Introduction

Many people get addicted to exercise but I am addicted to Vitality Points.

Vitality?

If you are not aware what Vitality is and what Vitality Points are here is a quick introduction. Vitality is a health insurance provider that I get with my current job. To incentivise people to become healthier and stay healthy, there is a system called Vitality Points where you earn points for doing exercise, eating healthily, and being healthy (e.g. visit the dentist, pass fitness test, pass health test, don’t smoke, etc). The more points you get the better the partner benefits.

Benefits

The more point you the better your grading. You start on bronze and then there is Silver, Gold and the top rating is Platinum. Who wouldn’t want to be rated platinum? The more luxurious your grading the better the partner benefits. For example with Evans Cycles on Bronze you get £250 off the price of a £500 bike, whereas on platinum you would get £500 off the price of a £1000 bike. There are many other deals like this with brands such as BA, Ocado, or Mr & Mrs Smith.

Amazon Prime

To further incentivise you to get points there are other schemes within Vitaliy Points such as their Amazon Prime deal. You need to get 160 points per month - which means you have to do the maximum of 40 points per week which means exercise on at least 5 days per week. But you do get Amazon Prime free for each of the months that you get the 160 points. And free is good!

Exercise

To get the 40 weekly points I regularly go to the gym 3x a week, plus go for an hour+ walk with the family on the weekend, plus a weekend run. In essence it forces me out of the house to do something almost every day which is good.

Other Points

You get points in other ways, such as using a guided meditation app (such as headspace), and buying healthy food from Ocado. There are other less frequent sources of points such as annual health, fitness, and dental checks.

My position

Since starting at the beginning of November 2018 I am currently on 1640 points (on 14.03.2019) which makes me a Gold rating, with 2400 being the next target to reach Platinum. I will continue to get points every week assuming that I am fit and healthy.