Apps for quitters: stop smoking

If you’ve tried quitting smoking then you probably know how rough it can be. There are a few apps I played around with while quitting and some of which I actually liked and I believe they helped (and are still). This time around I also didn’t use any patches/gum/etc, it was cold turkey.

Achievements work on a lot of people; World of Warcraft and Xbox live are built to exploit this ingrained reward system. Many of the apps that I looked at (I’m only writing up a few here) use some sort of reward system to reinforce your non-smoking behavior. Factors like the time since your last cigarette, the improvements in your health thereof, and the money that you have saved through refraining to smoke will give you some nice metrics to make your brain happy.

One factor which also works well on me is the “don’t break the chain” approach. When you begin changing any behavior and want to keep it that way it is good to keep a calendar or running tally of the behavior. For quitting smoking this would be days since your last cigarette. One reason I preferred the Android apps to the iOS apps was Android’s ability to use widgets on your home screens. Thinking of lighting up? Pull out your phone and take a look at that nice big number since your last cigarette.  You don’t want that number to start back at zero do you? I sure as hell don’t. Alternatively you could also just keep a simple calendar for any other behavior; seeing all those x’s or stars in a row on a calendar will really help you keep on track.

Android: QuitSM

QuitSM was definitely my favorite quit smoking app for android. QuitSM was able to backdate you quit date which was something I found lacking in many of the applications I looked at. Many people probably don’t think to find a quit smoking app on the first few days of quitting so the ability to set your quit date to sometime in past is a useful feature.

Setup was pretty simple with QuitSM. Enter your quit date, the price of a pack, the amount you smoke per day, and how many are in a pack, and QuitSM is ready to go. The app will give you progress bars for achievements like all of the nicotine being out of your system, your carbon monoxide levels dropping in your blood, and your chance of heart attach dropping. 

My favorite part of QuitSM was definitely the widget. When I would have a craving it was useful to just look down at my phone and see the money I’d saved and the time I hadn’t smoked and not want to reset those number.

Price: Free

Android Market: QuitSM

Developer: Game Soul Studio

Android: Quit

Quit is an android app which I didn’t really use myself but thought the concept was interesting and could help a few people out. The app is built to help you reduce your smoking by monitoring it.  You set a daily allowance and the application will track your smoking through the day while it also tries to reduce the amount you smoke over time. The widget is pretty and it has a nice interface. The application has a built in quiz to test your nicotine dependence through your behaviors through the day. If you’re a very heavy smoker then reducing your smoking may be a good first step to quitting. Quit is built more for those trying to reduce smoking than quit all together.

Price: Free

Android Market: Quit

Developer Site: Azati

iOS: My Last Cigarette

MLC was probably my favorite quit smoking app for iOS because it was pretty. The application displays all of your improving health metrics on one screen along with how much money you have saved. This app will let you choose a quit date in the past which I think is an important feature. One number I found slightly morbid but kind of interesting was a deaths-since-you-quit which were related to smoking. The application will also tell you how long you have “extended your life” by not smoking. Bonus! MLC also has a “Daily Pic” of horrible smoking related pictures to frighten you! (yay?!)

Since iOS doesn’t support widgets you can’t really just unlock your screen and see your current metrics. I can see this changing with the new notification bar in iOS so I’m sure updated apps will take advantage of the new notification area.

Price: $0.99

App Store: My Last Cigarette

Developer: Masters of Mobile Solutions

iOS: LIVESTRONG: My Quit Coach

I didn’t really play with MQC too much because it would not let you choose a quit date in the past (or at least I couldn’t figure out how). The app is nice though and pairs with a suite of application from the LiveStrong website (they have them for eating/exercising/etc.). The LiveStrong apps are all actually pretty cool since they sync with your livestrong.com account so I may be playing with these a bit more in the future. There are trophies which you can earn by hitting certain goals and there is a nice “craving” feature which, when you hit a craving button, it will bring up a data point about smoking.

Price: Free

App Store: My Quit Coach

Deveoper: LiveStrong

Conclusion:

Even though these applications can be great reinforcers to help you maintain your quitting goals will power is still your best friend. Out of all of the apps above I used QuitSM the most and I think it definitely helped with my cravings because of the achiement/"don't break the chain" aspect of the app. If you plan on quiting I really recommend trying one of the apps out.  At free or $1 it is a pretty cheap little helper.

