EveryMove Blog

4th FIT-cation Winner Announced; One More Chance to Win!

Kellee Bryan — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 19:38:00 GMT

We're heading into the final week of our FIT-cation contest! The winner of our week-four drawing is Mathew Slattery.

Mathew's activities have won him a one-night stay at Hotel Monaco in Seattle; a pair of Saucony running shoes supplied by Super Jock 'n Jill; a BodyMedia FIT armband; and an EveryMove t-shirt and water bottle.

Congratulations to Mathew!

We got in touch with last week's drawing winner, Drew McKay, to learn a bit more about him and his activities. Drew stays fit by running and working out at the gym and is motivated by the pursuit of improved quality of life. "Being healthy means living longer, being able to do more, and it reduces health risks," says Drew. He joined EveryMove on the recommendation of his brother and has found that having a rewards system attached to his healthy activities has made getting healthy exciting. A little good-natured sibling rivalry probably helps a bit too!

Congratulations again to Drew.

Are you ready to win a FIT-cation?
You have just one more chance to win a FIT-cation package like Drew and Mathew. If you haven't already entered the contest, you can join in by clicking the big green button below.

Once you’re entered in the contest, you’ll have two ways to increase your chances of winning:

Be active. Track your physical activities and get an additional entry for each “active day bonus” earned during the week. The more active you are, the more likely you are to earn enough points to unlock the active day bonus, and the more likely you are to win.

Invite your friends to join you. When your friends sign up and activate their EveryMove accounts, you’ll earn more entries – FIVE entries per each new friend, up to a maximum of 20 additional entries per week! (Your friends must be new to EveryMove and activate their accounts in order to earn you additional entries.)

Winners are selected by a random drawing each Monday, based on entries earned during the previous week. The final drawing is Monday, April 15th for entries earned during the week of 4/08/13 – 4/14/13. That means you can be earning additional entries for our last drawing NOW, so get moving!

Delivering Big Wins for You!

Russell Benaroya — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 18:00:00 GMT

EveryMove launching BCBS Nebraska

In 2011 we began EveryMove because we saw a need to provide a way for consumers to become part of the healthcare conversation with a strong weapon – their actions. There are few places in our lives where we seemingly have no control and the irony is that when it comes to managing our healthcare costs, we are largely helpless. We’ve heard that euphemism many times, “Action speak louder than words” and it certainly holds true for EveryMove.

You have entrusted us to help solve a problem that will put hundreds or thousands of dollars back into your pockets every year because of your healthy actions. We believe that our responsibility is to give you the power to show the value of your healthy lifestyles and we are doing just that, having captured over 1 million healthy activities on your behalf since launch, much of it through verified devices or apps.

Today we have been given the opportunity to continue our journey with additional financing from our investors who believe, like we do, that it is within our grasp to improve the lives of 10 million people by helping them take control of their lifestyle data. Within just 6 months after launch, we are showing good traction toward our goal.

We often talk about how we want to embed into the fabric of the lives of our users and we are well on our way. We are now the largest integrator of consumer health tracking apps and devices that has standardized your information into a points system that can be used to earn toward real world rewards. With this capability, you will have the power to apply your healthy lifestyles to your health plan, your employer, your gym, retailers, causes, and the list goes on. We are fighting every day to bring you value for your healthy activity and this additional financing will give us the ability to keep fighting.

Embedding into your life also means providing easier access. Today we have also launched our Android mobile app which has been widely requested for the last several months. Mobile is critical to our strategy and if we are going to support your healthy activities, we want to be as close to that activity as possible.

Over the next several months we want to strengthen this community even more. We want you to be more vocal about what you need to make every healthy move count. We are already making it easier for you to tell your health plan, employer, and retailers that you are interested in connecting with them and welcome their participation on EveryMove. You’re doing your part and now we will do ours.

Our team gets up every day inspired to help you unlock the value of your healthy lifestyles. Thank you for believing in EveryMove.

