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Wellness Gadgetry

Apps and gizmos that help you get healthy


Pear Square One

$249.99 / www.pearsports.com

“Overshoot the extreme!” “Max the envelope!” These are the types of phrases you might hear a personal trainer shouting in your ear at the gym. Some people need this kind of motivation for their workout, but not all can afford a real, human personal trainer. Enter the Pear Square One: an electronic coach in your ear. Connect the device to your iPod, to your torso, and to your feet, and hit play. As you workout the electronic trainer monitors your heart rate and speed to give you biofeedback and motivational advice.


Nike Fuel Band

$149 / www.nike.com/fuelband

Have you ever wondered how many calories you burn walking your dog every day? Or how much fat you burn riding your bike to work? The Nike Fuel Band will measure your every movement to give you an accurate account—through the use of an accelerometer—of just how much fuel you are burning even when you’re just going through your everyday routine. Set a goal for every day and go out and beat it.


Zombies, Run!

$7.99 / iTunes

Preparing for the zombie apocalypse is a must, but you’ll need more than a cache of bazookas and nonperishable foodstuffs. You’ll also need to be in good shape to outrun those suckers. (Remember rule #1? Cardio.) Now you can flex your zombie-dodging skills and get some good exercise too with Zombies, Run! from the Apple App Store. Zombies, Run! is an interactive video game that tracks distance and location as you run from place to place collecting items and powering up. Levels come in approximately 12-minute intervals that will have you escaping crash sites in real time while you run through your favorite park or just down the street. Don’t forget rule #18: Limber up.


Body Composition Scale

$31 / www.allegromedical.com

There are several ways to calculate your body mass index (BMI). Among those methods are skinfold thickness measurements, underwater weighing, dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA), and isotope dilution. Uh, right—or you could try the Allegro Medical Body Composition Scale. What looks like a regular bathroom scale can not only calculate your weight but also body fat, water, and muscle percentages, and can also provide a suggested daily calorie requirement. It works through the use of bioelectrical impedance analysis, which measures the flow of an electrical current sent through the body.


How Drunk

$0.99 / iTunes

Similarly to Caffeine Zone, How Drunk attempts to tell you just how drunk you actually are. The app offers blood alcohol content estimations based on how many drinks you’ve had in a given amount of time. Enter the type of drink and customize the app to your body for best results. The app will calculate your estimated BAC and alert you when may be sober enough to drive again. According to the app’s creators, it is even easy enough to use when you are already buzzed, just don’t drop your phone into your pint of beer.


Caffeine Zone 2

$0.99 / iTunes

I need coffee when I wake up in the morning. I usually have one large coffee while sitting at my desk at work, but occasionally I’ll go overboard and have a cup before I leave for work, too. It’s hard to gauge how much caffeine I’ll need to put me in the perfect zone for work, or how much is just going to make me jittery. The Caffeine Zone app helps. Just input the amount of caffeine consumed and how fast it was consumed and the Caffeine Zone app will alert you when it is time to drink more, or if you’ve had too much too late at night. Now if only I could stop shaking enough to input the necessary info…

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