Getting paid to go to the gym?  Sounds good, right?!  More on that in a minute!

Gym & Breakfast

Like everyday, today started with a trip to the gym.  My friend Hannah and I have been really good about going to the gym almost every morning.  We met during cross country in high school and have remained gym buddies through college, during holiday breaks and the summer.  It’s nice to have someone to motivate me to get up and go and we motivate each other to try new workouts!

We usually run to the gym and then run home after using the weights, which is great because we don’t have to actually do any cardio while we’re at the gym.  The run there and back is almost four miles, but breaking it up into two & two makes it fly by!

After the run there, we both did a shoulder workout and a butt workout that we started doing yesterday, then abs and the two mile run home.  We were actually there way longer than I like to be at the gym.  After an hour and fifteen minutes, I get bored, hungry and uninterested in what I’m doing, so I try to keep it snappy!

Once I got home and gulped down a gallon of water or so (not really), I made a special birthday breakfast for my dad and myself!  We usually just have oatmeal, but I made cheesy scrambled eggs with toast and fruit.  It was supposed to be an omelet, but it fell apart.I don’t actually remember taking the sticker off that plum.  Uh oh!

I sautéed onions, mushrooms and chopped broccoli before adding the egg and milk mixture.  I also added tofu to the scramble.  Check out this block of tofu:It looks like someone took a bite of it before packaging it.

We ate al fresco with my brother and marveled at how well our new mosquito-killer machine seems to be working!  They’re usually really, REALLY awful here, but it seems to be getting better!  Fingers crossed.

GymPact

Anyways, onto that whole money making gym thing!  A few months ago, I heard about an app called GymPact, which basically pays you for every workout that you complete. 

Here’s how it works:

• You make a pact to go to the gym X number of days per week, check in while at the gym and stay for at least 30 minutes, and then check out when you leave.
• You can workout in a gym (they have over 40,000 registered), at home, OR you can use the RunKeeper app, which will sync with GymPact and go for runs, walks, or bike rides and it all counts!
• Only one workout per day.
• You can use GymPact out of the country.
• You can schedule vacations or take a break when you’re sick.
• You get paid for your completed workouts (usually 30-40 cents per workout).
• The downside is that you also are docked money when you don’t make your pact.
• You determine how many workouts per week you will commit to doing (at least one).
• You determine how much money you’ll pay when you don’t make a workout (at least $5.00, but up to $50.00).
• When you don’t make your pact, that money is used to pay people who do make their pact.
• You can collect your earnings every $10.00 earned.
• The pact runs from Monday at 12 am to Sunday at 12 pm.
• You can cancel your pact at any point, and it will cancel starting the following Monday.

So, you don’t earn a ton of money, but it’s something!  I committed to working out four days per week and will be charged $5.00 if I don’t make my pact.

I have downloaded and deleted this app quite a few times because it seems like a great idea, but then I’m afraid of not meeting my pact and losing money that I can’t really afford to lose, but then I realized- I don’t remember that last time I didn’t do something active for AT LEAST 30 minutes, even if it’s just taking a walk after dinner (because that counts as long as it is for 30 minutes!).

Over the year, I really could have earned a little bit of extra money had I actually gone ahead and committed to this.  Let’s see, if I downloaded this app when I got my iPhone, back in September, and I earned $.40 per workout, four times per week, I would have made at least $64.00.  It isn’t a lot of money, but for a poor college student like myself, if I’m going to workout anyway, is there any reason not to be paid for it?

Time to get moving!