Get paid to work out?

There are so many people that post on Facebook or I hear chatting about their exercise and weight loss goals for the new year, which I think is awesome, and I LOVE to hear it!  But I  know that it can be tough to keep up the daily workouts, especially when you feel like you have hit a rut, the days are long and dark, and you are just exhausted and cold.  How do you change that?  Hit yourself where it hurts: your wallet! WHAT?!?!?

In a word? GymPact.
So this is one of the coolest IPhone apps to date (sorry droiders- coming soon but only available for iPhone now)....as far as exercising and keeping motivation up! Gympact is an app created by a couple of recent Harvard grads, and people basically link their Gympact account to a debit card, make a "pact" about how many times they will go to the gym in a week, and you go and "check-in" at your gym (like using Foursquare) and you have to be there for a minimum of 30 minutes. When you set-up your account you assign a dollar amount to your workouts from $5 to 100, and whatever that amount is, it will be charged to your account every time you miss a work out.  Yup.  You say, you are going to do it, you do it, or you pay for it.  Like that?  I do!  Because, the upside is that if you do workout, and even if you beat your goals, you get cash prizes! So, you actually get paid for working out! Now that is both negative reinforcement for those who are skippers and positive reinforcement for those who are kicking butt and sticking to their goals.  How does that work?  Each week, GymPact pools the money from the people who didn't meet their goals, and splits it up between the people that did workout and meet their exercise goals, and if you workout more or longer than you made a "pact" for, you get more cash.  Plus, you can challenge a group of friends/family/coworkers or just jump on in solo and challenge the average person.  Now, you can opt out from any one week, if you are on vacation or know that you have a rough week at work....but it has to be planned, you can't opt out in the middle of the week unless you are injured or ill with a note from a Healthcare Practitioner.  On average people have been making $0.50 to $1.00 per workout which equals out to around $100 to $200 extra per year just from working out...as long as you do what you SAID that you were going to do around New Years. Plus, it is international, so ALL of my readers can take the challenge!  No excuses!!

GymPact is asking you to put your money where your mouth is, and I think that is fabulous! If only I worked out in a gym, I would clean up ;)  So, iPhone users, do what you said you were going to do....I bet you'll stick to your goals.  How much do you want to put on that?

Yours in Good Health
B