The first game I played was on the Peak App, which I downloaded from the Apple Store. During this game, 3 numbers appear on the screen. You have to click them in order from the lowest number to the highest. It needs to be done quickly because you only have 1 minute to score as many points as possible. The faster you can order the numbers correctly, the higher your score will be at the end. I ended up with 1418 points which is considered a 92% success rate on the game.
Peak App
Peak App
The next game I played on the same app was a memory game. In the first few seconds, the red and white boxes will appear. After a few seconds, they disappear. You have to remember where those boxes were and try to connect the two white dots without going through the area where the red and white squares were. This game was much harder for me and my score at the end wasn’t very good. Oops!
The next game I played was on healthyactivekids.com. It was called “Jimmy’s Thirsty”. In the beginning of the game, there is a hand in the corner holding an empty glass. The game asks water related questions about nutrition. Example: “True or false: Water helps carry nutrients throughout our bodies”. When you get the answer right, the glass fills with more water. By the last question you want the glass of water to be completely full so “Jimmy” won’t be thirsty anymore.
How many of you want a robot for a doctor? Well, artificial intelligence is getting to be a bigger and bigger resource that will be taking over soon enough. We all know technology is improving daily and makes our lives easier in numerous ways. It can be a great resource, but don’t people need jobs? If we start replacing people with robots and other technology sources the need for jobs in certain healthcare fields is going to decrease drastically. Another question I would ask is what if AI incorrectly diagnoses a patient, or puts a patient in a life-threatening situation? Who would be to blame for this? There is a lot of information out there stating that AI could provide precise and early diagnosis, and help to identify correct treatment. It is a lot to wrap your mind around when thinking about how far technology has come. It is already outsmarting human beings, who knows where it will be in a few years! As of now, technology is helping us figure out what types of cancers we will be more susceptible to, and as what age we are most susceptible to this type of cancer. This can be a huge deal, because early detection is best, and the more prepared we are, the better the chances of us beating that type of cancer.
Another way technology can affect health: mobile health tracking. Many of us use different apps to track our activity levels throughout the day, or our food intake. People also use their phones as a calendar, and data is showing newer technology can even detect your mood based on what your calendar looks like. For a lot of people, having these apps helps them become more active throughout the day as it makes them feel accomplished to open their phones and see their daily activity.
Do we rely on technology too much? In certain cases, people can allow their phones, or social media to control their life. It is an easy way to compare yourself to others, as everyone is only posting the “good” stuff about their life. This can give people a false representation of others, thinking they’re life is more fun or fulfilling. Social media use is linked to increasing loneliness for this reason. One study showed that for each negative social media experience a college student has, their chance of depression rises 20%. This is insane! As if college students aren’t stress enough with school work, internships, job, etc. We can’t be letting social media have such an impact on the way we feel about ourselves and the people around us. It is sad that so many people become obsessed with this fake “perfect” life that social media can portray. In reality, everyone has their struggles, but nobody wants to post them for the world to see. Although technology and social media can be amazing resources, people need to be careful not to get too wrapped up in a virtual world, and focus more on the reality that is happening in front of their eyes, not on their screens.
We all have people we look up to in life. For me, when I first started trying to live a healthier lifestyle, I started following fitness influencers on Instagram. I definitely found that some are better than others, or more genuine than others. At first it was tricky to tell the difference between people who truly want to help others and people who just want to sell their programs. I found 3 people who I think are the most genuine in my search so far. Katy Hearn, Hannah Bower, and Emma (last name isn’t posted).
Katy Hearn: I have been following Katy for about 3 years now. She has helped hundreds of women lose weight and become stronger and is constantly motivating others. She really cares about her clients and it shows. The reason I enjoy Katy’s posts so much is because she includes women with all different body types and they all get results. She also emphasizes the fact that you can’t change your body without putting in the work. She doesn’t sponsor any waist trainers or “flat tummy teas” that are just a waste of time. You can check out her website where she shares plenty of testimonials, and follow her twitter!
