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Improve your health? There is an app for that!

Summer is officially over, autumn has begun! The terrace weather is behind us and sunbathing is a thing of the past. The summer has left its mark on the scales for many people. So it’s time to do some serious sports. As of today we are all going to move! Through a variety of handy and free apps you’ll be super fit within a few weeks and your body will be completely winter-proof.

Insight into your sports performance thanks to applications
Sports and health apps are plentiful. A life without a smartphone is now unthinkable for many, so it’s no wonder you use your smartphone as a guide to a healthier lifestyle. The principle of all sports and health apps is “to measure is to know”. Applications measure your data during exercise, giving you insight into your sports performance, health or physical condition. Various applications are also very suitable for setting and achieving personal goals.

Which app do you choose to measure your sports performance?
Running
Your choice of application depends of course partly on the sport or activity you are practicing. For the runners among us, Runkeeper is a good example. A complete running application that keeps track of all useful information such as route, heart rate and calories burned. You can even set a target when you want to know exactly how many kilometres you need to run to lose half a kilogram for example.

Endomondo and Nike+ are similar to Runkeeper. In the EndoMondo app you can choose which sport you want to practice. Would you like to play a game of boxing or rather row a few laps? In all cases you can use EndoMondo to calculate how hard your body has worked.

Hiking
Hikers can go to the ‘Walking’ app. The huge database of walks and walking routes gives you enough inspiration to enjoy nature and the fresh air. A map allows you to discover the routes in advance.

Cycling
Are you more of a cyclist than a runner? Even then there is plenty of choice and supply. Strava is the bike version of Runkeeper. The application tracks exactly how much you cycle, where you cycle and have cycled, how many calories you burned with those activities and what distances your friends have covered on their bikes.

Convenience should be human
The smartphone makes your life as a user not only more sporty, but also increasingly easy. More and more apps give you advice about healthy eating, weight loss and the right biorhythm.

These apps help you to achieve a healthy diet or ensure that you wake up pleasantly. For example, the Nutrition Centre’s My Eating Meter app shows you whether or not you are consuming too many calories in one day, and also checks whether your meals contain the right nutrients. The handy thing about this app is that it is also linked to the website www.MijnVoedingscetrum.nl where you can read additional advice based on the data you have entered in the app.

The Sleep Cycle analyses your personal sleep cycle and determines what is the best time for you to wake up. No more having to get up!

How does it work?
All apps work with the phone network, a built-in GPS chip and accelerometer. They monitor your movement and movement. Via a wireless internet connection, you can share transactions with your network. The choice for an application depends on what the app has to provide insight into and what you yourself enjoy working with, of course. Most applications are available for Android and iOS mobile phones and tablets. For Windows Phone 8 Lumia phones there are also several applications available, but not all of the above apps can be found in Microsoft’s app store yet.

Use the right smartphone to get fitter
If your current phone is not compatible with one of the applications you would like to use, choose a cheap phone plus a sim only subscription from Simyo, for example. Not looking for a new device, but still in need of an extension or a cheaper monthly rate? Then choose a sim-only subscription, install your favourite sports or health app on your smartphone and enjoy a healthier lifestyle.

Tip: Check out the cheapest prepaid and cheapest sim only offers in comparison.

Lots of sports & smartphone fun in your adventure to a healthier lifestyle!

August 24, 2014/1 Comment/by Whitfoot

News

Baking your own bread is rewarding – sourdough

In order to give the bread a full flavour, it is advisable to use a sourdough. You can buy a ready-to-eat dry sourdough in the nature shop or make it yourself. This is not difficult but requires some patience.

What does sourdough do
The sourdough is a starter that you can use for every bread you bake, it helps the bread rise. A basic sourdough starter consists of wheat flour or wheat flour and water. The mixture is left to stand for long enough, at room temperature, so that a natural fermentation takes place. The sourdough doubles in volume. Then you ‘feed’ it again with more flour and water and it doubles in volume again. Because you never use your entire supply of sourdough when baking a loaf of bread, you can continue to feed the same sourdough over and over again. This way, the taste becomes more and more fuller.

Sourdough recipe
Take a pot of more than a litre.
Mix 300 ml of lukewarm water, 300 grams of wheat flour and 1 tablespoon of honey in this jar.
Cover the opening of the jar with a piece of kitchen foil.
Leave to stand for two days, outside the fridge.
Try to use organic flour because this is less clean than supermarket flour and will promote bacterial growth. Make sure the pot is in a nice and warm place. In the two days you will see that the sourdough will bubble and become frothy.

On day three you add 100 ml of lukewarm water and 100 grams of wheat flour, mix and cover again with kitchen foil.
Leave the jar outside the fridge.

On day four, add another 100 ml of lukewarm water and 100 grams of wheat flour, mix and cover again. Leave the pot for another day.
You can bake the bread on day five.
You don’t use the whole sourdough, if you keep it in the fridge and feed it again every three days, you can use it again later. Take it out of the fridge the evening before you start using it, feed it again with 100 ml of lukewarm water and 100 grams of wheat flour and leave it covered outside the fridge for one night.

The bread (recipe for two light brown sourdough breads)
This first recipe has in addition to sourdough also a support of is for rising. This gives you a light and tasty bread.

Mix 1 sachet of dried yeast with 625 grams of flour (preferably ‘strong flour’, or flour for bread).
Add 500 ml of the sourdough and 300 ml of lukewarm water.
You can do this in the food processor or by hand on the counter. If you mix by hand, make a ring of the flour and add the sourdough mixture in the middle. Mix more and more of the flour into the dough. If all the flour is just wet, let the dough rest for about 20 minutes.

Then add two tablespoons salt and possibly two tablespoons honey. Knead the dough until you have a nice elastic dough, this takes about 15 minutes by hand. In the machine you are finished with two minutes.

February 12, 2014/0 Comments/by Whitfoot

Physical Health

Nutrition

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Improve your health? There is an app for that!

Baking your own bread is rewarding – sourdough

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