Conversion Chart for Gluten Free Baking

If you are switching to a gluten-free diet, you might have difficulty trying to figure out how to measure the alternatives for wheat flour.  This chart from GYGI should help. Check out the helpful hits that follow the chart.

Things You Should Know:

-If the recipe calls for 1 teaspoon of baking soda, use 1 teaspoon of baking soda and 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder

-If the recipe calls for 1 teaspoon of baking powder, use 1-1/2 teaspoons of baking powder.

-If the recipe calls for 1 egg, use 2 eggs and decrease liquid in the recipe by 2 tablespoons.

-If the recipe calls for 2 eggs, use 3 eggs and decrease the liquid in the recipe by 2 tablespoons.

(Decrease the liquid called for in the recipe by 2 tablespoons per egg added)

Helpful Hints:

-Gluten-free baking is not as complicated as it seems. You can make your own flour mix by combining the rice flour, potato starch and tapioca starch and sifting it together well. Don’t add the xantham gum to this mix. Once you have done that, add this combination as if it is wheat flour. If your recipe calls for 3 cups of wheat flour, add 3 cups of your gluten-free combination. Then add the appropriate amount of xantham gum. (see the chart above). Store the gluten-free mix just like you do flour.

-Gluten-free baked goods do not last as long as goods baked with wheat flour. If you are not going to use up everything you just baked within the next day or two, the best way to keep it fresh is to freeze it. Most baked goods freeze well.

Please let us know if you have any questions regarding gluten-free baking. We are here to help! It can be a little bit overwhelming at first, but once you get the hang of it… it’s a breeze! (Decrease the liquid called for in the recipe by 2 tablespoons per egg added)

 

 

Lose the Toxins -- Lose the Fat

What have I learned about toxins and fat and weight loss?  I have been overweight all my life.  For fifty years I lost weight, only to regain it along with the proverbial 5 to 10 pound bonus.  Then I learned about the link between toxin overload and my inability to lose weight and fat. 

I started a deep cleansing program and have subsequently lost 90 pounds of fat in less than five months, while I gained lean muscle mass.  Even when I decided to take a break from my active weight loss program and went on maintenance, I was able to maintain that 90 pound loss for a year because I kept cleansing weekly.

I have added back the weight loss aspect of my program, and once again the weight and fat is just melting off.

I have included excerpts from two books that explain this link between toxins and fat.

Please contact me if you would like more information.

From Suzanne Somers book Sexy Forever:

"Obesity rates have more than doubled in the past thirty years.  Doesn't this raise the question of why?  Toxins make you fat.  It's that simple, and that complex.  Here's why. Mitochondria are the little powerhouses inside every living cell in your body.  They provide power for your cells by creating energy from fats and sugars, thereby driving your metabolism and fueling your whole body.

When toxins enter your body the buildup damages the mitochondria, your cellular power plants, so they no longer work effectively.  As a result fats and sugars that aren't being burned for fuel pile up all over the body in the form of extra pounds.  Also, without the mitochondria working optimally, you lose your physical energy." 

Other excerpts from Suzanne Somer's book:

"Scientific studies show a strong correlations between levels of toxic burden, higher body weight, and the risk of diabetes."

"No matter how the toxins get into our bodies, whether through the lungs, stomach, or skin, they all meet in the liver at some point and from there get sent to the kidneys and colon for elimination, become trapped in bones, muscles, tissues, or other organs, or they get locked in the liver itself, or they get stored away in fat cells!

The fact that many toxins get trapped in fat cells deserves special attention.  Fat cells don't get broken down easily, so the toxins literally weigh the body down.  If you carry excess fat, burning up that fat releases toxins into the bloodstream for proper removal.  As toxins accumulate, they act in unsuspected ways.  You begin to experience health problems, like allergies, colds, migraines, and infertility, or major diseases like breast cancer and dementia."

Dr. Walter Crinnion points out in his book, Clean, Green & Lean, that excess fat hiding toxins are making you sick AND fat:

"If you're more than 25 pounds above your ideal weight and you're suffering from one or more of the following illnesses, your body is telling you that it's in toxic overload." 

