wii fit plus

Day Twenty: Active Over Easy

The yo-yo continues to yo, and then yo again. Now I’m down about two pounds and again on course for breaking the 170 barrier? But will it happen? The last time I got close I suddenly gained a bunch of mystery weight. I’m not holding my breath that it will happen soon. If for no other reason, I worry the extra volume of air will add a few ounces.

My Mii is doing a Carmen Miranda dance to express his youthful exuberance. Olé!

After yesterday’s EA Sports Active workout I was told that things would get more difficult now that we’re in the back half of the 30-day challenge. It appears that this was a trick meant to psyche me out, since today’s workout was basically a way of saying “just kidding”. There were some squat jumps (which still tell me I’m doing them wrong) but the bulk of the workout was baseball, tennis, dancing, and boxing, none of which are super strenuous. Also, none of the activities used the balance board. Boo! I like it better when the sports games incorporate it.

I still haven’t gotten a replacement resistance band for the one that snapped yesterday. It should be arriving from amazon tomorrow or the day after. The band that I got is described as “heavy” so hopefully it offers a bit more resistance, and holds up a little better to repeated use. Since I didn’t have a resistance band, I had to pantomime the upper body exercises again.

I wasn’t too miffed about being resistance band-less since today was a daily burn dumbell workout. I tried upping the weights from 10 lbs. to 25 lbs. for some of the exercises. That… didn’t work. So I dropped back down to 10. I may need to pick up some intermediate weights to bridge the gap. It’s not that I can’t lift the 25lb. weights, but I can’t do it with consistently good form, and I found myself jerking and contorting rather than focusing on the muscles I was supposed to target.

Dinner was chicken, quinoa, sweet potato, cauliflower, and some salad. The cauliflower wasn’t as bad as I was expecting. The sweet potato was tasty, but a little too hard. Otherwise, quite tasty.

Britain’s National Health (kind of) Supports Wii Fit Plus

Oct 26th, 2009

by James.

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According to the Telegraph, Wii Fit Plus, which launches in Britain on October 30th, will arrive at stores carrying the Change4Life logo.

You may remember that earlier this year the Change4Life campaign released a PSA which depicted video games among the factors contributing to childhood obesity. To be fair, the ads, which were created by the great animation team behind Wallace and Gromit, didn’t single out video games. Rather they included games among a number of modern conveniences that make it easy for us to live a more sedentary lifestyle.

The campaign also included a more inflammatory print ad. The message of the advertisement is that a sedentary lifestyle leads to obesity, and obesity is associated with health problems that shorten your lifespan. However some in the game industry felt that the message was that playing video games leads directly to early death, and that games are being needlessly demonized.

While I understand that watching TV, reading a book, or going to the movies are all just as sedentary as playing games, I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect a single page ad or a 90-second spot to tick every box just so no one activity feels singled out. Video games are being used as short hand for inactivity because it’s the most relatable for today’s parents and kids. If childhood obesity had been recognized as a problem 20 years ago, the boogeyman would have been plopping kids down in front of cartoons.

Change4Life caught some flak for targeting games in the initial campaign, and has since come around to supporting active video games as part of combating childhood obesity. A more recent TV ad included a Dance Dance Revolution type game as one way to get 60 minutes of activity a day.

Now with the launch of Wii Fit Plus, Change4Life has offered its most overt support for active video games yet.

A spokesman for the British department of health denied it was endorsing a video game, but said rather it was promoting exercise. “Active video games, where kids need to jump up and down or dance about as part of the game, are a great way to get kids moving,”

IrishTimes.com

While not coming out and endorsing Wii Fit Plus as a product, the embrace of active gaming as part of a healthy lifestyle is a welcome change in attitude for the organization that shows they are not trying to paint games as a villain with a single broad stroke, but rather trying to promote awareness of healthier choices.

Interestingly, Nintendo is paying to promote the Change4Life, which could be construed as a conflict of interest for the program. This may explain why Change4Life is reluctant to endorse Nintendo or Wii Fit Plus, and are instead focusing on promoting activity and exercise in a more general sense.

Day Twelve: Jogging with the Kitty Kats

Oct 18th, 2009

by James.

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No change in weight today. That’s better than an increase. I’m now within 1 BMI point of the normal threshold. That sounds really close, but it’s actually about 7.5 pounds away. Or, roughly 4% of me that needs to dissolve away before the balance board will stop playing the tubby elephant trumpet.

My Wii Fit Age is looking good, for whatever that’s worth. 22 wasn’t my favorite year, but I’m sure I had some good times.

Since it was an EA Sports Active day of rest, I chose to dig into Wii Fit Plus. I had a surprisingly fun time with the Training Plus games, and before I knew it, almost an hour had gone by. I switched over to aerobics at that point and ended up clocking in an hour and half.

The game seems to think I burned in excess of 300 calories. I’m not so sure about that. Some of the Training Plus games were really not all that intense. I’d be surprised if they were burning significantly more calories than sitting still. But the balance board has a more optimistic (and possibly delusional) point of view.

