Turn and Face the Change

Change is always a sad and exciting opportunity. With every ending comes a fresh beginning, even though the transition can be a bit destabilizing.

This is my final week of EA Sports Active 2 for Wii for quite a while, and I'm feeling a bit of sadness and anxiety about the transition. As these last weeks have catalogued, I’ve come to rely on my cheerful  trainer, the ache of yet another set of 75 mountainclimbers, and tremendous numbers of squats and strength sets. Basically, I love to loathe the challenge, the sweat, the tears and the near collapses. EA Sports Active 2 is a superb all around butt kicker for some – for me – and I’ve come to feel very protective of my little healthy desert oasis.

But, alas, the Losing Gamer challenge is not about one particular exergame, it is about exergaming in general and whether video games can be used to help one lose weight and get fit. So next week I move on to The Biggest Loser 2 for Wii. I’ll be starting their 12 week program. While I’ve watched Gillian and Bob kick contestants’ butts on their TV show, I’m concerned that the video game may not live up to the show or EA Sports Active 2, which I love to loathe. Please check back next week as I discuss my overall results using EA Sports Active 2 for Wii as well as my initial thoughts on The Biggest Loser 2 for Wii.

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Fear & Food (3.24.11)

Image via Wikipedia

I was whipping along, happy in my weekly progress and slowly plowing through my first personal goals, when life, as it is sometimes apt to do, threw my weight loss a curve ball.

As is not often the case, it could not have been anticipated, as many have called what happened an act of God. You see, last week the East coast saw some rain. Make that buckets full of torrential rain and you might have the correct idea. We were impacted, because Dear Husband was travelling for work and the bridge we use to access the outside world was literally washed away. All of last week I would stand looking at the whitewater that was the river between us and, well, everything else. And did I mention that our cars were safely nestled in our garage on our side of the river? :Sigh:

So my child and I were stuck at home alone with no route of vehicular egress and I was stressed. What if anything happened and we needed emergency services? What if something happened to me and my child was stuck alone? What if, what if, what if?

While I continued to religiously do my EA Sports Active 2 routine, with my child trying to do it alongside me, I needed to attend to my child’s needs, bridge repair coordination, work and keeping Dear Husband abreast of the situation, which seemed to change most hours of most days: more rain, sleet, snow, ice, walk bridge, walk bridge warping, and the list went on and on. It’s one thing to be concerned and handle inconveniences; it’s a completely different experience to go through those same things as a parent.

After my child went to bed at night, I’d have a beer (or two), replay the day, try to get ahead on things for the following day, plan out potential crisis aversion and….emotionally eat. It’s not like we have much unhealthy stuff in the house (shucksthank God), but as with anything else, something in moderation like a few cheddar bunnies turns into something else entirely when one goes off the reservation – like consuming an entire box of cheddar bunnies in one sitting.

End results: Dear Husband is home, bridge is completely repaired, child is happy and healthy, my EA Sports Active 2 trainer is happy that I completed all of the required workouts last week, I was tremendously productive in work, I got very little sleep and ate waaaayyyyyy too much. So at this week’s weigh in, I was up two pounds instead of down one.

Final analysis, I am happy that everyone is healthy; things could have been much worse (our hearts and prayers are with the people of Japan and the Middle East); we’re grateful for our friends around the world who offered immediate support; and I have a new understanding of emotional eating in general and my emotional eating in particular. It’s something I’ll watch out for in stressful situations, but will also embrace as a short term necessity. So long as one gets back to the cycle of healthy eating, exercise and healthy choices, all is not lost – in fact, insight makes us all winners.

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EA Sports Active 2 Wii Part II (3.14.11)

This is the second in a two part discussion of EA Sports Active 2 (EASA2), answering some of the questions I’ve been getting on this particular product. I want to reiterate that I love the product. It’s pretty hard, and the circuit is always full of loads of squats and strength training.

