Achieving a healthy lifestyle can sometimes be a challenge. There’s a lot to consider in terms of diet, exercise, mental health and our whole body health.
Whilst it can be overwhelming to start with, there's plenty of support available, in the forms of apps and technology, that can help us to reach our health goals.
The desire to live a healthy lifestyle is on the rise. A study from the AHDB found that it's really about balance, with 90% of consumers stating diet was important and 86% stating fitness was important, in contributing to their overall health.
Let’s dive into the different elements of health tech that can support our healthy lifestyle goals.
Wearable technology is best known as devices that we wear to collect data on our health.
They are most common in the form of a smart watch, fitness tracker or smart ring. Over recent years, people have become more focused on tracking their health to help reach fitness goals. For example, the number of people who own or access wearable technology had increased from 2% in 2014 to 45% in 2024.
One of the most common uses of wearable tech is for step counting to get to our 10,000 steps a day, which can help us to reach the NHS recommended 150 minutes of exercise a week.
The main purpose of fitness trackers are to monitor your health and fitness, through things like tracking changes in weight, heart rate and activity levels.
Smart watches are typically a larger device than fitness trackers. Whilst they do have all the same benefits as a fitness tracker, they often have more features, such as allowing you to make calls, send text messages and browse the internet.
Smart rings are another wearable device which can track health metrics, activity levels and sleep patterns.
Wearable technology can be beneficial for our health and help contribute to a healthier lifestyle. They can be a great motivator, allow us to keep track of our goals, and even track our sleep and how sedentary we are.
If you have a health insurance policy, it’s worth checking your benefits, as many health insurers offer discounted wearable technology within their perks.
There are a range of health apps that can help us achieve a healthy lifestyle too, including diet and nutrition apps. These are designed to help you stay on track with your diet as well as get nutritional advice.
These apps can be used as a diet tracker, which can help with aiding in weight management and improving eating habits. They can help us to make better choices by providing diet and nutritional advice, helping us to better understand what is in the food we eat.
You can make sure you’re getting the right nutrients, vitamins and minerals that are needed for a healthy lifestyle. There are a wide range of free and paid apps that focus on diet and nutrition tracking.
You can also get diet and nutrition support with some health insurance policy providers, so it's always worth checking what's included when taking out a policy.
The Exeter offer access to six registered dietitian consultations per policy year. These include access to one-to-one consultations with a HCPC (The Health & Care Professions Council) registered dietitian who can help improve your health and well-being. This includes working with special dietary needs due to health conditions such as coeliac disease.
Other apps that focus on all round health include sleep tracking apps. These apps can help with understanding and improving our sleep quality and routine, which is an important contributor to our overall health and well-being.
They typically work by placing your phone by your bed as you sleep or wearing a sleep tracker on your wrist. They’ll collect data, then analyse your sleep quality and duration. The apps can show you how long you slept, how often you woke and how long you spent in light, deep, and REM sleep.
They’ll also provide advice on how to improve your sleep quality moving forward, with understanding of how your habits affect your sleep and tips.
Lack of sleep or bad quality sleep can have a knock on effect on the rest of our lives. Being overtired often makes you less likely to do things you enjoy or may even make you less likely to want to exercise or be physically active. This can be a complex cycle, as a lack of exercise can lead to us struggling to sleep.
Sleep deficiency is also linked to more serious problems including: heart disease, kidney disease, stroke, obesity and depression.
Some of our top tips to help get a better night's sleep are:
There are a wealth of free and paid apps that can help with our mental health. Mental health plays an important role in our overall health and well-being, beyond our physical health.
Mental health apps typically focus on topics such as mindfulness, positive thinking or better understanding our moods. These apps can help us feel better in our day-to-day lives and provide additional support when needed.
If you have a health insurance policy, it’s worth taking a look at what benefits come with the policy and making sure you’re utilising them. Most health insurance providers offer mental health support through their app or web services.
Digital GPs are a core benefit that come with most health insurance polices and a great example of how apps and technology can help to support healthy lifestyles.
Online GPs provide fast access to advice, appointments and health support.
Typically with a Digital GP you can:
Having access to a digital GP can quickly put your mind at ease when needed, or ensure faster access to the right advice and next steps for your health.
Overall, a healthy lifestyle is essential for our health and well-being and there is more focus than ever on putting our health first.
There is plenty of support that can help us achieve a healthy lifestyle, from apps and wearable technology to support available from health insurers. All of these can play a role in helping to motivate us, keep us on track and improve our health and well-being.
Many insurers offer a host of services that can help us to feel better and improve our lifestyle.
If you want to learn about the full benefits of health insurance, you can get in touch with our experts for free advice and recommendations of what’s available to you. Fill out the form below to get a quote or give us a call on: 01285 864670.