Welcome to the Eat This Not That Podcast. I'm John Hammond, and this as always is Megan Murphy.

Hi, everybody.

And Megan, do you know what the biggest month of the year for new signups for the National Fitness Club chain equinoxes?

I mean, I would definitely have to guess January, right? New Year, New You, all that.

It seems the logical choice. Totally. And that's a good guess. However, it's actually September, the month that we're actually in right now. Here we are. Here's the thing. The fall is traditionally one of the biggest enrollment periods for programs like Weight Watchers as well. September marks a time when, you know, look, we start to shift back

to our routines, our reality, if you will, right?

Summer's over, the kids are back to school, reality is getting real.

It's getting real again.

I guess that makes sense too, because I imagine a lot of people, you know, like you said,

they've been traveling or their kids are

out of their school.

They're out of their regular routine and they want to get back into their fitness and healthy

eating, especially leading up to the holidays, which are just a couple months away.

And, you know, we all tend to let ourselves go a little bit then.

So maybe the thought is to balance it out now.

Like some weight loss right now can balance out that holiday cookie table later on. Like maybe. I think that's the, it's like the ebb and flow of the year too. Like you mentioned holiday time. Like, well, you know, you kind of let your guard down a little bit of holiday time. As you should. And that's why New Year, New Year, new you is like such a big boon for business and gyms, although it's like not as big as September apparently. But summer's like, look, you work hard in the spring and you dial on your diet and you get to the gym because you want to be ready for summer and you want to be able to kind of go to Dairy Queen, have an ice cream, eat a burger and fries, enjoy the barbecue, all those kinds of things. And now that period is over, the kids go back to school,

you're getting back into your regular routine.

You're like, okay, I have this time between now and the holidays to kind of write the ship

before I kind of let loose to the reins a little bit again and then write the ship again.

So if you are in that kind of write the ship mode, then this is a good, this is a good episode

for you because in September, it has become this bigger wake-up call than January has

become.

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