Gateway Effect

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The first time I heard the term gateway effect was during the lead up to the Games for Health conference in Boston in June. Ben Sawyer, who runs the org and the conference, sent an email asking folks to think about health and games and examples of gateway effect.

I had absolutely no idea what the man was on about, so I looked up the term via Google. Ooookkkk….for those who Google it as well, you’ll notice that hundreds of thousands of links will come back for marijuana and how its gateway effect can lead one to becoming a hard core drug user. Ahem.  That was obviously not *exactly* what Ben was getting on about.

Yet his meaning quickly became clear.  At the conference, numerous side conversations led to many references at the podiums about the need to find and document examples of exergaming leading their users being active in other ways. The Robert Wood Johnson folks and Shellie Pfohl, Executive Director of the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition, were particularly eloquent in discussing the phenomenon.

At the time, I didn’t have any examples, because ECA works with gamers, who are using exergames for their own sake. The other type of folks we deal with in ECA’s Gamers for Health initiative are folks who want to work out, and opt for exergames instead of other activities. So we rarely see or hear about folks whose use of exergames have opened them up to other types of exercise.  Yet that’s exactly what my exergaming experience seems to be doing for me.

Until two weeks ago, I solely worked out with exergames five or six days a week, as I’ve chronicled somewhat through this blog. So far it’s allowed me to shed about 22 pounds, and the scale number slowly, yet consistently keeps dropping.

But then a funny thing happened. I read “Born to Run” and recalled how much fun running had been in my youth (a really long time ago). I needed and bought a lovely new pair of all purpose shoes that happened to be of the barefoot running variety. Then, at lunch last Tuesday, which was a day that didn’t require a workout in my EA Sports Active 2 challenge, I literally figured “why not” and went for a run for the first time in seven years. On mountainous dirt roads. And I came trotting back 3.88 miles later. It was amazing.

Since then, I’ve run a few times. My longest run thus far has been 4.11 miles without getting winded nor achy. Each run day, I wake up excited to hit the road and see if I can make it as far and as fast as the time before. Each time, I run farther and faster - each time.

Yet none of this would be possible without the exergaming, which got me into shape and keeps pushing me into better shape. Both physically and psychologically, exergames have opened up a completely new world and perspective on life – that’s their gateway effect on me and it can be yours too. Try it. You’ll like it.

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Vanity

I don’t remember how long it’s been since I bought my favorite pair of sneakers. It was definitely before getting married, as I got them directly after E3 one year in the early 2000s. So they may be nearly ten years old. Wow.

They’re cool. They’re black Eccos with white stripes, look like soccer shoes and generally look like cool sporty gym shoes, yet not workout sneakers, which was the look I was going for when I got them. And they’ve served me well. This is why it’s been such a long time before I’ve even thought about replacing them.

But of late, they’ve begun to look super scrungy. Wearing them went from feeling exciting to just plain blah, and I’d begun watching other mommy feet for new ideas in sporty yet not workout sneakers. Ecco has some cool shoes to choose from, especially their Vibration II Toggle in red, but I was looking for something pink this time. After many late nights of internet window shopping, I settled on a great pair of Merrell Barefoot Pace Gloves in Ash (pink). In many ways, they’re quite similar to my Black Ecco swish shoes, but in pink.

But before buying anything now-a-days, I read the reviews. This shoe purchase was no exception. So I looked on Amazon.com, Zappos.com and elsewhere to see what folks had to say. While the overwhelming review was outstanding, I also noticed something else interesting – about a third of the reviews mentioned a book, “Born to Run.”

I’m a voracious reader. As I happened to be in between books, I went online, added Born to Run to my library queue and promptly forgot about it. The next day, a librarian called to say it was in and awaiting pick up. Ok, well, that was fortuitous.

I began reading the book, but it was slow going. I’m not a runner, so it wasn’t pulling me in. A friend who’d read the book (three times), and is a runner told me to stick with it, that it would grab me soon. Ok.

In the interim, the shoes arrived. They’re super cool. They look great. They feel great – just like…wait for it…gloves for the feet. Socks fit in them, but they’re also comfortable barefoot. They’re breathable. They don’t make big footed people look like we have Bozo the clown feet (always a concern). Basically, these shoes are hot (in the cool sense of the word).

In the reviews and on the company website, new wearers are advised to wear them around the house for a while to build up foot strength; the presumption is generally that Americans wear shoes constantly. I generally don’t. Most of my day is spent in (fancy) flip flops or walking around only in socks, or completely barefoot. I like the way it feels, so if I can get away with it, I kick off heels and padded shoes.