Katy Hearn
Hannah Bower: I have also been following Hannah for quite some time. She inspires me because she shares her story as someone who was a great athlete and then ended up dislocating both elbows to end her career. She went on a downward spiral, became depressed, gained a ton of weight, and then found herself again. She is now married and just had a baby recently, and she was still working out while pregnant and considers fitness a lifestyle, not just a phase. I think she is a very genuine person which is why she has so many follows. She shares her workouts everyday to help people rather than not showing workouts and only encouraging people to buy her programs. Like Katy, she is not interested in waist trainers or flat tummy teas, just hard work and dedication. Another reason I love following Hannah is because she posts videos of effective workouts you can do at home, since some people can’t always make it to the gym. You can check out one of her home workouts below! Follow her on twitter and explore her website.
Hannah Bower
Emma AKA “macroswithem“. I just recently started following her but she is already one of my favorite accounts when it comes to nutrition. She tracks macros in a way that isn’t the basic chicken, rice, and broccoli recipe. One of the hardest parts of living a healthier life for me is diet. I never know what to eat, or how to make healthy swaps. Since following her page, she has taught me how to track macros, lose weight while eating foods that are delicious and “macro-friendly.” I love following Emma because she shows it is possible to reach your goals while still losing weight and not completely restricting yourself when it comes to food.
Though most of us find social media to be a helpful place where we can seek lifestyle advice, communicate with friends, or simply scroll mindlessly, we have to be careful. Social Media can also be a dangerous place. We are constantly putting out information out there for the world to see, and some of it will never really be erased, even if it is deleted. You can check out Sonia Bokhari’s article that goes into detail about this. When she finally turned 13 and was able to join social media, she learned her family had been posting about her for years. A lot of this content was stuff she found to be embarrassing. She realized the world has been given access to her information long before she even created an account. Social media can be a powerful place in a positive way, but it can also become negative when too much is shared without consent.
In creating this video based on the 2014 speech by William McRaven, I learned many useful things. In the beginning, it was a frustrating process for me trying to figure out how to use Audacity so I could edit the audio. After about an hour, I finally felt like I got the hang of it. Not only that, but I started to think editing each clip was fun! Before creating this video, I had no idea how to convert a YouTube video to an mp3, or add audio to a video in general. The first thing I did was edit the speech using Audacity. I then exported the final mp3 and was able to email it to myself. From there, I saved the mp3 on my phone to the iMovie app. I put together all of the pictures from Google images that I wanted to use, and made the audio match up at the right times with the pictures. I then wanted to add the background music, although I had difficulty doing this on iMovie. The mp3 kept being deleted when I tried adding music. Instead, I saved the video with the mp3 on iMovie, and used the Videoshop app to add the background music. This ended up working perfectly and I was finally able to finish up my video. After uploading my video to YouTube, the only issue I had was creating a thumbnail. I watched several videos on how to do this, but YouTube would not let me “allow monetization”. All of the “how-to” videos I watched told me I needed to allow this in order to have a custom thumbnail. YouTube said I could apply for monetization, but the application would only be reviewed if I had a certain number of views, likes, comments, etc. on my videos. One of the requirements was 4,000 views, which I definitely don’t have yet. This was really the only issue I had after my video was complete. Overall I am thankful I now know how to edit videos and add mp3 and music. This skill can be used in my personal life if I ever want to continue posting on my social medias, and in any job that requires any type of marketing.
The original commencement speech. 2014. University of Texas at Austin.
Read more about William McRaven here. In my research of the speaker, I was unable to find any legitimate social media accounts that belong to him.
