2024, Business, Health, Mysteries

How Much Is It Worth?

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About twenty-five ago, my gym started opening locations in the Twin Cities; sales reps from the gym were available for a few hours in my company’s lunchroom, offering memberships at a huge discount.  Huge.  Another of the selling points was that most major insurance companies were now giving credits for getting healthy.  My insurance company was offering a $25 credit for going to the gym 12 times a month.  The location near my office wasn’t even built yet but I thought it was a great opportunity so I signed up. 

They didn’t start taking the money until the facility was actually built and in that six months, my company ramped up their “get healthy” policy.  If you worked out/went to the gym (the same 12 times a month), you’d get $20 award credits.  If you added the insurance money and the good healthy policy, it was more than the monthly charge for the gym!  It was like getting paid to work out.  Even when the health policy changed about ten years ago (and I didn’t want to mess with it anymore), it was still an excellent deal as the gym never increased my fees.

Except for a few months when I hurt my back, I went to the gym 12 times a months year after year after year.  Swimming laps sometimes, a few classes but most routinely the stationary bike.  (I can read while I’m on the stationary bike… win/win.)  But only 12 times.  In all those years, I think I went more than 12 times a month just a few times.  I wanted to get that credit but nothing more.

When I retired, I was able to change my membership to Silver Sneakers which is free to me.  I was pretty sure when I made the switch that I would never go to the gym again – if it was about the discount and the credit all those years, what value would I put on it if it’s free no matter whether I go or not.

Surprise surprise.  I’m still going to the gym, but I’m going MORE now.  Pretty much every other day.  Still mostly the bike and book show, but occasionally some laps. I keep think I should try the spin class but then I couldn’t read.

So why do I value it more NOW when it’s free than when I was paying for it? 

28 thoughts on “How Much Is It Worth?”

  1. Because exercising has become a part of your life and you fully understand its health benefits–physical, mental, and emotional. That motivational discount achieved its goal: to turn you into a regular exerciser who is much healthier than she would have been without the $$ incentive to get her into the exercise habit.

    It’s interesting that you value something that’s free more than when it wasn’t free. The opposite is usually true. Good for you, Renee, for continuing to value your health and wellness. May you live a long and happy life.

    Chris in Owatonna

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  2. Agree with Chris and loved his compliments and wishes to Renee. I have exercised now 3 times weekly for about 15 years: Pilates is what returned me to exercising; I am convinced that I am healthier than I would have been without it.

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    1. I am listening to music and playing games this morning, trying to soothe my soul. But I will go to the gym later. I will grieve for awhile,e then figure out how to cope.

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    2. Yes, it’s anxiety-provoking. My top worry is the threat of mass deportations, which could be a major disruption to the economy if it actually happens the way it’s been discussed. (In addition to being a major disruption to millions of individual lives.) I hope there will be people in high places that will think through the consequences.

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      1. Unfortunately, those in high places now will be elevated even higher.
        Project 2025 will be implemented in it’s entirety. It’s no secret. Everything is on line.

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      2. Grasping at straws here, but the only positive thing I can see at the moment about the outcome of this election is that we have returned to a normal transition of of power. At least we don’t need to contend with another January 6th, and how the opposition will contest the election results.

        Krista, I, too, am struggling. I take no comfort in the fact that I personally won’t be affected in a significant way. It breaks my heart to know that a more just society that I have been fighting for most of my adult life, has just taken a major step backward.

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    3. I think back to the Trump 45 era and didn’t notice a great deal that personally affected my life other than being annoyed on a constant basis by whatever came out of his mouth. We’ve all survived (those reading this at least) a lifetime of administrations, new laws and policies, social change and upheaval, Sept. 11, Jan. 6, the riots of the ’60s, Viet Nam, the Cold War, nuclear proliferation, a notable change in our climate, etc., etc.

      I’m probably insulated from a lot of things that others must suffer through (women and abortion rights, minorities and the attacks on them, specific LGBTQ issues. So it’s relatively easy for me to say just keep chugging along.

