HealthyWage Review

I had legitimate concerns about the ability of this bridge to handle all my fatherness.

Disclaimer: Affiliate links found within. While I may make commission should you choose to sign-up via my link, that in no way impacts my opinion of Healthywage.

“How I Won By Losing…” What?

That title probably sounds kind of idiotic, but it is quite literally what I did.

Er, lemme start at the start.

As you may or may not know, at my heaviest I weighed 450 pounds and in 2010, I started on a path of low carb eating and weight lifting that helped me shed 200 pounds and get in the best shape of my life.

Fast forward a few years, and I had 2 kids, no sleep, made every excuse in the book to not exercise, and ballooned back up to 290. Gross, not good, etc. I made a few lukewarm attempts to shame my weight on Facebook, stating I was going to get healthy but those fell flat and I was left still fat, still tired, and irritated at myself. I had every reason in the world to motivate me to lose weight, including the most important; my babies!

If I gained back all my weight, who would roar at my son when he’s being weird in the grocery store and pretending to be a dinosaur? Who will run around the house frantically trying to find my daughter’s frog pacifier (Froggy) for 10 minutes while he sits quietly, five inches from her foot while she screams? I mean, admittedly my wife could do those things, but I’m not sure she knows the art of tripping over dinosaurs and Legos the way I do, which while painful, is essential to calming the toddler down mid-froghunt.

Having grown up with myself, I think I know me pretty well. I’m a procrastinator by trade, but I’m easily distracted by design, so when I do something, I need to focus on one thing and one thing only. In addition, I need a lot of constant steering back on course, either through subtle reminders or jarring, constant insistence towards my goal. Because of this, even though my motivation (children, not being spherical) was incredibly good, it was only one facet of the overall picture.

I would wake up in the morning, raring to go, and by mid afternoon, I’d be cursing the donuts I’d eaten and swearing to clean my diet up in the morning, and by nighttime I’d be swearing off all food and distractions forever. After the billionth time this happened, I sat down in a moment of clarity and wrote out all my motivations, things that kept me focused, reasons for losing weight, obstacles, and desired outcomes (procrastinators are FABULOUS list-makers).

I looked at it for a while, trying to identify weaknesses:

• Longevity
• Increased mobility
• Playing with the kids
• Wearing clothes that fit rather than tents that are simply “not tight”
• ????
• Profit

I had a weak spot in my list, and it was those question marks. While I obviously didn’t consider there to be a missing step which would lead to profit, it did strike me because while the list was full of good reasons to get in shape, it had the one weakness that procrastination preys upon: sacrificing long-term goals for short-term rewards. Or, as my wife puts it: “procrastination stems from a disconnect with one’s future self”.

That’s when it hit me – though I had all these great reasons to lose weight, I had nothing in the immediate term helping me stay focused. Procrastinators especially need several time-related layers of motivation or focus, and the hardest one is immediate. I can look at the future and say “when I’m done with this project, I will be rich/ripped/a dinosaur” (that one is my son’s), and I can look to past disappointments or shortfalls as drive to succeed, but in the meantime, I’m someone who is sacrificing pleasure to make up for past mistakes and attain a future that’s not yet here. It’s hard to do that without current motivating factors, but that’s when I found out about Healthywage.

In the simplest terms, Healthywage is a bet against yourself that you’ll lose a certain amount of weight in a set amount of time. In my case, it was 50 pounds in 6 months. You bet an amount of money each month, for the duration of the bet, and at the end, you get an amount of money based on a lot of factors that Healthywage uses to gauge your chance at success.

For me, my bet was $50/month from March 2016 to September 2016, and with that $300 investment, I could stand to win $376 (on top of my buy-in) for a total of $676. If I didn’t lose the weight, then I lost $300.  It turns out that $50 deducted from your account every month is a pretty big motivator, almost as big as the prospect of winning all that money. I spend money on a lot of stupid things, but the idea that I would pay this company to watch me fail at my diet really spurred me into action, and honestly, after the first month, the high of endorphins from exercise and the rush of seeing the scale move and my clothes get looser every week took over.

It wasn’t about the money as much as it was succeeding for me; all the other stuff fell away as I fought myself everyday, from getting up after 5 hours of sleep to exercise, to keeping donuts out of my craw.

Every day was a win, even if it was a little one.

I had until October 7th to weigh in, but I hit my goal of 50 pounds lost by September 25th, so I weighed out, won my $676, and spent it on chocolate-covered bacon!!

Just kidding; I think we put it towards the house or something.

As for Healthywage, it’s incredibly easy to use, and I actually signed back up for another that ends in December. It goes like this:

• Sign up for Healthywage
• Now, choose the amount of weight you want to lose
• The length of time you think it will take you
• The amount you want to bet per month
• Let Healthywage calculate your prize and then
• Commit to the motivation to building a better you!

You’ll need to verify your weight – it’s pretty simple. Just a short video, a couple of turns in front of the camera (you sexy model, you), a verified weight on a scale, and that’s it. Once it’s verified, you do your thing, like challenging your nutritional beliefs, or starting an exercise program (ideally both), and lose the weight. You’ll need to do another verified weigh-in at the end, and then once the challenge is done, you get paid if you met your goal! Easy, fun, and also there’s money!

Let me know if you have any questions about Healthywage – it’s legit, the money is real, and it’s a great way to motivate you to get in shape.

How do YOU stay motivated when you’re trying to lose weight and get in shape?