EveryMove for Android: There's an App for That!

Kellee Bryan — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 16:00:00 GMT

One of our goals at EveryMove is to integrate as simply and as seamlessly as possible into your daily lives. We want to meet you where you are to make it as easy for you to leverage your healthy lifestyle to earn rewards. We ask for your input on improved services, integrations, and rewards, and then do our best to deliver. You want MyFitnessPal integration? Sure, no problem. Endomondo? You got it.

Not surprisingly, one of the most frequent requests we've received is for an Android app. We've been working hard to make that happen, and couldn't be more thrilled to announce that our free Android app launched in the Google Play Store earlier this week!

Like the iPhone version, the Android app enables you to easily enter and track your physical activities on the go. Using the app, you can also connect to other fitness tracking apps and devices, review and comment on your friends' activities, and monitor progress toward your rewards.

We're so excited to extend the ease of an EveryMove app to Android users. Enjoy!

3rd FIT-Cation Winner Announced; 2 More Chances to Win!

Kellee Bryan — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 17:00:00 GMT

It's the end of week three of our FIT-cation contest, and the winner of this week's drawing is Drew McKay.

Drew's activities have won him a one-night stay at Hotel Monaco in Seattle; a pair of Saucony running shoes supplied by Super Jock 'n Jill; a BodyMedia FIT armband; and an EveryMove t-shirt and water bottle.

Congratulations to Drew!

FIT-cation winner, Aimee No

We got in touch with last week's drawing winner, Aimee No, to learn a bit more about her and what motivates her to keep moving. Aimee prefers to stay fit by working out at the gym with her personal trainer, who keeps things fun and interesting by incorporating various workout routines and equipment. Aimee's long-term fitness goals are to beat the odds of developing diabetes (a disease that runs in her family) and to have a long, healthy life with her soon-to-be husband – which brings us to her short-term goal: being fit for her upcoming wedding! Aimee originally joined EveryMove on the recommendation of a coworker, and has found that working toward a tangible reward is a great way to stay motivated. She also enjoys being able to use the leaderboard to compare and compete with coworkers and friends. "I check my friends' activities throughout the day, and motivate myself to fit in an extra workout during the day or week," says Aimee.

Congratulations to Aimee, on both her FIT-cation win and her upcoming wedding!

Are you ready to win a FIT-cation?
You have two more chances to win a FIT-cation package like Aimee and Drew. If you haven't already entered the contest, you can join in by clicking the big green button below.

Once you’re entered in the contest, you’ll have two ways to increase your chances of winning:

Be active. Track your physical activities and get an additional entry for each “active day bonus” earned during the week. The more active you are, the more likely you are to earn enough points to unlock the active day bonus, and the more likely you are to win.

Invite your friends to join you. When your friends sign up and activate their EveryMove accounts, you’ll earn more entries – FIVE entries per each new friend, up to a maximum of 20 additional entries per week! (Your friends must be new to EveryMove and activate their accounts in order to earn you additional entries.)

Winners are selected by a random drawing each Monday, based on entries earned during the previous week. The next drawing is Monday, April 8th for entries earned during the week of 4/01/13 – 4/07/13. That means you can be earning additional entries for the next drawing NOW, so get moving!

EveryMove Partners with Endomondo to Reward Healthy Lifestyles

Kellee Bryan — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 17:00:00 GMT

You asked for it, and you got it! We're so excited today to announce our new integration partnership with Endomondo!

Used by 15 million runners, walkers, cyclists, and other distance-based outdoor sports enthusiasts, Endomondo is one of the most popular fitness applications in the world. The app uses your smartphone's GPS to track the route, distance, duration, split times, and calories burned during a workout. The Endomondo app offers a full fitness history with previous workouts and statistics, making it easy to track progress over time. And Endomondo's focus on social interaction makes it easy for you to connect with like-minded people and share experiences, support, and common goals. You can send friends real-time pep talks while they exercise, compete against friends for fun, challenge co-workers – and share it all (if you want) on Facebook, Twitter, and the Endomondo social network.