Now, to get back to answering direct questions…

People ask about time commitments. The challenges require you to work out 4 days a week, taking 3 rest days. The 21-day challenge workouts start out at around 20 minutes and scale up over the 21 days to 40 minutes in length. The 9-week challenge workouts start at around 35 minutes and scale up beyond 45 minutes in length. Presently I’m five weeks in and my workouts are averaging around 45 minutes. I generally do the regular challenge workout and add a second workout to get my time over an hour. So that can mean, for example, a 20 minute challenge workout plus a hard forty minute mountain gravity workout, or a 40 minute challenge workout plus a 30 minute step aerobics class.

Other than the challenges, there are a lot of other options. I’ve tried out a bunch of their other single session workouts that are pre-programmed into the disc and particularly like the mountain gravity and core upper body workouts. They also have one, whose name I forget, but it’s basically the “ya wanna try to kill yourself” workout - that one really makes you sweat. Additionally, you can ask the trainer(s) to create a new workout targeting the body area or type of exercise you want. And then there’s the ability for you to create your own workouts using all of the exercises they offer. I’ve used this to create multiple step aerobics classes for myself that I use routinely.

EASA2 also allows you to go online, workout with groups, find additional exercise options and there’s an online help component too. While I haven’t used any of the online resources, I hear from many people that they’re as great as everything on the disc.

As I mentioned above, weight training is integrated into all of their workouts. They give you a stretch band to use, along with handles, but for someone looking for instructions on everything related to video games, I was flummoxed on how to set the thing up. Probably from a company standpoint, it seems intuitive that someone would know, but I’m admitting here that this someone looked at the handles, looked at the band, looked for instructions and continuously went through that loop. It took me two weeks to realize that I simply needed to tie the ends of the cord around one loop of the offered hand holds. Let me simply say that the strength workouts are much easier once one has attached the handholds.

The program often tells you to lengthen your hold on the band to make the workout easier and to shorten it to make it more rigorous. I’d like to add that if you have them, you can also substitute free weights for the fitness band. While I have free weights, I haven’t gone there yet, as I get a nice burn from using the fitness band.

While I love EASA2 for Wii, and would suggest that it’s great for most people, I would caution folks with bad joints to use something a little less strenuous to start. The constant squats, mountainclimbers, running and jumping could be very intense for someone with bad joints. For such a person, I’d advise starting with, for example, a Gamercize stepper, Wii FIT or Just Dance 2 in order to build up the muscles around one’s joints before trying EASA2.

Buy It.

Full Disclosure:  EA gave me a free copy of EA Sports Active 2 to try out and use.

EA Sports Active 2 Wii Part I (3.10.11)

I’ve been using EA Sports Active 2 (EASA2) on the Wii for about eight weeks now. First I tried the 21 day challenge, and presently I’m in the middle of the nine week challenge. The game offers many things to most people, and in general it’s an extremely well rounded kick butt workout.

First, they set all action in what they describe as a desert health spa. All activity is virtually outside with clouds, fountains, mountains and dirt paths. I like it. At least for me, it feels more open and airier than some exergames that have solid backgrounds or interior roomscapes.

Second, you can choose your fitness level. They offer easy, medium and hard levels for all of their workouts, which is generally really nice as you can calibrate your 21-day or 9-week challenge to where you feel you are in the fitness spectrum.

I hear from bunches of people who start out on the easy level, which is still quite physically challenging, and move on to medium and hard for their subsequent challenges and workouts. The only difference I can tell between the levels is number of repetitions in each set, which also effects time – the easy workout level being shorter than the hard.

So, for example, an easy set of the dreaded mountainclimbers could be 40 reps, the medium 45 and the hard 55. On a side note, it’s extremely helpful for you to add the yoga pose called “child’s pose” directly after a set of these, as well sets of the straight arm plank, in my humble opinion and I do one every time.