                         * Allergies
                         * Asthma
                         * Autoimmune disease (lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, Hashimoto's Thyroidtis
                         * Bone marrow cancer (lymphomas, leukemia, multiple myeloma)
                         * Chemical sensitivity
                         * Chronic fatigue
                         * Diabetes
                         * Fibromyalgia
                         * Infertility
                         * Parkinsonism
                         * Obesity

Donna Helm -- newtraditions99@yahoo.com -- www.thehealthyhelms.com
 

That Doughnut Will Cost You 88 Minutes of Cruches ... and More Bad News!!!

This chart really DOES make me think!!!  Now that I am exercising regularly, I am much more careful about my food choices!!

Isagenix Success Story: Amy Hanson

Amy Hanson, Isagenix distributor and user said she has never seen her abs since she was in her 20s.  Here is how she looks at 40!!!

 

Congratulations Amy!!!!

EFT Video for Weight Loss Self-Sabotage -- Video

I had a little problem yesterday by eating something that was not in my game plan for the day.  I realized that this has happened to me often as I near my goals.  I decided to tap (use EFT techniques) on the issue of self-sabotage.  Here is a video you can tap along with if you are also experiencing self-sabbage within your weight loss program.

Ending Self-Sabotage with Kim

 

 

How Does Cleansing Work?

If you would like to get started with your own Cleansing Routine,

visit my website: The Healthy Helms or

write me at newtraditions99@yahoo.com.

 

Poster Image from www.IsagenixHealth.net

We Won! We are Corvallis' Greatest Losers!!

I am so excited to announce that my husband Tom and I won the first Corvallis' Greatest Loser Challenge!! This challenge was sponsored by The Sue Long Team (Keller-Williams Realty) and Bill Zipp Consulting.

Tom lost 10% of this weight in 12 weeks, and I lost 8.6% of mine. This was a city wide contest and we were up against people in all programs, ViSalus, Nutrisystem, Weight Watchers, MediFast, etc. The Isagenix System really proved itself.

The next contest starts on April 16th and we would really appreciate your support!!

Thanks!!!

Nutritional Rebalancing Is NOT a Diet

This is why I have been successful with the Isagenix program.

It really does work!!

For more information go to http://www.thehealthyhelms.com

or write me at newtraditions99@yahoo.com.

How to Stop Night Time Eating!!

I was a night-time grazer.  I was also an insomniac so I had plenty of time to graze!!  I used this information from Isagenix Health to get past the night eating problem and now I have also solved the sleep problem with our Brain and Sleep Support System.

 

How To Stop Late Night Cravings

It’s 11 p.m. and you’ve just scarfed down a slice of leftover pizza and a few too many Oreo cookies. The satisfying taste of salty and sweet is quickly overcome by guilt, frustration, and what is now an uncomfortably full belly. After eating balanced meals and healthy snacks all day, you are defeated by your late-night craving for junk food
.
How can you avoid this self-defeating debacle? New research shows that eating a high-protein breakfast is the best way to avoid those p.m. cravings.

A study from the University of Missouri-Columbia showed that subjects who ate a high-protein breakfast had increased levels of satiety along with reductions in brain activity responsible for controlling food cravings that lasted into the evening.

The study looked at 20 overweight or obese adolescent females aged 18 to 20 years old. Participants were split into three groups: a high-protein breakfast group that consumed eggs and lean beef, a normal-protein breakfast group that ate ready-to-eat cereal, and a group that skipped breakfast. The breakfasts all consisted of about 350 calories and had similar fat, fiber, and sugar amounts.

The researchers found that those who ate breakfast had increased daily fullness compared to those who skipped, with the high-protein group having the greatest ratings of satiety throughout the day. Additionally, the high-protein group, but not the normal-protein group, had reduced levels of the hormones (ghrelin and peptide YY) that increase appetite compared to the no breakfast group.

With greater satiety and decreased appetite hormones, its no surprise that subjects in the high-protein group reported reduced evening snacking on high-fat foods. As lead researcher Professor Heather Leidy stated in a press release, “Eating a protein-rich breakfast impacts the drive to eat later in the day, when people are more likely to consume high-fat or high-sugar snacks.”

