Bribing Yourself To Work Out (With free bottled water)

I was pretty lax about my wedding workout. I would go to the gym at our apartment complex every so often, but it was never on a regular basis. So I decided that my workout would be walking the park next to our apartment. It was easier to keep up with that, but it wasn't helping me shed the pounds I wanted to lose before we got married. So instead, I had to bribe myself. And maybe you're one of the people who think bribing yourself to work out isn't such a bad idea.

If you are, you're my people.

So bribe yourself to work out with free bottled water or other items to go in your wedding welcome bags. That's what I did.

Walgreens has a Balance Rewards program where you earn points for specific purchases. Plus, you  get 100 points every time you fill a prescription. 

It's not much. I mean, 100 points is only equal to $.10, but it adds up if you fill a lot of scripts (which I don't, but still).

But, part of the Balance Rewards program is moving. Moving your body -- not your address. And that's huge.

You get 20 points for every mile you walk (up to 1,000 points) or run and 20 points every day you track your weight. Since you're probably weighing yourself like mad to make sure you can still fit in my dress, you might as well get 20 points for doing it daily. That's 2 cents a day. I know, I know, not much but better than nothing. 

You also get 20 points per blood glucose test (with a maximum of two logs per day), 20 points per blood pressure test (with a maximum of one log per day), 20 points every time you log your sleep.

Of you have a Fitbit (or similar tracker) or an iPhone with the Health app, you can actually sync either to your account and you don't even  need to keep track yourself. One less thing to think about.

What I did was save up all our points and used them to buy bottled water for our hotel bags. My intention was to put one bottle in each welcome bag, but my mom said most people are coming as a couple, so it would be nice to put two in each bag. Which means we went from needing about 100 to about 200. And that was eight cases of 24 bottles. On sale, cases are $2.99, so we needed about $24 in Balance Rewards.

So I'm took matters into my own hands ... uh, feet.

And we actually did that. All our water was free.

The program is a little different now because you can only redeem 5,000 points per transaction. So, if you're planning on using a bunch of points, you'll need to break up your transactions. Keep that in mind.

I know myself. I know I needed to bribe myself to get to the gym, and the idea that my wedding dress might not fit wasn't enough of a bribe for me. But the fact that I could get points and see them add up and know that they would eventually be spent on items to help save on our wedding budget ... yup, that is the bribe that worked for me.

I actually still have my Fitbit synced and save the points, then treat us to things like toilet paper and laundry detergent. This is married life. Get ready.

BRIDAL BABBLE: Do you bribe yourself to workout or are you actually just awesome and go without trickery?