I discovered the alternate paths in Basic Run Plus, which make the experience a lot more fun. The game is as simple as can be. You hold the Wii remote and run in place to jog around Wuhu Island while a kitten guides you along a path. However at certain points a different kitten will cross paths ahead of you. At these moments, you can quicken your pace to pass your guide and join up with the other cat. The new kitten will then lead you on a different route through the island.

At the end of the jog, you are quizzed on what you saw along the way. Each kitten takes you on a different route past different landmarks. Some are pretty obvious; for example, 8-bit super mario pictures plastered on a pillar? But others are more subtle. How many puppies did you see? Who was the Mii standing on the roof? Which kitten did you finish with?

These questions force you to pay attention to your surroundings during the jog, which makes the experience a lot more engaging. What’s more, the alternate paths take you well off the trail; running along mountain sides and leaping off rooftops. This variety also keeps you more engaged, since you’re wondering what you’ll see or do next.

Overall I wouldn’t consider today’s workout to be very intense, but it was a lot of fun.

Day Eleven: Curse of the Temptress

Oct 17th, 2009

by James.

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Yesterday’s slight bump up in weight is followed by a slightly larger dip down today. I’ll take that.

More than 10 years difference in today’s Wii Fit age. I assume this has nothing to do with the weight loss and everything to do with the fact that I did slightly better on an agility game.

The EA Sports Active workout today focused on upper body, and involved some cardio boxing with the balance board that was quite fun. There were still a lot of lunges, but not so much jumping.

While I was pleased by the reduced emphasis on leaping, I do find the strength exercises a bit lacking. The game comes with what is essentially an enormous dental dam with handles. It provides some resistance, but very little. Also, it’s difficult to be sure if you’re getting the same resistance on both your right and left arms.

I’m also increasingly frustrated by some of the game’s motion detection snafus. At the end of some reps I’m told over and over to “STAY STILL”, despite the fact that I’m totally still. The way to make it move on? Shake wildly. I don’t think that’s the intended design. The trainer will sometimes criticize your form, but there’s no way of seeing what’s wrong with it.Unlike Wii Fit, there is no visual or audio feedback to let you know where the game actually wants you to be.

In addition, the language that the game uses suggests that you aren’t trying hard enough, which is infuriating. “I want you to go a little further on that rep.” seems to be the trainer’s way of saying “I don’t know if you finished that rep or not because my motion detection sucks. So I’ll just assume you didn’t, and criticize you.” De-motivating.

After EA Sports Active I sunk 25 minutes into Wii Fit Plus. Ah, Wii Fit. A less intense workout, but a much tighter package.

I’d just like to point out that 10 of those minutes come from 10-minute Super Hula Hoop. There are few things as humbling as being nearly brought to tears by a stitch in your side induced by a colorful hula hoop simulator that features an adorable Adolf Hitler Mii cheering you on.

In case your wondering, I did not pick Adolf to be my hula hoop coach. Somehow he’s infiltrated my Mii parade, so now he (along with Grace Jones, Admiral Ackbar, Captain Kangaroo and more) shows up on Wuhu island to make sure I’m getting a good workout. I suppose there are worse things he could be doing.

Today marked a landmark in Advanced Obstacle Course. I finally completed all four levels! There’s one relatively tricky part in the middle of the fourth zone. But aside from that, the rest of it is a breeze for me now.

There was a mysterious package waiting for me when I woke up today. It was tightly sealed in bubble wrap and weighty indeed. It had come from a friend back east. Perhaps because I had been helping her with her thesis? But what secrets did it hold?

I will tell you this, the contents could be consumed in units of spiders and/or worms.

Check this thing out. Gummy spiders, gummy worms, sugar dusted jelly pumpkins, and enormous cookies as big as your face! What a terrifyingly tempting array.

A bounty to be sure, but a bittersweet delight. Nothing would have pleased me more than to suck down all of the powdered sugar, butter, corn syrup, and oodles of sugar in this feast. But now was not the time to succumb to my old ways of gobbling up every delicious thing I laid eyes upon. I both thanked and cursed my distant friend for her well-intentioned sabotage.

I must confess to eating a cookie and a worm. I tried to resist, but they ensnared me in their wicked web of succulence. I’m trying to pawn the rest of the treats off on my roommates. Hopefully they will devour it all before I hear them singing sweetly to me once more in the gloom of night.

eeeaaaaattttt ussssssss. eaaaattttt ussssss. soooo yummmmyyyyy…

The call is coming from inside the kitchen.

Day Eight: Leaping Lizards and Lugubrious Legs

Oct 14th, 2009

by James.

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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.

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.

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:

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.

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

Oct 13th, 2009

by James.

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

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.

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.

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

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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…

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.

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

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

Day Three: Lightweights and Ice Capades

Oct 9th, 2009

by James.

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Today’s weight difference was less dramatic than yesterday’s. Still around 176 pounds.

I actually find these gradual shifts of fractions of a pound comforting. It seems to me that’s the way it should work. The days where I’m 2-3 pounds up or down are more disconcerting because it feels like the fluctuations are up to random chance or the whim of something I unwittingly did or ate.