People often ask what I’m doing and on what level. Both my 21-day and 9-week program have been on the hard level, my presumption being that my body will (hopefully) quickly tone up to handle it. During the first week I generally thought I was going to die, especially if I had multiple sets of mountainclimbers, pushups or straight arm planks in a given daily workout. Now eight weeks in, I can make it through three or more sets of the above exercises without collapsing, cheating or falling over. The child’s pose mentioned above really helps my ability to stand back up after a quick stretch.

There’s a lot to say about EASA2, most of it good. I’ll be talking about time commitments, strength training, the online components and more in my next blog post.

Again, we’d love to hear about how things are going with you. Feel free to drop me a line at jenn at theeca.com.

Full Disclosure:  EA gave me a free copy of EA Sports Active 2 to try out and use.

Trust (3.1.11)

Today was my official weigh in day, and I was down another pound – that’s eleven overall for those of you keeping track. The first couple of weeks, I weighed myself at different times of the day, with different clothing on, and it should go without saying that I also weighed myself every single day. In talking to other women, I found that that’s totally normal for a woman starting up a new fitness regimen. For the male gamers I spoke with, whose last weigh in was at their last attended annual physical, this compulsiveness seemed a bit *interesting.*

In any case, as the weeks have progressed, my weigh ins have become more spaced out. First it was every other day, or only to check in with myself; then every few days; and now generally once per week. I also calmed down about what I put on for the weigh in, since it was all about the same size, thickness, and thus probably weight. Eventually, I realized that my weight would fluctuate both up and down throughout the week, and that every Tuesday, seemingly like clockwork, I’d get on the scale at one pound lower than the previous week. Amazing.

The first few weeks, I felt like I was hanging onto a ledge by my fingernails. Would this work? Did I need to do ninja-crazy four hour workouts to see minimal results? Would my body “allow” me to shed the pounds? Again, this is obviously a woman speaking. Overanalyzed and unscientific.

Dear Husband would tell me that it was all about numbers in versus numbers out. But as women gamers know, it never seems quite so easy to us. But with time, I’ve learned that slow steady progress is scientific, and predictable, and trustworthy.

All of this has engendered trust in exergaming and in the process; and I’m now beginning to look forward with hopeful anticipation to reaching my next goal(s).

Astonishing (2.24.11)

Originally, I was, by far, the most skeptical participant of ECA’s Gamers for Health exergaming initiative.

While I had, and still have, a hefty amount of pounds to lose, I simply didn’t think that exergaming could give me a sufficient burn for an adequate block of time enough times a week for me to lose more than a couple of pounds overall unless I simultaneously went on a crash diet or went ninja and worked out 3-4 hours a day, which was (and still is) impractical for my schedule, as a working wife and mother.

Imagine my astonishment as the ounces and pounds slowly began melting off in the first week, and have continued unabated bit by bit every week since. While the loss is not enormous when compared to some folks on the TV show The Biggest Loser (one guy lost 41 pounds in the first week this season), I’m quite satisfied with the 10.5 pounds that I can now report having lost over the last 10.5 weeks of exergaming.

I haven’t changed anything else in my routine, as I’ve been documenting. We’re hopeful that the Gamers for Health initiative and our accounts spur some of you on to get up and get exergaming.

The change in avatar may be too small for most to notice, but having passed this 10-pound benchmark spurred me on to use the next slimmer avatar, which, in itself, is quite amazing for me.

Oh, and my "prize" for losing more than 10 pounds? Getting a pedicure. Suggestions for future, non-food-related prizes for getting below other weight loss benchmarks are welcome.

Hopefully soon you’ll be able to report your own astonishing losses.

Reaching Goals (2.22.11)

"You are overweight." I never thought that those words, as spoken by an annoying mechanical voice, would feel so….fantastic. Yet there I was, getting ready to drive to work, standing like an idiot on a Wii step, transfixed by my TV screen and flipping back and forth between my weight and BMI index figures.

You see, I’m no longer obese. Well, obese meaning having a BMI over 30. I’m now part of the less than 20% of Americans who is healthy yet overweight. According to my talking on-screen Wii step (a very cheery sort), I’d reached my first stated goal of this program. Amazing.

