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Today's the day Americans become unhealthy again

We all know that February 2 is Groundhog Day (and it truly was a joyous occasion when Punxsutawney Phil didn’t catch a glimpse of his shadow). But did you know that February 4 is "Fall Off the Wagon Day"? (And no, we're not referring to cracking open a cold one.)

Around New Year’s people make ambitious resolutions to travel more, get organized, or learn something new. And let's not forget the all-time classic ... to get in shape. According to Nielsen, 37% of 2015 resolutions were to “stay fit and healthy.”

In the first few weeks of the new year, visits to gyms are up 36% and visits to fast food restaurants are down 13%. That’s according to mobile app Foursquare, which aggregated data from visits to 65 million businesses and came to the conclusion that the first Thursday of February is when the so-called healthiness ends and lack of willpower takes over.

CEO Jeff Glueck has dubbed February 12 as the “fatty solstice,” or the highest fast food visit day of the first quarter, which is a good thing for restaurants like McDonald's (MCD), Shake Shack (SHAK), and Wendy's (WEN). Meanwhile, the “skinny solstice” is around January 3, the day with the lowest number of fast food stops and the most trips to gyms and parks. (They had fun creating these terms!)

In June 2015, Foursquare launched a tool called “Place Insights,” which uses technology to analyze cultural, social, and economic trends (a.k.a. where people are choosing to spend their time).

Even if users don’t check in at a location, Foursquare keeps tabs of whether a phone stops at a business for five minutes or more. “We take that active and passive visit data to build an aggregate, anonymous trend library,” says Glueck. It allows businesses to see what kinds of places people go to by time of day and time of year.

Are you falling off the wagon this week or bucking the trend? Tell us in a comment or tweet me at @melodyhahm.

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