How many of you own a membership for something?  Maybe a country club, a gym, a yoga studio?  What motivates you to buy a membership?  Is it due to exclusivity?  Is it because you get certain benefits?  Is is because you’ll get a better “deal”?

From Wiktionary membership means:

The state of being a member of a group or organization.

I think that memberships used to be real.  For example in the days of private golf and country clubs you had to be a member in order to have access to the course or dining hall or activities.  These types of memberships still exist today.

Membership or Over-rated Coupon

However, I feel that our society has taken advantage of the word membership and turned it from “being a member of a group or organization” and turned it into “you’ll get a better deal if you have this”.  Take for example most fitness clubs.  If you go to Club Fit or Fitness World or any other huge fitness club you’ll see that there are different methods of paying for your visits.  You can get a day pass, or a week pass, or a monthly or yearly membership.

The memberships or passes typically have ZERO benefit except monetary.  The odd fitness gym membership might give you access to an exclusive changing area, but that’s about it.  You don’t get in the front of the line for classes.  You don’t get first dibs on a machine.  You don’t get any special or preferential treatment.  You do get a “deal”.

However, the ONLY way to realize this “deal” is if you go the gym a certain number of times to make it worthwhile.  For example, if a regular visit costs $10 and a yearly membership costs $1000, you’ll have to attend the gym at least 100 times to get your value back.  If you go 200 times then you’re looking at $5/visit and you’re benefiting from your “membership”.  So is it a membership of a coupon that only is validated after 100 visits?

Here’s the catch

The gyms know that 95% of the people will not go even the 100 times.  They’re going to make more off of you per visit than if you just went every time you felt like going.  Did you know that most big gyms make 90% of their revenue in January feeding off the “New Years Resolution’ers”.  Think about it.  Is it really good business to give EVERYONE a discounted price?  Of course not!

They know you’re going to get “busy” or “life will get in the way” and you’ll forget about it.  The money is already spent, so you’ll just drift off back in to your day-to-day life etc.  Why?  Because your motivation for getting the “membership” was the deal, it was the emotion involved when someone behind the counter asked you if you felt your body was worth it?  Because you bought it for the wrong reasons – you’re NOT going to use it!

The moral side of a membership

Now I get it that fitness centres etc. need to make a profit, need to make money etc.  They’re running a business.  So they maximize their profits by finding consumers that they can convince to purchase their product.  Unfortunately the convincing is typically the shady part of the business…

So my question to you is why are you going to the gym?  Are you going to feel better OR are you going to get a deal?  If you’re going for the latter, you’re just going to fail.  If you’re going to feel better, then do you really need a membership?  You shouldn’t have the pressure of a membership (or the deal) to motivate you to get you in to the gym.  Instead your motivation should be increasing your fitness, improving your health, feeling better about yourself?

Are you not worth more than a shady gym membership deal?  Are you not worth more than a coupon?

My challenge

I’d like to propose a challenge to the various “wellness” centres out there and especially yoga facilities.  Get rid of your memberships.  Get rid of passes.  Get rid of deals.  Charge one price per hour or per session.  Keep track of the people who enter your facility like you always did, but here’s the twist.

Keep an escrow from every purchase in the bank and for your repeat customers, give them a weekly or monthly or yearly kickback.  Tell them, “Thank you” for choosing us.  Tell them, “We appreciate your business”.    If keeping an escrow isn’t plausible, then after a customer has spent the same amount as a membership or monthly pass, then let them in free for the balance of time after they break the threshold.

Why should they do this?

Because if they actually cared about their customer, they wouldn’t be pushing the deal on them, rather they’d be saying come when it feels right for you.  Please do this for your body and your wellness.  This is what Yoga facilities preach every day in their mantras, mission statements, etc.  So why not practice what you preach on the business side of things as well and get rid of coupons like these:

I saw this image on Facebook and wondered to myself, “Is that the real statistic, or is that in face how we see things in the world?”.  My guess is the latter.  My guess is if you actually looked at the statistics there would be a normalized bell curve around 50% for the times that a USB was plugged in correctly.