We all know technology is getting better and better by the day, and becoming more and more popular in our daily lives. Technology can be an amazing thing, especially when used in the right ways. Using technology as a way to distribute information relating to health and wellness, or encouraging people to participate in healthy behaviors through technology could really make a difference in the way people think about health. For example, some companies are using social media to create private fitness challenges or share healthy recipes via private Facebook groups. The majority of people already use social media, so it is a smart move for companies to target their employees via social media. There are however, old-school companies trying to shy away from social media, because lets face it, some people are afraid of change! For people who work a 9-5 desk job, sitting all day long can really take a toll on their health. Have no fear, the Smart Desk is here! This desk can move up and down so people can even squat while doing their work! Not only that, it alerts workers when they’ve been sitting for too long, and encourages them to stand up. Part of me thinks this is really awesome, and another part of me thinks it’s sad that a desk needed to be built to remind people to stand up. I think there are too many people in this country who live a sedentary lifestyle, and health needs to be a bigger priority than it is.
Another way in which technology can be used in fitness: Health Apps. One study showed that 60% of participants were iPhone users, and 20% used some sort of Health related app. The results showed that the participants using health apps were more physically active, consumed a low-fat diet, and did more research via the internet. An important thing to keep in mind, is the health app used had a significant impact on the user’s ability to stay motivated. We all know, some apps are better than others. Personally, I have used the MyFitnessPal app which helped a lot when I first started tracking my food and exercise. After awhile, it becomes like a second nature and you don’t even need to use the app anymore unless you want to. Either way, it could really give someone the push they need to start living a healthier lifestyle without completely overwhelming them.
From my experience, I see many people using social media as their motivation when it comes to fitness. People follow fitness accounts, or create their own to hold themselves accountable and post/track their progress. A specific example of this is “Facebook memories”. Facebook memories pops up on the homepage and says “One Year Ago Today!”. This lets people see what they posted on this day last year, causing them to see what they “used” to look like. This can either be a good or bad thing, yet it can still serve as motivation to either get back to where they used to be, or get better than they used to be.
Thank you for reading, please check out my website and follow me on twitter! Stay healthy! 😉
The speaker I have chosen for my project is William McRaven. I have chosen him because he is extremely experienced in the area of success. William McRaven is a retired US Navy SEAL who graduated from the University of Texas at Austin and gave a speech at the university’s 2014 commencement. On April 6, 2011, McRaven was nominated by President Barack Obama for promotion from the rank of vice admiral to admiral and appointed as the ninth commander of USSOCOM. He is also credited for organizing and overseeing the execution of Operation Neptune Spear[16], the raid that led to the death of Osama bin Laden in 2011. His speech stood out to me because he speaks very clearly and to the point, yet still gives great advice throughout it. He uses his own experience throughout his speech which reaffirms that he is knowledgeable in the areas he is preaching about. The intended audience for my video will be anybody who is just “starting their life out” i.e. a college graduate. How are YOU going to change the world? The general message of the video will be that you can do whatever you set your mind to. Life will have many obstacles, but what’s most important is that you give it your all and always get back up after you fall down. No matter how many times you fail at something, or question your abilities, you should keep trying because in the end you will be successful. One of the main focuses in his speech is changing the world. I think this message is important for a college graduate to hear because they are about to enter the “real world”, and they should think about the positivity and goodness they can bring to it.
I was unable to find any legitimate social media accounts belonging to McRaven but you can read more about him here.
Hey everyone, welcome to my blog! Above you can meet my group members! (Not pictured: Emily). For a class project, my group and I looked at two fitness apps. The two apps used in our protect were MyFitnessPal and the Apple Health app. We wanted to compare and contrasts the apps in hopes to share some helpful pros and cons. Below you can find a video I created that takes a closer look at both of the apps. If you want to learn more about the apps, have a listen! To edit the video, the Splice app and Videoshop apps were downloaded from the App Store. In making this video, There were many things I learned. The first, is that making a video is never going to go the way you want the first time around. When I originally made the screen recording, the audio was playing just fine on my phone. However, when I tried uploading to YouTube, the audio would not play. To get around this I uploaded the screen recording without sound, then turned voice recorder on my laptop on and played the video on my phone into my laptop. I edited and removed clips several times during the process. I also learned how to use the video editing apps, as I had never used anything like this before. In the beginning it was definitely frustrating trying to figure out little tips and tricks but overall I survived and I’m glad I gained the knowledge that I did through making the video. Check it out!
