Monday, January 5, 2009

Being a Contender

For one of my Christmas presents Mike got me a membership to World Gym. I've always exercised. I walk, I hike, I bike. Mostly walking and biking. But when the temperature dips down into the negatives it just doesn't make me want to walk outside. It's not actually the cold that stops me so much as it is the icy roads. I don't want any car snuffing the life out of me cause they couldn't stop sliding.

We also have a treadmill and a Bow-flex in our basement. I know the big joke is that most people have treadmills and they are great places to hang your clothes. The truth is we've gone through 2 treadmills and have had to have them surviced and repaired multiple times. The reason? We wear them out!!!

The treadmill we have now is not broken. The belt does tend to slide to the side after a few minutes, and it makes a squeaky noise, but it's still very usable. And the Bow-flex works great! I love it.

So why did I consent to do the gym membership. Mostly it's my husband. He just can not motivate himself to use the home machines. I can understand why. When I get home from work or school I don't really want to jump on one of them either. So I decided if we both belonged to thy gym he would be better about exercising.
When we got to the gym to sign up I saw a woman on the other side. This gal had biceps!
and triceps! and a six pack! and perfect hair! And wrinkles. Hey, wait a minute. I KNOW that lady. Sure enough, before we got out of there she and her equally buff husband (who used to be my gynocologist (can you say awkward)) sauntered over and said, "so you've decided to make a New Year's resolution, huh?" She might as well have said, "so, you out-of-shape, soft-bodied mollusks have decided to get off the couch and exercise, huh?" All I could do was agree with her. ("Yes we decided to leave the primordial ooze of our low-life existence and attempt to whip our sorry butts into shape.") She does look awfully good for her/my age. It gives me hope.

Well, yesterday Mike came up with a proposal. (I knew he would)
He wants to make a contest out of it. Every time we go to the gym and work out for at least 30 minutes we get one point. You can earn 2 points a day if there is at least 8 hours between workouts. (I insisted on this because Mike tends to go overboard and will work out for 2 or 3 hours straight to catch up after not working out at all for months.)
At the end of the month the one with the most points wins 100 dollars.

Joni really jumped on this and will probably win the money every month, but I'm sure Mike will give her a run for her money. He's VERY competitive. I'll just be consistent and when they both burn out I'll cruise on by and collect the cash. *smile*
Day 1 -
Mike 1 point
Linda 1 point
Joni 1 point
Andy .5 point

5 comments:

Lisa said...

Way to go! I'm glad Andy's jumping in on this too. You guys are all going to put me to shame in a few months.

Dory said...

What a great idea - making a competition out of it! And I love your witty response to the 6-pack lady! Good for YOU! :o)

meg said...

Great idea- cash is always a great motivator :-)
Chris laughs at me because our gym is 4 blocks from our house, but I only go when it's bad weather- I'd much rather be out in the fresh air then watching the "hard bodies" work out & feel totally inadequate :-S

Unknown said...

How fun! I wish I could make it to the gym. Right now, I'm just trying to eat right and I use chasing my kids around as my exercise. Maybe when they all get in school, I'll try to do the gym thing. Good luck to you!

Anonymous said...

The lady realized that her gym membership was set to expire she rushed down to sign up for another year. As she wrote the check she commented that she hadn't actually used the gym, but she was still planning to. She remarked to the trainer that they probably have a name for people who keep memberships and never come to exercise. The trainer's reply: "Yes we do. It's called profit."