Apps That are Worth the Subscription Fee
Hey Girl Gang family,
I don’t know if you are like me, but the little time I do spend on social media, I usually get an advertisement about a new app that I should download and check out for a free-trial period for 7 days. And of course I don’t really use it enough in the 7 days to see if it’ll work for me so I end up spending the $40-$80 a year for these apps. But, some of these apps are worth the money in my opinion, and I’ll tell you how I’ve benefited from these apps over the past year. I’m not sponsored by any of these apps but I did give you referral codes below in case you want longer free trials to see if you like these apps too!
Whoop - $30/month
I’ve been using a Whoop for roughly 838 days and prefer this as the go-to fitness band. I’ve had Fitbit and Garmin in the past. I never got an Apple watch. I loved Garmin, but the issue I had with fitness bands is that I wanted it to look like a normal watch and not send my notifications all the time. The Whoop is great because there is no screen. It’s just a regular band and you can switch out your bands to match any outfit. When I bought it, the Whoop was actually free, you just paid the monthly subscription fee to get your data. So I bought the basic black band version and have been paying the $30/month since. And honestly, it’s worth it. Whoop tracks three main data points - Strain, Sleep, and Recovery. Strain is how much work you do in a day - take a run? that could be a 13 strain. Take a dance class - you are looking at roughly a 12. Strain is different for everyone. How much strain you have will impact how much sleep you will need. How much sleep you get will impact your recovery as well. It basically coaches you to tell you how hard of a workout you should do each day. Or it will tell you how much sleep is needed. Or if your skin temperature is elevated, you know that you might be getting sick. Out of any app or fitness band, I really like this one and would say if you are going to spend the money on something related to your health, the Whoop is a good direction to go. You have a daily journal entry so you can better understand what habits positively or negatively impact your life. Did you travel today? Did you view a screen device before bed? Did you work from home? You can pick and choose from tons of life circumstances to journal and see how it impacts your life. Whoop is also FSA and HSA eligible :) If you want a free Whoop and free month, then make sure you use my code!
Finch - $39.99/year
I learned about Finch via the Girl Gang earlier in the year when we were discussing New Year’s resolutions. Finch is basically and adult-version of a Tamagotchi where you have your own Finch that you take care of and go on adventures with, decorate their room, change their clothes, get points, etc. for completing goals. It’s a goal-tracking app that uses gamification to help you stay motivated to accomplish those goals. And even though I’m there for the goals to complete each day, I have also found it beneficial to use some of their other features, like the reflections or the breathwork exercises. I use a lot of soundscapes for sleeping, or I will write a reflection of how the day went. I can even state my feelings in the app to state if I’m feeling pleasant, unpleasant, neutral, etc. If you are looking for a fun way to track your goals and stay motivated, this is the app for you. Before using Finch, I was using Atoms that was designed by James Clear, and I really like Finch compared to Atoms.
Let’s be friends!
Use my code: 7KPBQQ7R7N
Brandi’s code: 4DXRBNBTBT
Flo - $39.99/year
This is more for the ladies - sorry guys! I started using Flo to track my cycle so that when I decide to finally get off birth control, I already know my cycle and can compare my symptoms between being on birth control and not being on birth control. Now, that being said, since I use Whoop as my fitness band and they recently started tracking menstrual cycles through this app, I feel like I’m slightly double-paying at this point for the menstrual insights. But, Flo is way better at actual advice throughout your cycle. It’s day xxx of your cycle, so you might be experiencing these things. Track your symptoms, learn why you might be feeling the way you are feeling, etc. Out of all the apps I use, this is the one that I feel like has the most education and information I want to learn about, and I also forget about it the most and don’t take the time to educate myself. But I keep paying for it because I do find it helpful at times and want to continue to learn how my body and mood changes throughout the month. Use my code to get a free 30-day trial: TSRE30.
Foodvisor - $83.99/year
Foodvisor is pricey, but worth it. Think AI for your food intake. I go to a restaurant and order a meal. The meal comes, I take a photo of that meal, and it gives me an overview of that entire meal, weather it’s a good meal, and a complete breakdown of the macros (fat, protein, carbs, calorie count), everything. You can also scan barcodes and search for other foods on there as well. I’ve been using the app since March and on day 1 of using the app I learned that I snack too much. I was eating healthy things - I was just over-consuming. Just by taking out snacking alone and barely increasing my cardio intake, I’ve lost over 16 pounds just by using the app the past 8 months. The goal in the app that I have is to lose weight, so it does have a rough calorie range I should be using, but that doesn’t stop me from eating fries every Friday when I go bowling or eating pizza. I’ve just cut back my portion size, stopped snacking all the time, and just become more conscious of what I eat on the daily. Does it alarm me when I scan a photo of three slices of pizza and some breadsticks? Sure, it doesn’t feel great that I’m eating 800 or 1,000 calories in a meal and that this meal is considered a meal that I should be “careful” about eating, but not every meal or day is like that. Most days I’m in the green and/or fall within my calorie count - which means I’ve been able to reach my weight goals and also still enjoy my life without doing your typical dieting and basically hating life. If you are interested and want to try for free for two weeks, DM me and I will email you with the offer!
Ahead - $79.99/year
I’m currently on a free 7-day trial with Ahead and I’m sure that I will end up paying for the year just to keep testing it out. This one is like Duolingo but for emotional intelligence. It helps you learn how to manage emotions like anger, anxiety, insecurity, negativity, overcoming loss, mending heartbreak, and beating procrastination. I downloaded it to focus mostly on my anger. I’ve been having a hard time with letting go of anger and with spiraling into anger recently, and it’s really impacting my relationships and making me shut down in a lot of ways. Just the past few nights of using the app, I was able to have a conversation with the app and state a situation that made me angry and was able to really dive into the why and also how I can move forward from that situation. I’ve completed some quests and been able to view situations from a few different angles and the app has asked me questions along the way that required me to respond which helped me work through the situation better in my head. Overall, I think it’s a really good app to help people learn to deal with their emotions better and learn how to communicate better with others.
So until next time…stay bold, stay empowered,
Rach
