Created by: Tamtris Web Services, Inc.

The Free Menstrual Calendar application for the iPhone® was developed by the folks at FertilityFriend.com, a website designed to help women who are trying to conceive. Even if you’re not trying to get pregnant, the Menstrual Calendar is a very useful tool for women who want to track their menstrual cycle.

Using the Free Menstrual Calendar is very simple. Once you’ve opened the application, double tap on any day to enter data. How much data you’ll be entering will depend on whether you’re using the app to help manage your fertility or just keep track of your periods.

The calendar uses a discreet color coding system. In each day the cycle day is noted, preceded by “CD.” There are different shades of pink to indicate heavy, normal, and light period days, and a light pink dot indicates spotting. Should your period come late, light gray is used to note the actual cycle day. The predicted start of your period shows up as a light pink box with pink text, while predicted fertile days and ovulation day are shown in green shades. A blue box indicates the current day.

Intercourse data can be entered, which is great for women who are using the calendar to try getting pregnant. A tiny blue dot indicates protected intercourse while a dark red dot is used to note unprotected intercourse. Those who want to track additional information can use the notes field.

To have the application automatically calculate your cycle length based on the data you entered over the last year, turn on the Auto Stats function from the Setup screen. If you turn off auto stats, you can enter your average cycle length in the text box and the application will use that number as the basis for prediction.

Want to keep your calendar under wraps? You can set an optional privacy code. The only downfall to using the privacy code is that you cannot reset the code if you happen to forget it—you’ll have to reinstall the application.

Under Advanced Settings, you can see the length of your luteal phase and toggle the display of fertile days. The Free Menstrual Calendar will also show you short tips related to menstruation and pregnancy; you can turn these off using the toggle for Display Info Tidbits.

If you’re already a user of the FertilityFriend.com website, you can sync the mobile application with your online account. I’m a big fan of being able to share information between desktop, web and mobile applications, so this is a great feature.

Pros: Very user-friendly menstrual cycle tracking program. Discreet icon on iPhone. Allows syncing between web and mobile applications.
Cons: Requires re-install if privacy code is forgotten. Doesn’t provide summary of average cycle length within application.

If you’re including running, jogging or walking as part of your fitness regimen, you may want to try out StepTrakLite to help track your progress. StepTrakLite breaks down your step counts into walking and running steps, and activity into moderate and vigorous exercise. A total number of steps is shown at the top of the screen and is based on the date and time the program was opened. When starting a new walk, tap Reset at the top of the screen.

Since StepTrakLite isn’t equipped to manage your walking regimen, they have cleverly included two methods for you to track your step counts. If you already have a Twitter® account, you can enter your user ID and password in Settings in order to tweet your progress. You can choose from three different types of messages and add a personal message if you like, then tap Tweet to send the information. Users with an account at MapMyWalk.com can send their step counts and duration to their log. While I’m not a MapMyWalk user yet, their free membership seems pretty comprehensive and using StepTrakLite in conjunction with their web-based application looks like a great way to stay motivated.

If you want to use StepTrakLite while listening to music, you’ll have to fire up the iPod® app first, then start StepTrakLite. Most importantly, don’t use the top power button to turn off your phone while StepTrakLite is running. If you do, the program will reset to zero.

Pros: Great motivational tool. Works in the background while you’re walking. Allows two different methods of tracking via the Web.
Cons: Because of Apple’s® policy with not allowing applications to run in the background, you can’t use this with Pandora or Last.fm. If you lock your phone while it’s running you will lose steps.

Yoga fanatics as well as newbies can now have yoga with them all the time, thanks to the Prêt-à-Yoga Lite application for the iPhone®. This version of Prêt-à-Yoga offers one sun salutation sequence—in yoga-ese, that means a morning routine. While this may be disappointing to yoga students looking for more options, it’s a great starting point.

Kathleen Kastner, a yoga teacher who’s worked with New Age writer Deepak Chopra, provides the narration and models each pose. The routine contains 11 poses. The poses are easy enough for beginners to do while still offering a good workout for more experienced yoginis. Not sure you’re doing the pose correctly? Tap near the top of the screen to see an alternate view of the pose. If you want more information on each pose, tapping the number in the bottom right corner of the image pulls up the name of the pose, instructions on how to do the pose and its benefits for the body. You also get an explanation on how to make the transition into the next pose. Precautionary tips are included for beginners or those with limited flexibility or range of motion.

To start the routine, press the Sun button at the top of the main screen. To change the play mode, screen transition cue, number of repetitions or wallpaper, press the Heart button.

