I like free stuff.

Generally speaking, I don’t like exercise.

Oh, I like the way I feel after I’m done exercising and I like the fact that when I exercise on a regular basis I lose weight and have more energy, but as a general rule I don’t sit around my house and think to myself “Gee, what am I going to do tonight?  Oh, I know!  I’ll exercise!”

Needless to say, the fact that I’m not a big cheerleader for exercising as entertainment I sometimes find myself lacking the motivation to actually get up and do it on a regular basis.  My employers recognize that fact (along with the fact that study after study has shown that employees who are healthy are less expensive to have on the payroll) and gave the folks who work for them the opportunity to join the Virgin Healthmiles program.

Despite what you may think from the name the Virgin Healthmiles program has nothing to do with making sure that people who are saving themselves for marriage stay in good shape.  It is, simply put, a program that “pays” you for getting into shape by letting you earn miles for things like exercising, making a commitment to quit smoking, and taking your measurements (weight, blood pressure, and body fat).

The miles work much like experience points in any of your typical MMORPG’s.  Earn enough of them and you “level up” and earn a set amount of health cash that can be spent in their store.  Sounds too good to be true, right?  I thought so, too.  After signing up for the program I kind of half-heartedly wore my pedometer and occasionally uploaded my step records to the web site.  When I dinged to level 2 and earned my $50 in health miles cash I cautiously browsed over to the store expecting to be able to buy merchandise that was worth a fraction of the value I had in cash at the moment.

I was pleasantly suprised to learn I was wrong.  I was able to use my $50 in Healthmiles cash to buy a $50 gift certificate to Borders.

Free books just for doing something I was going to do anyway?  Sign.  Me.  Up.

Needless to say I was a little more motivated to ding level 3 and I just did so earlier today.  This time around I was able to purchase $75 in gift certificates for Amazon.com.

Unfortunately, at the current time, the only way to join the Virgin Healthmiles program is if your employer or gym offers it, but according to their F.A.Q. they are looking at a paid membership option sometime in the near future.  If you have the opportunity to join, though, I heartily endorse the program.  I normally don’t exercise on the weekends, but when I realized I was only 5000 steps away from getting to my next reward level I went out and walked for three miles just to cross the finish line.  When all else fails, “money” turns out to be one hell of a motivator.

Update – May 6th, 2009

Virgin has now opened up the ability for people to sign up individually for the Healthmiles program.  Sign up now!