The Point(s) of Exercising

The company I work for incentivizes healthy lifestyle habits. We earn points for exercising, getting flu shots, and participating in annual health assessments. It's all voluntary. We can participate in all activites, some activities, or no activities at all. 

We can redeem points for monetary rewards like gift cards, Fitbits, and bike accessories. Each point is worth a penny.

We can also earn points for walking which is why I downloaded a pedometer app to my phone last May. I've been obsessing over my steps ever since. I get one point for every 1000 steps I take in a day. 2000 steps equals one mile. So, it works out to getting paid 2 cents per mile.

What? You say you wouldn't waste energy to bend over and pick up one penny much less walk a mile for two pennies? Sure, sure. But I've learned that I walk half a mile a day just doing stuff around the house. On laundry day traipsing back and forth repeatedly, a full mile is normal without even trying.

With this year's points, I was able to buy each of The Boys a $100 Amazon gift card for Christmas with points leftover to get myself something pretty.

So, the effort pays off $eriou$ly well.

Every day at midnight, the counter on my pedometer app resets to zero. 

The Husband has gotten used to me taking laps around the livingroom late at night to snag the last few steps to round out a thousand mark. One night I went to bed with 4984 steps and lamented all the next day that I'd been just 16 lousy steps from an extra point.

The other day, The Husband and I went for a walk. A block or two into our stroll, he asked which route I wanted to take. The short one, I told him.

"Are you sure? The weather's nice and the sun is shining."

"Yeah, but I left my phone at home, and I'm not getting credit for my steps."

"But the exercise is still good for you."

"Pft! You think I do this for my health?"