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Day Five: Coke Cupcakes and Curious Calories

Oct 11th, 2009
by James.
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Hey, check it out. I’ve lost a noticeable amount of weight today. I don’t want to count any chickens, hopefully it’s an indicator that things are moving in the right direction.

Wii Fit Plus Weight - October 11th, 2009

The Wii Fit age is up a little bit, but the Mii is still looking pretty satisfied so I’ll take that as a good sign.

Wii Fit Age - October 11th, 2009

This was the second day of the EA Sports Active challenge. Again I played it at high intensity, but I didn’t find today to be quite so tiring as yesterday.

EA Sports Active - Day Two Results

I’m a little suspicious about the calorie count in this game. It feels a bit too easy to burn calories. For instance, the calorie counter continues to tick off fairly rapidly even during bicep curls and other anaerobic or minimally aerobic exercises. I feel like it would be best to treat the calorie count as a ballpark, and use it as something like a score rather than hard data. And for those purposes, it works just fine.

I followed the 30 day challenge with a few additional exercises:

Wii Fit Plus

  • Push Up and Side Plank (6 reps)
  • Single Leg Reach (6 reps)
  • Balance Bridge (6 reps)

Push Ups

  • 10 / 16/5

Modified Push Ups

  • 10/13/6/6

Dinner was an array of scrumptious turkey meatballs, broccoli, and roasted fingerling potatoes. Very tasty, and relatively healthy.

Turkey Meatball Dinner - October 11th, 2009

Today I also enjoyed some cupcakes using a recipe suggested by my sister. Basically you just take some store bought cake mix, pour in a can of diet coke, cook, and eat. It couldn’t get much simpler. The cupcakes were pretty good, and still kept me within my calorie goals for the day.

Coke Cupcakes - October 11th, 2009

Day Four: EA Sports Active 30-Day Challenge

Oct 10th, 2009
by James.
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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

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