Spinach artichoke dip. Cheese puff towers. Coconut shrimp bites.

Ah, the apps that dance through our heads right along with sugarplums. With about a billion parties and delicious landmines everywhere you look, the holidays are a great time to take advantage of a different kind of app. You know, the techie ones you have way too many of on your phone already.

Well, it's long past time to delete Farmville and download a few apps that can keep you on track with your health goals while you’re rockin’ (and munching and sipping) around the tree.

Happy Scale

Daily weigh-ins any time of year can be a nightmare. The euphoria from last week’s 2-pound loss can wear right off when you find yourself back where you started despite "doing everything right."

But, if you like weighing in often (and that’s ok if it works for you), there’s a great app that can take the edge off the constant ups and downs.

It’s called Happy Scale, and it is life-changing.

With some fancy algorithms, Happy Scale shows you your weight trends so you’re more focused on overall progress and not a number that can jump all over the place for whatever reason.

If you’re trying to do something kooky like lose weight over the holidays, Happy Scale is the app to help keep you sane along the journey.

Calm.com

In recent years, meditation has gained quite a bit of attention as a practice as good for you as exercise and eating right. In fact, studies show that meditation can help you with both of those things. 🤯

So, it’s no surprise that calm.com, an app chockfull of guided meditations and mindfulness exercises, has landed on “best” lists everywhere.

While we recommend using this app to keep you centered during the season of whirlwind shopping trips and marathon baking sessions, you may also find it helpful for gearing up for everything from a long run to a big presentation in 2019.

Namaste.

iHydrate

Our bodies are something like 50% water, so it makes sense that we have to keep taking the good stuff in to stay nice and hydrated. If you have trouble remembering to drink the recommended 8 glasses of water a day, iHydrate is a fun and effective way to remember.

So, what makes this app so worthy of adoration? It separates out the water content from everything else in your tea, lemonade, or even wine 🙌 and puts it towards your daily hydration goal.

It’s also easy to edit, sends you fun notifications, and it’s less than $3 to buy. A total steal! Anyone else kinda thirsty?

Aaptiv

Ok, this last app is actually kind of a holiday gift to you. Because it’s as good as your own dedicated personal trainer for $15 a month. Not, not per millisecond. PER MONTH.

Aaptiv is THE app for anyone that runs, rows, cycles or ellipticals (is that a word?) and would like some motivation to keep going even when tired legs are screaming “Stop, please…I’m jelly!”

Offering literally thousands of audio-only trainer guided workouts, Aaptiv can keep you focused on your sets while you stay pumped with the workout tunes you already love. Win/win, and pass a brioche toast, please.

So, dig into these guilt-free apps guys! Oh and have a treat here and there. It’s the holidays after all.