All My Faves

Runtastic – Here’s a powerful fitness app that offers a bundle of sweet features. Runtastic offers the GPS-via-mobile, exercise logs and stats features, but so do most fitness apps these days. Where Runtastic really shines is in its real-time cheers from Facebook friends joggers, cyclists and hikers receive while out, pushing their bodies to the fitness limit.

Added Runtastic perks include finding tracks and routes in your area, tracking your weight, and sharing your progress on Facebook and Twitter, among others. Many will also be happy to learn Runtastic offers apps that work with Garmin sport watches. Runtastic is available on the iPhone, Android, Blackberry and Windows 7. So next time you go out for a run or a ride, rethink your app usage. Runtastic is a personally rewarding app that really pays off to use.

iPhone screenshots

Skinnytaste – To me, the term ‘low fat’ always meant tasteless imitation of the real thing. Healthy foods in general are often perceived as having less appeal than their calorie-rich counterparts. But that doesn’t have to be the case, as Gina Homolka, author of Skinnytaste, shows. This cooking blog features “low fat, healthy recipes using real ingredients such as butter and sugar, just less of it.” How does it measure up? See for yourself with Gina’s Summer Squash and Chive Pancakes recipe.

Each recipe has an informative breakdown of servings, Weight Watchers points, calories, fat, protein, carbs, fiber, sugar and sodium. In addition, Skinnytaste offers the Ask Gina section where users can join diet and nutrition discussions to make the most of their healthy eating experience. Food that’s good for your body and soul doesn’t necessarily have to be healthy at the expense of great taste. Gina proves you can have the best of both worlds in Skinnytaste.

Healthline Body Maps – There’s no way around it. When you see something with your own two eyes, you understand it better than by just reading about it. Healthline, the medical information provider, has partnered with GE Healthymagination to create a software of 3D anatomy maps of the human body so laypersons like you and me could better understand health by literally looking into ourselves.

When exploring a certain part or system of the human body, Healthline will offer interesting articles and tips relevant to that part of the body. So if, for example, I’m exploring the anatomy of women’s abdomen, Healthline recommends reads on digestive health, among other articles.

The 3D Body Maps constitute an appreciated added value to Healthline’s medical info center. Besides, I’ve always found the human body a most extraordinary machine. Healthline’s Body Maps adds a visual navigation tool to further enhance the human anatomy experience. Thanks, Healthline!

Jog.fm – If you don’t listen to music when you work out, it’s a shame because you’re missing out on lots of physical benefits such as better mood, better lungs and a more enjoyable workout, among other sweet positive side-effects. Jog.fm is here to make the marriage of workout and music even happier, and offers ready-made playlists for joggers, cyclists and walkers.

As an avid cyclist, I immediately took interest in Jog.fm’s playlists for riders (see screenshot below), and I must admit, it’s impressive. Available playlists can be bought (for download) or listened to online. In addition, you can always create your own playlist, but I don’t see the added value of creating a new list on an external site if you already have it on your iPhone or MP3 player. Either way, Jog.fm offers a great service and I truly believe music and workouts are a match made in heaven. I only wish they had a mobile app available.

Sleep Cycle – Imagine waking up every morning refreshed, full of energy and ready to take on the day. Sounds like vacation time, doesn’t it? Well, the Sleep Cycle alarm clock app offers “a bio-alarm clock that analyzes your sleep patterns and wakes you when you are in the lightest sleep phase.” No more rude awakening from deep sleep to the sound of that annoying alarm. The app will make sure you wake up when your body is ready at the lightest sleeping cycle, and it will ensure you have enough time to prepare for and get to work when you need to.

The Sleep Cycle tracks your movement during your sleep and that’s how it identifies your deep and light sleep cycles. Although it requires an initial movement calibration, using Sleep Cycle will improve your mornings. Monday won’t be so dreadful again, at least in terms of waking up…

BioDigital Human – I certainly wish I had this website to go to when I was taking my Anatomy classes. This amazing human body imaging software allows 3D exploration of our anatomy of each of the different systems we are all made of; skeletal, digestive, reproductive, muscular and seven other systems. All these can be easily applied to your skeleton or cleared by clicking the On/Off buttons on the left.

Each time you add or remove a body system to your skeleton, you can rotate it 360 degrees using your mouse. In addition, there are advanced view options using the toolbar under your sekeleton. That’s how I applied the X Ray View below. Amazing!

Clicking on any organ, bone, muscle or blabber will prompt a small info window to your right with some additional info. This is a terrific study aid for those interested in or learning anatomy.

Fitango – Although the name suggests fitness support and inspiration, Fitango is here to help you reach your goals, whether in health and fitness, self development, finance, even your love life. Once you’ve signed up (use Facebook connect if possible – saves you the time of registering), go the the Plan store – the program collection neatly listed by categories. There you will find tens of action plans, many of which are free (paid plans range between $1.99 to $7.99).