So why would most people agree with the 89% number?

My guess is that people tend to remember the failures in their lives more than the successes.  Also, because we live in a society where we focus on giving attention to failures instead of recognizing our successes our subconscious feeling is that we fail more often than we achieve success.

So if you really feel you put your USB stick in to the slot incorrectly 89% of the time, perhaps you should worry less about your USB insertion abilities and more about your attention to the failures in your life.

We survived!  That’s right, Day 10 was celebration day and we could eat anything we want.  I had steak, but the BBQ was frozen so we had to fry it.  It wasn’t quite the same, but good nonetheless.  We had red wine.  Ahh red wine and steak gotta love it.  The lesson learned?  I actually didn’t have that good of a sleep last night.  Too much calories, too much booze.  Similarly I didn’t have the normal energy I’ve had before after eating supper the past 9 nights.

What did I learn?

Pretty simply put, I learned once again that the most important meal of the day starts at breakfast, and the rest of the meals should be small portions and just maintaining enough calories etc. to keep the body moving.  Much like when I race, I eat small portions every hour just to keep the body moving and not bloated.  I should be doing that same strategy in real life…

Day 9: We added legumes, quinoa and much more today.  Of course we are allowed everything from Day 8 as well.

I rediscovered my love of Quinoa

What did I learn?

My biggest learning of the day was that unsalted nuts can taste quite good when your system is rid of sugars and other toxins.  Similarly, I realized how I don’t really crave a lot of the other foods that I haven’t been eating.  For instance, meat.  I don’t really crave it.  That’s an odd thing for an Alberta boy to say, but I’m not craving it as I’m getting my proteins from other sources (beans, rice proteins, etc.).  Tomorrow, we’re done and we can eat what we want.

Day 8: We are finally able to add food to our diet.  We are allowed everything from Day 5, Day 6 and Day 7.  But, we’re also allowed ALL fruits and vegetables now AND rice!  Who would have thought I’d be SO excited for rice!

Our smoothie this morning was so fantastic!

What did I learn?

I learned today how good some fruits and vegetables taste.  It’s amazing why people don’t eat more fruits and veggies, but I suspect it’s because they go bad so quickly.  People would rather shop at Costco once a month and just stock up on as many boxed and canned goods as possible.  If there’s one thing that’ll change in this house after this detox is that we’ll be eating way more fruits and veggies and even less bars, crackers, etc.

Day 7: We are on the exact same schedule as Day 5 and Day 6.  We are allowed four scoops twice a day of the protein supplement.  We are only allowed to eat cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, kale, cabbage, brussels sprouts), raw greens (lettuce, spinach), fresh apples and fresh pears.

Who would have thought I'd ever buy let alone eat Brussels Sprouts?

The meal plan was pretty much identical to yesterday.  We are both craving the other things we see in the fridge.  Visiting the grocery store is not a fun place, especially on sample day!  But we made it.  We have survived the worst, tomorrow we get full access to all fruits and veggies again as well as white rice!  Who would have thought I’d be so excited for fruits, veggies and rice?

What did I learn?

I learned today how lucky we truly are to have the amount of choices for food that we do.  I’ve also learned that I can survive quite well without meat as this is the 7th day in a row so far without meat and I don’t really feel any lack of energy.  I am getting sick of what we’ve been eating for the past 3 days, but I am so excited about a strawberry-banana smoothie in the morning and then rice for both lunch and dinner as well as beets, carrots and who knows what else!  Man are we lucky to have foods like this at our disposal!

Day 6: We are on the exact same schedule as Day 5.  We are allowed four scoops twice a day of the protein supplement.  We are only allowed to eat cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, kale, cabbage, brussels sprouts), raw greens (lettuce, spinach), fresh apples and fresh pears.

I've eaten more cauliflower and broccoli in the last 2 days than I've eaten in months.