MyFitnessPal
From my experience, I found the MyFitnessPal app is better. From the beginning, I clearly knew how to use the app and never had any trouble navigating it. The app can be used to track food, body weight, and physical activity. The first thing you should do after you download the app is fill in your goals. You will type in your current weight, goal weight, and how many pounds per week you want to lose. This will give you the amount of calories you should consume daily. Disclaimer: you do NOT need to want to lose weight to use this app. There is an option for “maintain weight”. For people who are just starting out tracking their food, this app will be very helpful. It lets you know how many grams of protein, carbs, and fats are in the food item that you track. Even if you don’t plan to track your food forever, this app will still educate you on what types of nutrients are in your food. Who doesn’t want to know what they’re eating?! For physical activity, the app uses GPS tracking on your phone to track your steps, miles walked, and flights of stairs climbed. For more accurate results, you can connect your Fitbit to the app in case you don’t constantly carry your phone on you. Overall this app was definitely one that I enjoyed and will continue to use in the future.
Apple’s Health App
Of the health apps I have used so far, I have to say I’m not a huge fan of the Health app. It is almost too detailed for someone who is just starting out using health tracking apps/devices. If I were to continue using the app, it would only be for things like monitoring physical activity (steps, miles walked, floors climbed, etc.). As far as the nutrition portion of the app, it was overwhelming in my opinion. From what I found using the app, there really isn’t a place to enter what foods you are eating. You can enter the different vitamins you consume such as biotin, caffeine, fiber, etc. in micrograms. Personally I don’t think the average person wants to get that detailed when tracking nutrition. Most people would rather type in the foods they are eating and get the calories. This is why I think MyFitnessPal is far superior when it comes to tracking nutrition. The Health app does have some interesting features, for example you can enter your body measurements, lab results from the doctor, and vitals. I think this app would be better for people who have an Apple watch, because not everyone constantly carries their phone with them so the GPS tracking wouldn’t be as accurate. I probably will not use this app again because it seems like more effort than it is worth. I can track my physical activity and my nutrition much faster and easier using MyFitnessPal. I would recommend you all check out both apps to see what you like best, and what works for your lifestyle because we are all different and some apps work better than others for certain people.
Thank you all for taking the time to check out my blog, if you want to learn more about myself or follow along with projects I complete this semester, check out my website! https://elynch21997.wixsite.com/mysite
You can also check out myself and my group members on twitter, linked below!
MyFitnessPal and Apple’s Health app are two very useful apps when it comes to checking your activity levels or holding yourself accountable. For a class project, my group will be reviewing both apps using screen recordings and B-roll footage. You can find these videos below. Personally, I think MyFitnessPal is the better app. I say this because it is more user friendly and detailed than the health app. You can track EVERYTHING you eat. It will tell you the calories, and the amounts of proteins, fats, and carbs in grams of the food item you ate. When you first create the account, there is a space to log your current weight, your goal weight, and how many pounds per week you want to lose. The app will then calculate the amount of calories you should consume daily along with how many grams of protein, fat, and carbs you should consume as well. An important thing I should add, is you can still use this app even if you don’t want to lose weight. You can simply use it to maintain or track your food intake/activity levels. At no point using this app did I feel confused or frustrated. It is very simple to use and great for anyone who is just starting out with food tracking.
Here you can see what it looks like after you log your breakfast.
Apple’s Health App
Moving on…..
Apple’s Health app is another app where you are able to keep track of your body measurements, sleep, and health records. In my opinion this app is harder to use and not very organized when it comes to nutrition. There is no easy way to track what foods you are eating or how many calories each food contains. I wouldn’t recommend this app to anyone that wishes to log their nutrition. The Health App even has a “recommendation” sections where it recommends downloading MyFitnessPal. When it comes to activity levels, the health app can tell you how many steps you’ve taken or how many miles you’ve walked. If you want to get the best results from this app, I would probably use an Apple Watch and have it connected to your phone. You can’t always have your phone on you so the steps/miles might not be as accurate. Overall, this app was a bit overwhelming for me and confusing. The app definitely would take some getting used to for me compared to MyFitnessPal which was easy right from the beginning.