Once an Actionplan has been selected, the Fitango site and expert team will guide you through the different steps toward your goal. In addition, the Fitango system allows you to connect with other Fitango community members and designate motivators to help you stick to your path. I decided to get in shape and explore the 8-Week 5K Training Plan for Beginners. What’s your goal? Try Fitango and you’ll find how easy it is to pursue it.

FitSugar – There are lots of fitness and exercise how-to sites on the Web, but this one’s especially fun and easy to follow. FitSugar is a daughter site of the Popsugar network, and the content here is both pleasant and inspiring.

All the posts here, aside from covering the vast world of fitness and well-being, offer great content on great exercise and healthy foods with lots of photos and videos for an enhanced and rewarding fitness experience. Click on the photo below to read this interesting post about yoga.

For more health & fitness resources online (only the best of course), go to our designated MiniFaves page.

Philips Wake-Up Light – Living in extreme northern latitudes means going through several long months of complete darkness each year. That’s right, people go to sleep and wake up to what seems like night time, day in day out. Studies have shown that prolonged polar night can lead to depression in humans, and affects their day-time energy since the alarm clock is their only indication that a new day has come.

Philips have studied the effects of the polar night on people and initiated a fascinating experiment; the company handed out free Wake-Up Lights to the community of Longyearbyen, an arctic town in Norway living in a polar night of 11 weeks each year. This special light imitates gradual sunlight in the morning. This means a gradual wake up process rather than an abrupt (and rude) awakening from deep sleep with an alarm clock. What do you think happened? See the experiment video of the below to learn more. Amazing!

RunKeeper – Since the iPhone and Android came out, workouts have never been so easy to track, measure and plan ahead. Although RunKeeper is not the first fitness app to facilitate fitness activities and reaching workout goals, this software is an amazing tool all runners and gym fans will surely appreciate, particularly since RunKeeper’s mobile app is free.

You can upload past workouts and provide all the relevant details from memory or, from your Polar device (duration, calories, distance, heart rate and more), or track your activities in real-time using your mobile device (app features GPS tracking, audio interval cues, iPod integration, social network sharing). Click the image below to get to the mobile app download page – it’s free! In addition to the mobile app, make use of RunKeeper’s Fitness Classes, which will put you on your path to several running goals (5K, 10K runs, half a marathon, a whole marathon, or a weight-loss track).

Soap.com – Don’t you just love it when you can find all you need in one place, especially when there are discounts and coupons involved? Soap.com is a personal care one-stop-shop where you will find hundreds if not thousands of products for household and personal care products (face, body, personal hygiene and more) at discount prices.

The site looks amazing, and finding what you’re looking for is a breeze.You have a variety of categories to choose from, including products for the home, body, hair, face (including cosmetics), drugs, vitamins, diet and nutrition, sexual wellness products, cosmetic and hygiene products for men, even organic products in practically every category mentioned above. Since quality and discount are Soap.com’s major characteristics, here are a couple of coupons for you to use in your next purchase.

20% off your first purchase of any brand of vitamins by using the code 20VIT:

Save 20% on your first purchase of Bath & Body with Code AFFBB:

We have recently added new useful faevlines and Mini pages for you to explore on allmyfaves.com. We’re excited about these new additions and I thought I’d present these to you here. Let’s begin, shall we?

Cable TV Mini page. This is one of the most comprehensive cable TV resources you can find online. You’ll find here all the official websites of major channels, including less mainstream yet equally entertaining cable TV ones so you can satisfy all your TV entertainment needs. Get your favorite show’s schedule, see upcoming shows and movies, watch videos of interviews with the stars, independent films and trailers, and lots of more great content, conveniently located in one place. To access the Cable TV Mini page click here, or go to the Entertainment page and hit ‘TV.”

Lifestyle Faveline and Mini Page. This unique collection of lifestyle websites will make you motivated, inspired and energized, and it’s one of my personal favorites. The faveline includes a top-notch lineup of insightful websites and blogs addressing better and healthier living, great food, tips for a saner state of mind in a busy, chaotic world, style and culture, and great hacks for a soothing atmosphere at home.

You can access the Lifestyle faveline by going to Blogs and scrolling down alphabetically to “L.” Clicking the faveline’s title will prompt you the Mini Faves page where you will find many more better living resources you don’t want to miss!

Brand New Games Faveline: Flight. Airplanes, flight simulators, landing strips – we’ve got it all here in this fresh-out-of-the-box faveline and category page, especially for you! We’ve got Naval Strike, Sim Air Traffic, Helistorm 2 and many many others! Roger that.