Working at staying in shape....
Have you checked recently to see how many Fitness Centers there is in your community or neighborhood! It's a lot but it used to be even more four or five years ago. Why is the number dwindling you ask? Because they are competing for members so hard that they aren't turning a profit. When a fitness center gets into financial difficulty, one of the first things to go is maintenance, the usual second item is support staff.
So if you notice that there are less staff hanging around to answer your questions, or if the locker rooms begin to look unkept, then you can bet the equipment isn't being maintained or even disinfected regularly. The third thing you will likely notice is a supper discounted membership drive! Time to start looking for your next fitness center.
Have you ever wondered how we made it through the years to present without the very expensive memberships that pay for all the fancy equipment, and buildings? I am not putting down fitness centers are the effort to enjoy a higher quality exercise, I'm just comparing how we did it then compared to now.
Working at staying in shape is a term that I use literally. Back in the days of less technological advances, we actually made life work for us. Does anyone remember going to Dairy Queen or A&W Root-beer, and being asked, "Super size that for you?" Probably not because I lived during that time and I never heard it. I still remember stopping at the A & W Rood-beer and getting a grilled ham and cheese sandwich with fries, and frosted glass of A & W Root-beer. That my friends was a real treat.
Have you checked recently to see how many Fitness Centers there is in your community or neighborhood! It's a lot but it used to be even more four or five years ago. Why is the number dwindling you ask? Because they are competing for members so hard that they aren't turning a profit. When a fitness center gets into financial difficulty, one of the first things to go is maintenance, the usual second item is support staff.
So if you notice that there are less staff hanging around to answer your questions, or if the locker rooms begin to look unkept, then you can bet the equipment isn't being maintained or even disinfected regularly. The third thing you will likely notice is a supper discounted membership drive! Time to start looking for your next fitness center.
Have you ever wondered how we made it through the years to present without the very expensive memberships that pay for all the fancy equipment, and buildings? I am not putting down fitness centers are the effort to enjoy a higher quality exercise, I'm just comparing how we did it then compared to now.
Working at staying in shape is a term that I use literally. Back in the days of less technological advances, we actually made life work for us. Does anyone remember going to Dairy Queen or A&W Root-beer, and being asked, "Super size that for you?" Probably not because I lived during that time and I never heard it. I still remember stopping at the A & W Rood-beer and getting a grilled ham and cheese sandwich with fries, and frosted glass of A & W Root-beer. That my friends was a real treat.
A real treat but not just because it was excellent, but a treat because we only stopped there on Saturday afternoon, right after finishing with all the shopping for the week and taking care of bills that needed to be paid. Today's children stop by McDonald's, Wendy's, Jack-in-the-Box, and other fast food services, probably at least 3 times per week if not more. In almost every location you still get asked "would you like that small, medium or large?" Due to public criticism most places don't ask about Super-sizing any more.
I remember seeing the main shopping area sidewalks of my small town full of people going from store to store, and sometimes making trips to their centrally parked car to put away purchased merchandise. In my town there were no parking meters, but people didn't move their cars from store to store. This simple approach saved gasoline even if it only cost 29 cents per gallon, and the exercise was equivalent to a cardio session by today's standards.
Our home cooked meals were better prepared with healthy eating and living in mind. My mother used to do her own canning at home, or take her products to be canned at the local cannery on certain days of the week. The outcome of all this effort was less preservatives in the food. We also raised our own beef, pork, and chickens, so that once a year the local meat locker professional would come out to the farm and take care of business. The positive outcome of this effort was that we knew what we were eating (no growth hormones, etc).
Now for the real meaning of "working to stay in shape." Jobs back then were more basic, we didn't have robotics in the work place or computers unless you worked in a very advance place such as the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Easter Washington. Other than that, strong legs and a strong back took care of business literally. Stores didn't have scanning systems in place, cashiers, and shelf stockers had to earn their pay. Food processing plants required extra bodies for all the physical work that had to be performed. At the end of a work day, we still had chores to go home to. One example of old fashion chores was mowing the lawn with a push lawn mower, cutting and stacking wood in preparation for the winter season. Most people used an ax (no chain saws). the scenario just mentioned was for city people, those of us that worked on the farm the day ended at sun down. We had to mow the lawn on the weekend.
I don't want anyone to feel bad about the content of this posting. Most of us didn't know the difference, we were healthy but I'm not sure that we knew why. I for one was a very happy camper.
I didn't know that some day I would be able to come home after an 8 hour work day, and sit down to watch 5 hours of television, or play 4 to 6 hours of Xbox. No wonder they say that ignorance is bliss!
I promise you that I will touch on serious subjects like this one in the future, but for sure the next one will be of a lighter nature. Stay tuned the best is yet to come.....
Amen!!! I hear back in the day children played outside, climbed trees, made mud pies and chased other kids in the neighborhood playing tag or just riding bikes. Now you drive through the neighborhood and you don't see any kids playing outside. No wonder were in trouble.
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