Earn money with AchieveMint by working out

Some experts say that rewarding yourself for good behavior is one way to stay motivated to continue, like allowing yourself a treat when you lose a certain number of pounds, or if you work out every day, or make your goal of x number of miles per week.  What's even better is earning that treat by working out, but not having to pay for it yourself!  You can actually earn by working out with AchieveMint, a site that pays you for the miles you walk and run.

AchieveMint can access your running and walking activity through all sorts of trackers - Fitbit, Runkeeper, Map My Fitness, and scores of others.  Simply create an account when you click on AchieveMint and link whatever fitness tracking device you use to and you're off and running!

You'll earn points on AchieveMint for whatever fitness related activities you perform, and also for weighing yourself - it even gives you 20 points every day for sleeping if your device tracks that!  You won't really earn a mint with AchieveMint, but I'm ok with any amount of money an app will give me for doing something I do every day anyway.  You need 50,000 points to earn $50 and it won't happen overnight, but the more miles you log, the more points you will earn, so that's a great incentive to lace up your running shoes and get out there.  Money is a great motivator!

I've been a member of AchieveMint for several months and have earned almost 30,000 points so far, and I'm not stopping now!  I could use a new pair of running shoes and we all know those aren't cheap, so it seems fitting to put my first $50 from AchieveMint towards the price of new shoes.

What will you work towards?

~ Marie Anne


Update 11/16/2015:  I did very little in the way of exercise for a couple of months this summer, but I'm back on track now and earning more every day!  At the rate I'm going, I'll have earned my $50 gift card in probably about three weeks.  I'll be posting separately about how I earn more points every day, so keep an eye on this blog for future updates on this and other programs that pay you to exercise.

New Challenge - Walk 1,000 Miles in a Year

Anyone who knows me knows that I love a challenge.  I heard about this latest one, the 1000 Mile Challenge,  just last night and debated whether to jump in or not, but knew I'd cave ... and I did.  The challenge starts tomorrow, June 6, 2015 and ends June 5, 2016.  I'm pumped and ready to go!

The challenge is to walk/jog/hike 1,000 miles in one year.  One thousand miles sounds like a lot, right?  But at a full 365 days, that comes out to approximately 2.75 miles each day.  Piece of cake!

There is a business Facebook page for the challenge (you can sign up for the challenge from there) and also an interactive Facebook page  for challenge members, where we can chat about how we're doing, share success stories, etc.  The challenge hasn't even started yet and I already see the group as a great motivator.

There is a fee to join the challenge, but 50% of the cost goes to charity, which you get to choose when you sign up.  Finances are tight for me right now, but that's a small price to pay to keep me moving every day in an effort to take better care of myself.  (I'm still dealing with some health issues, but I'm fighting it all every step of the way!).

You can use any app or tracking system you already have to count your miles, but if you use a Fitbit tracker (which counts ALL your steps every day), they'd prefer that you only log those miles that you actually do consciously, over and above the steps you would walk in a normal day.  You're on the honor system, so if you want to just use your total Fitbit number, no big deal - the challenge police aren't going to come after you.  The idea, though, is to get your butt moving more than you do on a regular day, so set a challenge for yourself other than just walking around the house.

I'm going to look at my Fitbit stats and come up with a number that I think is my average number of steps daily without going for a walk or jog, and deduct that from my daily total and report that number.

There are many apps out there you can use to keep track, but a good app to try is Charity Miles, (available for both android and ios) because not only does it log your mileage, it also donates to a charity of your choice.  There are loads of charities to choose from, and you can choose a different one each time you open the app to log your miles.  I'm going to make a separate post about different fitness apps and the benefits of each.

• Note:  None of the apps or trackers are synced with the challenge in any way, they are just tools to help you track your miles so that you know what to report.  

This challenge will benefit my dogs as much as it will me because it'll be an incentive to make sure I don't slack off on their exercise too.  When walking the dogs, I also use an app that donates to my favorite animal rescue organization, so that's a win-win also.  If I walk all three dogs on our regular route every day, I'll get 2.4 miles right there, so even if I have to fill in on the treadmill on days I don't get out there, I've got this.  1,000 miles in one year?  I'm ready!

Who's with me?

~ Marie Anne