Wii Fit Diary: Week 1
I did alright when my boy had colic. I spent upwards of four hours doing laps around the livingroom with him strapped to me every single day, and became so attuned to chronic bopping and swaying that I frequently found myself doing impromtu jigs even when I was comparatively free of screaming infants. People at work used to point and giggle.
So, after going through the first summer of my life in which I gained rather than lost weight, I decided I'd better stop this downward spiral while I'm still able. Like any good North American fuck-for-brains, I turned to a technological solution.
Enter: the Nintendo Wii.
My attitude toward gaming consoles softened somewhat in light of my victorious move to eliminate cable television from our home. I was not very impressed with Sony's offering, and wasn't willing even to give Microsoft's a try due to long standing prejudices, but after spending an evening at a friend's house playing Wii I decided this was the console for us. Pong had come of age.
I quickly made myself sore and sweaty by pushing myself hard at tennis, baseball and boxing. I enjoyed the exertion, and taking a break from work in order to hop and flail around gave me a burst of oxygen that really benefitted my next session sitting in front of the computer in a way that playing pool at the office simply doesn't satisfy. Then I read about the Wii Fit.
For those of you who may not know, the Wii differs from traditional consoles in that the controllers are chocked full of accelerometers so that the player can control their on-screen avatar via physical motions. (For me, this is infinitely preferable to figuring out a bunch of buttons and joystick combos, because I'm quite bad at joysticks whereas I've had a few decades to basically master my use of arms.) To bowl, for example, one physically tosses an imaginary ball toward the television screen.
The Wii Fit extends the hardware with the Balance Board -- a double-width bathroom scale made of plastic, capable of tracking changes in pressure. This allows the Wii to have a vague sense of where your body is, and how it might be oriented, and whether or not that orientation is stable or wobbly.
The Wii Fit software contains packages of activities broken into four categories (yoga, strength training, aerobics, balance games). Only a few activities are available at the time of purchase -- the rest must be unlocked by investing time or achieving a high score. I suppose this is Nintendo's way of trying to make sure you don't hurt yourself, as only activities you have demonstrated some basic ability for are available for your use. Proficiency is also rewarded by unlocking larger sets of reps for each exercise.
The user is guided through the activities by their choice of either a male or female trainer with grey skin whose lips don't move. (The chick is kind of cute, but she could use a little more meat on her.) The trainer provides feedback on each activity ("I think this exercise is too hard for you now" or "Well done! Try it again while focusing on staying stable") while the Master of Ceremonies is a CGI incarnation of the Balance Board itself who reprimands you for skipping a workout or, depending on the time of day, reminds the user to have something to eat before working out.
The cheeky little Balance Board began our relationship by telling me that I was overweight based on measurements of my height and weight (my BMI fluctuates between 27 and 28), and that my core trunk muscles were weak as evidenced by my relative inability to hold steady or to distribute my weight evenly between my legs. It asked me to set a two week fitness goal and then invited me to begin exploring the activities.
At this point my fortnight goal is to drop 6 lbs. by exercising for a minimum of 20 minutes, at least five times a week, with an emphasis on aerobics.
I am now one week into this new regimen, complemented by paying more attention to my diet and sleep habits. I have pushed through the initial soreness (every muscle in my body ached!), and now I am already seeing tangible improvements (I can now do the push-ups activity fairly easily, whereas the first time I did it I was struggling and crying for my mommy). Also, I find starting the day with a workout to be quite invigorating. I go into the office much more chipper than usual.
This week's stats:
So, after going through the first summer of my life in which I gained rather than lost weight, I decided I'd better stop this downward spiral while I'm still able. Like any good North American fuck-for-brains, I turned to a technological solution.
Enter: the Nintendo Wii.
My attitude toward gaming consoles softened somewhat in light of my victorious move to eliminate cable television from our home. I was not very impressed with Sony's offering, and wasn't willing even to give Microsoft's a try due to long standing prejudices, but after spending an evening at a friend's house playing Wii I decided this was the console for us. Pong had come of age.
I quickly made myself sore and sweaty by pushing myself hard at tennis, baseball and boxing. I enjoyed the exertion, and taking a break from work in order to hop and flail around gave me a burst of oxygen that really benefitted my next session sitting in front of the computer in a way that playing pool at the office simply doesn't satisfy. Then I read about the Wii Fit.
For those of you who may not know, the Wii differs from traditional consoles in that the controllers are chocked full of accelerometers so that the player can control their on-screen avatar via physical motions. (For me, this is infinitely preferable to figuring out a bunch of buttons and joystick combos, because I'm quite bad at joysticks whereas I've had a few decades to basically master my use of arms.) To bowl, for example, one physically tosses an imaginary ball toward the television screen.
The Wii Fit extends the hardware with the Balance Board -- a double-width bathroom scale made of plastic, capable of tracking changes in pressure. This allows the Wii to have a vague sense of where your body is, and how it might be oriented, and whether or not that orientation is stable or wobbly.
The Wii Fit software contains packages of activities broken into four categories (yoga, strength training, aerobics, balance games). Only a few activities are available at the time of purchase -- the rest must be unlocked by investing time or achieving a high score. I suppose this is Nintendo's way of trying to make sure you don't hurt yourself, as only activities you have demonstrated some basic ability for are available for your use. Proficiency is also rewarded by unlocking larger sets of reps for each exercise.
The user is guided through the activities by their choice of either a male or female trainer with grey skin whose lips don't move. (The chick is kind of cute, but she could use a little more meat on her.) The trainer provides feedback on each activity ("I think this exercise is too hard for you now" or "Well done! Try it again while focusing on staying stable") while the Master of Ceremonies is a CGI incarnation of the Balance Board itself who reprimands you for skipping a workout or, depending on the time of day, reminds the user to have something to eat before working out.
The cheeky little Balance Board began our relationship by telling me that I was overweight based on measurements of my height and weight (my BMI fluctuates between 27 and 28), and that my core trunk muscles were weak as evidenced by my relative inability to hold steady or to distribute my weight evenly between my legs. It asked me to set a two week fitness goal and then invited me to begin exploring the activities.
At this point my fortnight goal is to drop 6 lbs. by exercising for a minimum of 20 minutes, at least five times a week, with an emphasis on aerobics.
I am now one week into this new regimen, complemented by paying more attention to my diet and sleep habits. I have pushed through the initial soreness (every muscle in my body ached!), and now I am already seeing tangible improvements (I can now do the push-ups activity fairly easily, whereas the first time I did it I was struggling and crying for my mommy). Also, I find starting the day with a workout to be quite invigorating. I go into the office much more chipper than usual.
This week's stats:
Weight: 192 - 196 lbs.Next week I'll post updates on my progress with respect to my fitness goal, as well as discussing the daunting task of actually acquiring a Wii Fit system without resorting to beating people up or getting gouged on eBay.
BMI: 27 - 28
Wii Fitness Age: 41
Biological Age: 33
Total Exercise Time: 1h40m
This Week To Date: 1h10m
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