For mature kids
Eat & Move-O-Matic
As children grow older, they earn the chance to
take more responsibility for their food choices;
however, they often do not understand the true
impact certain snacks, drinks and meals have
on their health and weight.
The Eat & Move-O-Matic app teaches
them to appreciate the caloric value of certain
foods and how those values compare to various
exercises. Using a spin feature, it is easy to see
that 23 minutes of swimming is needed to burn
one granola bar. A lunch consisting of pizza, a cookie and a fruit punch could
be countered with 80 minutes of playing basketball, for example.
The objective is not for children to obsess about calorie counting, but to
introduce them to the correlation between food and exercise.
Available for Apple devices
For mums and dads
My Fitness Pal
The concept of balancing
food intake with physical
activity might still be new
to children, but we adults
are all pretty much aware
of how this numbers game
works. However, that doesn’t
necessarily mean that we
apply that knowledge, and
we frequently consume more
calories per day than
we should.
The strength of this free calorie-counting app is in the numbers: more than
three million food entries have already been made by 50 million users, according
to their website. This is useful because when the nutritional information for a food
has already been added to the database, a user won’t have to manually upload
that information again.
After setting up a profile, set your daily calorie goal and then simply
start tracking. To track food, input nutritional values manually, search that
comprehensive database or scan a food item’s barcode (my favourite trick!). To
track calories burnt, simply log all physical activity. At the end of the day, it’s easy
to see if you are consuming or burning more calories. If you have a Fitbit Tracker, it
can be connected to your account for easy monitoring of your activity levels.
Available for Apple, Android, BlackBerry and Windows devices
For toddlers
MotionMaze
If adults had the resources available to
toddlers, it would be easy to be as fit
as a fiddle. With a natural abundance
of energy, lack of responsibilities and
the 24/7 availability of someone to
prepare (and fret over) healthy meals,
most toddlers have no problem keeping
healthy.
All that energy, however, sometimes
needs a bit of channelling. The next
time you need to keep your child in one
place (while waiting at the airport, for
example), hand them the MotionMaze
app and let them help Captain Mapp
get through a series of treasure
map mazes.
Unlike other games, where
movement is achieved by pushing
buttons, user-generated movements
power Captain Mapp. He moves when
the player walks – or runs – in place, and
the player controls his direction with the
on-screen arrows. The developers have
included 22 levels, almost guaranteeing
that little ones will be worn out before
they run out of challenges to play.
Available for Apple devices
There’s a technology solution to help every member of the family
achieve their fitness and activity goals, writes
Angelina Draper
.
There’s an app for that
38
Playtimes