In addition to eating a breakfast rich in protein, here are some breakfast rules to follow so you can avoid late-night binging:

Bump up the Fiber: The faster a meal digests, the sooner you will feel hungry again. Simple sugars found in white flour products like pastries, doughnuts, or bagels can have you battling hunger pangs soon after eating. Make sure your breakfast has at least 5 grams of fiber to keep you feeling fuller, longer.

Don’t Forget the Fat: Fat takes longer to leave the stomach than protein or carbohydrates. Because of this, a little healthy fat can be beneficial in controlling cravings. Of course, a little fat goes a long way so be careful not to go overboard.

The 60-minute Rule: Try to eat your first meal of the day within an hour of waking. The longer a person waits to eat, the greater their hunger may be and it may be more difficult to feel satisfied. This can lead to overeating and making poor food choices. Instead, feed your body with a balanced breakfast and have control over cravings throughout the day.

Want a breakfast that has all the makings of a late-night craving killer? Look no further than Isagenix IsaLean Shakes with 24 grams of high-quality protein, 8 grams of fiber, and a healthy balance of fat, IsaLean Shakes will have you feeling satisfied and confident with your food choice. Also, the ease and convenience of IsaLean Shakes will help you stick to the 60-minute rule so breakfast doesn’t turn into lunch. Say “no” to tempting junk food at night by starting your day off right with Isagenix.

Reference: Leidy HJ, Ortinau LC, Douglas SM, Hoertel HA. Beneficial effects of a higher-protein breakfast on the appetitive, hormonal, and neural signals controlling energy intake regulation in overweight/obese, “breakfast-skipping,” late-adolescent girls. Am J Clin Nutr 2013;97:677-88. doi: 10.3945/ajcn.112.053116

To find out more about our IsaLean Pro Shakes (with 36g protein), IsaLean Shakes (with 24g protein) or our Brain and Sleep Support System go to our website The Healthy Helms.

We made the Paper!!

Weight-loss competition organizer hopes to inspire community

By Anthony Rimel, Corvallis Gazette-TimesCorvallis Gazette Times

Next Wednesday marks the end of a competition between a small group of local residents who have been waging one of modern society’s most perennial battles over the past 12 weeks: trying to shed their excess weight. Modeled after the NBC show “The Biggest Loser,” the competition is called the “Corvallis Greatest Loser,” and its 12 participants already have lost 139 pounds collectively.

Sue Long, a Corvallis real estate broker who organized the competition, said she hopes their efforts will inspire other local groups to organize similar competitions.“My goal is to make Corvallis the healthiest community in America,” she said. Long, who was a dietitian before she became a broker, said she modeled parts of the program on a similar competition in Lebanon.

At the start of the competition, participants each contribute $20 to a pool and agree to pay an additional $10 if they miss their weekly weigh-in at Long’s office, or if the weigh-in indicates that they’ve gained weight. At the end of the competition the money collected will be split between the male and female contestants who lost the greatest percentage of body weight.

Participants meet every few weeks for a discussion with experts on various exercise, health and nutrition topics. Long said they also have weekly challenges aimed at healthy living, such as drinking a total of 64 ounces of water each day for a week or getting eight hours of sleep every night.

Long said she participated in the competition herself, so she “felt the pain of what was going on, too.”
Being the leader of the group inspired her to stick with the program — even after she broke her ankle four weeks in — because she felt accountable to the group.

Donna Helm, a wellness coach from Corvallis, was one of the contest’s participants, and she said that she and her husband participated because they thought it would help to motivate them.  “I think accountability is the big thing we needed. That, and support,” she said.  Helm said she has lost 23 pounds over the course of the competition; she has lost 85 pounds since June 2011.  She chose to participate in part because, she said, she had reached a plateau in her weight loss, and she thought this would be a good opportunity to push herself more.

“My husband and I tended to not make the best food decisions,” she said, and now they eat less meat and more vegetables. She added that they are exercising more, and have started to use the gym equipment they had bought in the past, but never used.  “We kept thinking buy the machine, and you’ll get thinner. We forgot you had to use it, too,” she said.

