Can you relate to this? Mum learns to use her iPhone.

Mum learning to take photos on her iPhone

You need a lot of patience

Mum needs more help to understand

Text abbreviations can seem like another language

I can sympathise

New Year Blog

Apologies that I have neglected this blog for a while.  It's a new year (Happy New Year!) and I will try to blog more regularly.  It's quite an odd that I have no idea of who is reading this blog and if they are enjoying it or not!  Send some feedback to encourage me if you like!

Here is my article for the start of 2015

Health and fitness with the help of technology.

January is often the time for people to make New Year’s resolutions, and these often include trying to lose weight or start exercising.  Diet books fill the bookshelves and magazines are full of ideas to help.  Technology is also available to motivate you.

If you have a smartphone, you can use Apps to help you in your quest to lose weight and/or become fitter.  There are many to choose from.

If it is weight loss you are after, one of the best Apps is My Fitness Pal.   It can become quite addictive!  You can record your calories with it.  You can scan the barcodes of your food, and find most foods and their calories by using the massive database online.  The App helps you to set your weight loss goals. The calculator will forecast your weight according to the calories you have eaten.  This is available in graph format.  You can also deduct calories if you have recorded exercise in the App.  The App will tell you if you are short of certain foods or nutrients, and help you to have a balanced diet.  It is easy, fast and free.  It cleverly remembers what you tend to eat.  You can post your achievements online and become part of a weight loss community.  Medical studies show that keeping a food journal DOUBLES your weight loss! 

There are many tools to help you record your exercise.  RunKeeper is a free App to motivate and record exercise.  Track your runs, walking or cycling.  The App can track users by GPS, and see how fast they are travelling, what their pace is and what their average pace is as well as timing the activity.  It can be programmed to give announcements and review progress – you can choose how frequently you want this to happen. RunKeeper can access your music and let you listen to your favourite playlists and the announcements will override your music.  You can upload achievements to Facebook and share them with your training partners.  All your training is stored and is interesting to look back on and compare over time.  When you have finished your activity, you can see a map of where you have been and all the changes in elevation, as well as a graph of your elevation.  When I have it turned on, I do find that I try harder!

If you are a serious athlete or have particular goals, Strava is another amazing free tool.  It brings an element of competition to solo riding (both bike and run versions are available), Strava tracks you, but crucially also allows you to compete virtually with other racers over the same segment of road or path, at different times. It’s also a good way to discover new routes and rides near you.

Couch to 5k is a free NHS App designed for the novice runner.  It is designed to get you off the sofa and running 5km within nine weeks. Its simple step-by-step, day-by-day programme gently guides total beginners from walking to cruising around a 5km race.

Moves is a simple and free app that helps you track your daily movement – whether you ran, walked, cycled or sat in the office all day.  It requires almost no effort on your part. There’s no need to enter data or wear a movement tracker – just carry your phone with you and monitor your progress (or lack thereof!)

Hope that you might try using one or several of these suggestions in 2015.  Wishing you all a very happy and healthy new year!