Today was another ‘first’ day! While my roommates (and what seemed like the rest of Greeley) were all preparing for the first day back on campus, I was preparing for another first day with my internship. I have now moved onto a community portion of t

he competencies I need to fulfill in order to be an RD, and will spend the next 3 weeks helping the nutrition and wellness dietitian with Poudre Valley Health Systems in Fort Collins.

Growing up, the first day of school was always one of my favorite days of the school year. I loved seeing all my friends after break and the anticipation and excitement of who my new teacher was going to be was almost too much to handle.

As you can see…not much has changed

Although I wasn’t heading off to class, this morning I was still just as excited to be starting a new rotation with new dietetic experiences.

Sooo… with that being said, today was pretty darn fun! I met new people (just like school), discussed what I would be learning about in the near future (just like school) and researched some fun things (just like school!!).

My assignment for the day was to research nutrition and health related Smartphone apps that were user-friendly and (preferably) free. Although I’m pretty familiar with the iTunes App Store, I had no idea just how many apps were really out there. Some were full of great tips, some not so much.

Here are some favorites that I came across today:

Fooducate

Cost: Free.

Scan grocery items and review their nutritional profile. App also recommends heal

thier alternatives to items scanned. A great tool to use while grocery shopping; simply hold the camera on your phone within the designated barcode area in the application to get reliable feedback on the nutritional value of items scanned.

Diet and Food Tracker by SparkPeople.com

Cost: Free.

A mobile extension of Sparkpeople.com, this application provides daily guidance for food and exercise, including a calorie counter, meal plans, fitness programs, motivation systems and feedback reports (graphs, tips etc).

C25K (Couch to 5K)

Cost: $2.99.

This 9 week program has helped thousands of people ease into running and builds up their running strength. Great for beginner or intermediate level runners. A follow-on program ‘Couch to 10K’ is also available.

Allrecipes.com Dinner Spinner

Cost: Free.

Allows you to search for recipes by dish type, ingredient, and ‘ready-in’ categories (i.e. ready in under 20 mins, 45 mins, slow cooker options etc). Also has features that allow you to add recipes to a favorites list or email and share with friends. All recipes come with photos, ingredient list and easy to follow instructions.

RedLaser Barcode Scanner

Cost: Free.

A perfect shopping companion! This application allows you to scan the barcode on a grocery item using the camera on your phone and immediately searches for low online and local prices using your current location.

Tell me! Do you have any favorite health/nutrition/fitness apps?