The Shaklee 180 Mobile App

Worth the Weight  

WOOHOO!! The mobile app has finally arrived.  One of my complaints about the Shaklee 180 system was the fact that they advertised a mobile app but it was not available when I first received my kit.  It is my understanding that the app was ready to go but was stuck in the process of getting approved for the app store.  A reasonable explanation but still a miscalculation on Shaklee's part assuming that Apple would push them through on the Shaklee schedule.  They should have known Apple does things their own way.

But anyway, lets move on with the review of the app.  We are not here to bash Apple or their policies or Shaklee's miscalculation. It is all water under the bridge now that the app is available.  And it is available to pretty much everyone since Shaklee at least had the forethought to create a version for Android as well as iOS.

I got the app almost a week ago (February 3rd to be exact) and so far I have been very impressed.  The disappointment of having to wait has been overshadowed by the great features that Shaklee included.  They did not try to throw together a rinky dink little app that would not be of any use but instead took the time to develop something that covers every part of the 180 turnaround journey.

In fact there is so much stuff  available on the mobile app that I am going to be breaking down my review into a couple of parts.  I am just going to give a general overview in this posting and will cover the diet plan, food recorder and progress logs in a second post, followed by a 3rd post where I focus on the workouts and exercise area.

Interface and Usability

Here is an area where I think Shaklee did a great job. The screens are bright and colorful and have easy to read buttons and menus.  I downloaded the app to both my smart phone and my tablet and it looks good on both screens.  The tablet is of course bigger and spreads out the information more but the smaller screen of the phone does not make anything looked cramped or unreadable.

The dashboard page uses large tile similar to a windows 8 setting.  It gives a nice overview of whats going on and has a nice tip or motivational quote that changes periodically.

I am using the Android version on both of my devices so I can't comment too much on the Apple side but I would think most things would look and work almost identically.

The bar at the top tracks your food calories and adds on additional calories to the daily goal when you log your daily activities.

You can see I am on day four when I took the pic and I have earned 15 contest entries.  (Shaklee has weekly drawing to win prizes)

Menus

Because Shaklee packed so much into this app there is a menu set available to help you navigate to the different areas of the plan. It gives the user an easy way to get to the different ways of tracking their progress whether it be the foods you ate, the exercise you did or even the little awards Shaklee has included to to try and motivate you to keep going and to keep using the app.

They are just little badges for recording your meals for a whole day or a whole week. This is a simple but nice feature.  It doesn't seem like much but its cool getting a new award and it keeps you using the app.  The app can become like your little diet companion.  And I think we all know we do better at something when we commit to it and commit to doing it with a buddy.  Shaklee tried to give everyone an extra "buddy" to keep them moving forward and committed with this app.  I say "GOOD JOB".

The Menu page also has other resources.  Clicking on this takes you to a whole new menu full of stuff like recipes and workouts and more info on the products you will be using.  It is a blog post in itself!

Overall Impression

This is not the first diet / food calorie / weight tracker app I have ever used, so  I think I can say with confidence that Shaklee did their homework and took the time to create a useful app.  It has all the elements you want without going overboard.  There aren't any flashing adds or extra junk to distract you.

I like how it keeps track of your progress and gives you a spot to record everything you do.  I was VERY impressed with the food tracker and possibly even MORE IMPRESSED with the exercise tracker.  The food tracker makes it very easy to find what you need.  There were places for the Shaklee foods (of course) but there was also foods by brand, by restaurant and by type.  You could even customize it with your own creations.  And while none of this is really beyond other apps you can get when you combine it with all the other things in the app it puts it over the top.

One of those things is the exercise tracker.  It had the typical list of workouts but what sets it apart in my book is the section devoted to everyday life.  It gives you credit for walking to work or mowing the lawn or doing stuff around the house where you are exercising even though you aren't wearing workout clothes or standing in a gym.  VERY VERY COOL - GOOD JOB SHAKLEE!

Lots of plans say you don't have to do fancy workouts but this app actually backs up that statement.  And while most of these around the house activities burn lots of calories to add room on your daily limit, they can give you just enough that you won't feel so guilty when you are living life and happen to have an ice cream cone with your kids.

I really like this app and all it offers.  If you were on the fence trying to decide on whether to try the Shaklee 180 turnaround plan I would say this app would bump you off that fence on the side of doing it.  I think it also gives Shaklee's 180 plan one more advantage over other plans out there.  They were already the #1 Nutritional Company in the U.S., now they are on their way to becoming the weight loss leader as well.

Read more about the Shaklee 180 Mobile App 

- Part 2 / Food, Weight & Exercise Trackers

- Part 3 / Other Resources including Tips and Workouts