Why I cancelled my Gym Membership

Credit

I want to get fit. I want to get healthy. I want to loose weight. I want to build up some muscle. I want to do all of that, and yet I still cancelled my gym membership. Why? Because I don't like the gym.

I've never liked working out. PE at school was always my worst subject, and the thought of doing exercise for fun didn't even cross my mind. Yes I dance, and I love to dance, but to me that doesn't seem like exercising. I can dance for hours and enjoy every minute. Ask me to spend 10 minutes on a treadmill and I'll be bored out of my mind after the first 30 seconds!

Part of my reason for joining the gym in the first place was because I was travelling a really long distance home from work every day, in ridiculous amounts of traffic and it would take me an hour and a half on average to do it. I could drive to the gym, work out for 45 minutes, and then drive home and only be home about 15-20 mins later than if I'd headed straight home from work.

If I was to go to the gym now though I'd have to really convince myself to do it. If there was even the slightest excuse as to why I couldn't go, I'd take it. I've even used finishing work late (as in 10 minutes late) as a reason why I couldn't go. I wouldn't have gone for another hour anyway, but that was irrelevant.

I tried to combat my hatred for the gym by doing classes, but the timings of them weren't great and I could never get booked on any of them. I started doing kettle bells on a Friday night which I did quite enjoy, but one half hour class each week doesn't justify paying a full gym membership.

Whilst I still want to loose weight and become more healthy and more toned, the gym just isn't working for me. And as my boyfriend keeps telling me, everything I need to do to get the body I want I can do at home or outside. I don't need the fancy gym equipment to manage it.

So this is why I've cancelled my gym membership. It isn't for me. I've tried it, it was ok, and yes I may go back to it eventually. But for now I've taken up running outside and find that much more fun than spending half an hour in the darkness of the gym. I get fresh air, I do some cardio, I get to explore my local area. And I've found that my local community centre offers a kettle bells class too for a fraction of the cost of my gym membership. Win-win!