3 Apps for Addiction Recovery

An essential part of recovery is focusing on one’s health to ensure that mind, body, and spirit work together to stay motivated. In today’s world, stresses come from all angles; so it is important to have tools ready to safeguard against them.

Everyone takes their health for granted until they get sick. The best way to defend against this is to be proactive with a healthy lifestyle and to make smart choices. What is great is that there are apps out there to help with this. These apps can help you in your progression to maintaining good health and have fun while doing it.

Lifesum

iOS Free Android Free

When it comes to “healthy” living, not everyone’s wants are the same.

Some want to lose weight, others want to build muscle; while others are looking to just “be healthy”.

Lifesum is just the app for you. This all-around app helps you make smarter food choices, improve your exercise routine to reach the health goals you have set for yourself, and more. By using the app as part of your overall daily planner, you are able to develop healthy habits in small, maintainable steps.

How’s it work? Once you download this app to your phone, you will be asked what is it that you want to do. As you input specific data, the app recognizes what your goals are and what is needed to attain them. For example, the food and water intake tracking shows you not only how many calories you have had for your meal but will also remind you that hydration is needed throughout the day to maintain your goals.

Lifesum Water Gauge

This app offers you a variety of neat features to keep you motivated rather than just giving you a “to-do” list. This includes:

• Reminders to help you drink enough water
• Feedback to improve the quality of what you eat
• Advice for the days you might struggle
• A selection of diets to help you embrace healthy living
• Overview of your nutrition and exercise habits so you can improve them
• Body summary to show you how you are progressing (including weight and measurements)

Lifesum Food Gauge

My Thoughts: This is a great app for those that use their phone for exercise and nutrition. The features and prompts keep you alerted to what you are doing (and not doing) without having you feel like it’s just another timer going off on your phone. The fact that you can share your progress with your friends is a nice feature too. The down side is that some of these features are not free and you need to upgrade to Lifesum Gold to use them. I would normally be turned off by what seems to be a bait and switch, but this app does what it says. It really is the app for those serious about fitness and nutrition.

ShopWell

iOS Free Android Free

So you have decided to take the healthy route, great, but have you really looked at what you are eating? We all take for granted that the foods we are eating to be healthy are good for us. Wrong. Too many foods that claim to be nutritious have things like massive amounts of sodium in them. So you think you are eating well when in fact you are not.

Introducing Shopwell. A great app that you use at the store while you are shopping.

How’s it work? You simply scan the barcode of the food item you are interested in and it automatically shows you all of the nutritional value. What’s more, you can tell the app what you eat and have it make a suggestion on

ShopsmartScan

You start by creating a profile of what you are looking to do. “Heart Healthy Diet”, “Avoiding Gluten”, etc. From there the app shows you what is right for you. Second, from the app’s recommendations, you can create a shopping list of items that will keep you in line with your goals rather than wondering if this or that will work.

shopwell lists

My Thoughts: I have done it myself too many times, buying something I thought would be good for me when in fact it wasn’t. So to have an app with me that can keep me focused on what is actually healthy versus what’s not is a great option to have while shopping. There are reviews that this app is a bit buggy, but the creators are working on fixing all of the issues. Since it’s free, it’s worth giving it a shot.

SoberTool

iOS Free Android Free

While you are staying fit and healthy, it is always good to be reminded of the achievements made by getting clean and sober; as well as a tool to help you in stressful times. It does not matter if you are just starting sobriety or have been clean and sober for years, the SoberTool app is a great addition to anyone’s phone.

This app comes with neat features like a sobriety counter that also calculates the money you have saved since getting clean.

Money Saved

It can also provide daily motivational messages and notifications that will remind you to read them. This app even has a search engine where you can type in one word to describe how you feel and the results will show you how to deal with those feelings.

How’s it work? I found this app intriguing but was concerned about how much personal info was required of me to get these features. Much to my surprise, this app respects your privacy, does not require you to give any personal information, and has minimal app permissions. And more importantly, it will not invade your contact list. It does ask the typical questions–first name, date of sobriety, etc.–and then asks some interesting questions such as “How much did you spend a day to satisfy your addiction?”

SoberTool Menu

The menu is very easy to navigate as well as opting (or out) of receiving motivational messages. The community forum (found in the More section) is a great place to anonymously share your personal messages, comments, and get support from others.

SoberTool More

My Thoughts: Anyone who has gone through the process of getting clean and sober knows that it is something that must be dealt with day after day. This is an app that encourages, helps, and acknowledges that journey. This app was easy to use and navigate. I was excited to see all of the options available to not only inspire sobriety, but all of the helpful options for those really struggling. This app is great for everyone who has dealt with addiction. The reviews for this app are all very positive plus it’s free, so how can you go wrong?