Winning My HealthyWager

Ryan & Rachel
Oct 10, 2018
10 min read

If you've been following along with our journey over the last several months, you may recall us announcing that we had both signed up to complete a HealthyWage Challenge. For those of you unfamiliar with HealthyWage, it is essentially a platform where individuals can put a bet on themselves and their weight-loss and potentially win a pretty sweet payout IF the goal is reached in the allotted time-frame. What's cool about HealthyWage specifically, is that participants can play around with their calculator tool to choose the best "bet" and payout scenario that fits with their goals.

For example: Jane wants to lose 50 lbs over 6 months, but doesn't know how much she is willing to bet per month that she makes that goal. She also wants to win as much as possible. So, Jane plays with the HealthyWage calculator and finds that the challenge she is most comfortable with is a $25/month bet, in place of something lower or higher so she can potentially win X amount of money.

Worst case scenario, a participant doesn't hit their weight-loss goal in the allotted time so they don't earn back the money they bet. Best case scenario, a participant DOES hit their weight-loss goal in the allotted time and they win the pre-determined payout. Sweet, right?

Well, back in early March, we decided we wanted to add a little teeth and fuel to our weight-loss journey, and when we found out about HealthyWage, we knew that was just the ticket. We each set out bet, and set to work.

Flash forward 6 months, and we had mixed results. Only one of us hit our goal, so we'll be going into the account of how that was accomplished. The other half of the story is one of unfortunate defeat, so that will be saved for another time.

Switching to first-person now: Rachel here! If you couldn't tell from the post photo, I am the one that hit my individual HealthyWager. HOWEVER, I would not have been able to win had it not been for Ryan. He was seriously my biggest cheerleader, so even though he didn't win his, he definitely gets 50% of the credit for me winning mine.

Anywayyy, the route I took with my HealthyWager was betting $25/month for 6 months that I would lose 60 lbs in that time-frame. That was a total investment of $150, and my pre-determined payout was $659. So if I won, my net earnings would be $509. Not too shabby - especially since I was working to lose the weight anyway. Why not get paid in the process?!

In addition to the $659 payout, I also referred 3 other people to signup for their own HealthyWagers during the 6 months, so I got an additional $120 added on to that - making my total potential payout $779. What's awesome about the referral program is that the referrer and the referral get $40 added to their total payout if they hit their goal REGARDLESS if the other person hits theirs. Pretty awesome.

Okay, that was a lot of explanations and baseline setting, but now to the meat of this post... HOW DID I SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETE MY HEALTHYWAGE CHALLENGE? Well, I'll tell you.

But first, here is my "before" photo...

So this is me: a bright eyed and bushy tailed HealthyWage newbie - weighing in at 236.8 lbs. on March 3rd, 2018. I had already lost 23 lbs. since early January, and in total had lost nearly 63 lbs., but there was significant work to be done.

First...

1) I joined my local gym.

Okay, okay, okay. You're right. You do NOT have to join a gym to be successful in your health & fitness goals or journey, and I would never make an argument otherwise. BUT for me, I absolutely HAD to make a financial investment to prove to myself - and my wallet - that my health was the top priority I kept saying it was. We financially invest in a million things every day, every year, and if our health/wellness isn't one of them then that is a problem. A pretty big one. I was seriously willing to spend $5/week (or more) on my favorite coffee (and PS: I still am willing to spend that, and do), but not willing to invest what ended up equating to less than $12/month on a gym membership? That was INSANE to think about.

So, we started doing research. What were we looking for? Convenience, classes, options, and a community. We'd been members of Planet Fitness before, and that was fine, but it just wasn't a good fit. A location wasn't convenient to where we lived or worked nor was the environment what either of us were looking for. And let's be honest, a gym membership is great, but only if you use it. And we weren't using it, so we closed that door, and opened a new local one in the form of joining the gym down the street - Ultimate Image Fitness Center. We literally live a 3 minute drive from one of their locations, they had an annual family plan, you get 24 hour/365 day access, AND the membership included classes. Talk about a win-win-win-win! It hit all of what we were looking for, making the decision to join a pretty easy one.

Alright, so I joined the gym. Big whoop. What did you do besides spend money?

2) I ate healthy the majority of the time, but indulged in treats occasionally.

Balance is the only thing that is sustainable, and besides, a LOT of life happens in 6 months. A lot of life that includes holidays, birthdays, restaurant openings (especially when your brother is a chef), cross-country roadtrip vacations, and weekenders on the river that simply need wine. So it was never going to be possible to eat well every single meal of every single day for 6 months. Knowing this, it was essential that I not kid myself and instead, plan for the life (and food) that was bound to happen.

When I knew I was going to eat something high in calories, or had a craving, I made sure my meals surrounding that splurge were healthy and well-balanced. And I worked out harder. It's pretty basic math. Yes, it matters what you put into your body, but at the end of the day you need to burn more calories than you take in to lose weight.

3) I went to the gym. A lot. Literally all. The. Time. And experimented with other forms of exercise to keep things interesting.

Like I mentioned above, you have to burn more calories than you eat to lose weight. And if you're going to invest in a gym membership, you better use it. Luckily, gyms are great places to burn calories, and when you have 24 hour access, you have no excuse.

At first, I started with cardio alone. I would jump on the elliptical and go for 30 minutes. When I was tired of that, I started switching things up by running on my local high school track and doing light road runs. As I got more confident in my cardio, I started branching out with strength training (by doing workouts with Ryan and looking up ideas on Pinterest) and doing classes at the gym like Yoga Flow with Tori from Trippin Yogis and Dance2Fit with Stephanie.