After the competition ends next week, Long plans to start it again April 15. Helm said that she will participate again.  “It has been really beneficial to be part of this challenge,” she said.

Anthony Rimel covers K-12 education. He can be reached at 541-758-9526 or anthony.rimel@lee.net.

Benefits of Oregano Tea plus Recipe

I am starting to plant my herbs in my greenhouse. Oregano is one of my favorite herbs for cooking, but I never thought of using it as a tea.  After seeing this poster with all the benefits I think I am going to brew some ... it should be an interesting taste.

This idea is from Edible Harmony.

Thermogenesis and Visceral Fat Loss by Dr. Michael Colgan

Dr Michael Colgan
22 March 2013

Thermogenesis is the creation of heat in the body. It occurs mainly through an extraordinary mechanism called brown adipose tissue (BAT), which permits the production of heat directly from bodyfat without going through the energy cycle.(1) 

A hibernating bear for example, can lose 300 lbs of fat while it sleeps, as its body converts bodyfat to BAT, then creates the heat required to prevent it freezing over the winter. The bear does not have to move a muscle.

We are not as efficient as bears at burning fat with BAT. Nevertheless, the amount of BAT in the body of a 40-year-old man or woman is still sufficient to use 10% -15% of their total energy, and get all of it from bodyfat.

But you have to get your BAT moving. Turn up the inner heat. Exposure to cold is very effective. Bit extreme but it works. I am busy at my annual task convincing clients to sit and meditate under a freezing waterfall, or lie in the snow in swimmers by the pool (frozen). These are popular methods for fat loss right now, every Canadian springtime. I wear a 30-below suit with hood and balaclava so they don’t notice my hysterics.

Usual weight loss programs don’t activate BAT at all. Quite the opposite. If you go on a sudden food restriction diet, the body automatically turns down its heat production and its energy production as a defence mechanism to conserve its fat. That’s why dieters generally feel cold and tired.

You Can Increase BAT Activity

If you can’t face the freeze, there are several things in natural foods raise BAT activity nicely. Best known is caffeine from coffee. Controlled studies show that a cup of ground arabica coffee on an empty stomach in the morning increases thermogenesis and burns bodyfat for up to four hours afterwards.(2,3)

Green tea also has a separate thermogenic effect, originally thought to be because of its caffeine content. Recent studies, however, show that a group of chemicals called catechins in green tea are mostly responsible. The main catechin in green tea, epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) induces thermogenesis by itself.(2-3)

In a placebo-controlled study, in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, two groups of 19, healthy, middle-aged men used a moderately reduced calorie diet, plus tea for 12 weeks. Green tea extract was added to the tea of 19 subjects to yield high levels of catechins. Tea without the extract, containing only low levels of catechins, was used by the 19 controls. The group consuming tea with high catechins lost an average of 5.4 lbs of bodyfat, approximately TWICE the bodyfat loss of the control group. Much of the loss was visceral fat from belly and thighs. The researchers concluded:

“Body weight, BMI, waist circumference, body fat mass, and subcutaneous fat area were significantly lower in the green tea extract group than in the control group.”(4)

You don’t have to freeze off the flab. Lose that belly fat nice and easy. Brain Boost contains high levels of EGCG from green tea, and the e+ shot contains both green tea caffeine and catechins. Take both before your workout and green tea with every meal. It’s a great way to fine-tune abs and buns for the summer, with the bonus of a better brain and more giddy-up to boot.

For more information go to http://www.thehealthyhelms.com/

1. Stock MJ. Thermogenesis and brown fat: relevance to human obesity. Infusionstherapie, 1989;16(6):282-284.
2. Wolfram S, Wang Y, Thielecke F. Anti-obesity effects of green tea: from bedside to bench. Mol Nutr Food Res, 2006;50(2):176-187.
3. Nagao T, Komine Y, Soga S, Meguro S, Hase T, Tanaka Y, Tokimitsu I. Ingestion of a tea rich in catechins leads to a reduction in body fat and malondialdehyde-modified LDL in men. Am J Clin Nutr. 2005;81(1):122-129.
4. Nagao T, Hase T, Tokimitsu I. A green tea extract high in catechins reduces body fat and cardiovascular risks in humans. Obesity, 2007;15(6):1473-1483.

