While I love the independent spirit of New Hampshire and the fact that so many things are privately owned, sometimes the lack of choices (read competition) gets a little frustrating. For example, gyms. There just aren’t very many choices. There is the gym I go to (Seacoast Sports Club) and then a Planet Fitness in the next town over.

I love keeping my dollars local, but I feel like my gym is pushing me into joining Planet Fitness.

First, the good things about my gym. There are plenty of machines in good condition. The staff is very friendly, and I love that they have Les Mills classes.

Now the things that aren’t so great. The membership is expensive and comes with no perks. You know little things like towels. While I used to love the fact that each cardio machine had a TV, it’s kind of pointless now because there only about 10 channels (4 of which are news, another 3 are sports which are not my cup of tea while running). Lastly, there are no special rates for couples, even 10 or 15 dollars off a month would be nice.

Now that I’m not taking very many group classes and since the gym isn’t really making me all that happy, I’m considering just going over to PF. If the gym was making me really happy, I would have less of a problem paying the $50 a month for each of us, but it just doesn’t seem worth it. For less than the cost of one membership, we could both work out at PF. Also, they don’t seem to utilize social networking.

I don’t know. This is one of those things where it’s easy to get in a comfort zone. I have a machine that I always use. I know where everything is. Should I want to start taking classes again? They are there. On the other hand, the thought of saving $80 a month is pretty enticing.

Hmmm what to do?