This article was published on October 27, 2012

11 apps to promote healthy lifestyles among employees


11 apps to promote healthy lifestyles among employees

These days, there’s an app for everything small-business related, from easing the pains of payroll to holding virtual meetings with contractors on the other side of the world. And there’s also an app for everything when it comes to personal productivity, helping people keep efficient to-do lists and staying on top of their family matters.

Yet as the work-life balance blurs more than ever — especially for an employee of a startup team — entrepreneurs are taking the pledge to not only lead their colleagues to success, but to protect them from burnout and bad health along the way. Luckily, there really are apps for that.

I asked a panel of successful young entrepreneurs the following question:

What’s one must-have web or mobile tool that’s helping you (or your startup team) stay fit and healthy?

Here are the 11 top wellness web tools and apps to equip your team with:

1. Go with FitBit

Our life-balance coordinator started a program allowing people to get FitBit apps paid by the company. Nearly 300 people are using them, and they’re part of the same online community, which allows everyone to see each other’s activity. The transparency and gamification aspects of it have led people to really step up the amount of activity they do on a daily basis.

Brant Bukowsky, Veterans United Home Loans

2. Brain Trainer by Lumosity

Apart from staying fit and healthy physically, we enjoy and encourage a mental workout. We use Brain Trainer by Lumosity, a San Francisco-based development group. The tools Lumosity provide are effective in challenging our minds and clearing our thoughts. I often find myself turning to the Brain Trainer app in the office to clear my mind before starting a heavy work-related task.

George Mavromaras, Mavro Inc. | Praetor Global LLC.

3. Unlock human potential with Lift

I’ve been using Lift — a mobile app by Obvious Corporation — for a few months and have been happy with the results. It allows you to set your own goals or join goals others have set and track your progress in a simple, fast process. There are some social features that allow users to give “Props” and check on friends’ goals, which makes it a great tool for teams to use too.

Martina Welke, Zealyst

4. 5×5 Strong Lifts

My co-founder and I have been friends since grade school and have been competitive with each other at everything including our fitness. We take Friday afternoons to brainstorm and workout. It’s one of the best parts of our company culture. I’ve been using the 5×5 Strong Lifts Tracker app to come up with our workout routines.

Matt Wilson, Under30CEO.com

5. Restaurant Nutrition

Restaurant Nutrition gives you the scoop on more than 115 restaurants and 19,000 menu items to decide whether a restaurant is a healthy place to eat. This is especially great while traveling, since you may not be familiar with the local restaurants.

DC Fawcett, Paramount Digital Publishing

6. Try MeetCody.com

I use MeetCody.com — it’s basically a Facebook for fitness. I get reminders from friends and from Cody to log workouts and track my fitness progress. My friends comment on my workouts, keeping me motivated.

Bhavin Parikh, Magoosh Test Prep

7. Download RunKeeper

Despite all the competition, RunKeeper is still our favorite at Greatist HQ. We appreciate its top-notch tracking info and simple click-to-brag sharing. Plus, we like how easy it is to pull in the other tools we use, thanks to its Open Health Graph!

Derek Flanzraich, Greatist

8. Take Tawkon seriously

Phone radiation is something I’m taking seriously from day one. Tawkon is an awesome app that reminds you to avoid speaking directly on the phone in order to cut down on radiation.

Ben Lang, EpicLaunch

9. Scan with Fooducate

Fooducate is an easy app that allows you to scan a bar code and immediately be able to access information about the item’s nutritional content. It may scare you away from some of the things you normally eat!

John Hall, Digital Talent Agents

10. Nike+ running app

The latest version of the Nike running app is awesome. You can get feedback and share through Facebook, map out your best routes, and compete on a friendly basis with your coworkers and contacts. If you have a group of people that likes to run, there is no better app to promote more exercise.

Sean Ogle, Location 180, LLC

11. Mor.sl for healthy eating

Mor.sl is a very cool Washington, D.C. startup that provides fast and healthy recipes in a very cool format (think Pinterest for cooking). This web tool is beneficial for our team as first, helps us eat healthy, and second, cooking at home creates a bunch of cost savings, something every entrepreneur craves!

Aaron Schwartz, Modify Watches

Image Credit: Sebastian Derungs/Getty Images

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