An antidote to a stressful campaign season

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Has all the stress from the upcoming elections turned you into a nonstop eating machine, lunging for comfort food to relieve the anxiety?

Gold’s Gym may be able to help you whittle down that expanding waist: They’re offering a free one-week VIP membership for anyone who votes. Bring in proof of voting to any Gold’s Gym between now and election day (that’s Nov. 4 in case you weren’t sure) to receive the membership.

Anyone who has been following election season probably has an anxiety level that’s cranked up to 11. Between the polls, the ads, the debates and the heated discussions with friends, family and co-workers, steam has definitely been building up.

That’s why Gold’s decided to allow people to release it. ‘At the end of the day,’ says Dave Reiseman, director of communications, ‘no matter what kinds of messages you’re bombarded with, the gym is the one place you can go where there’s no economic crisis, no war, no election.’

That is, of course, unless you’re watching the news while doing your cardio. We know better and prefer to let our angst run down while watching the E! channel (no worries there) or the umpteenth rerun of ‘Top Chef.’

Reiseman says Gold’s was approached by the Obama and McCain campaigns about running political ads on the in-house TV programming. While he gives both camps credit for the creative ingenuity, he politely declined the offer.

‘We wanted the gym to be an escape,’ he says.

Gold’s also released its list of top ten fittest U.S. presidents (John Quincy Adams topped it — those Potomac swims and all), and people can also vote for who they think is the fittest president at the company’s website.

-Jeannine Stein