If you’re already sliding on your 2012 health goals, there’s a crazy app (for iPhone and iPod) that might just raise the stakes.
GymPact is an app that you hook up to your credit card. You set your goals, set a penalty amount (minimum $5 per day lost) and then use your device’s GPS capability to check in from your gym (you can’t use your home gym or condo gym). If you don’t check in, your credit card is charged. If you do check in, you get a portion of all the penalties paid by everyone else.
I haven’t tried it myself – and in fact, am scared to, which I suppose is the point. It is a strange wrinkle in my personality that I’ll walk further down the street to save a dollar on grapes, but I often find my to-do list more compelling than going for a walk in the first place! When I know that exercise is key to the life I want to have – both to be able to chase my kids down the street when they’re teens and I’m in my late 50s, and to travel and bike and all that great stuff. Still…$5!
Would you ever put real money down on your personal goals like this one?