When I’d started this project, I’d been highly doubtful that I would lose weight. Well, perhaps three pounds, but generally no more than that. Yet here I am at a pivot point. Hopefully I’ll be able to build on this loss and drag my weight down another 10-20-30 pounds or so. We’ll see.

But for right now I’m exhilarated with this step in the right direction.

So, all of you noble readers, how are your programs going? Are they working for you? Incremental change is still transformational. I’d love to hear more of your stories here in the comments, on the ECA Forums or you can always email me directly at jenn (at) theeca.com.

Whether you've been down this road before or you're just beginning your journey of transformation, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

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Endurance (2.17.11)

We all start someplace. Some of us already can do fifteen or more toes pushups (ie - the boy kind), whereas some of us can only do one knees pushup (ie – the girl kind). That’s me.

Or rather, that was me. When I began EA Sports Active 2, nearly six weeks ago, I was able to do one measly fake half knees pushup. I started low with kind of bent arms, wiggled lower down a wee bit and called it a satisfactory effort. Honestly, it’s all my puny-yet-flabby arms would allow. A repeat effort didn’t quite go "as well" as the first so I moved on to a short water break and called that my first pushup set. Ahem. Yes, I’m admitting that. As I said, we all begin someplace.

Well, I’m happy to report that today my EASA2 routine called for two sets of ten and I did complete two full sets of ten. It was pretty amazing actually, also in that not only did I complete twenty pushups, but they were full straight arm extensions to nose touching floor and then aaaaallllll the way back up. I didn’t even fall sideways once.

I was somewhat moved (no pun intended) while I was completing them, the two sets of fifty-five mountain climbers, and all the other exercises today in how far I’ve come in a skimpy five and a half weeks on EASA2. It got me to thinking what else I can do, and how much farther I will be, in a few more weeks with committed effort. The ability to measure progress in small bits, like with pushups or mountain climbers, definitely has advantages for one’s psyche.

Just like we all start someplace, our own place, we’re all also all going someplace; exergaming helps us move ourselves in the direction we’d like to go.

Full Disclosure: EA Sports provided me an EA Sports Active 2 for free to try.

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Sodium (2.16.11)

Image via Wikipedia Most of us eat too much salt. It tastes good and makes many things taste better. It’s also a great preservative, which is why it’s in most frozen, processed and canned goods. According to the American Heart Association, adults should keep their sodium intake to no more than 1,500 mgs a day. Yet average Americans consume approximately 3,436 mgs a day, which is over twice the sodium per day than the maximum advised.

Too much sodium in one’s diet can be dangerous. It can increase one’s blood pressure and put one at a higher risk for heart disease and stroke. It can also make you puffy, retain water and it keeps your weight artificially elevated.

This is a cautionary tale, my friends.

Two days ago, I was at 10 pounds down in my exergaming program. It was quite exhilarating having lost two pounds over the last week. But Tuesday is my official weigh in day. Tuesday, mind you, the day AFTER Valentine’s Day. Dum dum DUMB.

Valentine’s Day started out fabulously enough. I got in an early double workout and was able to go out to a lovely Mexican lunch with my Dear Husband. We laughed, we joked, we chatted and we ate mucho salsa. Heck, it was our Valentine’s Day date in the middle of the day, because we were going to be at home with the baby in the evening. I felt good, and figured so long as I was reasonable for dinner and drank a lot of water through the rest of the day, I’d be able to hold off at least one of the two pounds I’d lost over the last week.

Then it turned out that my DH had conspired with our babysitter and he surprised me with an evening date night – oh so precious – while the babysitter and baby were having a romping good time at home. DH and I laughed, joked, chatted and ate an absolutely fabulous Tuscan supper avec mucho vino. We had sips of water here and there, but not the two litres I’d been thinking about having to flush out the salsa. In any case, Tuesday morning came and so did the official weigh in. One pound UP from the week before. I’d gained three pounds literally overnight. Ah, sodium. My money’s on the salsa.