There are three play modes: Narrated, Auto and Manual. If you prefer to hear the instructions, select Narrated mode. However, if you’d prefer to just use the images as your guide, select Auto for fast transitions between poses without the audio portion. Want to lengthen your yoga workout? Change the repetition setting to 3 or 5 times and Prêt-à-Yoga will cycle through the routine 3 or 5 times, respectively. You can change the audio cue indicating a pose transition on the Settings screen to either a low or high gong, vibrate, or none.

For those who want to take more time, the Manual setting allows you to scroll through the poses at your own pace. If you use the Manual setting, the repetition and transitional cue settings will not take effect.

Pressing the information button on the main screen takes you to a brief bio on Kastner and credits. Tips on how to use the application can be found by pressing the Prêt-à-Yoga Secrets button. If you like the background music used during the Narrated play mode, you can find out more about it by tapping the Discover Cerebral Songs button.

Pros: Clear images and audio instructions for each pose. Can tap screen to see what pose looks like from front/back as well as from the side.
Cons: Home screen uses only icons, so it’s not clear what to tap in order to start the routine. Timing can be too fast for beginners.

What I’d Like to See in Next Version: Option to adjust transition time between screens for Narrated and Auto play modes.

Like many folks this past January, I resolved to eat better and exercise more in order to lose weight. My biggest issue with sticking to a weight loss program, however, is accountability—if I don’t join a gym or sign up for a diet service, it can be hard to “get with the program.” As it turns out, there’s quite a few iPhone® apps designed to help folks get in shape while getting their tech geek fix—perfect for me!

Lose It! is one of the more popular iPhone weight management applications available, and with good reason. The user interface is easy to use and understand. It can be customized to include recipes, foods and exercises—but you’ll likely find very few items that aren’t in the database, as both the food and exercise databases are quite extensive.

When you first install the app, you fill out your profile information, including your gender, birthdate, height, current weight and goal weight. You also can determine how many pounds you want to lose per week or if you want to maintain your current weight. Using this information, Lose It! calculates your daily caloric intake and how long it will take you to reach your goal weight. You can always go back and modify your profile should your goals change.

Tracking your progress is also very easy. When starting the program you can enter the calories you’ve consumed—or burned via exercise—by tapping the + at the top of the screen. Meals are broken down into Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner and Snacks. Want to include that hour long walk you took at the beach? Tap Exercise on the Add to Log screen. Press Browse Exercises, select Walking from the list and set the duration, then press Add.

Custom foods can be added quickly and will show up under My Foods. You can also create recipes using foods in the database and have Lose It! calculate how many calories are in a serving.

The tabs on the main screen include:
• My Day—Tap here to see a calorie breakdown based on your daily budget. It includes food calories consumed, exercise calories burned, net calories so far and how many more calories you can eat for the day. Tapping This Week at the top of the screen shows a graph of your progress over the past week, with a line indicating your daily budget.
• Log—The log is where you’ll be spending most of your time while using Lose It, as this is where you enter your food/beverage intake and exercise each day.
• Goals—Here you can view the goals you entered in your profile. It uses a simple graph to indicate your progress. From this screen you can enter your weight by tapping the Record Today’s weight button. Weight can be entered to the nearest 1/10th of a pound.
• More—On the More tab you’ll find all the setting options. Go here to access the custom foods and exercises entered, as well as recipes. You can also set your preferences for what nutrients you want displayed and/or tracked by Lose It!, including fat, cholesterol, sodium, carbohydrates and protein.

I could go on and on about Lose It! because it’s so incredibly comprehensive. Here’s hoping the next version allows you to export your information—it might well then become the perfect weight management application.

Pros: Huge database of foods, easy to enter new foods. Exercise database is extensive. Great way to keep track of fitness goals.
Cons: Some entries in the food database can be confusing, as they seem to be duplicates in title but the calorie counts differ.

What I’d Like to See in Next Version: A web or desktop version that can sync with mobile application for at-home tracking.

Check this out!

Are you sick and tired of going on the scale every morning and trying to figure out if you have gained or lost some weight? Then you should try this iPhone® application.

Weightbots helps you keep track of your weight and is designed to look and sound like your own personal robot. Set your goal weight, record your weight at any interval (one weight per day max), view your BMI, and view your progress with a beautiful week, month, or year graph. Weightbots also has a built-in secure password feature to protect your weight from prying eyes. It’s easy to use, surprisingly addicting, and designed for everyone to enjoy.

The basic functions are pretty easy: move the slider to a date, click on the weight display, and set your weight. Other handy features you can choose from are: switching from pounds to metric, set a target weight, enter your height to get a BMI calculation, set a privacy code, and back up your data to a web account. The coolest feature by far is the graph mode, though. It’s a quick way to visually track your progress, and it includes your target weight and a trend line. Even if you are not actively dieting, you will love tracking your weight by using Weightbots.