Ransom Workouts

Like many people, I'm constantly trying to find ways to motivate myself to do some sort of physical activity. I recently started to walk with someone from my Meetup game group, which has helped me do more walking (and the fact that she walks a bit faster than I would on my own doesn't hurt.)

I've been thinking about why I don't workout regularly. I have a gym membership at LA Fitness, but it's pretty darned cheap. I pay about $120 for an entire year. This only "hurts" my pocketbook when I make the payment and it's an average of about $10/month. Not a huge financial hit to pay for and not use. I've been thinking that if I was paying, say $50 each month for a gym membership (about what it would cost me to join a new club like 24 Hour Fitness), I would probably go more often because I'd feel the need to get my money's worth.

This lead me to my idea -- Ransom Workouts.

I will give an amount of money to my walking buddy to hold for me and I only get the money back if I do my workouts. My initial thought is that I will shoot for three times per week and each workout earns $5 of my money back. I would give her $60 at the beginning of the month and to get my money back, I have to workout and prove that I did the workout. My initial idea is to take of photo of myself with the days paper at the club at the end of my workout.

Then I started thinking that, well, my friend isn't necessarily motivated to get me to workout if she gets to keep my money (not that she wanted to) but I thought, what if any money I don't earn back has to go to a charity I don't support. (I know Donald isn't desperate for my $5, but I certainly don't want him to have it anyway.) I bring the money thing up to my friend and tell her my idea. She likes it -- she was thinking that any money I didn't earn back would be donated to charity anyway. She just wasn't doing the evil twist.

I think she is going to do this, too. So starting by February 1, I will have to workout or give money to someone I don't want to have my money.

Updates, photos and progress to follow.