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Mountain Climbers (2.9.11)

For those of you who don't rightly know what a mountain climber exercise is, take thyself to youtube. Along with Darth Vadar children and Elmo videos, you'll find many examples of non-wobbly people doing mountain climbers in front of cameras. One must ask oneself, "who ARE these people??"

I used to climb mountains - real, vertical rock and ice formations. These are not the same. There are no vertical mountains or ice sheets. No crampons. There is simply pain.

As I mentioned to some friends recently, I resemble one woman in one video only in her hair - perhaps. She seemed to be excited and bubbly, not only in general, but also at the prospect of doing multiple mountain climbers.
Really.

For the rest of us wobbly folk, mountain climbers are self inflicted torture; no additional equipment required. In EA Sports Active 2 (EASA2), you become very knowledgeable of them. An average set for me is 55. Yes, 55 consecutively. In fact, I've found that in some workouts, my lovely non-wobbly non-sweating trainer chick expects me to do three sets of them. And live.

The first time I had to do a mountain climber in my life was week one of EASA2; I literally thought I was going to die. My mind boggled that anyone anywhere would ever be ambitious enough to create such an exercise. I mean, seriously, what has got to be going on in one's life that one needs to scratch one's head and think, "hmmm....now THAT would be a great idea."

Since week one, I've come to think of them as a necessary evil. They're there, I do them. I dislike them intensely, then they're done. I have noticed in the last 3.5 weeks that my ability to do them has increased dramatically. I still sweat, I still swear, but I make it through them and huff on to the next exercise. Non-wobbly trainer chick's exhortations that "this is all for YOU" do actually have the desired effect on me. I push to finish the set, I know that I am doing this for me, and I'm better for it.

Full Disclosure: EA Sports provided me an EA Sports Active 2 for free to try.

Balance (2.8.11)

Image via Wikipedia Today’s blog post could also be titled ode to a Dunkin’ Donuts chocolate frosted donut.

In fitness blogs and weight loss journals, there’s always a lot of discussion about logging the hours, healthy eating, and generally pretty extreme change and thinking. In the blogs, books and articles I’ve read, there’s always a lot of pressure built into the process to get from point A to point Z overnight. One pound a week? Not enough. Twenty pounds lost in five days might suffice for now.

People talk about how they used to eat poorly and now they’re organic health gurus. They used to eat 10,000 calories a day but they have now seen the light and eat 1,200. They used to get as much exercise as a geriatric turtle and now they’re a spritely hare.

In my youth, I also succumbed to that kind of black and white thinking. Feast or famine. Exercising three hours a day or taking the day off. Or the year. Getting embroiled in this sensational reality programming is at first exhilarating, and then somewhat exhausting. It’s no wonder that so many burn out after a couple of weeks.

This time around, one of my preconditions to undertaking the exergaming initiative was that I not (have to) do that. I truly wanted to keep everything stable in my life and simply add on an hour of exergaming a day. If I lost weight, great; if I didn’t, well there you are. As you know from prior posts, the weight has continued to slowly come off, even as I’ve approached the process this way, and I must say I’m pleasantly surprised.
That being said, we return to the aforementioned Dunkin’ Donuts chocolate frosted donut. No sprinkles. It was there, sitting nestled among many other donuts in the inviting Dunkin’ Donuts box for all to eat in our office kitchen. It looked yummy. And it was. I loved every bite of it. It gave me a blog topic. And it was enough.

Another thing I’ve found in approaching weight and fitness in a more balanced manner is that I stop eating yummy-yet-unhealthy stuff much quicker. One donut is enough, whereas before I might have gone back for another. Perhaps there is also something to be said about "Moderation in all things." Moderation and balance added to good eating and healthy exercise makes for a much better you.

