Passive tracking. If you haven't heard this term yet, you will be hearing alot about it since the release of the iPhone 5s. That's because the new iPhone now has an M7 "motion coprocessor". This tiny new addition to the 5s means that it is now able to track all sorts of movements including sitting, standing, running, walking, biking, and more - all in the background without you needing to do anything but enable it once. While this may sound big brotherish to some, this is a great thing for health tech since it allows for much more accurate logging of your activities.

New Direction

Hi, I'm Aaron Hoffman and I'm taking over this blog from now on. Why, you ask? Well to talk about the things I'm passionate about - health tech and cooking great food. In order to understand why I'm qualified to talk about such broad subjects, the founders of Nudge decided I should write about where I come from and how I got here. It's a bit long because I'm old. Really old. I promise all future articles will be much shorter and to the point.

So we’ve all downloaded various apps to help us keep track of our busy lives. I have apps that track my calories, my workouts, my moods and cycles, my daily to-dos, ect. It can all be overwhelming and time consuming to access these apps several times a day. Sometimes I even long for a pen and paper! When Nudge and Runkeeper merged I was stoked! Two of the apps I access numerous times a day are now one in my world. Now when I take that afternoon run using Runkeeper, it simultaneously syncs into my Nudge account, meaning I no longer have to log my workouts in Nudge. How awesome is that!?

Nudge is here to help make wellness easy, fun, and effective for your organization. In our continuing series of articles to help you roll out an effective wellness initiative, we've covered 5 important topics including:

I'm always trying to find new ways to work healthy vegetables in my diet and recently I've grown to love brussel sprouts. When prepared right they have a complex flavor and are very hearty and filling. In fact, I've found myself choosing this high protein and low carb vegetable over potatoes, which are carb heavy and loaded with calories.

Despite research showing the importance of eating breakfast, many of us are still skipping the most important meal of the day. About 18 percent of males and 13 percent of females between the ages of 35 and 54 are breakfast skippers, according to a 2011 study by the market research company NPD group.

A low carb diet can be challenging when it comes to the amount of time it takes to prepare food. I'm currently trying to nudge low carb and good planning is definitely something required when you need to eat mostly non-processed foods. Fresh vegetables, non-processed meats and cheeses, and low carb condiments are required which can take alot of time without a strategy. I've learned that cooking in bulk is a great way to save time. If I'm grilling chicken, I grill a few pounds of it for the week. As soon as I bring home broccoli, cauliflower, cucumbers, etc., I cut them up into bite size and store them in ziptop bags for easy snacking or meal options. I also try to prepare low carb condiments and dips for the week.

In recent years it has come to our attention that although the U.S. is among the wealthiest countries in the world it is also, in some ways, among the most unhealthy. In more impoverished nations children struggle to obtain appropriate levels of nutrition and for obvious reasons, but in a country so well off as ours, children can experience the same malnutrition, and while overeating?! Picture a young American child sitting on the couch while enjoying a fast-food burger and french fries. This meal, while convenient and satisfying in the short term, is obviously missing a smorgasbord of vital nutrients from a lack of healthy fruits and vegetables among other factors. 

What the heck are zoodles? Why, zucchini noodles of course! Zoodles are a great way to replace pasta noodles if you're trying to cut carbs, are gluten intolerent, or just want to include more healthy vegetables in your diet. Zucchini has already made a very tasty replacement for pasta in our Low Carb Zucchini Lasagna recipe and we also talked about all the health benefits of eating more of this versatile vegetable.

A recent study shows social networks have a positive effect on healthy behavioral change. Everything from smoking and diets to preventative screening and exercise have been tagged as lifestyle changes improved by interaction with online networks.