Making steady progress on my walking/fitness goals with help of StepBet app

In a previous post I described how I had started using the StepBet app to help motivate me to get more, and more consistent, walking exercise. I've kept with it for another round and I'm still very satisfied with the results I'm getting. The premise of the app is that you put $40 into the pot, and if you stick to your daily/weekly goals for number of steps your pedometer registers (I'm using the one built into my iPhone) then you split the pot with everyone else who also also hit their goals (minus a cut for the house). As you can see in the chart, the line for my weight is on a nice, steady downward trend, and the number of miles I'm walking each day is pretty consistent (modulo the stretch and rest days that the program includes).

There were about three times as many participants in this round as in the first “bet” I was a part of, but as you can see from the payout graph the attrition rate was virtually identical. While the fitness and money aspects of this are nice, I also like that doing this gives me an “excuse” to do things I like to do, such as walking down the pedestrian/bike path that leads through the wetlands area in the west part of my town. Here's a selfie and a photo I took on my walk in that area on a recent foggy, frosty morning (note the ice crystals in my beard).

Since the first two rounds worked so well I kept going with a third round. Hopefully I'll continue to see steady progress (and hopefully the upcoming holiday season won't kick me back into any bad diet habits).