized growth mindset concepts from above to work through a difficult task.  We look forward to hearing your responses.

Work Cited

@sylviaduckworth. “The Iceberg Illusion.” Twitter, 15 Jul. 2015, 8:05 a.m., 

https://twitter.com/sylviaduckworth/status/621334733901983744.

Dweck, Carol.  Mindset Works.  Mindset Works, Inc., 20 May 2015, https://www.mindsetworks.com/.  

Accessed 2.10.2015.