By changing up what I was doing exercise wise, I stayed engaged and committed to my workouts - while also building muscle AND burning fat. I didn't mandate a certain amount of time per trip to the gym or per activity, because anything was better than nothing and I could at least fit in 15+ minutes. Hiking on vacation, abs, whatever it was that day - I committed to doing SOMETHING. And that was a huge part of my success.

4) I weighed once per week, and updated my results in the HealthyWage app to stay accountable and steady through the 6 month challenge.

6 months doesn't necessarily sound like a long time, but when it comes to weight-loss, it can seem like FOREVER. Not to mention that 60 lbs. sounds like a crazy big chunk if you look at it in its entirety. Those two coupled together can spell trouble when you want to be successful in losing weight over the long term, so the mentality of "slow & steady" is a game changer - or at least it was for me.

I didn't want to get obsessive with the scale, so I set Wednesdays as my "weigh day". No more weigh-ins, no less. By weighing on the same day at the same time, I was really able to track my numbers accurately, and Wednesdays just seemed like the perfect day. A bad weekend wouldn't make or break my week, nor would a good week make me think I could binge on a weekend. Fairly logical if you ask me! Haha!

I kept track of it all in the HealthyWage app, too. The cool thing about that? It shows you your progress based on the timeline. For example, I got behind in my weight-loss during month 4 and I could see what percentage I was behind right in the app since I was tracking my weight along the way (even though it is not mandatory - you technically only have to complete two verified weigh-ins during your challenge: starting weight and ending weight). It would turn the progress bar green, yellow or red to illustrate your progress, which I found incredibly helpful and quite a motivator. It's easier to lose more weight in the beginning, but it definitely gets harder as you move along because your body gets wise to your routines. By focusing more on steady progress, and not on the occasional fluctuations, I didn't get bogged down on setbacks or get complacent. Tracking over the long term was the right fit for me. Honestly, without it, I wouldn't have been successful during the challenge OR after it.

Fun Fact: The length of the challenge (6 months) was actually one of my favorite parts about HealthyWage. Instead of encouraging crash diets and unsustainable weight-loss in a short time span, its longer timelines really emphasize the importance of making healthy habits into a lifestyle. Yes, losing weight is great, but doing so in a healthy manner is imperative if you want it to stay lost!

5) I celebrated milestones, and had an awesome support system that pushed me until the very end.

I love any excuse to celebrate. I literally did a happy dance any time I lost a single pound. If you think I'm over-exaggerating, ask Ryan. He'll attest to my victory dances. I also set smaller milestones along the way during my 60 lbs journey to chunk it out and make it fun. I had been saving money for several weeks to start a "non-food treat fund" for these milestones, and it was well worth the investment.

When I officially lost 75 lbs. total, I purchased a FabFitFun Subscription Box (specifically the annual package) - This was definitely one of my splugier perks, but I LOVE FFF, and will be posting more about how much I love this seasonal box service in future posts :D
When I got under 200 lbs. (my biggest weight-loss milestone to date at the time and a real dream come true), I bought myself a new Fitbit Versa. I had previously owned Fitbit products before, but this device is my absolute favorite. SO MANY USER FRIENDLY FEATURES.
Other milestone perks included more budget friendly activities too like: a cheesy RedBox rental, a girls night in, a back massage from the hubs, detox bath salts... the list goes on and on.

Honestly, it really doesn't matter how you celebrate your milestones (except, I would highly recommend at least doing a happy dance), what matters is that you celebrate them. Losing weight is hard. You deserve to be proud of yourself while you do it, and a little celebration is a great way to illustrate that pride. #treatyoself

Now, the second part of this step is NO less important than the milestone perks part, and that is surrounding myself with an AMAZING support system.

I kid you not, on the day I decided to weigh-out of my challenge, my husband was cheering me on as I did jumping jacks and an intense HIIT workout in our kitchen to lose that last .1 lbs. And that's just one example of the hundreds I could list just coming from him. My parents checked-in about it, my grandparents did. My friends at work signed up using my referral link for HealthyWagers of their own. I joined Facebook groups centered around health & wellness and started really exploring the fitness community on Instagram. You can seriously find a support network anywhere, you just have to look for it and be willing to share that you NEED support. Investing time in building out my network of champions was one of the best decisions I ever made, and it moves so much more beyond my fitness goals than I ever would have thought possible. PLEASE DO IT. I promise that you will not regret the time or energy you spend on this step.

Alriiiiight, so fast forward through 6 months of following the above steps and I weighed in on the Saturday of Labor Day Weekend (2 days shy of my 6 month deadline since you can weight-out up to 2 weeks early) at 176.6. I HAD DONE IT! In a little less than 6 months, I had lost a little over 60 lbs. successfully. I was also $779 richer. HUGE PERK. And once my weight was verified, I got paid super quick. HUGER PERK.

It was a lot of hard work. I will not deny that for a second. I questioned whether or not I would make it and cursed the process, myself, and my husband along the way. But wow. I DID IT. This accomplishment has propelled me further in my fitness journey than I thought any 6 month chunk would ever be able to do, and it's sustained my motivation to now be within 25ish lbs. of my end goal weight. For someone that started out at 300 lbs., this is a BIG DEAL. I've now lost over 127 lbs. total, and I owe AT LEAST 60 lbs. of that to HealthyWage (PS: I am NOT getting endorsed or paid/sponsored to say any of this. Seriously.)

In short, if you need to add some skin in the game to your weight-loss goals, I recommend checking out HW. I'm in a group challenge now with them, so I'll be sure to let folks know how that ends up in a couple weeks when it closes! In the meantime, I hope this glimpse into what I did to successfully win my HealthyWager and lose 60 lbs. in 6 months was at least entertaining.