I’ve recently become quite obsessed with the concept of a Travel Exercise Bank. It’s my new favourite tool to motivate myself, and it’s my way to have it all. So, by now, I bet you’re dying to know what a Travel Exercise Bank and how to start one.
What is it?
Simply put, my TEB is where I translate all of my exercise kilometers to travel kilometers. These exercise kilometers can be achieved through any kind of exercise: walking, jogging, biking, swimming, even prancercise. I usually stick to walking and jogging, because I do that almost every day, but really, anything goes.
How do I calculate it?
Every day, I clock the number of kilometers I exercised in an excel spreadsheet. I re-purposed a mileage reimbursement spreadsheet for this purpose and it works rather well. then, I set the conversion factor. This conversion factor varies between different people. Entire families of ten can work with one exercise kilometer to one travel kilometer, while I prefer to do 1 exercise kilometer to 8 travel kilometers. The greater your conversion factor, the faster you reach your travel goals.
That’s cool and it seems fun, but what’s the catch?
The rule of the TEB is that you must spend your travel kilometers when you go on trips. For example, if I accrue 790 travel kilometers, I am allowed to go on a trip from Toronto to New York, because they are 790 kilometers apart. Again, there are different ways you can calculate distance. I prefer to calculate the distance I am travelling, totalled. For example, if I were to go on a trip from Toronto to New York to Vancouver, I would calculate the 3 in between distances and sum them up.
What about going into debt or reusing travel kilometers?
Going into debt is strictly forbidden. After all, if you knew you could go into debt, wouldn’t you just stop exercising altogether? Reusing travel kilometers is also forbidden. After you spend those kilometers, they’re gone. You’ll just have to accrue more to spend more.
Awww, Chelsea, that doesn’t seem like much fun…
On the contrary! I love being able to exercise towards a goal and actually reaching a milestone adds so much more satisfaction towards being able to take an awesome trip! It doesn’t even have to be hard; you can set the conversion factor to however high you would like! The point is not that the TEB is impossible, the point is that the TEB will get you to exercise and feel motivated doing it.
Happy travels!
Image sourced from http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00979/piggybank_979352b.jpg
LIVE WANDERFULLY 
That is an interesting idea! and a very new way to stay motivated! thanks.
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How do I sign up for a TEB?
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