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Keeping up with healthy habits consistently is known to improve your mental health, but sometimes you need an extra push.
According to
Fabulous is a daily planner and self-care habit tracking app available on the iOS App Store and Google Play Store. The app works like a “coach” and uses behavioral science to help people make smart changes and build healthy habits.
Keep reading to see how the Fabulous app works and whether it’s right for you.
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During the vetting process, our team evaluates apps based on factors, like medical credibility, businesses practices, and social impact, to ensure that they meet Healthline’s strict standards.
Fabulous is a daily self-care app available for Android and iPhone users under the health and fitness category. In 2018, the app was named one of the best apps under Self-Care in the Apple Store and was a Best App Finalist in the Google Play Awards.
The app helps you build routines over time by breaking habits down into small, attainable steps and “journeys.” The initial journey revolves around creating a healthy morning routine to set yourself up for a successful day.
For example, during the first 3 days, your only goal will be to drink a glass of water right when you wake up. The app will send you a notification each morning at the time you specify.
Over time, you’re able to add more habits to your journey, also known as “habit stacking.” This is a common technique used to sustain long-term routines. The app allows you to customize your routines and choose the habits you want to stack.
GET STARTED WITH Fabulous
Pros
- The sessions are science-backed and created in collaboration with researchers.
- It uses a “gamified” experience that can make goal setting and staying consistent enjoyable.
- It has an easy-to-navigate interface with pleasing designs and graphics.
- There’s a large collection of exercises and meditations.
- All the routines show how long each task is going to take.
Cons
- The notifications can be easy to ignore.
- There’s no warning that your free trial is going to end.
- There’s not a lot of options or customization if you don’t pay for the full version.
- You’re unable to set nondaily habits.
- The healthy eating portion centers on losing weight, which might not fit everyone’s goal and can be triggering for some.
Signing up
Fabulous has an easy-to-navigate interface and a comforting aesthetic of blue and purple colors. It also has a built-in soundtrack, ambient sounds, and beautifully designed background templates.
When you hop on the app, it will ask you a series of questions, such as “How often do you focus on the future?” and “What single change would improve your life right now?” It will also ask how you identify, how many hours of sleep you get per night, and how your energy levels are throughout the day.
After answering a few more basic questions, Fabulous configures a “journey” for you based on your answers and will ask you to sign a “contract” that says:
“I, [your name], will make the most of tomorrow. I will always remember that I will not live forever. Every fear and irritation that threatens to distract me will become fuel for building my best life one day at a time.”
Journeys
The first journey on the app centers on adding one positive step to your routine each day, like drinking water as soon as you wake up.
The app then plays an animated video explaining the importance of a morning routine by highlighting the daily routines of Michelle Obama, Benjamin Franklin, and Nelson Mandela.
After you get in the habit of drinking water, you get to continue building your morning routine by adding a new habit, such as eating a nutritious breakfast or exercising after waking up. It takes 3 days to “unlock” the next task.
The app will notify you before each habit with a reminder alert at the time you specify.
This is the preliminary routine-building journey. Once you lock that one down, you can select any of four different journeys you want to focus on: feel more energized, lose weight, sleep better, or focus and concentrate.
Challenges
Challenges can be accessed using the “launch” icon on the bottom of the app. Each challenge is focused on a specific goal, and most require less time than a journey.
Weekly live challenges are also available, which allow you to work toward your goals alongside other members of the community.
Some examples of specific challenges that you can choose from include:
- 7-Day Intermittent Fasting Challenge
- 3-Day Group Study Challenge
- 7-Day Social Media Detox Challenge
- 5-Day No Smoking Challenge
- 30-Day Clean Eating Challenge
You can also pick between several “super powers” when beginning your challenge to help hold you accountable, such as sharing on Instagram, placing sticky notes around your house, or developing a mindful ritual.
Keep in mind that you can only participate in one journey or challenge at a time, so you may need to pause your current journey or challenge to begin a new one.
Make Me Fabulous
The “Make Me Fabulous” menu can be accessed by clicking the “launch” icon. It comes with a variety of activities to try out. There’s a dashboard that showcases your goals and journey progress, allowing you to track your performance.
There are 13 options available:
- exercise
- focused work
- meditation
- yoga
- stretch
- power nap
- coaching
- get inspired
- deep work
- fabulous creed
- bedtime stories
- breathe
- sit and think
Fabulous consulted with top researchers to create these sessions, and they regularly update them with new insights from scientific studies.
After selecting a category, you get to choose an activity from their library, depending on how much time you want to dedicate. There’s a timer next to each activity so you can see how long it will take you to complete it.
For example, if you only have a minute, you can select a quick and easy task, like making your bed. If you have more time, you can choose something like the Do Anywhere Exercise, a 10-minute endurance and strength workout session that requires no additional equipment.
If you have a lot of time, you could try 4-Hour Deep Work, a session to help you find focus by dedicating 4 hours to meaningful and creative work.
After you complete a task, you get to read a short motivating letter that encourages your progress. The Fabulous team sends you a weekly recap report and letter to read.
Paid offerings
The premium version of the app also unlocks:
- personal one-on-one coaching to keep you motivated and focused
- integrated fitness programming, like yoga, stretching, and meditation
- sleep coaching
- assistance in creating a morning ritual
- targeted health advice
Fabulous is an app for anyone looking to improve their daily life. The app may help if you experience chronic fatigue, want to increase your energy levels, can’t sleep at night, can’t concentrate, live with ADHD, or have anxiety.
The app can help you build healthy habits and routines, which in turn can help increase your focus, creativity, energy levels, and sleep quality.
According to a
Still, even after new habits have been learned, old memory traces are not necessarily replaced, which is why an app like Fabulous is helpful with daily notifications and repetitive tasks that help build healthy habits.
The journeys are free. For the paid premium version with additional offerings, the app offers a 7-day free trial. After that, it’s $3.33 per month, billed yearly at $39.99.
You have to sign up for the free trial through your Apple ID, and your subscription automatically renews unless auto-renew is turned off.
The app does not currently take insurance.
GO TO Fabulous
The app has more than 500,000 reviews and an average rating of 4.5 stars out of 5. The majority of the reviews on both the iOS App Store and Google Play Store are 5 stars.
Some people say the journeys are not particularly flexible or customizable, making it difficult to complete the daily tasks.
Overall, people enjoy the app and claim that it’s helped them make lasting change.
Fabulous is an app that’s focused on building healthy habits, such as feeling more energized, getting in shape, sleeping more, and focusing.
By using data and the science of habit, this app makes pacing and goal setting easy. As with everything, the app is only helpful if used consistently.
Iman Balagam is a writer based in Houston, Texas. When she’s not laughing at her own jokes or buying overpriced chia pudding, she can be found reading fiction novels, catching a spin class, doomscrolling through TikTok, or waiting for her delayed Spirit flight to board. You can see more of her work on her website.
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