My first time to enter True Fitness VivoCity

outside view of True Fitness VivoCity @ 3rd Flr Sentosa Boardwalk

It was March 10, 2011, in the middle of strolling around IT Show at Suntec Convention Center Singapore my cellphone rang. I received a call from a person named Sheila saying that my friend referred me to get a complimentary two week VIP pass at the club.

I was thinking that this is going to be another sales talk as they are trying to meet the monthly quota of membership sign ups. Well, I have been jogging for the past month already except when the weather is bad. I'm also contemplating of going to the gym to see what would be the benefits aside from my usual routine of jogging. 

So I decided just to come to the club even though I know it will just be another sales talk and closing their sales for the membership. I promised to myself that I will not sign up since I have not yet received my first full month salary. I am on a tight budget until the end of March so there is no way I'm going to sign up. I had the appointment set with Sheila on a Sunday afternoon, March 13, 2011.

At around 5:30 PM on March 13, I went to True Fitness VivoCity to meet Sheila. She was also a Filipino working as a Fitness Consultant. So we did a little bit of chat about the Filipino culture and from what part of the Philippines we live in. 

I tried asking Sheila who referred me to this club but she would not disclose any information. But I'm sure one of my friends who got my number referred me to this club. 

She started by touring me inside the fitness center showing me all the equipments, the rooms for fitness classes and the locker / shower room. After showing me around she started doing some sales talk which of course is very common starting at 500 dollars membership fee and 180 dollars monthly fee. Well, of course I declined the offer saying that I don't have enough money to pay for that expensive membership fee. I am expecting a rebuttal from her which is not to include the membership fee but just to pay the first month. I still declined for a reason that I still don't have any money to pay for the first month and I would just like to try the 2 weeks VIP access. After a very long sales talk which lasted for thirty minutes, Sheila finally gave in and understood that I cannot pay for now so she gave me the 2 weeks free VIP access. 

And so after a long discussion with Sheila, I was then handed over to one of the personal trainers who took my weight, height, BMI (Body Mass Index) and BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate). I will just create a separate blog about BMI and BMR next time so that you will understand what I am talking about. 

The first thing that the personal trainer did was to get my height (176 cm) and weight (108.65 kg) then calculated my BMI (34.6) and BMR (2200 calories) and explained to me all those figures. To make the story short, my ideal weight would be at 73 kilos and it would take me 11 - 15 months to shed off my excess weight assuming that I will loose 0.5 to 1 kilo per week. The personal trainer also made some sales talk for personal training which would cost me 125 dollars per 1 hour session. That was way too expensive for me so I declined no matter how many times they offered a lower price. After all those sales talk from fitness consultant to personal trainer, I started my first gym session at True Fitness VivoCity last March 13, 2011.