Dear Gym Membership,

I'm throwing in my gym towel; this is my official two week notice.

You've been in my life for 13 years and for most of those years, I loved you.  You were part of my every day for at least an hour if not more. That's a lot of time.  At a minimum, that's roughly 2,000 hours and yet, I'm not an incredible human specimen who is 1% body fat with abs on top of abs and millions in fitness/health endorsements.  I've thought long and hard about it and my reasons for not rejoining are as follows:

  • You've skewed my priorities. I drive 10 minutes to workout for 30.  In that same 40 minutes I can take my poor dog for a well deserved walk around Buttonwood Park. We'd be equally healthy and happy.
  • You have competition.  I follow tons of fitness Instagram accounts and their featured routines show me new ways to use dumbbells, resistance bands, and my own body weight. So me, my body weight and my Instagram feed are going to make good use of my living room.
  • Your unspoken dress code. The fashion game is strong with the folks at my current gym.  I'm a tee-shirt kinda gal but it doesn't mean I don't know how to use the equipment or properly lift anything over 20lbs. Just because I am not head to toe in compression wear does not mean my form is bad. (Lame reason to not like the gym? Maybe. But it's my break-up letter so who cares.)
  • You are so expensive!  Can't I just be invoiced at the end of the year for all the times I went instead of pay $400+ a year to go a handful of times? I would feel so less guilty for not making time for the gym everyday.
  • You no longer make me happy.  I thought you'd become part of my lunch hour or a stop on my way home from work.  But it does not make me happy to cram my lunch hour with a trip from Fairhaven to Dartmouth or spend 20 collective minutes waiting for machines because gyms are packed after work.

So when you're keeper calls me again to remind me that I'm due for renewal, I am going to politely decline.  13 years and 7 gyms later, I think I'm finally ready to stop sweating it. Call me when you have a really reasonably priced pay-as-you-go plan.

xo
Kristen

 

More From WFHN-FM/FUN 107