Monday, October 6, 2008

Getting to Know the Environment You're Trying to Save and Saving Money - Win, Win

Green Saves Green Day 6

First of all, please let me apologize for having no post on Friday. I wrote a post. I hit publish. But I discovered much later in the day that the majority of my post got eaten by blogger and only my first few sentences still exist in a draft. I hope to find the time to go back and reconstruct it this week.

Okay on to today, raise your hand if you have a gym membership that you rarely or never use. Now, raise your hand if you don't currently have one but have in the past had one that had collected dust. I have a feeling that almost everyone reading this has their hands up now.

I read an astounding statistic today over at TreeHugging Family and my post pretty much echoes their post.
U.S. families and individuals lose over 12 billion annually on unused gym memberships, with about 80% of folks who purchase a membership ignoring them. Um, I don’t care to hear any more arguments about the cost of organic food after hearing this. In the UK even more gym memberships go unused yearly.
12 Billion Dollars! How much good could Americans do with 12 Billion dollars? How many local, organic farms could they support? How many worthwhile charities could they contribute to? 

So here is today's green saves green idea. If you have a gym membership that you rarely or never use. Drop it. Then get outdoors and do your exercising there. Do some gardening and get to know what plants grow in your region. So some early morning yoga in your backyard. Walk and notice the types of birds and other critters that live where you live. Go to a local park and ride your bike or run - get out in nature and exercise! Exercising doesn't need to cost any more than the price of a good pair of sneakers (and ladies - perhaps a good supportive sports bra).

The more time you spend outdoors, the more you'll appreciate nature. The more you appreciate nature, the more you'll be mindful of taking care of it. 

Ditch the gym membership. Save some money. Get out in nature and exercise. 
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2 comments:

Allison said...

Great post! This hits home. I have a gym membership that just 3 weeks ago I threatened to close. The general manager gave me free stuff to stay so I did. What a sucker I am. I do go with my friend when she's not working but I find it boring at times. Right now I prefer to walk and listen to podcasts like More Hip Than Hippie (check it out, they are funny!).
You know not going to the gym and just getting outdorrs saves energy so this is very green!
Great post!

Robin Shreeves said...

Allison - Isn't there a Friends episode where Chandler and Ross try to get out of a gym membership and they bring in the long legged blondes to keep them from leaving. Apparently, for us females, it just takes free stuff!

I have to know, what did they give you to convince you to stay?