But I don't need to tell you all this do I? Of course not. You already know all about Endomondo, and you LOVE it – which is why so many of you have requested the ability to connect Endomondo to EveryMove.

And now, you can!

We know that many of you are already using Endomondo, and we want to make it simple and seamless for you to earn EveryMove points for the workouts you track with the Endomondo app. If you're an Endomondo user, sync your account to EveryMove and start earning points toward great rewards. If you don't already have an EveryMove account, you can sign up here. (Note: EveryMove offers only U.S.-based rewards at this time, but we'll be adding international rewards partners in the next several months.) Current EveryMove users who are interested in creating an Endomondo account can do so here.

How to Make a Low(er) Sugar Easter Basket

Kellee Bryan — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 20:25:00 GMT

Easter is nearly here, and no matter how your family chooses to celebrate, there's likely to be one common factor: CANDY!!

It's hard to avoid the ubiquitous chocolate bunnies, jelly beans, and spongy marshmallow chicks, even for the most diligent healthy eater among us. And if you're a parent, managing you child(ren)'s sugar intake requires skills verging on super-human – especially if you're battling against the influence of school parties and those pesky candy-pushing grandmothers. (Love you, Mom!)

While there may not be a whole lot you can do to control your child's access to candy outside of the home, you can reign in the contents of the ultimate sugar bomb: the Easter basket.

Downsize!
Have you noticed that Easter baskets seem to be growing steadily more enormous with each passing year? Some "child-sized" baskets are, quite literally, the size of a small child. Here's a great rule of thumb: if your kids can't easily pick up and carry their baskets around with one hand, it's too big. Try stepping down a size (or two!) and cut back on the candy filling accordingly.

Use Food.
Kids love candy, it's true. But there are probably some healthier foods that still "count" as treats as far as little ones are concerned. Try swapping out some of that candy basket filler with some less sugary snacks, like:

small fresh fruits like oranges, kiwis, kumquats, or grapes.
dried fruits, like raisins or cherries (look for varieties that don't contain added sugars).
nuts (peanuts, almonds, and pistachios are a hit with my son).
popcorn.
pretzels.
Annie's bunny-shaped crackers.
real eggs (hard-boiled, of course) in place of candy-filled plastic eggs.

Celebrate Spring!
The weather is beginning to change and kids of all ages are eager to get back to playing outside. Celebrate the new season with these outdoor treats:

sidewalk chalk
bubbles
seed packets
kid-sized gardening tools and gardening gloves
sun glasses
jump rope
beach/sand toys (extra credit if you use a sand bucket instead of a basket)

Toys are Treats Too!
Remember, there's no rule that says Easter baskets have to be filled with candy. At our house, for example, the Easter Bunny is known for leaving baskets of books. Small toys make great basket filler, such as:

stuffed animals
Play-Doh
crayons
watercolor paint and brushes
stickers
stamps
legos
nail polish
bubble bath or animal-shaped soaps
wooden blocks
hair bands and accessories
a charm bracelet or other jewelery
matchbox cars or Thomas the Train cars
coins
whatever collectible thing your kid is into these days (Sillybands, Japanese erasers, Gogos, Dunnies, etc.)

What about you? How do you keep sugar consumption in check on these candy-filled holidays?

2nd FIT-Cation Winner Announced; 3 More Chances to Win!

Kellee Bryan — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 20:47:00 GMT

Week two of our five-week FIT-cation contest has come to a close. The winner of this week's drawing is AIMEE NO.

Aimee will receive a "fitness on-the-go" package, which includes: a one-night stay at Hotel Monaco in Seattle; a pair of Saucony running shoes supplied by Super Jock 'n Jill; a BodyMedia FIT armband; and an EveryMove t-shirt and water bottle.

