Health & Fitness

If you use a sleep tracking app or otherwise like wearing your Apple Watch while you sleep instead of charging your watch overnight, you might struggle to find times to charge your watch and keep your battery levels up. Here's a list of suggestions for how to save Apple Watch battery life at night, while you sleep! While there's no way to keep your battery fully powered, if you try one or a combination of the suggestions below, you'll notice a difference and be able to roll out of bed without having to recharge your Apple Watch battery as often!

If the Apple Watch is too geeky and a typical fitness tracker doesn't do enough for your overall health and well-being, the GoBe 2 ($169) from Healbe may be of interest. They sent me their "Smart Life Band" which is something inbetween a smartwatch and a fitness tracker. The GoBe 2 measures (or recommends) calorie intake, energy balance, sleep quality, emotional states, water balance, burned calories, heart rate, stress level, steps, and distance. In short, it addresses all or most of the health benefits of a smartwatch, and perhaps more, but without the excess capabilities many fitness users wouldn't bother with.

Looking up your choices for "Food delivery near me" and not happy with the results? You can place a takeout order on Grubhub for restaurants (even those that don't offer delivery) and a driver will pick up your order and deliver it to your address. Grubhub orders can also be placed for pickup, but the real advantage of Grubhub is having the menus and pricing of local restaurants all on one app.  

Having trouble making it to the gym on time? Peloton Digital is an exercise app that provides workout routines for beginners or any level no matter where they are. Created by the same company that sells the Peloton bikes, you don't have to use their exercise equipment to use this app. Think of it as mobile workout classes, you can select a variety of exercise classes for one person or routines for workout partners. Every class is either live or recorded in an actual studio, so even if you're working out at home you can still feel like you're part of a group.

Coffee is my co-pilot throughout the week. But if you asked me how much I drink on average, I'd draw a blank. Since my coffee habit was actually on auto-pilot, I chose RECaf - Caffeine Recorder as a a caffeine tracker for what, when, and how much caffeine I was consuming. This app is compatible with "Hey Siri" for logging entries and has customizable options so I can add specific drinks or food with their approximate caffeine content.

All of us have had to plow through at least one difficult day of school or work after a less-than-optimal night of sleep, or even an all nighter. But what happens when a rough night becomes the norm? The Centers for Disease Control collects data about the sleep habits of Americans, and reports that one in three of us are getting fewer than the recommended seven hours of sleep per night. Whether you can't fall asleep, can't stay asleep, or both, insomnia is not only miserable, but bad for your health. I'm one of those insomniacs that can't stay asleep; waking up more nights than not after only about four hours of shut-eye, and not being able to drift off again for at least an hour or two. If you're like me, and have spent many wakeful hours wishing you could just relax and sleep, it's time to find some help. While relaxing bedtime routines, meditation for sleep, natural insomnia remedies, calming teas, and even sleeping pills can help, there's one more thing I think you should try: a sleep app for your iPhone! I tried Sleep Genius for two weeks, and am still using it every night. Sleep Genius is a sleep app that combines soothing sleep music, a gentle alarm, a relaxation program for anxiety at any time, and even a power nap feature! Read on to learn more about Sleep Genius, and why I think you should give this sleep app a home on your iPhone.

With such an infinite array of wired and Bluetooth headphones for running and working out, how do we know our money will buy an investment and not another piece of temporary tech? Headphones are a very competitive electronics category with players ranging from obscure to household name. As a complete and total music nerd, I have owned many a headphone pair. Studio monitors, wired and wireless earbuds of every gimmick and design, Bluetooth on-ears, in-ears, and over-ears, and countless random sets from disposable to decadent. Headphones have been an emotional receptor for me throughout my life, and a mirror for my artistic expression as a musician. Just over three months ago, I began a rigorous workout schedule, and I knew I would need the best sport headphones I could find. I played with a few wired and Bluetooth headphones for working out before I had the opportunity to write this article, and saw it as the perfect way to test these workout headphones in the field. Well, actually I tested them in the gym, in the field, on the trail, on a bike, and on a skateboard, but I think I covered some solid ground during the tests.

If you have an Apple Watch paired with your iPhone, you’re familiar with Activity rings. On the Apple Watch, your activity is represented by three concentric circles that track how much of your daily goals you have met. There’s a red circle for your Move goal, a green one for Exercise, and a blue one for Stand. However, you can also view these Activity rings in graph form in the Health app and include it as a part of your health Dashboard. Here’s how to view your activity rings in your health app dashboard.

It's a reality today that all wearables will be compared to the Apple Watch, but the Activité Pop ($149.95) from Withings compares favorably. For starters, it's a lot more affordable, at about $150. It's also waterproof, which Apple doesn't claim. The first thing you'll notice is that it's analog. That means the battery life can be measured in months (up to eight), not hours. It's still smart, just don't expect to read your text messages on it. What you can do, though, is track your activity, steps, and sleep, and receive vibration alarms.