by Kate Hinsche

Opinion Editor

According to Statistic Brain, the top five most common New Year’s Resolutions made by Americans are to lose weight, get organized, spend less and save more money, eat healthier, and enjoy life. Unfortunately, only eight percent of the people who make New Year’s Resolutions keep them. Here are a few apps that will help you make it into the elite 8%:

Charity Miles: a free app for iPhone that tracks the miles that you’ve walked, biked, or run. But the best part is that before you workout, you choose one of the many charities supported by Charity Miles. For every mile that you walk or run, Charity Miles’ corporate sponsors donate $0.25, and $0.10 for miles biked. Charity Miles is great for getting fit and doing good.

Schedule Planner: a free app for iPhone for people looking to get organized. The app enables you to plan out your month, make daily to-do lists, and keep track of what you actually complete. It then sorts your tasks by type and displays the different categories on a graph, so you can see how much time you give yourself to complete different things like homework and exercise. Once you begin to complete your tasks, the app tracks how much time you actually spend doing them.

Level Money: a free app for iPhone that helps track your weekly, monthly, and yearly spending. The app
calculates the amount of money you can spend per week and month in order to help you meet your savings goal, and helps you track where you spend too much.

Healthy Desserts by Green Kitchen: the iPhone app costs $2.99, but it is 100% worth it. Part of the App Store Best of 2012, Healthy Desserts provides recipes that satisfy your sweet tooth without all the guilt that comes with high-calorie indulgences, such as 7-11 donuts and Slurpees. For $6.99, Healthy Desserts can be bought in a bundle with the Green Kitchen app, which is full of delicious vegetarian recipes if you’re looking to cut meat out of your diet this year.

Calorie Counter & Diet Tracker: a free app for iPhone that acts as a food diary and counts calories. This is a great tool if you’re looking to lose weight by cutting back on food portions.

Your Compliments: a free app for iPhone filled with compliments just for you! Swipe to the left to see new compliments, then stock up on good karma by submitting your own.

Hopefully these apps help you stick to your goals for 2015. Whether you hope to become rich literally or emotionally, get in shape, or manage your time better, it is doable and El Gato believes in you.