During this year of exergaming, this has actually been a “thing” in that some folks have asked to work out together or for me to post videos of me working out. While there are other issues like looking ridiculous working out, my complete reticence has also been about not wanting folks to see me working out in socks without shoes. I never use shoes when exergaming. Now I’m so used to working out without shoes, that when I do try to exergame with shoes on, I feel extremely uncomfortable.

In any case, last night I hit the “trigger point” for myself in the book. About one hundred pages in, the book became compelling, and the only thing that got me to put it down was the knowledge that the slumbering toddler in the other room would wake up with tremendous amounts of energy in the early morning no matter how late one stayed up reading to oneself. Smart move mommy.

At lunch today, I thought about exergaming, but knew that today was one of my three weekly “off” days in EA Sports Active 2. Generally these "off" days have been filled with other exergame workouts. But today, upon looking at the weather channel online, seeing it was already 84 degrees, gazing outside at the trees swaying in the heat, I started to remember how I used to love to run when I was a kid. I was fast. It was never a distance thing for me, but the wind in my face was always as refreshing as jumping into a pool.

I figured, “what the heck, it’s lunch time, why not;” then walked downstairs and laced my feet barefoot into the Foot Gloves. I’d figured I’d slow down to a walk upon getting winded or stop for a bit upon arriving at a known landmark that seemed way too far off for me to reach. I mean, it HAD been 2004 since I’d last jogged at all.

Walking down the front steps, I broke into a leisurely run down the driveway to the mountainous dirt road….and didn’t stop until getting back home 3.88 miles later. Yes, you read that correctly.

It wasn’t easy, but it wasn’t deadly either. The exergaming had conditioned me to be able to go farther than I’d thought possible. The shoes allowed me to recapture my childhood glee at tumbling along.

How many of you have moved outside this summer? What are your favorite outside workouts?

Feel free to post here or email me at jenn (at) jbmercurio (dot) com.

Related articles

• Advertising: Appealing to Runners, Even the Barefoot Brigade (nytimes.com)
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• The Minimalist Thing? - A Shoe Review (breathlessrunner.wordpress.com)
• The State of the Running Shoe Market: Minimalism on the Rise (runblogger.com)
• Merrell Barefoot 2012 Lineup: Preview of the Merrell Road Glove, Dash Glove and More from Jason Robillard (runblogger.com)

Week "Away"

Some of you have been asking me what’s been going on, because I haven’t posted since leaving for the Games for Health conference in Boston last Wednesday. Basically, my bad.

First, to catch you up on the conference: Games for Health was fantastic. There were loads of interesting people doing fascinating work and networking to collaborate on even more nifty projects in the future. I’m still wrapping my head around all the panels, talks, discussions and ideas that were incubated there, as well as all of the incredible folks I was able to connect with.

Second, I’ve been under other deadlines this last week - hard deadlines that crept closer as I procrastinated with other work. Then, upon returning from Games for Health, the deadlines were there waiting for me with big neon smiles. Monday morning was do, or due, day.  So I put everything else aside, including exergaming, so that all my productive time could be focused on my Monday deadline like a laser beam. Well, it worked and I got the project in on time.

That being said, I didn’t work out for a week. Last Wednesday was my last full body exergame workout. I’d originally thought I’d workout at the conference but I wanted to spend all waking time at the actual conference and I didn’t want to exergame in front of people, because I didn’t want to look goofy and/or sweat. I’m simply too shy professionally. Then, with the deadline looming, I didn’t want to divert any attention from the project.  And you know what? It was ok. Life and balance mean that sometimes one must shift focus, but that doesn’t mean that one’s overall “penumbra of foci” shifts.

My body seems to be happy with what I’ve been doing with it overall, and it’s still 20 pounds down from my starting weight. So my weight is the same as it was last week. I must say that I’m pretty happily shocked with that fact, as one would assume that the weight would start creeping back up as soon as the exergaming stopped if even for a short respite.  But such was not the case, at least for this short break.

I also started a new 9 week program on EA Sports Active 2 today and worked myself up in quite a sweat.  So I’m back at it and working toward goal #3, which is another 10 pounds by the third week in August.

So onward and downward!

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Running to Catch Up

This past month has been quite a doozy of multi-tasking, with bridges going out, ear infections and other like stuff. The picture that may or may not appear at the beginning of this post? It's part of the To Do list. Thanks Shana for the advice on how to begin posting pics.

So, moving forward, I have a backlog of some topics that people would like answered, many dealing with fitting exergaming into an already packed lifestyle, and some more technical - like how to program a step aerobics class into Wii Fit. I'll be moving through them one at a time, but would also like input from you. Feel free to comment here, or email me, and let me know if there's anything in particular you'd like me to cover regarding fitness, exergaming, life balance, or such like.

Thanks, and it's off to work out with Bob in The Biggest Loser 2 for Wii!

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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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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.