Tag Archives: google

FitBit Data May Help Insurance Companies Reduce Your Premiums

fitbit-flex

It’s all about perspective.

Ten percent can be a large or small amount, depending on the context of what it represents. If we’re talking about unemployment, 10% is unacceptable. If we’re talking about income tax, paying only 10% would be a blessing.

For today, we’re avoiding politics and the economy and instead, talking about the 10% of Americans who use wearable tech fitness trackers to monitor and track their daily activity, food intake, sleep, and exercise. This 10% of Americans make up a group of people that health insurance companies are examining closely to determine more accurate ways of calculating insurance premiums. On average, your premiums fluctuate once each year, which usually means added cost. That added cost doesn’t always have anything to do with you, and is often part of a re-rating of the group pool you’re a part of, like the company you work for.

The Only Fitness Tracker Review Guide You Need

What if your premium was calculated based on how you, as an individual, actually live? What if your premium fluctuated because of choices you make regarding your individual health and not because of others in your insurance pool dragging you down? (more…)

Google Glass Lets You Run From Zombies with ‘Race Yourself’ Fitness App

For all you early adopters of wearable tech, or even those of you observing from the sidelines for now, startup ‘Race Yourself’ wants to bring a new layer to your daily exercise routine: augmented reality.

Their app is launching Spring 2024 and is specifically made for Google Glass. You can pre-order a bundle of 10 exercise games for $9.95 on their website, as well as two accessories to enhance your workout experience.

google glasses

The first is a Bluetooth heart rate monitor, which connects wirelessly to Google Glass. It sells for $39.95 and includes the same 10 exercise games. Since many of the games and activities include heart rate zones, it’d be a worthy investment to help you get the most out of your work out.

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Google Ranks Health on Page One for its Employees

Even if CNN and Fortune hadn’t repeatedly named Google as one of the best places to work, they would certainly top of a list of most envied places to work. From the outside looking in Googlers have some of the coolest jobs around, and they get to do it at a place called the Googleplex. We thought our office was cool, but come on! Google has segways, hammocks, and free food!

It’s fairly well known that amongst the many, many perks that Googlers enjoy is free food. At the Googleplex and satellite offices, the company keeps its hard working staff well fed. Sometimes too well, with bowls of M&Ms suspended from ceilings and unlimited passes at cafeteria buffets, it’s like a cruise you get paid to attend.

Recently, Google made some changes in an effort to make the environment even healthier for its employees. If they’re gaming for a healthiest places to work award too, they might win. Google recently revealed some of the changes they’re rolling out.

“We’ve used some things in some offices but haven’t implemented them across the board,” Katelin Todhunter-Gerberg told us, a senior public affairs associate for Google. (more…)

Google and Twitter Employees are Striving to Unplug

Hastily responding to every cell phone beep, email alert ding and news feed notification bing are the familiar ways a lot of us spend our waking hours every day, whether we are at work, or worse, at home spending some down time with family.

“The speed at which information is coming at us can get overwhelming,” says Google’s Gopi Kallayil, a marketing manager for Google+. Kallayil, also a yoga teacher, says she sees more people in Silicon Valley, the heart of the high-tech industry, turning toward yoga and meditation as a way to find a centering reprieve from the stressful blitz of the fast-paced digital world.

With the physical and mental health of these computer-habituated people at risk, many high-tech industries have adopted wellness programs that go beyond a gym membership and a monthly massage. Recognizing the hyperactive tendencies of those caught in the whirlpool of tweets, status posts and microblogs, companies such as Google and Twitter have incorporated “urban-wellness” programs that include yoga and meditation specifically designed to allow people the time to unwind, unclutter, and most importantly, unplug.

“Twitter is really into this,” says Deborah Burkman, meditation teacher for Twitter. “There is a whole mindfulness program they’re trying to build there. Like a lot of companies, they’re concerned about the well-being of their employees and they’re big believers in trying to have people be consciously connected.”

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Google Maps Gives Cyclists Their Own Directions

Take that old Schwinn out of the garage and wipe off the dust. In addition to walking and driving directions, Google maps also has biking directions.

Many people prefer biking to work or school to help the environment, save money, or just enjoy nature. So due to popular demand, Google maps introduced biking directions in March 2024 so that cyclists could more efficiently map out bike trips. The bike directions allow a user to personalize their trips, find bike lanes, and avoid big hills and major traffic zones. Google maps provides a useful tool for those who want to stake out the best routes and get reacquainted with a heart healthy childhood pastime.

