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Channel coach, Stuart Selbst, has a lot to be proud of this year. Since February 2011, dedication, hard work and modern science allowed Selbst to drop a whopping 146 pounds of body fat. His success story began when he noticed his weight had spun so out of control that he was 400 pounds and morbidly obese. Selbst credits his success to weight loss surgery and a much needed change in his exercise and dieting habits. He underwent a procedure called a Sleeve Gastronomy, which required a liquid diet for the 2.5 weeks prior, in order to reduce the fat around his liver. However, in order to keep weight off, Selbst needed to make some serious and permanent lifestyle changes.

Exercise is a very important component of staying healthy and minimizing fat storage. After struggling to make it to the gym regularly, Selbst turned to his smartphone for help. “I did join the gym, but bad habits don’t go away. I didn’t like going so I cancelled my membership. One of the things that I enjoy doing is getting in my walk/run. Each day my wife and I doing two to four miles. We track our walking with Nike+ GPS,” Selbst said in a recent interview. The app is available at the iTunes store for only $1.99, much more reasonable than a monthly gym membership, and uses the iPhone’s GPS tracking features to monitor work outs.

The Nike+ GPS app is currently only available on Apple devices running iOS 4.0 or later, but there are several similar running apps that use similar GPS tracking features of other phones and devices. The user simply turns on the app when starting the workout, and the GPS tracking technology maps out the run. Users can monitor lots of useful data about their workout, such as distance and speed to improve their performance. The Nike+ GPS app is available in English, Spanish, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese and Portuguese.

Photo by Flo and Me through Flickr Creative Commons