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Slow, Steady Progress (2.1.11)

Recently, I’ve been asked quite a bit about my progress. As I’ve just begun a new nine week program on EA Sports Active 2 for the Wii, which EA was kind enough to give me to use, and I have a solid seven weeks of consistent exergame effort under my belt, it seems a good time to take a moment to reflect on what, if any, progress I’ve experienced thus far.

Some people who see me have noted how I look more compact. Some have openly checked me out, trying to figure out what, if any, changes there are. As I’ve been putting myself out there through this blog, such physical critical assessment should come as no surprise.

My clothing fits differently, and I’ve begun pulling out clothing that I didn’t fit into for years, which now zip, snap or button easily. Some clothes I’d been wearing fit the same when pulled from the dryer, but after an hour or so of wear, they bag in (new) places. I’m also one of those folks who saved boxes of clothing in numerous sizes, knowing that one day I’d fit back into them. For years, while my boxed clothing sat untouched, I watched shows telling me to get rid of them and make room for new stuff. Yeah, well, I’m glad I never listened, because the day seems to be here for a few of those boxed sizes. Having bought classics, very little is out of style; and what little is out of style right now can be stored for a time when they become retro. While I’m not down to my skinny jeans by any means, more clothing options have become available without my needing to drop a few hundred dollars at Bergdorf or Macy’s.

Can video games be used to lose weight and get fit? I’m here to tell you they can.

For the last seven weeks, I’ve been using video games to do just that. All other elements of my health and fitness repertoire have remained the same. I celebrated through the holidays, kept eating the same, had a glass of wine or two, made generally reasonable choices regarding types and quantities of food, eaten a dessert here or there, and kept my other activities constant. In other words, the main change has been the incorporation of 1-1.5 hours of exergame usage 5-6 days a week. The last seven weeks of exergaming have culminated in my losing approximately one pound a week and a number of inches everywhere. It’s inspiration to keep going and it works. Exer-gaming may not be for everyone, but it has certainly made, and hopefully will continue to make, a huge impact on my life.

Motivation (1.26.11)

Motivation: We all have it, and sometimes some of us lose it. For me, six weeks into our Gamers for Health initiative, my motivation has been lagging. The first two weeks on the Gamercize stepper gave me a great lower body workout, while playing Lego Star Wars, the Sims and Goldeneye: 007. Weeks Three and Four had me grooving off the weight with Just Dance 2, and I did just that - just danced. The last two weeks, EA Sports Active 2 has served up one grueling workout after another, and while I’ve loved it all, I seem to be crossing a personal Rubicon, if you will. 

Ah, Motivation. Ya know what? It’s cold out. I’m tired. I’m chilly. There are a million other things on my plate needing attention. My drive to exercise has gone into hiatus.   Yes, I fit into clothing I haven’t been able to wear in two plus years. Yes, I feel great, albeit sore. Yes, I have an extra hour or so of energy every day. Yes, I feel healthier. But so what, my mind reasons, I can do it later, or maybe tomorrow. 

And this is where a support system needs to kick in. For me, that support system is my Dear Husband (DH). Case in point, on Saturday I knew Sunday would be my rest day, but I was soooooo tired (read: didn’t want to get into shorts and a t-shirt in my chilly house). All I wanted to do was have the baby snooze so I could take a nap – preferably under a down duvet after eating some carb charged comfort food. DH stepped in, took said baby to play downstairs (strategically between me, the kitchen and said carbs), while I was left with my Wii, water, workout clothes and my perky EA Sports Active trainer. Sigh. Five minutes into my first workout and I was charged for the rest of my hour-long double. The story has been pretty much the same for all of my workouts since then. Yes, I power through once I get started, but it’s the getting started part that lags.    

None of us at ECA doing this Gamers for Health initiative are professional exercisers. Along with my five days a week workouts, I’m juggling a job, being a wife and mother. And I knit. Sometimes. The point is, time is always crunched. It’s generally too cold or warm outside. Hunger comes and goes for all of us. Working out right makes ones muscles and joints ache. But in the end, we’re doing it to get more fit, to be more healthy and to slim down.