      Also, as elder statesmen and stateswomen, we don’t have a dog in most of these fights and probably won’t be around long enough to see humans come to its senses and stop tearing each other down for power, wealth, or misguided beliefs in the superiority of any person or group of people.

      Until we stop killing each other, we can’t address the 800-kazillion-pound gorilla we live on—planet Earth. She will survive whatever we throw at her just as she survived all the sh*t that happened to her in the first five billion years of her existence (or however long Earth has been a planet). If we don’t learn to live on HER terms, she’ll flick us off the planet like you or I flick a piece of lint off our shoulder.

      We all must either adapt to whatever life throws at us, or give up, curl into a ball, and wait for death. I choose to remain positive and hopeful. And I will continue to try to make the world around me a better place. I’ll take care of me and my wife the best I can so we aren’t a burden on society, treat everyone with respect (until they prove to me they don’t deserve it), and do what I can to help those less fortunate.
      This too shall pass! Only problem is, we thought it already had passed back in 2020. 🙂

      Chris

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        1. Thanks, Krista. Just trying to keep all my friends here sane and focused on what they can do. It’s all about control. I know that because my wife is the child of an alcoholic and as a rule, they are notorious “control freaks.” Not that she is in the worst sense of the term. Just that she gets frustrated by things like politics that she can’t control. So I tell her to focus on what she CAN control, like “Don’t watch so much MSNBC!” or “Go make a quilt or read a book!” 🙂

          Do something you can do and enjoy doing to focus your mind on the positive.

          Chris

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  5. To respond to Sherrilee’s original question, I’d say that you perhaps don’t value the gym more than when you worked but your visits are no longer transactional, and you have more flexibility with your time. As you reflected, when visiting the gym was obligatory to receive the financial benefits, you complied only to the minimum of twelve. That suggests to me that the financial incentive, while it worked to some extent, also tainted the salutary experience of regular gym visits.

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  6. Sociologists have talked about the importance of “third spaces” in people’s lives – having a place to go other than your home and workplace. Perhaps when the workplace was removed from your equation, the third space took on a greater significance? We’re creatures of habit, and sometimes just having a destination to plan your day around can be energizing.

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  7. i hope this perfect example if how not to be proves to be a lesson to all. the suckers who voted for him the opposition that did a pooor job of making key points and trying to be nice when nice wouldnr do it and an illustration of what happens when corruption and no consequences leads to less than the desired end
    in the short term we are doomed
    lets hope for some positive in the face of despair is never an enjoyable mission but its all we’ve got.

    i love getting into the excersize groove and look forward to it soon
    my leg has kept me from lots of lifes pleasures but hopefilly soon ill be back in track

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  8. I spend more and more time at FiftyNorth. I have to pay for some classes, but the monthly dues are covered by Silver Sneakers. I don’t swim as often as I did before covid. I need to get back into it. I swim laps and there are only two lanes. People share, but usually there are more lap swimmers than aerobic swimmers, so lap lanes can be difficult to get into. So I stopped and now I can’t get back into the swing of it. I use the treadmill in the exercise room and some of the strength machines.

    I spent the entire day in FiftyNorth. I had knitting class in the morning, and my music group in the afternoon. I’m very fortunate that I know like-minded people in both groups, and it felt very supportive. I couldn’t sleep last night and I felt overly dramatic and weepy this morning. I’m stronger now but still very tired, and very worried. There is nothing I can do right now. I did all I could do this year before the election. I need to rest right now – and find my sheet music for Bring a Torch Jeanette Isabella in C for soprano recorder. (It’s usually in G but this group wants to put it in C.)

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      1. The conservative media is a force to acknowledge in this. They convinced their listeners that the econom6 is falling apart, despite the reality that it is not.

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        1. It was, in fact, a stroke of luck for Donald Trump that he lost in 2020. The inflation that resulted from the pandemic was global, but 45 did not have to answer for it, just accuse the Biden administration of ruining the ecomony.

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