*This Editor’s Note will appear in the February Edition of ECN.
After a holiday season full of overindulging, as most of us do, it was time to make some serious changes (OK, fine…you can call ‘em resolutions). Cue—new year, new me.
For dinner on Monday of last week, I had a spinach salad with grilled chicken breast, cranraisins, slivered almonds, and goat cheese, all topped with red wine vinegar and olive oil. I can recall this meal from over a week ago because (against my better judgement), I track my food every day. I am not proud of it, nor am I happy about it in the least. In fact, for the past two weeks I’ve been a bit “hangry,” as I’m so used to just eating whatever I want whenever I am hungry. Like most working adults, I found myself sitting too much, not exercising enough, forgetting if and what I had eaten throughout the day, and then finally sitting down (again) to eat some sort of unhealthy takeout dinner at seven o’clock each night.
Aside from an attempt to decrease my waist size, this is really helping me manage my life—my food intake, my exercise, and most importantly, my overall health. I’ve learned so much already about my own eating habits, from skipping breakfast to forgetting to eat lunch, and so on. And, what’s been truly amazing about this whole process is that I have been able to integrate so many helpful, user-friendly technologies that were designed specifically for this purpose. Whether you want to lose some weight, save some money, or learn something new, tech can help. What you accomplish will ultimately depend on your own self-discipline, but nobody can improve without a little help, right? So here it is—a list of gadgets that can help you achieve your resolutions…whatever they may be.
1. Apple Watch
Never did I ever think that I’d be more dependent on something other than my iPhone. From tracking my food to how many calories I’ve burned, alerting me about upcoming meetings, new text messages, phone calls, pinging me ten minutes before I should go to bed in order to get a full night’s sleep (8 hours, if you must know), even little reminders to breathe, this baby does it all. Needless to say, I never leave the house without it.
2. Amazon’s Echo, Tap or Echo Dot
When you can walk into a room with eight bags of groceries in your arms and say, “Hey, Echo! Turn on the kitchen lights.” Life is oh so much easier. Want to jam out a little, but you’re cooking dinner and have messy hands? No problem, just say, “Hey Echo! Turn on Jack Johnson radio.” You can even ask Echo to change the volume without having to touch a thing. Wake up freezing in the middle of the night? Ask Echo to turn up the heat so you don’t have to venture out of your warm bed.
3. Battery-Powered, Portable Charging Bag
Whether it’s a wristlet for a night out (ladies) or a laptop bag for work meetings and tradeshows, bags with built-in portable chargers are the absolute best. Before I was gifted one of these life-changing items, I spent half of my life either searching for a charger or standing around waiting for one of my many devices to recharge. Plug the portable charger into your desktop computer to charge up while you work, and rest assured that when you’re on the go, you’ll never run out of juice.
Did I miss the mark? Any tech gadgets that have completely changed your life for the better? Shoot me an email and let me know what I’m missing!
Until next time,
Janine