Wireless weight tracking with the Withings Scale

 

   Do you need a scale with wifi? Of course you do; you’re a gadget nerd, that’s why you're here. The Withings (pronounced Wi-things, as in “wifi”) scale is a pretty awesome health tool. The ability to just step on it and within a few seconds have your weight, body fat, and BMI logged without having to pick up a pen or type it into a spreadsheet is pretty awesome and you can also plug it into tons of online workout apps. Let’s start at the beginning shall we?

Setup:

You know how to unbox a product so let’s not wasted time there. The scale comes with 4 AA batteries, a USB cable, some little feet for using it on carpets, and a fold out installation guide.  Installation and setup are actually pretty easy: go to the Withings site, setup an account, download a small client to your computer (windows, osx, and linux!), select your wifi network, and you’re done.

I didn't read the instructions so it took me a few minutes to find where the USB cable went. The first time you step on the scale and it uploads your data it will not be assigned to a profile. You can have multiple profiles on the site which allows more than one member of your household to use the scale. Once you have used the scale a few times and assigned the data to your profile it will automatically detect which profile is being measured and assign the data appropriately.  There are also Android and iPhone apps which will sync the data.

Hardware:

The Withings Scale is pretty.  One of my friends remarked something to the extent of "it looks like Apple designed a scale" which I wouldn't say is too far off considering how easy it was to set up and how minimal the design is.  There is a small screen on the top of the scale which will display your weight, fat mass, and BMI when you step on it.  The screen will display your fat mass as either a percentage or in lbs/kgs.  The top of the scale does show water and dirt pretty well which can be annoying since mine lives in a bathroom. 

Data:

Weight: yeah, it captures your weight...
BMI: yeah, you know how to calculate this... (in case you don't)
Fat/Lean Mass:  So this part is actually kind of cool.  The scale uses electrodes to pass a small current through your body and measure the resistance to calculate your fat/lean mass composition.  Since fat doesn't act as a conductor the scale esitmates your lean mass using your weight/height/and the resistance to the current which is sent through.  How accurate is this? I haven't been able to test accuracy but I do plan on grabbing a multimeter and some weights to test the reistances and try to figure out some of the ways these metrics are calculated.

Usage:

When I was looking into purchasing the scale I noticed a few people complaining about batteries being drained too quickly.  I have been using the scale for about 3 weeks and according to the online dashboard my batteries are still at 84% and that is with measuring weight twice a day (which is really unecessary) so I have no idea what those people were doing with this scale. The data actually syncs pretty quickly with the apps and the site; usually it takes less than 2minutes. I was worried one day when my wifi went out that my measurements wouldn't go through but the scale saved them and sent them out as soon as it got a good wifi signal.

The Withings Android App

You can also link the scale to lots of different services. FitBit (which I'll be writing about later), Endomondo, Runkeeper, Daily Burn, and a lot more all link with the scale (seriously a pretty good amount, check that out here). Linking the scale with these apps/sites is nice because you can have all of your data in one place whether you are a runner or just dieting. The scale also links to some health specific sites for monitoring by doctors or health professionals if you wish.

Behavior:

Using just the scale it doesn't seem like it has influenced my behavior that much.  Since I quit smoking there is a line on my data and the slope seems to be climbing so that will definitely be influencing my behavior next week.  (this gragh would have been done in google docs so it would be pretty and interactive but you can't draw trend lines on graphs in gdocs yet :( ) The Fitbit actually seems to change my behavior more which we'll get to next time.

One quick thought I did have about the scale is about how it shows you your BMI.  I am still in the healthy range for BMI so this doesn't really throw up a red flag to me as it should.  I said healthy range there is nothing optimum about this.  My fat mass prercentage is outside of the "recommened" range however.  I would like to be able to turn off the BMI measurements so that I don't see that measurment and use it as a justification that I am healthy.

Conclusion:

So you're probably wondering if it is worth that $149 price tag.  To me I believe it is.  The ability to link it to so many online workout services is a really great feature.  The simplicity of just stepping on the scale on the morning or in the evening and the data automatically being logged reduces the time needed to track the measurements.  The scale is pretty "set it and forget it" in my opinion.

Next time maybe I'll cover some personal data measuments from the scale; a fitbit review is also coming soon so stay tuned.