Bossy Essentials: Health Gadgets

Aside from the last couple cookie-filled weeks, I've been taking seriously my resolution to make my health a priority. Running, yoga, eating better, walking more—I can already feel significant changes in my energy and mood (my new pants in a smaller size don't hurt my mood much, either). Of course, since I'm a gadget girl, I'm enjoying exploring a host of new technology to help along the way. I'm sharing my current faves here, and I'd love to hear yours!

First and foremost, I'm having trouble remembering how I lived with out my Fitbit Ultra. It's a tiny pedometer that tracks your steps taken, stairs climbed, and calories burned, as well as tracking your sleep! It's small enough to wear everywhere (I clip it to the middle of my bra during the day and to my waistband when I'm working out), and it syncs to the website so you can look at your habits in graphs and charts. If you're looking to lose weight, you can also log your food online and it will give you a calorie range to aim for based on how active you are that day. I cannot recommend this highly enough. CM has one, too, and we both love the accountability.

I started using the Sleep Cycle app on the recommendation of Legs McGee. It's an alarm clock on your iPhone that you put in the bed with you. You set the time that you have to wake up, and based on your movement it finds the best time to wake you up during the half-hour window leading up to your wake-up time. For all I know it might be hooey, but it does seem like it's easier to wake up feeling rested and alert when I use it. And it's only 99 cents.

I'm trying to be better at drinking more water, and the Camelback Groove water bottle has been so helpful. It has a few features that make it perfect in my book. One is a built-in filter, which makes even my NYC tap water taste delicious. Another is the straw that goes all the way to the bottom of the bottle, so you don't have to tip it back to drink from it. And finally, it's completely spill-proof (you have to bite the straw slightly to drink). I cannot tell you how many times I spilled water in my purse by not screwing on the cap of my Sigg bottle tightly enough. This is much better.

CM and I both use the Nike+ GPS app on our phones every time we go for a run. It tracks mileage, pace, and route using the GPS in your phone. It syncs with the website so you can track your progress. I love nothing more than going online and seeing all my runs next to each other in a chart(I've run 61 miles so far this year!). For whatever reason, it's really important to me to be able to track my progress in some quantifiable way. This way is the best I've found.

I swear by these Sony headphones for workouts. They go around your ear completely while still having the earbud, so they never fall off, and they don't hurt my ears like the iPod headphones always do. They're perfect for listening to my running mix.

What's keeping you healthy these days?