All carrot, no stick? Well, yes — but it’s an app
How you can get healthy … and a bunch of free stuff
Sometimes you have to break a few eggs to make an omelette. Or so goes the saying.
In this tale, the eggs are the price of a lime green Fitbit, basic version, delivered to my doorstep (= priceless).
And after staying up late to play with it, figure it out, configure the app and sync it to my other wellness apps, I slapped it on my wrist, went to sleep and awoke the next morning to be told by my device that I had missed my sleep target of seven hours by 59 minutes. More broken eggs.
Because sleep is important. So is walking/moving. And in my books getting free stuff trumps all else, if I’m being honest.
So when William nonchalantly humblebragged that he and Jamie walk their way to free movie tickets every month, I thought he was pulling my sedentary leg. Not that I care so much about movie tickets, if I’m being honest about that, too — not when I have subscriptions to streaming apps and a fridge full of snacks. Why go outside?
But I could earn other free stuff like Swiss Chalet gift certificates and the like, it was pointed out — stuff that most certainly would enhance the experience of sitting on the couch while watching shows on the streaming apps, for instance. So my ears perked up.
Have you heard about the Carrot app? It’s a Toronto-based app that has partnered with the federal and provincial governments as well as a few other health-related organizations (Diabetes Canada and the Heart and Stroke Foundation, for example) to reward couch-loving sedentary folk like me for moving every day. Yes, that’s where we are as a society.
How does it work? Carrot syncs with your compatible iPhone, Android phone or Fitbit to count your steps. You can sync Carrot to your iPad or tablet, too, but you can’t track your steps with a tablet so what’s the point?
You download the app, sync it to a loyalty points card like Aeroplan, Scene, Petro-Points or More Rewards. And if you meet your steps goal every day, you will accrue points on your chosen loyalty card. Basically just for walking. As Kristin Rushowy from the Toronto Star put it back in July, it’s “a free app that’s all carrot, no stick.”
Ah, but how do you calculate your exercise goals?
Well, don’t worry about that — the Carrot app will do it for you.
You see, like an idiot, I decided to double my usual step count on the first day, thinking I’d rake in the points right off the bat. But I saw nothing. No points, no movement, nothing. Because the app monitors your daily fitness level every day for about a week, during which time you can accrue points by answering quick little quizzes about health and wellness, but not by walking.
At the end of that first week it calculates your average daily step count, which becomes the goal you’ll have to meet every day for the first little while.
Ah, now you’re thinking, I’ll outsmart the app and sit for that entire first week while being monitored, so that my next week of challenges will be minimal and I’ll rake in the points! Nope, that’s not going to work for you either, Smartypants. Because the app will continue to recalculate your average step count every week and up the challenges. I’m not there yet so I can’t tell you exactly how challenging the challenges become.
But fret not, fellow sloths! You can still accrue points by answering the quizzes and/or inviting friends to join the app. I could only think of two friends and sent them invitations. One accepted.
In any case, you see now why I needed the Fitbit. My phone just wasn’t counting every single step, the steps I apparently take while I’m sound asleep or sitting at my desk.
The Fitbit is way better for that. And spending $50 on the device to get $25 of free Swiss Chalet from the app might not seem like a savvy business move, but then you can’t appreciate the sheer thrill of having won something, for free.
But it’s a smart way to motivate people, isn’t it? The Ontario government must think so, seeing as how it threw $1.5 million at the app this summer in hopes it will help people make better lifestyle choices. That aforementioned Toronto Star story claimed back in July that the app had 200,000 users at that time.
And with a little luck and a bit of hard work, I might even score a free flight.
In, like, 1,000 days.