Congratulations Aimee!

FIT-cation winner, Britta Morrow

If you've been playing along, you may recall that the winner of last week's drawing was Britta Morrow. We checked in with Britta to learn a little more about her and her activities. Britta's favorite way to stay active is walking, including hikes with her husband and chasing around her new puppy. A diabetic, Britta is motivated to maintain a good weight for better blood sugar control. She's also motivated, like many of us, by simply feeling better about herself when she's active. "It's nice feeling comfortable in my own skin and looking good in my clothes," says Britta. Britta began using EveryMove when she received a new Fitbit for Christmas and now finds herself sometimes taking extra walks to get closer to her next EveryMove reward. "It's fun watching those hearts light up and trying to get an active day for an entire week," Britta told us. "Who wouldn't want to earn rewards for exercise they should be doing anyway?"

We couldn't have said it better ourselves, Britta! Congratulations to our first two FIT-cation winners!

Are you ready to win a FIT-cation?
You have three more chances to win a FIT-cation package like Britta and Aimee. If you haven't already entered the contest, you can join in by clicking the big green button below.

Once you’re entered in the contest, you’ll have two ways to increase your chances of winning:

Be active. Track your physical activities and get an additional entry for each “active day bonus” earned during the week. The more active you are, the more likely you are to earn enough points to unlock the active day bonus, and the more likely you are to win.

Invite your friends to join you. When your friends sign up and activate their EveryMove accounts, you’ll earn more entries – FIVE entries per each new friend, up to a maximum of 20 additional entries per week! (Your friends must be new to EveryMove and activate their accounts in order to earn you additional entries.)

Winners are selected by a random drawing each Monday, based on entries earned during the previous week. The next drawing is Monday, April 1st for entries earned during the week of 3/25/13 – 3/31/13. That means you can be earning additional entries for the next drawing NOW, so get moving!

CVS - It's Not about the Money...or is it?

Russell Benaroya — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 18:15:00 GMT

There has been a lot of news in the last 24 hours about CVS requiring its employees to get a health screening (weight, BMI, glucose, blood pressure) or face $600 more in health premiums per year. Here is the news. Let's for a second presume good intent by CVS promoting this policy. CVS wants to promote health and provide incentives for healthy choices. Cool. Now let's look at why their delivery was a complete miss.

Rewards and incentives are complicated

The easiest reward mechanic for most companies is to throw some money at it. The problem is that money only works when the benefit exceeds the cost of the behavior a consumer needs to change. The effort to change a healthy lifestyle is high. The issue with money is that it has obvious value ($1=$1). Therefore, people will calculate the expected effort for the reward and do an economic analysis. That is very different than providing rewards that have greater social value (e.g. power, status, bragging rights).

Motivation is not driven by money

If you believe Daniel Pink, author of Drive, he suggests that people are motivated by autonomy, purpose and mastery. This is especially true when the tasks require critical thinking and creativity and when it comes to health, well, it's not easy. It is not clear to me how the CVS policy accomplishes any one of the motivation goals expressed by Mr. Pink. On the other hand, maybe CVS isn't trying to motivate its employees but that strikes me as fundamentally wrong on many levels.

Policies designed for a single task when the problem is long term engagement is destined to fail. Just getting a health screening to save $600 is meaningless. Where is the activation of engagement? Now I'm sure CVS is going to use this data and analyze it to target the highest risk employees. If that is the intent then that should have been the message. If the real intent is to create incentives for change via engagement then the message was missed.

Always look at unintended consequences

Media attention aside, it's worth noting the unintended consequences of an action like this. Try this one on, "Hey, I didn't get the health screening and since I'm already paying an extra $600/year I'm going to care less about my health because heck, it doesn't matter anyway," or worse, "I'll take extreme unhealthy measures that help me get those $600." It would have been easy to mitigate that impact.