Exercising but Not Losing Fat? Maybe This is the Problem by Dr. Michael Colgan

Dr Michael Colgan -- 14 March 2013
from Isagenix Nutritional Sciences

Image from compareweightlossprogram.com

One of my fat loss clients, has been steadily losing about one pound of fat per week on our nutrition and exercise program, 32 lbs overall. Eager to make a Size 4 for the summer, she thought she wasn’t losing enough. So she joined another gym and hired a trainer.

First week he had her jogging on the treadmill, a hard puff-and-pant exercise for an overweight girl who never jogged. He told her she had to keep going for 30 minutes or she would not lose any fat. Then she had to do an aerobics class for 30 minutes. But she was allowed an oatmeal muffin and some nice organic fruit juices to keep her going. She did both bouts of exercise for five days for one week, then came back to me exhausted, pleading that she had gained weight, and that perhaps ours was the best way.

As often occurs, there were several things wrong with the gym exercise she was given. First, the treadmill jogging was anaerobic for her. That is, she was puffing and panting, indicating a shortage of oxygen. Bodyfat is calorie dense. At 9 calories per gram it needs plentiful oxygen to enable the body to burn it. All endurance athletes know this well. Their VO2 max is the maximum aerobic effort they can make and still burn fat. Any greater intensity and they will turn anaerobic, stop burning fat, quickly burn up all their sugar, and hit the dreaded “wall”.

Second thing wrong; the trainer didn’t give her a diet beyond telling her some healthy things to eat, and he encouraged her to take fruit juice during exercise to keep her going. She told me she also had an oatmeal muffin and juice at the gym beforehand, “or I just couldn’t face it”. We estimated that she had at least 400 calories before starting and another 200-400 during the exercise, about 600-800 extra calories per day, a total of 3,000 – 4,000 extra calories for the five workouts. Bottom line. Any calories you put in your stomach before or during exercise to lose fat, will be preferentially used first by the body. So she was setting herself up to grow plump as a goose.

How much fat did she burn? If you could burn fat perfectly, (remember, no calories in the stomach and no panting) aerobic treadmill work or aerobics classes can use up to 200 calories of fat in an hour. So, if everything was perfect, she could burn a total of 1000 calories (about 4 ounces of fat) over the 5 workouts. Because of the mistakes in her program, likely she burned half that, probably only 500 calories (only 2 ounces of fat loss) over the whole 5 workouts. Meanwhile she ate an extra 3,000 – 4,000 calories, at least half of which would be turned to fat (6-8 ounces of fat gain) just to be able to do the workouts.

For comparison, steady housework uses about 130 fat calories per hour. It’s a good level of effort for burning fat, and costs nothing. Because you are in proximity to food, however, you have to resist eating anything, or you switch to burning mainly sugar. Two hours housework a day will burn far more fat than most gym workouts. Let’s consider perfect fat burning again: 2 hours housekeeping per day x 6 days a week = 12 hours. Twelve hours at 130 calories = 1,560 calories (6 ounces of fat loss) per week. Beats her gym workouts – no contest.

Whenever I see nonsensical gym programs for fat loss I turn back to the rigorous meta-analysis of 25 years of controlled research on exercise and fat loss published in The International Journal of Obesity. These were all medium intense gym programs for fat loss, supervised and motivated by university trainers. They counted only people who attended regularly for 4-6 hours per week. Average weight loss over all the studies was 6.4 lbs in 15 weeks. That’s an average loss of only 7 ounces a week.(1)

The researchers also examined studies that added a reasonable nutrition program to the exercise. Results got much rosier. The same meta-analysis examined the best of the exercise-plus-diet studies over 25 years. In 15 weeks, on a good diet plus 4-6 hours per week in the gym, subjects lost an average of 24.2 lbs. That’s a loss of 1.6 lbs per week.(1)

So, if we compare the exercise alone groups (loss of 6.4 lbs) with the exercise-plus-diet groups (loss of 24.2 lbs), adding the nutrition resulted in a loss of 17.8 lbs of fat. Now you know, no matter what anyone tells you, fat loss is mostly dependent on what and when you eat.

