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Happy New Year to you all!

With the turn of a new year comes new resolutions (or as I like think of them: SOLUTIONS - more on that later this week). If I had to guess, most of you out there have goals related to fitness and living a healthier life this year. Those goals come in all shapes and sizes, too: joining a new fitness class, getting into strength training, practicing yoga, eating healthier, getting enough sleep... the list goes on and on. I bet a lot of you are saying that this year will be THE year that you don't fall off the bandwagon. You're going to commit. GOOD FOR YOU! But are you really? What happens after 3 months of trying? Are you going to stick with it through the cold seasons, through the summer vacations, through the holidays of 2016?

If you're needing a little more motivation to hold yourself accountable this year, there's a new fitness app out there that I'm excited to tell you about. It's called Wellcoin. It's an app that pays you to live healthy. You can earn coupon codes and gift cards for a bunch of health & fitness related gear - Dick's Sporting Goods, 20% off Reebok sale items, free fitness classes, and more. Before we get into that though, let me tell you how the app works and show you a bit more about it.

How It Works:

Wellcoin is similar to social media in that you have a community of people who can view, comment on, and "like" your activity. I like to think of it as a less filtered Instagram meets a fitness accountability log. You sign into your account, choose an activity you just completed for which you want to earn coins, upload a picture, and post it to the Wellcoin community. If you made the post public, people in the community can rate the activity (based on how well it fits your description & categorization) in order for you to earn additional coins. There are also options to post to Twitter and Facebook to earn additional coins too (+1 for each). Here are some activity examples:

All of those are pretty awesome, but the best one I find is logging your workouts. You get 10 coins for every 10 minutes and you can choose from a variety of activities like resistance training, fitness classes, pilates, etc. So a good 60-minute workout will earn you 60 coins right off the bat, plus a few more if you add in the extras like location, who you were with, and share it to social media. You can also log non-traditional fitness/health activities like buying healthy groceries (5WC per $10), cleaning the house (5WC per 10min), spending time with your kids (10WC), and checking your blood pressure (5WC).

click the profile image above to connect with me!

Another nice thing about Wellcoin is that you can link it to other apps and devices like Runkeeper and Fitbit. I can't really speak to these since I don't have either, but I see people earning coins using these apps all the time! One device I hope they allow a connection with in the near future is the Apple Watch. I received one for Christmas (and LOVE it so far!), but there isn't a way for me to connect it to pull my daily activity, steps, sleep, etc. automatically. Here's hoping they jump on that bandwagon soon!

Once you earn enough Wellcoins, you can cash them in for some pretty sweet deals. I've been eyeing a few for a while now: $10 gift card to Sports Authority and 20% off sale items at Reebok. They have other awesome deals like free fitness classes, deals on food products & subscription services, and more.

Fair warning, though: since Wellcoin is a Boston-based company, most of the in-person redemptions like classes and in-store coupons are only good in the greater Boston area (at least for right now), so pay attention to the fine print when you check out the Marketplace. This is another area I hope they expand on, because Whole Foods gift cards would be amazing, but they're not good for anything if I have to travel to Boston to use them!

Bonus Coins for Blog Readers!

That's right! You guys will all get a 500-coin bonus for signing up using the code "infitinhealth". Note: bonus coins are only added if you choose the "sign up with email" option, not through Facebook. You can click the link above (or the image below) to be directed to the sign up page where you can create an account with a username, password, profile picture, bio, etc. From there, all you need to do is start snapping photos of your healthy choices and upload them to the Wellcoin community! If you do sign up, make sure to connect with me, too!

Readers: chat with me! Have you heard of Wellcoin? Do you think it will help you with your New Year's SOLUTIONS? If you already use it, has it helped keep you accountable? Have you redeemed any coins yet? What are some of your goals for 2016?

Disclosure: I am a Wellcoin Ambassador, however I was not compensated to write this post. Some images were provided to me via Wellcoin to share here on the blog, and others are my own. My goal for this post is to share an accountability and motivational resource in hopes of helping you start and stick with your health & fitness goals.