With obesity becoming more of an epidemic, living a healthier lifestyle is on everyone’s radar. We try all the latest diets, make more trips to the gym, and get as much sleep as possible to keep our weight down and our health up.
It can be disconcerting when all our efforts seem to be getting us nowhere. If we just knew exactly what our bodies needed, it would be much easier to achieve the healthy life we all covet and work for.
Although we may never know how to 100 percent meet the unique health needs of every person, smart technology is helping us get pretty close. Technology has always made things less difficult for us — communication, transportation, and accessing information — and it has made great strides in healthcare too.
However, health monitoring devices for personal use have only recently risen in popularity as wellbeing has become a major priority to people. That being said, there is a wide array for smart health technologies now that can greatly benefit us on our journey to healthier living. Here are a few to keep your eyes on.
Smart Diet
We can all use a little help when it comes to eating more nutritious foods. Junk food always seems to be calling our names and it can be hard to resist the temptation for very long. However, smart technology is making it so eating the right foods for your body is hassle free and as easy as possible.
For example, smart fridges are there for you when you see you’re running low on certain ingredients. With our busy schedules, we can instantly forget a shortage and go to the grocery store without making a much needed purchase.
So instead of stepping away from the fridge and leaving it to fate that you’ll remember to write a food item down on your grocery list, simply input it in your smart fridge and have it sent to your mobile phone. Some smart fridges are predicted to allow you to purchase your groceries and have them delivered to you in the near future as well.
Smart prep pads are also making their way into kitchens by acting as not only food scales, but calorie counters too. They notify you of the nutrient breakdown of the foods placed on the prep pads through the app that it’s connected to.
Lastly, to combat the lack of zeal some people feel about cooking and preparing their meals, smart ovens have come to the rescue. You can monitor and control how your food is cooking without actually having to be in the kitchen with some brands offering access to meal plans that are both nutritious and convenient to make.
Smart Fitness
In order to experience a beneficial workout, intensity and duration have to be taken into account among a number of other things.Thoughts can crawl into your mind on whether or not you’re doing enough or if you’re pushing yourself too hard. Exercising can be a delicate balance that many of us can’t get quite right.
With smart technology, though, finding peace with your fitness routine and staying active is made possible through wearable devices. Most have seen or own a wearable fitness tracker like Fitbit that keeps track of heart rate, distance traveled, and calories burned — taking out a lot of the guesswork of whether you got an intense enough workout.
However, smart technology is not only making leaps and bounds in people’s personal fitness, but overall health. Fitness trackers and other devices are now being utilized by healthcare professionals to analyze their patients’ data to make sure everything is functioning as it should.
Smart technology is taking it a step further by implementing wearable tech straight into a person’s clothing. Smart apparel functions in much the same way as smart watches and other similar wearable tech in that it monitors a person’s vital signs and other biometrics. Some brands also calculate speed and keep track of distance, even providing mapping features to help you discover new bike and running trails.
Smart Sleep
Sleep is just as crucial as diet and exercise in improving the quality of your health. Not only does getting a good night’s rest combat chronic diseases, increase concentration, and boost mental health, but it also helps with any weight loss goals you might have.
Although the use of electronics is usually associated with inhibiting sleep, smart tech has come up with a variety of solutions to help you go and stay asleep. The first thing you’ll want to take a look at is your mattress.
With the advent of smart beds, getting a better night’s rest has never been easier. These mattresses are able to monitor a multitude of factors such as heart rate, breathing, REM sleep, how long you sleep, and how much you toss and turn throughout the night.
Most products are paired with an app that will analyze these results and give you helpful tips and suggestions — like a change in diet, exercise routine, and temperature — to make sure you hit the hay more effectively next time. Some will even adjust firmness levels while you sleep to ensure a deeper slumber.
In addition, there are even smart pillows to aid in your quest for rest. Certain brands address the need of temperature control when going to bed, having the pillow cool and heat up during certain times to lull you to sleep and to wake you up to get ready for the day.
If you’re not in the market for a new mattress or pillow, there are plenty of sleep trackers that monitor the same things as the products mentioned before and still provide you with suggestions on better sleeping habits and environments.
Trying to get healthy on your own can sometimes seem like too big of a job for just one person. You could hire a personal trainer or a dietician, but that can become quite the expense and harm the health of your finances. There are also plenty of resources online that can aid in your pursuit of better health, but the amount of information can become quickly overwhelming as well and paralyze you into doing nothing.
Technology has always made things easier for us and it hasn’t let us down when it comes to improving our eating, fitness, and sleeping habits. There’s a whole world of smart technology to explore when it comes to your wellbeing. By taking a smarter approach to your health, your body and your peace of mind will thank you.