What (or who) helps you to stay on program?

The Multiplicity of Video Games (1.18.11)

I've professionally been defending video games as art, entertainment and First Amendment protected speech for over a decade. While I find the medium fascinating and intellectually challenging, publishers constantly amaze me with their new material and how in tune they are with their audience. It's also astonishing that entire new fields like machinima have sprung up for secondary enjoyment of this art form.

Exergames are an example of a completely new field arising in response to consumer need. Nearly a third of American adults are presently overweight or obese. According to the Entertainment Software Association, sixty-seven percent of American households play computer or video games. Following the assumption that video game play is unhealthy, the US Department of Health and Human Services advised that people contain their video game play to no more than 2 hours per week in their latest health guidelines, Healthy People 2020. But as my colleagues and I are quickly learning, video games can help people get fit, and more play helps you get healthy quicker.

As you can probably tell by recent posts, we've begun to use exergames like Wii Fit Plus, EA Sports Active 2, Just Dance 2 and Your Shape: Fitness Evolved to lose weight and become more fit. Some of us need to do more of one than the other; some of us, like me, want to do both. We're also using ingenious exergame equipment, like Gamercize's Power Stepper, to play non-exergame video games like Goldeneye: 007 and Halo while we work out. The options out there are amazing if you want to get in shape; the first step is getting in the game.

I'm not someone that you would typically refer to as a 'gamer,' but I've come to realize that there are many facets to being part of the gaming community; and if you take the time to look, there really is something for everyone.

EA Sports Active 2 is Painfully Good (1.14.11)

Not that it needed to, but EA Sports Active 2 completely blew my mind today – and the rest of my body as well.Monday was my first foray into the EASA2 universe, and it left me lacking. After my first glorious 20 minute workout, I’d gotten lost and confused in seemingly endless subcategories trying to build my own cardio workout. At the end of it, I needed to move on to a conference call. Not being able to have a long workout felt like someone had stolen my favorite toy.Today I put the time in looking through my options at the front end so that after my 21 minute workout, I could quickly segue into a 43 minute butt-kicking sweat fest. It was awesome. Most of the program was so difficult that I could barely hang onto the program or my Wii wand. I found my weak(er) brain trying to bargain with itself “well, if I just slow down here or don’t jump as high there I’ll make it through this alive.” But the insistent avatar trainer broke through each time, prodding me on to greater and crazier fitness levels.

I adore the heart rate monitor. That kind of minutia engages me and keeps me going. But then, I’m the type of person to check the weather channel on my Blackberry constantly, much to Dear Husband’s amusement. As I leaned against a chair after the workout in amazement, I built some pure step aerobics classes for myself – simply because I could. After Monday’s disappointment, I needed prove to myself that it could be done.

 

But in all honesty, I’m looking forward to testing out another of EASA2’s pre-programmed hard workouts tomorrow. If you want to work out like you’re a jock in training, this is the exergame for you. Buy It.

Ubisoft's Just Dance 2 (1.11.11)

Imagine yourself in one of life’s golden moments (no matter how long it actually lasted), where everything felt right with the world, you were having pure joyous fun and you felt like your soul was saying weeeeee – or something like it. That’s what Ubisoft’s Just Dance 2 feels like.

Where else can someone who missed out on disco in the 70s dance along with one’s avatar afro waving and wedges twisting? Or Charleston in a flapper dress from the 20s? Or roll along with Tina Turner?

Sandwiched between my two week stepper challenge and my foray into my first EA Sports Active 21 day challenge yesterday, I challenged myself to three 14,000 sweat points challenges on Just Dance 2 and I’m glad I did. While I still am not ready to try any of these moves in public, I know that it’s only a matter of time before I do.

This exergame rocks. From the first song to the last, it introduces new songs, new moves, gets you up and sweating and is pure joy throughout. I had so much fun I barely noticed that I was working up a good sweat day after day. 60+ minutes a day of aerobic exercise was never this much fun fun to complete. Now that’s what I’m talkin’ about.