CVS took a path that probably many employers do. That's why at EveryMove we spend more time thinking about the world from the individual consumer standpoint. You see, if we can't spark the consumer in a way that works for them in their life, no amount of employer pressure is going to be effective, or if it's effective it will be short lived. I'm all for creating the right incentives (heck, that's what we do) but I think the delivery here was a miss and research would suggest I'm right.

EveryMove and Precor Partner to Turn Your Gym Workouts into Rewards

Russell Benaroya — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 16:29:00 GMT

Today marks another milestone for EveryMove in the quest to make it easier and easier for people to effortlessly capture their lifestyle activities and turn them into great rewards. We are excited to welcome Precor (and its networked fitness brand, Preva) to the EveryMove family of technology partners.

You may not know Preva but you most certainly know Precor, one of the leading suppliers of fitness equipment to exercisers throughout the world. Preva is the brand that Precor is using to show consumers their next generation of equipment console displays. If you belong (or have belonged) to a gym you're already familiar with console displays. Historically, these consoles have provided pretty lame experiences where you can watch a daytime TV show, a sports channel, or maybe surf the web while trying to not get too distracted and take a misstep.

Well, welcome to a whole new world of consoles with Preva.

With Preva, it's now possible to store your individual workouts, set goals, get rewards and recognition, and start measuring your way to progress at the gym – directly from equipped Precor machines! Look for Preva at your gym wherever Precor equipment is installed. It's available on many of the latest Adaptive Motion Trainers (AMTs), ellipticals, and treadmills. Precor has invested mightily to create this great new experience for gym exercisers – and a partnership with EveryMove makes it even cooler (if we do say so ourselves). Here's how it works:

Connect your Precor/Preva and EveryMove accounts (you'll have to create accounts if you don't already have them). Any workout you complete on a Precor machine equipped with Preva will automatically be logged on EveryMove, earning points toward great rewards – even rewards from your gym! We launched a pilot program with Magnuson Athletic Club early in March, and the results have been great. Gym members can work out and earn EveryMove points toward rewards from the gym, like free classes, massages, and gear. These rewards are in addition to those that EveryMove brings directly to members from great retailers, health plans, and employers.

There is a growing demand from people just like you for more varied and seamless ways to capture and track lifestyle activities. That Precor sees EveryMove as a valuable partner in their strategy shows that your voices are being heard. Thank you for continuing to push us to advocate on your behalf. We are on a journey and you are helping us down the road. Thank you!

One FIT-Cation Prize Winner Announced; Four More Chances to Win!

Kellee Bryan — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 21:01:00 GMT

Sunday marked the end of Week 1 of our FIT-cation contest, and we’re ready to announce our first winner. Britta Morrow has won the first of our five fitness on-the-go packages, so she'll soon have all she needs for a proper workout away from home.

Are you ready for your own FIT-cation?

Didn’t win this week? Don’t fret: you have four more chances to win your very own FIT-cation package, which will include:

A one-night stay at Hotel Monaco in Seattle
A pair of Saucony running shoes (supplied by Super Jock ‘n Jill)
A BodyMedia FIT armband
An EveryMove t-shirt and water bottle.

It's easy to enter the contest if you haven’t done so already. Just click the big green button.

Once you’re entered in the contest, you’ll have two ways to increase your chances of winning:

Be active. Track your physical activities and get an additional entry for each “active day bonus” earned during the week. The more active you are, the more likely you are to earn enough points to unlock the active day bonus, and the more likely you are to win.

Invite your friends to join you. When your friends sign up and activate their EveryMove accounts, you’ll earn more entries – FIVE entries per each new friend, up to a maximum of 20 additional entries per week! (Your friends must be new to EveryMove and activate their accounts in order to earn you additional entries.)

Winners will be selected by a random drawing each Monday, based on entries earned during the previous week. The next drawing is Monday, March 25th for entries earned during the week of 3/18/13 – 3/24/13. That means you can be earning additional entries for the next drawing NOW, so get moving!