A Lesson In Pissing Away Hard-Earned Money

In the not so distant past, I indicated to all you faithful readers out there to be on the lookout for my write-up on how to effectively go about pissing away your hard-earned money with Good Life Personal Trainers. And, I also very recently informed you that because I had so many things I wanted to write about, I was compelled to write my ideas on Post-it notes, which I then cleverly placed above my laptop. What a fanstastic idea!

Remember how I said that the gym is one of my thinking places, or rather, my go-to thinking place for my blog entries? Well, imagine how thrilled I was when I awoke this morning ill. And I use the term "awoke" loosely because honestly, I was up all night in pain. My throat is presently being invaded by some sort of nasty microbe, and this microbe has rendered my throat useless insofar as swallowing anything is concerned, and has found a way to send searing pain into my ears. I know, I know - you wish you felt this awesome, but not everyone can be so lucky. Now due to this unforeseen invasion, I thought it wiser to skip the gym, and look at my Post-it notes - after all, this, I suppose, is their intended purpose.

Now referring back to that day when I was at the gym and overheard random girl's life story, I realized that this girl was pissing away her money with a trainer. I have long suspected that Good Life doesn't necessarily hire the most "professional" people. My suspicions first arose when I signed up, and many of the frontline staff could barely be bothered to smile at me upon my entry into the club - no need to state that a "Hello!" was also out of the question. I contemplated getting a personal trainer for a few sessions until I saw (many of) them in action. The norm seems to be that you come in, get a quick warm-up in to get the heart rate going, and then the trainer takes over. Now if you ask me, a trainer is someone who is there to keep you focused on your long or short-term goal. That person is there to show you what you need to do to achieve results faster than you would on your own - this is actually Good Life's gimmick. They are there to motivate you, show you what to do, and how to do it effectively. Apparently, they are also finely versed in the art of training vocal chords as well.

I have watched these trainers in action for the last 10 months, and I can now understand why people keep on with them - because all they do is talk. Talk, talk, talk. Incessantly! I know so much about strangers' lives, it is borderline disturbing. Every trainer I see feels compelled to shoot the shit with their clients, all through the session - how's life, how's your boyfriend, how is your job - really? why do you hate it, why don't you look for something else, last weekend I got soooo hammered, etc. I think you get the idea. This leaves me to wonder what are these people really paying for, and if you don't see any results, is there any recourse? I can only speak for myself, but if I am paying you to be my personal trainer, I don't want to hear about your life, and I certainly don't want to spend the hour that I am PAYING for, WITH YOU, to dish about mine. What I want expect is for you to to guide me through exercises, to show me what moves will give me the killer booty and flat abs I have been working so hard for, to show me how to do exercises properly, without risk of injury. I want you to motivate me, and if I am getting off topic, for Christ's sake, get me focused! I am not paying you to be my friend - I am paying you to get me in shape, fast!

Now, perhaps I seem a little too annoyed or angry about this, especially when one considers I don't even have a personal trainer with Good Life, but it bothers me when I see people pissing their money away. And don't get me wrong - as a smoker, I KNOW that I am pissing away money with that, but tobacco companies aren't exactly promising me anything either, except maybe the eventuality of cancer. It bothers me that people my age who work really hard for their money, or even older people who have neglected to stay in shape for the last decade or so, are spending money on a service that isn't living up to it's promises. What adds fuel to my fire is that Good Life trainers do NOT come cheap, and since they must make monthly quotas, they are always convincing patrons to sign on for more lessons. If you were to spend your time as it was intended, working out, then I wouldn't object, but I feel as though the trainers are, to a certain extent, holding back their clients. They are in a way taking advantage of them, taking their money, without delivering on their promise to get you in shape. Think about it - you pay to get in shape, you stay exactly where you because your trainer is a Chatty Cathy, Chatty Cathy informs you that you haven't quite reached your goal and reccomends more sessions, and then the cycle starts over again.

Now, we covered how common "common sense" is these days, but my hopes with this post are to open up your eyes and raise awareness. You can attain those weightloss and fitness goals ladies and gentlemen, and they are very much within reach - just tell your trainers to shut up and do their jobs. I don't know about you, but it would be much easier to persuade me to buy additional training sessions if I was seeing actual results. But then again, I'm not polite enough to just let them talk, and continuously siphon money out of my account without me seeing results.

-Milie B.