My client is back on her diet track now. After torturing herself very expensively in the gym for 5 hours, our body composition machine showed a gain of 4 lbs, about 3 lbs of water because her body was swollen from the effort, and about 1 lbs of fat. By working out until (in her own words), “my legs turned to Jello”, she had wiped out a week of the fat loss she was getting from a simple diet of two shakes and one meal a day. As I have written many times before, the usual exercise program is excellent at removing fat – but only from your wallet.

If you want to learn more secrets of weight loss go to The Healthy Helms Website.

 1. Miller WC, Koceja DM Hamilton EJ. A meta-analysis of the past 25 years of weight loss research using diet, exercise or diet plus exercise intervention. Int J Obesity, 1997;21:941-947.

How to Reduce Your Body Fat Percentage

Image from LiveStrong.com

Wonder how to reduce your body fat percentage?  Here is a great presentation from the LiveStrong  blog.

Click HERE for presentation.

Why I LOVE Love Apples (Tomatoes) plus Recipe

I love using tomatoes in my cooking which is evident in how many tomato varieties I have already planted this year.  Here is a great poster from Farmers Market which explains good reasons that you should love tomatoes too!  Followed by a great recipe for Baked Tomatoes Oregano.

Baked Tomatoes Oregano

Prep Time: 15 minutes                   Cook Time: 20 minutes                  Serves: 4



Image from AllRecipes.com



Note:  Ripe tomatoes are baked with Romano cheese, fresh bread crumbs, garlic and herbs.  It reminds me of pizza without the crust!  I love this simple recipe on nights we are grilling.

Ingredients:

4 large ripe tomatoes, sliced ¼ inch thick
1/8 cup grated Romano cheese
1/2 cup fresh bread crumbs
1 clove garlic, minced
2 sprigs fresh parsley, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1 Tablespoon olive oil
Sprig of basil

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Coat a shallow baking dish with cooking spray.

2. Place tomato slices close together in prepared  baking dish.  Sprinkle with cheese, bread crumbs, garlic, parsley, salt, pepper, and oregano.

3.  Bake for 20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until cheese is lightly toasted.

4.  Garnish with a sprig of basil.

Nutrition Info: Calories: 110     Total Fat: 5g     Cholesterol: 4mg     Sodium: 103mg
Total Carbs: 14g (Dietary Fiber 3g)     Protein: 3g



My Spicy Veggie Fry Spice - Recipe

Fries are not just for potatoes any more.  Since Tom and I have started growing our own produce, I have discovered you can make "fries" out of all kinds of veggies.  I've used sweet potatoes, carrots, parsnips, and lot of different squashes.  The other great thing about my veggie fries ... is that they are not "fried" at all ... they are baked!! (Taking out TONS of calories and fats).

I like my fries "spicy" so I have come up with what I consider a great seasoning for my veggie creations.

I start off by setting the oven temperature to 425 degrees F. 

The next step is to cut up the veggies (in this case I am using Georgia Jet yams/sweet potatoes).

Then I mix the seasoning which consists of:
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground salt (I use Himalayan Salt)
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon sweet paprika
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

Here is a little time saving tip.  I mix up 3-4 times the amount of seasoning that I need and put it into a shaker bottle.  Not only does it save time when I am trying to make dinner, it also makes it easier to evenly distribute the seasoning over the "fries."

Next I lightly spray the vegetables with an olive oil cooking spray (like Pam), and I shake some of the seasoning onto the veggies.

Pop them into the pre-heated oven and bake for 20-25 minutes (turning once after 10 minutes).

Take out and enjoy.  I like to serve sweet potato fries with light ranch dressing for dipping.

Let me know what you think?

Nutrition & Fitness Apps

The ONLY reason I have a mobile phone is because I am in LOVE with apps (I actually HATE talking on the phone!!)  Here are “8 Health and Fitness Apps for Couch Potatoes” by Anne Karasek.

