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30-day challenge

Day Eight: Leaping Lizards and Lugubrious Legs

A wise man once said no g-news is good g-news, unless it’s gary gnus. In keeping with that gentle spirit, there is no news to report on the weight front. Since it’s the exact same as yesterday, I feel like the balance board should reward me. It’s usually so pleased when things remain perfectly still.

Wii Fit Weight - October 14th, 2009

Despite the limited movement in my tonnage, the board saw fit to reduce my age by a couple of years. Perhaps that was my reward for keeping my corporeal heft motionless from one day to the next.

Wii Fit Age - October 14th, 2009

Moving on from Wii Fit to EA Sports Active, I have here a prepared statement:

EPH JUMP SQUATS & JUMP LUNGES

As we touched upon yesterday, there is an inherent dissonance between the idea on the one hand of being overweight, and on the other of flinging your body up into the air as high as you can. Yes, it’s good exercise. But it doesn’t make for good neighborly relations if you’ve got someone living underneath your stomping ground.

What’s more, I was being criticized the entire time for my pace and enthusiasm. I don’t know what I was doing wrong.

A jump lunge is performed by getting into a lunge position, jumping, and switching the placement of your feet in the air so that when you land you are lunged on the other leg. It’s a little tricky, but easy enough to pick up. The thing with jump lunges is you have to make the transition fast, or you land funny. I felt like I was doing them right, but every time I got a warning from the trainer that said TOO QUICK.

What was too quick? Did I jump too soon? I don’t think that was the problem. The problem seemed to be that I wasn’t suspended in mid-air like a tubby weather balloon for as long as it would have liked. Then comes the messages from the instructor, “I know you can do better than that” or “You’re not going to break a sweat with that pace.”

I’m sorry I’m not a buoyant as you’d like, jackass. I’ll suck down some helium next time and curse at you in munchkin voice, will that make you happy? I’m guessing not.

Aw well, here are the results:

EA Sports Active - October 14th, 2009

Wait… “Excellent timing and power on my jump lunges today?”

WHAT???

EA Sports Active is an abusive boyfriend. It tears me down with unrealistic demands, and then takes me out to its camaro. It tells me I’m the best. Promises it’s going to be better to me. We go out to the Pig & Poke and eat french fries with ranch dressing out of a cone, and it drapes its threadbare letterman jacket over me as I fall asleep drooling on the dashboard to the sounds of Bat Out of Hell.

And I’m never heard from again.

After finishing with EA Sports Active I moved on to the Daily Burn abs and legs workout. Since my legs were already sore from the squatting, lunching, jumping, and running that EA-SA had me doing, everything was kind of rubbery ad non-responsive. Still, I got through all of it except the squats, which just weren’t happening.

Since it’s been a week now, here’s an updated progress picture. Not a lot of change. Wearing the same goofy outfit for consistency’s sake. Probably should have used the flash since the sun was going in and out. Oh well, you still get the idea.

Progress Photo - October 14th, 2009

Have you had to do any of the leaping activities on EA Sports Active? Did they make you want to die, or actually die? Did the game recognize what you were doing properly?

Day Seven: Jumping Jehosaphat

Today the weight is up by a little over a pound. Overall it’s down from this time last week.

Wii Fit Plus Weight - October 13th, 2009

Wii Fit Age is matching up with my real age. I have no idea why. Maybe the balance board picks the age out of a bingo tumbler.

Wii Fit Age - October 13th, 2009

Today’s EA Sports Active workout introduced side to side jumps. Now, I’m sure that this is a very good exercise, but there is a flaw with it. This is a game targeted toward overweight people. And wile the trainer is clear that you should try to land softly on your feet, there’s only so soft you can land when you’re heavy and your legs aren’t super strong. Plus, I’ve got downstairs neighbors so I’m really hesitant to fling myself around the room. Moreover, I found the trainer was constantly criticizing me for doing it wrong. I’m not sure how you can screw up jumping, but apparently I was.

I was not excited to learn that tomorrow’s workout introduces jumping squats and jumping lunges. I’d be fine with jumping jacks, those I can do without knocking the plaster off the ceiling. I suppose I’m just grousing. Harumph.

EA Sports Active - 30-day Challenge (Day 3)

Today’s fancy feast was salmon steak, fingerling potatoes, salad, avocado slices, and tomatoes stuffed with turkey meatball. It was a pretty big meal.

Dinner - Salmon Steak, Potatoes, Tomato, Salad

I’ve been tracking my daily nutrition on dailyburn. I’ve found it relatively easy to stay within calorie goals, but I’ve had a difficult time hitting targets for protein, fat, and carbs. I seem to always be behind on protein, and too far ahead on either fat or carbs in a given day.

I guess that says something about the kinds of foods that I gravitate towards. Fat and carbs is a good summation of my favorite things.

I’ve been drinking a protein mix to try and get protein up without adding fat or carbs. Ideally I’ll reach a point where I don’t have to rely on that anymore.

Day Four: EA Sports Active 30-Day Challenge

Here’s the daily scuttlebutt pertaining to my ample butt. My weight bounced back up by 0.2 pounds. Seems like a blip. I’m not super concerned.

October 10th, 2009 - Wii Fit Plus Weight

Apparently this wasn’t enough of an increase to trigger one of the balance board’s guilt trips. You know, the ones where you must confess all your dietary sins to an anthropomorphic step stool.

I did okay in both the balance and agility challenges. Much to my surprise, this was my Wii Fit Plus age…

Wii Fit Plus Age - October 10th, 2009

I thought I understood how Wii Fit age was calculated, but now all bets are off. I gained weight, managed to stand on the balance ball without falling over, and sat on a few numbers. Based on this criteria, I’m in the best shape of my life. Of course, I don’t consider the Wii Fit age to be a useful indicator of anything. I treat it as a novelty. Still, it is a fickle mistress indeed.

EA Sports Active

After putting it aside for quite awhile, I’ve gone back to EA Sports Active. Upon starting the 30-Day challenge, I got to choose between these two handsome young folks who were vying to be the guide on my fitness odyssey.

Kimmy Gibbler or Barack Obama? Take your pick.

The game doesn't name them, so I call this pair Kimmy Gibbler and Barack Obama.

The trainers are supposed to be inspirational motivators, but they inevitably become the focus of my rage during events like inline skating and alternating side lunges where the game doesn’t seem to be very good at detecting movement.

I actually got the hang of inline skating after awhile (The trick is, don’t jump when it says jump), but the motion detection on the lunges seems wonky. Left lunges take longer to register than right, which throws off your rhythm, and if you wobble at all you can fail the rep. I’m just getting started though, maybe in time I’ll get used to the way that the game wants me to move.

With the workout set to high intensity, this game is a lot more strenuous than a Wii Fit. I was out of breath a few times, and dripping with sweat. In spite of the fact that my thighs were reduced to quivering goo toward the end, I still managed to do pretty well.

EA Sports Active - Day One Results

Hey! what's that crack about walking the track? I was running! Jerk.

To add insult to exhaustion, my avatar looks like Roy Orbison.

EA Sports Active - Me & Roy