Todays society revolves around technology. In numerous ways technology can make our lives significantly easier, and in other ways it can make it more difficult. We have the answer to almost any question at our finger tips with a simple search on our smart phones. This is extremely convenient for the majority of people, but when does technology become too much? A 2018 article https://www.thedrum.com/news/2018/01/14/apple-health-data-used-german-murder-case shows that for the first time, Apple data was used to put certain pieces together in a German murder investigation. The Apple Health app showed that the accused man was climbing stairs during a time frame which would suggest he was dragging and disposing of the victims body. Personally, I think it is amazing that technology is able to help in investigations such as these. On the other hand, I think for an average, innocent person it can be a bit creepy that others can see exactly what you might have been doing at a certain time. Some people might think apps like these are an invasion of privacy, but I think if they are being used to solve investigations or be helpful in other situations, why not?
Another way in which technology can save the day: Telemedicine. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cM4aep7VXb8&feature=youtu.be This video explains that hospital visits have significantly dropped since people are able to use their phones to seek medical advice. Not only does this prevent unnecessary trips to the hospital, but the costs of medical intervention have also dropped. I think it is great that people are able to seek medical information from real professionals without having to leave their homes. The only time I would see this being an issue is if the patient is improperly describing symptoms or problems, and the doctor gives a false diagnosis based on what the patient is describing. This could be an issue because then the doctor might suggest a treatment option that might do more harm than good, because they don’t have the correct diagnosis in the first place to begin suggesting treatment. In fact, this might be one of the reasons telemedicine hasn’t completely taken over. Some people believe that the quality of care/advice isn’t as good via telephone. An article from Fortune http://fortune.com/2018/07/03/whats-holding-up-telemedicine/ shows that patient satisfaction and diagnosis seems to be high and accurate. So, maybe it just takes some more people to experience telemedicine and give it a chance.
While some patients are on the phone consulting their doctors, other patients are wearing technology to monitor their vitals. An interesting article views this trend from different perspectives. https://www.thedrum.com/news/2014/11/12/checking-your-vitals-wearable-technology-changing-way-we-monitor-health The article discusses how some people who live a healthy lifestyle would be willing to share their monitor’s data with their healthcare provider, and some people who live an unhealthier lifestyle might not want their doctors to know they aren’t exercising or being active. So, should people have to share this information with their doctors? What if the people living a healthier lifestyle were given medical discounts towards their treatment, or offered another type of incentive? Well I can’t see the future, but it would be cool to see how many people got off their butts when offered some type of reward!
Technology is becoming more and more popular in our daily lives. One aspect in many peoples lives that it comes in handy, is health and fitness. People are using Fitbits, Apple watches, and other products to monitor their steps, calories burned, heart rate, etc. For a class project, my group and I looked at two apps related to health and fitness. The first app, was the “Health” app that is automatically downloaded on all new iPhones. The second app is known as MyFitnessPal. Personally, I feel the MyFitnessPal is easier to use and overall a better app. For example, if you want to track your food intake, you simply type in what you are eating and the calories come up along with the protein, carbohydrate, and fat content in grams. This app also monitors your daily activity and gives you suggestions for caloric intake. You can become “friends” with your friends on the app so you can track each others progress if you wanted to make it into a competition.
The Health App can also monitor your heart rate if you use an Apple Watch. It tracks your steps, walking/running distance, active energy calories, and a sleep analysis. It is a great app however I think a lot of people use fitness apps to measure their food intake. For that purpose, I believe MyFitnessPal is better. It is more user friendly and it is much easier to track your food and calories. Stay tuned for more updates or tips as we navigate these apps further!
Fit Photography 