Get Paid for Getting in Shape |
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That's very, very close to the most sensationalistic title I've written in a long time... but it's also one of the most accurate titles I've written.
My friend at Weight Loss Journal alerted me to this Time article, which tells the story of Healthy Wage, a website that will pay you to lose weight. Go read the article... I'll wait. Back? Awesome!
You may note that this service is fairly similar to the article I wrote about StickK nearly two years. That was my impression 30 seconds after Weight Loss Journal sent me the link. However, I'm glad that I continued to read the article. Time makes the great point that people can subvert StickK very, very easily. While StickK provides a path to accountability, it does not enforce it.
Healthy Wage enforces it. That's half of the reason it's a great idea. When I read that you have to call your physician to verify your weight it was a moment of clarity for me. Long ago I had the idea of a weight loss system where you report your progress in some kind of Internet forum. The Biggest Loser has something like that. However, the missing piece of the equation for me was that I couldn't figure out the accountability.
The other half of the idea is that there is a signficant reward. You can win $100 by just losing the weight... or you can risk $300 to win $1000. That's not exactly "chump change" for doing something that will likely save you much, much more in the long run.
If you are interested, act quickly. You need to sign up by January 20th.
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I am planning on signing up. Should we have some sort of blogger weight loss contest?
I posted about this a couple months back when I signed up, though the site has gotten a ton of news coverage lately. It’s a pretty cool program, and the site design isnt bad, pretty easy to use but they are technically still in beta so there have been some quirks on the site. Glad more people are hearing about this.
http://www.pffirewall.com/moneymaking/lose-weight-1000-year/
Talk about motivation. What if you already are in good shape and wouldn’t mind gaining a few pounds, ha.
Haha Craig, my wife tried that. It wasn’t allowed :)
The doctor’s visits would cost me more than $100 which would keep it from working for me. Also having to check in every week could be a hassle as I plan on traveling with limited internet access later this year. I couldn’t find on the site how long of a window you would have to check in each week.
Since I bet my readers $500 last year that I would lose 30 pounds and lost it would appear that money isn’t enough of a motivator for me.
Well, I didn’t exactly get *paid* but my insurance did give me a break when I went to the gym regularly. And, the incentive did lead me to go there more often than I normally would.