FitBeth

I went to the gym yesterday - yay! I also managed a healthy dinner (ramp pasta and roasted asparagus) and no dessert (okay, I had two diet cranberry vodkas, but my sunburn really really hurt!).

BMI: 23.44
BMI change: a few tenths…
Wii Fit age: 29

Today no gym, but some Wii Yoga and a lot of running around doing errands. I’ve been following this Wii Fit blog as well - he is doing better than me, but I am glad I have incorporated some gym time. Like he said, Wii keeps you accountable, but doesn’t necessarily get the heart rate up.

Wii keeps telling me it will be cool if I use the balance board to weigh other things as well (in the instruction book, the guy has a small white dog in his hand - like my dog!). That’s, um, interesting, but handy I suppose if I want to weight the dog or, say, a lamp or book.

One caveat for this week’s weigh-ins: the sunburn on my lower legs have made my ankles balloon. It looks funny. I’m sure it adds weight. I definitely have cankles right now.

It did not go so well on the Wii Fit front.

Saturday:
BMI: 23.17
BMI change: -.09
Weight change: I don’t think I’ll include this any more.  When the BMI goes up or down, so does the weight!
Wii Fit age: 28

Sunday:
BMI: 23.59
BMI change: +.42
Wii Fit age: 30

I was pretty active all weekend, but only half of my food choices were healthy.  Although on a holiday, how can you skip special food?  EJ and I went to the big Japanese market in New Jersey and they were having a big specialty foods fair with takoyaki.  Can’t skip that!

I’m hopefully off to the gym today, no, wait, I AM off to the gym today, despite my overly burned legs from sitting out in the sun yesterday.  Ouch.

A recent article in the NY Times about the venerable Wii creator.

Videos of me hula hooping to come…it’s really ridiculous.

Today I tried the whole thing - every exercise/game/move - from start to finish. The Wii froze twice, which was a bit frustrating, but maybe that shows I’ve been giving it a workout too.

Time banked on the Wii: 34 minutes.
Actual time it took: 65 minutes.
That’s actually a bit of a bummer - I had to spend an equal amount of time changing activities and pressing “A,” which is okay if I get tired, but not the best for keeping my heart rate up. I did have to do a lot of the intro demos, though, so I’ll try again soon. It would be great if there could be a back-to-back mode or set workouts to choose from.

Some observations - I did get my heart rate up (for a few minutes - I still suck at the push ups), and yoga was nice to wind down with. The sun salutation isn’t the traditional one I know, but this one is more complicated. Also, some of these poses are difficult! I found some alternate versions that might help. Tree pose - click on beginner. More to come.

I also need to stretch! My hamstrings have always been really tight, so I am trying to stretch them after my Wii Fitness is done every day. Here are some basics from the Mayo Clinic.

Day 3 stats:
BMI: 23.28
BMI change: increase :-/
Weight change: like a pound and a half
Wii Fit age: 32!!!

Frustrating numbers, but I haven’t done any “real” working out.  Bummer.  Ate really well - steamed salmon and bok choy for dinner (and it was tasty!).  But then ice cream.  mmm.  They always tell you not to weigh yourself every day…but Wii makes you, sort of.  I need to choose a consistent time for sure.  The first 2 days was before dinner, this was before bed (post ice cream).  Morning would be easy, but that’s when I weight the least, so I’ll try to stick to 6:00 PM or so.

Good night!

Day 2 stats:
BMI: 23.16
BMI change: None
Weight change: None
Wii Fit age: 24 (did some more balance tests)

It’s funny to watch EJ breathing deeply. He’s doing Yoga - gasp!

The trainers are a little creepy looking. I’m not sure which one was worst, but EJ and I decided to choose the lady’s funny chest instead of the guy’s.

I did some plank/push ups/hula hoop.  I actually raised my heart rate.  I did about 12 minutes.  The push ups are really difficult - I am not sure if it’s because I suck or that my arms are really close together when they are on the board.  Whew!  Step aerobics was dance dance revolution for older people.  Maybe not effective until you get harder workouts; or I could put the board up on bricks.

Hint - if you are playing at home, on the Activity menu, click on the animated Wii board (it’ll be boxing or running - I told you it’s cute!) and you can do some harder stuff.  I failed the Ultimate Balance Test.

Today’s eating was better - smoothie, veggies, nuts, cookies (only 2 little ones), and rhubarb sweet potato curry and coconut jasmine rice for dinner (and then a 90 calorie frozen snickers). Better than yesterday!
Tomorrow I’ll make time to go through everything and try to find a routine. Maybe I’ll even go to the gym.

Day 1 stats:
BMI: 23.16
BMI change: N/A
Weight change: N/A
Wii Fit age: 27

This is exciting!

First, I like the little Wii Fit Board character and its voice and wave (a funny armless wave) - cute! The sounds remind me a lot of Paper Mario. EJ weighs more than I do and they increased the size of his Mii - I wonder if you were underweight they would make you look starved.

My body test wasn’t so bad (not as bad as my increasingly tight pants have been telling me), and my fit age was a year less than my real age, but I did set a two month goal to lose eight or so pounds.

Let’s go! I tried the games first - harder than they look! In total, I banked 10 minutes. Not so much, but I tried most of the games. The ones where you balance back and forth are a lot like Tai Chi - slowly shifting your center of balance from left to right. Balance seems to be a big part of success. I have pretty good balance (thanks, mom), but EJ has pretty bad balance, so the balance tests give him a really bad Wii Fit age. I was definitely disappointed in my soccer ball head butting skills - EJ has more of those skills than I.

I (EJ and I) am trying to eat healthier, too…although today was that last splurge day - Chinese take out. mmm. Say goodbye, tasty take out, goodbye ice cream and cookies, good bye french fries.

I’ve just spent a few months finishing up school, taking a trip to the northwest, and having my parents and my fiance’s parents in town for 5 days and meeting for the first time…which means lots of eating, drinking, sitting, late nights, sleeping in, and not exercising.

What a wonderful present EJ (my fiance) gave me - a Wii Fit!  So begins my Fit adventures.