The day began with a smoothie again, except that only pears, apples and spinach were in it.  Our smoothies ar getting very green.  We need to ice as well.  Today I was really tired in the morning.  I didn’t enjoy eating the same things as yesterday and the smoothies are getting old.  However, around 1:30pm with no energy I simply had some of the protein powder in a glass of water and forced it down.  I ate an apple and a pear and headed out to meet with some friends.   I actually felt quite good and like I had a fair bit of energy.  I’m feeling quite good this evening after steamed brussels, cauliflower, red cabbage and broccoli for supper.  While my tastebuds are craving some variety, my body seems to be holding up well.

What did I learn?

I learned today that my mind controls my attitude and even though I might not be eating everything I want or crave it’s my choice whether I’m going to br grumpy, cranky or happy.  I chose happy and the day has finished off quite well.  One more day and then we get to start adding to our diet – can’t wait!

Day 5: In addition to eliminating everything from Day 4, we must also eliminate all legumes.  Now we are allowed four scoops twice a day of the protein supplement.  Basically we are only allowed to eat cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, kale, cabbage, brussels sprouts), raw greens (lettuce, spinach), fresh apples and fresh pears.

Apples and Pears - our diet options get slimmer

The day began with a smoothie like the past few days, except that only pears, apples and spinach were in it.  Our smoothies ar getting very green.  We need to ice as well.  Today was a hard day.  Not many options.  Another smoothie for lunch and then steamed brussels, cauliflower, red cabbage and broccoli for supper.  Supper was quite good and tasty, but I had to eat the same again 3 hours later after yoga.

What did I learn?

I learned that you can make quite a nice vegetable spread out of broccoli, red cabbage, cauliflower and brussels, but I don’t know how many days I could do it.  Lucky for us we have two more days of this to go, so we’ll see how we’re doing tomorrow.

Day 4: In addition to eliminating everything from Day 3, we must also eliminate all remaining grains, nuts and seeds.  Now we are allowed two scoops twice a day of the protein supplement.  Basically all we’re eating now is vegetables, fruits and legumes only.

Gotta love those fruit and veggies

The day began with a big fruit smoothie like the past few days.  I really am getting efficient at making them.  Lunch was leftovers from last night minus the quinoa.  Supper was actually quite excellent.  So much so that we couldn’t finish our helpings.  We had a salad with a cooked (hot) black bean base, red peppers, yellow peppers, snow peas and avocado on top.  Yummy.  For our main course we had steamed beats and carrots.  Lots of flavour today.  It was quite excellent.

What did I learn?

I learned today my body has had a few too many vegetables.  How do I know?  Well let’s just say the old bowel system was letting me know.  A few more trips to the loo than usual today and I’m glad I can close my door in the office.  Still have relatively good energy and I am really loving the energy I have after supper.  It goes to show how important breakfast is to set the tone for the day and the rest of the day’s meals and snacks should be smaller.

Day 3: In addition to eliminating everything from Day 2, we must also eliminate all gluten grains, but we can continue to eat quinoa, rice, millet and buckwheat.  Again we are allowed one scoop twice a day of the protein supplement.

Our last day of seeds and nuts

The day began with another smoothie like yesterday.  Our lunch consisted entirely of leftovers from the night before.  The only difference between today and yesterday is that we can’t eat a bunch of different grains.  We eliminated bread on Day 1, so essentially we are eating the exact same things as yesterday.  Lots of veggies, fruit, black beans, etc.  For dinner we had more quinoa, a different mix of beans, and again mango.  Add in a bunch of steamed veggies and we were set.  The highlight for me has definitely been the smoothies as that was our treat for the evening.

What did I learn?

I found myself a little less energetic today, perhaps because I woke up early yesterday and didn’t have a ton to do at work.  Still I’m not finding myself hungry or craving anything really, except of course when we turned on a Seinfeld episode and it happened to be the one wear Kramer has the meat slicer…  Ahh meat, I miss you.  I found I really like eating seeds and nuts, though without the little pieces of chocolate in them it really isn’t the same.