As Pokemon Go shocked the world’s app stores, the weight-loss company HealthyWage announced a cash prize-driven fitness competition called “Summertime Stepping.” The participants are awarded with money for taking more steps throughout their day.
Former contestants from NBC’s Biggest Loser TV program have been offering up their own tips to participants. More than 13 former contestants are pegged to help out, and participants will be able to choose which contestant they wish to be their “coach.”
“Game players are joining our new ‘Summertime Stepping Challenge‘ as a way to get paid while playing,” said David Roddenberry, Healthy Wage co-founder. “This initiative is a fantastic complement to our roster of evidence-based, highly effective team and personal fitness challenges, most of which leverage the power of ‘social norms feedback’ and other key behavioral economics principles.”
Pokemon Go, itself, encourages players to walk more. The main focus of the game is catching Pokemon. The more a player walks, the more the amount and rarity of the Pokemon that appear goes up. A player also must keep their Pokeballs stocked if he or she wishes to be able to continue to catch the Pokemon that appear. A player needs to find a Pokestop in order to acquire more Pokeballs. The Pokestops are created at different historical monuments or other important locations. This encourages a player to keep moving and exploring.
Usually, Pokemon can be caught only when they pop up on a player’s screen, however, there is another way to catch them. The app allows a player who finds an egg to hatch the egg by walking. The more the player walks, the faster the egg will hatch. Eggs which require the player to walk more kilometers will hatch better Pokemon.
Participants in the Summertime Stepping Challenge need to pay $30 each in order to participate. This money is put into the collective “pot.” To record their baseline step count, participants will connect a Fitness tracker to their phone. Participant’s end-goal will be to increase their baseline steps by 20 percent during the month long challenge. Those that succeed will receive an equal share split of the money collected. Healthy Wage keeps 25 percent of the pot for administering the challenge.
Anyone interested in the challenge can register at https://www.healthywage.com/steps/summertime-stepping.
Texas Forest Country Living would also like to extend the opportunity for players in East Texas to share their experience with the challenge and Pokemon Go in general. Those interested in sharing should simply record their experience in their own words and send it to info@texasforestcountryliving.com.
Happy hunting!