The Wii Fit Plus age is still 28. Square in the prime of my pudgy Mii’s life.

I played 30 minutes of Wii Fit Plus, with most of that time spent in Advanced Obstacle Course. The advanced level introduces conveyer belts and ice. Since the there’s no way to come to a complete stop on the ice, you have to be more conscious of your timing so that you’ll slide to the edge of a platform at just the right time to make a jump to the next.

The conveyer belts speed you up, slow you down, or drag you to the edges of the platform. So you need to take this additional movement into account when dodging the obstacles.

I played four times, getting to the very end of the level on my last attempt but not quite completing it. The pacing and rhythm of the game really feels just like the original NES Mario Bros. games. I found myself missing jumps and cursing at the TV in just the same way (“Oh for f**k’s sake”), and getting the same sense of satisfaction at the end of a difficult sequence.

Today’s Wii Fit Plus session Included:

Advanced Obstacle Course (4x)
Super Hula Hoop (6 minutes)
Bird’s Eye Bullseye (2x)
Island Cycling
Palm Tree
Tree
Triangle

In addition to Wii Fit, I also introduced some light weight training. And when I say light, I mean it. Five pounds light!

Why so light? Well, in the past when I’ve started exercise regimens I ramped up to fast too early and ended up hurting myself. Which, of course, discouraged me from exercising. So I’m going to start with these 5 lb. weights and work my way up very gradually using a workout from Daily Burn. So today wasn’t very strenuous, it was primarily to see what I could handle.

Here was today’s workout:

Pushups 6/7/9/7
Dumbell Flys Flat – 10/10/10
Bench Press – 10/10/10/10
Stiff-legged dead lift – 10/10/10/10
Bent Over Row – 10/10/10/10
One Arm Dumbell Row – 20/20/20/20
Shrugs – 10/10/10/10

Incidentally, when I first started this project I was kind of parochial about only the Wii to exercise. I’ve since come around to thinking that such a point of view is limiting and self defeating. The Wii is there to make exercise fun and to get me motivated to do what’s best for my body. And there will be cases, like weight training, where the Wii just doesn’t offer anything for me.

Day Two: Further Adventures with Wii Fit Plus

Oct 8th, 2009

by James.

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Today’s workout consisted of just over an hour of Wii Fit Plus. Admittedly, I spent more time checking out the new games than I did focusing on strenuous exercise. I worked up a little bit of a sweat, but in total the whole hour felt more like a warm up.

To my surprise, I was down almost 3 pounds today. I hadn’t eaten anything before playing, so I’m guessing that’s the major difference.

Surprisingly immediate results!

Similarly, my Wii Fit Age is down as well. I feel like Plus has changed the way that age is arrived at, because I completely bombed the “mental agility” test, but still ended up a spitely 27.

Please excuse the double faces

Here are the Wii Fit Plus games that I played:

Perfect 10 (3x)
Driving Range
Obstacle Course (2x)
Tilt City (2x)
Rhythm Parade
Big Top Juggling
Table Tilt Plus (3x)
Balance Bubble Plus
Basic Run Plus

And here are the exercises and Yoga routines. These were chosen from the preset routines, and also by asking the balance board to put together a 15 minute routine in the “My Routines” mode.

Basic Step
Yoga Chair
Rowing Squat
Single Leg Extension
Advanced Step
Standing Knee
Plank
Sideways Leg Lift
Downward Facing Dog
Single Leg Twist
Lunge
Standing Knee
Balance Bridge
Torso Twists

It would be nice if these routines were more focused on specific areas of the body, and if they rotated from day to day. For instance, if I did a lot of arm exercises one day, I would like the game to recognize that and offer leg or core exercises the next. I don’t think Wii Fit Plus is that intuitive.

Despite being a bit random, the flow from one exercise to the next was much improved over the original Wii Fit.

For food today I’ve had some chicken breast, snap peas, salad, a slice of bread, vanilla yogurt w/ nuts and bran, water, water, and more water, and… a Three Musketeers bar.

When I first started this project earlier this summer I would have been freaking out about the candy bar. Now I’m approaching it with a different perspective. If I try to cut out all the “treats” at once, I’ll just start thinking about them more and resenting the fact that I can’t have them. Then when if I do slip up and have one I’ll say, “To hell with the whole thing” and start overeating.

Instead of doing that, I’m going to focus on eating better overall. And if occasionally I have a nagging craving, I’ll indulge it enough to make it go away, and then let it go. I think that’s going to work out a lot better than the all-or-nothing approach I tried earlier.

wii fit plus

Day Twenty: Active Over Easy

Britain’s National Health (kind of) Supports Wii Fit Plus

Day Twelve: Jogging with the Kitty Kats

Day Eleven: Curse of the Temptress

Day Eight: Leaping Lizards and Lugubrious Legs

Day Seven: Jumping Jehosaphat

Day Five: Coke Cupcakes and Curious Calories

Wii Fit Plus

Push Ups

Modified Push Ups

Day Four: EA Sports Active 30-Day Challenge

EA Sports Active

Day Three: Lightweights and Ice Capades

Day Two: Further Adventures with Wii Fit Plus

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