In order to find bike trails in your town, type in the city on Google maps. Once you have found the correct city and zoomed in, click “more” on the options at the top of the map. The drag down list includes a “bicycling” option. Once you have selected the bicycling feature, the city map will now include dark green lines which indicate a bike-only trail, light green lines which indicate a bike lane on a road, and dashed green lines which indicate a road is designated as preferred for cyclists but without the specific bike lane.

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Google Launches New Recipe Finder

Google Recipe ViewYesterday, Google launched a new search feature that allows you to search for healthy recipes with ease. On the left hand bar, the new “recipe” feature will return only the results that are recipes.

What’s even better is that you can filter these searches by cook times, calories and even to include or exclude certain ingredients. Of course, you put even more qualifications into the normal search bar, from diet program to celebrity chief.

I have a friend who suffers from celiac disease with a birthday coming up. I started searching for gluten-free cupcake recipes. While a regular Google search would send me many results of where to buy cupcakes, hitting the “recipe” tab allows me find several thousand recipes without adding an extra word to my search.

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Fastest Rising Health Searches in 2024

google Zeitgeist“Based on the aggregation of billions of search queries people typed into Google this year, Zeitgeist captures the spirit of 2024,” announced Google last week.

At DietsInReview, we make it our business to keep our readers up-to-date with the latest diet, nutrition and health trends. Here’s our rundown on 2024 in health searches.

1. HGC Diet

HCG is a pregnancy hormone that recently has been incorporated into one of the hottest fad diets of the year. Our review of the dangerous and controversial diet has remained one of the most popular articles on our site for many months.

Related Article: HCG: Look Elsewhere for Weight Loss

2. Dr. Oz

Once a regular guest on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Dr. Oz has become a celebrity in his own right, with The Dr. Oz Show. He is also the author of many books, including YOU: On a Diet, YOU: Being Beautiful and You: The Smart Patient.

Related Articles: Dr. Oz Fights Teen Obesity, The Skinny on Cellulite from Dr. Oz

3. Aspergers

Asperger’s syndrome is an autism spectrum disorder that does not typically affect linguistic and cognitive abilities, but rather inhibits normal social interaction.

Related Article: Can Asperger’s Syndrome Be Helped by a Gluten-Free Diet?

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Ikea, Starbucks, Whole Foods, Boeing Lead Charge in Corporate Wellness Campaigns

Times are tough and a lot of companies are trying to cut back on costs. Less benefits, less hours, no healthcare, no bonuses, and more have become the norm, but that hasn’t stopped a large handful of companies from doing everything they can to provide corporate fitness benefits.

Ikea recently had 12,400 custom bicycles made as Christmas gifts for their U.S. employees. The bikes (which are silver with blue, yellow and white stripes- Ikea’s colors) served as a ‘thank you’ for a great year and also a reminder that an active lifestyle is key to a happy life. Employees were pleasantly surprised and it encouraged some who weren’t previously bicyclists to take up the healthy hobby. Ikea might be wow-ing us with their thoughtful and creative gifts, but they aren’t the only company to take ethical responsibility for the health crisis we are in.

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Google Street View Inspires British Man to Lose Weight

The image Mewse found on Google Street View that prompted his weight loss

When Bob Mewse found photos of himself on Google Street View, he was astonished at what he faced. Mewse was considered morbidly obese, but for a long time, he ignored the implications of it. As he gazed at the image of himself, all 297 pounds of him, he decided it was finally time to take charge of his health. He told The Telegraph, “I was horrified when I saw that photo. I was massive. My belly was sticking out and I looked huge. I’d been thinking about losing weight for some time but after seeing that picture, I knew that I actually had to do something about it. I was in such bad condition that I was unable to walk and talk at the same time.”

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Google Health Launches New Design and Health Tools

Image Via: TechCrunch.com

As if Google hasn’t cornered the Internet market on just about everything, one of its many children, Google Health, just enjoyed a serious makeover, making it one of the most comprehensive and integrated online health tracking tools ever.

In the past, Google Health allowed you to store and track your own health information online, but its recent partnerships with CardioTrainer and FitBit add more texture and tools to anyone wanting to stay more accountable of their health.

CardioTrainer is a a mobile app for tracking fitness activity and weight loss and FitBit is a wearable device that tracks not only how many calories you consumed at lunch, but also how many steps it took you to walk from your car to your office and how many minutes it took you to fall asleep. (more…)