Apps to get you moving

iTreadmill – $1.99 — No gym? No excuses. iTreadmill is a virtual treadmill (hence the name) that tracks everything a treadmill can track during use, including distance, current pace, average pace, current speed, average speed, calories, steps per minute, step count and elapsed time. Think of this app as a treadmill right in your hand. It also allows you to track your run history; shows graphs of your runs for motivation and even set goals for yourself. You don’t have to be a runner to use this app; many use iTreadmill for walking around the neighborhood, local malls or even running around the park.

C2K – Free — Imagine being able to run a 5k in just eight short weeks. All it takes is 30 minutes a day, three days a week.  This app is amazing and totally fool-proof to get you there. With C2K, you basically have a personal trainer right in your hand as the app has an audio coach that alerts you when it’s time to run and when it’s time to walk. I’ve completed the first two weeks of the program, and I love it. It starts with a brisk five-minute warm up, alternates between 60 seconds of jogging and 90 seconds of brisk walking for 20 minutes, and finishes with a five-minute cool down. As the workouts go along, you begin to walk less and run more, and it is a simple way to build your running capacity. This app also lets you jam out to your own music, and you can even alternate playing pump up songs during the running part and more chill songs during the walking part.

Runtastic – Free — Who wouldn’t want a personal cheerleader in her pocket? (OK, maybe not everyone; that would get annoying.) But if that’s your thing, Runtastic gives you live cheering during your workouts to help you stay motivated. Runtastic is your personal tracking app, and all-in-one exercise app for running, biking and other cardio activities. With a built in GPS, you can map out your activities, as well as track distance, time, speed, calories and pace. Haven’t you always wanted to know how long a walk from Fenway to Newbury Street really is, and how many calories you’ve burned on your way to get fro-yo? Well, now with this app, you can track it, burn calories and set goals.

Pocket Yoga – $2.99 — Get your Zen on anywhere and anytime. As a yoga-skeptic, I’ve been officially converted by using this app. Pocket Yoga allows you to do yoga at your own pace and on your own time. It features three different practices, three different difficulty levels and three different lengths of time for your workout, for a total of 27 different yoga sessions. Pocket Yoga also features detailed voice instructions and visual instructions to guide you through every pose, including breathing techniques. Pocket Yoga does feature soothing default music, but if you feel like listening to Jay Z while you Zen out, you can do that as well.

FitBit – Free; Device: $100 — This app is a little more of a commitment because first you need to purchase a FitBit monitor called, “The One,” priced at $100. If you are serious about getting healthy, this app is serious to get you there by turning health into a lifestyle for you. This little device measures your sleep cycle and helps you learn how to sleep better. During the day, it tracks your steps, distance, calories burned and even stairs climbed. By getting the free FitBit app, you can track your progress via the FitBit on your phone.

Apps as nutrition trackers

MyFitnessPal – Free — Nobody loves to track calories, but unfortunately, spring is coming, and we can no longer hide in our oversized coats and sweaters.With MyFitnessPal, you can track what you eat digitally. I’ve used MyFitnessPal for the past four years, and it helps me know how many calories I’m eating while also tracking my exercise and allowing me to set weight loss goals. It has a database of over 2 million foods and 350 exercises, and it allows you to create your own foods and exercises if you can’t find them in their database. You can also track with friends to motivate yourself because, according to MyFitnessPal, members who diet with friends lose three times more weight on average.

LoseIt! – Free — LoseIt! is another app that tracks your food input and exercise. It has a database of food and exercise activities, which allows you to accurately track what you eat. You can also earn badges for your successes and share your progress on Twitter and Facebook. Like MyFitnessPal, it creates a report on protein, fats, carbohydrates and more. It also lets you see how you’re doing with your weight loss goals.

LiveStrong – Lite free; full $2.99 — Although Lance may have let us down, the LiveStrong food and exercise app won’t. Created with MyPlate in mind (the new version of the food pyramid), its focus is on helping you eat a balanced and nutritional meal. It takes into account your age, gender and activity level, allowing you to customize your goals for nutrition or weight loss.