Zipongo for Windows Phone makes eating healthy a snap

The new Zipongo app helps you plan, shop for and prepare delicious and nutritious meals–all from your Lumia.

If you’re trying to become more healthy, you know that regular exercise is only part of the equation.

For instance, if you run five miles, that doesn’t give you license to scarf down an extra-large pepperoni pizza with extra cheese! Sad, but true. You also need to eat a well-balanced, low-fat diet with plenty of fruits and vegetables.

The new Zipongo app for Windows Phone 8.1–its tagline is “eating well made simple”–helps you plan and make tasty and heart-healthy dishes for the week ahead. Recipes, a shopping list, food deals and “my favorites” are the app’s categories: Think of it as your personal meal planner.

Zipongo has scientific bona fides: The app is inspired by the work that Zipongo CEO and medical doctor Jason Langhier did at a pediatric weight-management clinic at Boston Medical Center.

In fact, Microsoft finds the app so promising that it’s conducting a pilot program at its City Center office in Bellevue, Washington, and may expand the program company-wide. Read more about the pilot program here.

Recipes are grouped under meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks) and include mouth-watering ones such as Thai chicken salad and crispy trout with fennel and frisee.The free app takes into account your allergies or other dietary restrictions, such as no shellfish or peanuts.

In addition, Zipongo can help you find food deals and discounts at nearby stores. Type your location in the app’s search bar and food specials will pop up.

For example, there’s a sale on baby kale at my local Trader Joe’s grocery store and a discount on cod at the nearby Whole Foods market. If I want to add the sale item to my shopping list, it’s as easy as tapping the shopping cart icon next to the deal.

By the way, there’s also a beautiful-looking desktop version of Zipongo. Any additions or changes you make to your meal planning on the desktop version are automatically synced across platform, so your Lumia will always have the most up-to-date information.

So if you want to make a healthy impact on your life, give Zipongo a spin. Then let us know how it works for you in the comments section below.