Positive Reinforcement ~ Workout Tips Jar

Yesterday on Pinterest, via my very cool cousin, I found a new way to make exercise a little sweeter. The Workout Tips Jar!

Have any of you tried it? It's a very simple concept. For each workout that you do, add a tip to the jar. When you get to 100 workouts, you will have earned tip money to spend as you like. Plus you will have burned a ton of calories!

It's up to you to decide how much you want to give yourself for a tip. The original tip jar that I saw had $1.00 for each workout. I decided to up the ante and changed it to $2.00. I earned my first tip yesterday after a fast two mile walk on the treadmill. I've found that it's easier to stay on longer when I listen to podcasts. 

For my tip jar, I used a spare glass jar. The back of the jar looks like the picture below. With each workout, I'm crossing out the numbers, so I feel like I'm accomplishing something each time.

Feel free to copy the countdown to 100 picture if you're making your own workout tip jar instead of buying one.

With my weight loss goals and savings goals, I need to up my number of weekly workouts or it will take forever. The ideal would be 4-5 times a week. I wish I were there already, but I'm not.

4 workouts a week = 25 weeks

5 workouts a week = 20 weeks 

I found some words of encouragement in this article, albeit in a totally different context, from Steve Martin.

"You just have to be patient and wait it out."

When I finally get to my goal, I'm thinking that I might get a new chair. The one that I'll be replacing has seen much brighter days and is ready to make its final exit.

I bought it used and fixed it up. When I get a new chair, I'll pass it on to Goodwill and maybe someone else can bring it back again.

Until then, 99 workouts to go!

*Updated 1/8/2014*  Since so many of us are looking for positive reinforcements, I thought that I'd share some news here. I've lost about 11 pounds and have 38 workouts to go!

*Updated 5/8/2014*  This was an interesting experiment. I still have pounds to lose, but I have made progress, so this was something positive. Also, I did save money. However, there were unexpected things that came up. My car died and I got a new one. Yesterday, my phone died and I got a new one. Each time, I grabbed some money from the tip jar. I didn't want to, but it came to that. *sigh*

I only have eight workouts left on my countdown and I took out the rest of the money, so I've decided to start from scratch. This time I plan to do just 25 workouts on the jar. It makes more sense this way based what I actually did. I'll still put in $2.00 each time, so I'll earn $50.00. Not much, but sometimes in a pinch it makes all the difference. Also, I find it does feel like a reward after working out.

As for the new chair that I needed as mentioned above, I ended up giving away the old rocking chair to Goodwill. Maybe someone else can fix it up. I was ready for another new-to-me chair. I found another at Goodwill and fixed it up. When the before and after blog post is up, I'll link to it here.

*Updated 5/17/2014* The before and after chair post is up!


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