Grrrr...Get Ready to Wait (1.10.11)

I’ve admitted in earlier posts that I’m not very gamer instruction savvy. I like things that are obvious when it comes to games, which classes me out of most console gaming experiences. I simply don’t have the patience to learn the different combos to hit, punch, run, jump, etc and do them quickly in high pressure gaming situations. Unfortunately, my first foray into EA Sports Active 2 (EASA2) left me a bit frustrated for this reason.

First, the good news. Set up was super easy. Everything was working and coordinated in a few minutes flat. Well, except for the hand holds on the resistance band…I’ll look up how to attach those a little later. In any case, I made it through my first 21 Day Challenge workout without them.

I loved the ease of creating a realistic avatar and how my avatar moved “just like me”; I loved my trainer and the setting; and I loved the exercise set, as it reminded me of my workouts in college. In fact, I really appreciated how much thought and effort went into the entire EASA2 package.

Going through the first workout, I was getting really charged up thinking that this was all I had been looking for in a personal training program. I made it through the day one workout with flying colors. Easy Peasy.
But the workout is only 20 minutes long. That’s where my concerns came in. My big disappointment today came from my own self assessed limitations. After the initial 20 minute workout, I’d hoped I’d be able to quickly jump into a 40 minute step aerobics class or tennis clinic. In scrolling through the options, both those things were lacking. Or squash, or volleyball, or a whole lot of other activities. In fact, I needed to step outside my workout mojo entirely to scroll through different sorts of options, subcategories, and exercises. By the time I realized I could program myself into a soccer or basketball clinic, it’d gotten too close to a conference call time and I had to call today’s workout quits.

So my hopes for a “Sweat Pouring Off Me (SPOM)” clinic will have to wait to my next foray into EASA2 – if it’s as well designed as the 21 day challenge is, it’ll be great.

Stepping Out (1.7.11)

Full disclosure: I actually started my gaming weight loss challenge a few weeks ago.

As a non-console gamer, it took me the entire first week to figure out how to set up and use the Wii properly without killing myself or injuring someone with the wand or nunchuck (how cool is that name?). The basic Wii Sports program was a good way for me to suss out what to do and how things worked. I liked the freedom that the Wii gave me to throw myself into a game and looked forward to my first challenge - the dreaded stepper challenge.

The stepper referenced can be found at Gamercize.net. Richard Coshott, CEO of Gamercize, got behind us immediately and sent me one of his steppers to try out. I was quite grateful, as I'd used step machines during my more active years (aka life before motherhood). But I also remembered how hard step masters could be, and I was dreading what I thought would be certain cardiac arrest. On top of that, Richard and I agreed that I would use the stepper for seven days straight for the first week for 60 minutes a day.

It seemed like a perfect way to ease into a consistent workout regimen, and we were right. I’m so glad this was my first challenge.

While I had a few issues getting everything sorted out and working together, Gamercize’s customer service was great and they had me up and stepping on the first day. All those happy non-sweaty kids stepping away on Gamercize’s homepage look to me like they just started and were trying to coordinate their gaming and the stepper, because after five minutes stepping I hot warm. Ten minutes in, I was sweating and swearing, because a nifty “honesty” feature stops the game if you’re not stepping fast enough. Yeah. Damn Them.

The stepper is attached via an octopus to the Wii console and your handheld playing device. It’s not safe to use the stepper with a Wii wand – seriously, don’t even try it. It’s also not possible, since the stepper’s “honesty” feature requires lined connectivity.

General thoughts? It’s extremely fun. Here’s the deal: you put your favorite Wii compatible video game in your Wii, program in how fast you want to require your work to be, get onto the stepper and start stepping – and then you play! I stepped to Sims, GoldenEye 007 and Lego Star Wars. It was so much fun, and so effective during the holiday (party) season, that I lost 1.6 pounds over the two weeks I used it.