One Central Log

Until recently, I used my Wii as a repository not only of my weight fluctuations, but also of all of my workouts. While it doesn’t allow for extreme differentiation, it does allow one to log workout length and relative exertion level. I’d been using it as my diary of sorts for my ongoing weight loss campaign. But as I’ve begun supplementing my video game workouts with outside runs, I’ve fallen off the Wii log. Now it’s willy nilly whether I catalogue workouts at all, and if so with varying levels of specificity.

Ultimately, the scales tell us where the weight is and the video games and distances tell us how the endurance is improving. But having a central log is good for ongoing mental check ins and being able to minutely decipher why something is working better or not at all and thus change the program.

Different people use different logs. One friend uses a floral spiral notebook that she sprays with perfume once a week. Another friend uses one of those black and white lined notebooks people used in school in the 60s. A number of people keep a religious log on their computers that they update daily. Whatever works for you works.

Not everyone keeps track on a daily basis. Some folks find time to log throughout the day. Others make sure they write things down the same time every day.  A number of people like to do weekly updates to keep lose track of their progress.

I’ve found that the Wii log generally works for me, but I’ve been considering moving the entire thing into a computer program so that I can log sleep (or lack thereof), eating and drinking, time of month (TOM) and dramatic events that I can look back on to know why my workout one day wasn’t as long or useful as another.  I’ll let you know how the new log is going as we move along.

Do you use a log? If so, what kind and in what format? How much information do you log? Have you found it useful? If so/if not, in what way(s)?

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Press & Release

Truth be told, my office took pity on me when I began the Gamers for Health campaign way back in 2010, when I was 25 pounds heavier than I am now. They know what a Luddite I am, and they figured they’d help me out by pre-programming my Wii and Wiimote accessories so that all I had to do was plug everything in to get it going. As I’ve chronicled here, even simply plugging the thing in was a *bit* overwhelming for me. In any case, I’ve been happily exergaming on my Wii ever since…

Until yesterday. Something happened. It may have been a power outage. It may have been that my Wii went on strike. Or perhaps the Wiimotes and other accessories wanted a bigger piece of the pie. The outcome, dear readers, was that my Wiimotes and other accessories, like my step, all of a sudden DID NOT SYNC with my Wii! Dum dum Dum. The HORROR!

After unplugging and re-plugging everything possible a few times last night I finally gave up in exasperation 45 minutes later. It was good that I’d run earlier in the day, as I was not to get in any decent exergame workout yesterday. The plug fiasco exhausted me and made me snappy to DH. Enough was enough.

Today was an off day for running and a full-on exergame day, so I knew that the problem needed to be fixed. I looked up nearby stores where I could go and purchase entire new systems this afternoon if the problem could not be fixed in the morning. Basically, I was spent, at the end of my rope, needed to get my workout in and desperate. I guess I'm kind of fried right now.

Then logic kicked in, along with my second cup of coffee. I walked over to my computer, powered it up and typed “wiimote sync issues” and low and behold, Nintendo’s customer service page popped up – who knew?!?! The truly logical thing would have been to look for that first, but the illogical not tech savvy overworked mind digresses. Great! :-D

I marched back in, thanking the Nintendo folks in my mind and feeling all warm and fuzzy about their wonderful patriarchal company, thinking again about what a wonderful community I work in...and tried to sync my Wiimotes…for 25 minutes. Finally it struck me that Nintendo would not have me standing there developing cramps in my thumbs and pointer fingers as I waited for the first stupid waste of an item Wiimote to sync. I trudged grumbling back into my office to look menacingly at my computer. What the HECK was going on?!?! Upon rereading the instructions, a wee bit of wording came forward in bold to my mind’s eye. “Quickly press and release.”

I felt like the Grinch upon hearing all of WhoVille singing on Christmas morning; my heart grew in my chest. Woops. Okaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyy. So I wasn’t supposed to stand there like an idiot innocent holding the red buttons in for 15 minutes straight. Nintendo, as always, was a bit ahead of me.

I sheepishly skulked back into the other room and tried the quick press and release method. Ahem. It worked. In less than 10 seconds.

The moral of the story is (choose one or more):

·         We all make mistakes.

·         When we’re juggling lots of different things in our lives, we make more of mistakes.

·         There is always help online.

·         Stay calm and carry on.

Gateway Effect

Image via Wikipedia

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.

Related articles

• Roundup of current exergaming deals (arrowdynamicmom.wordpress.com)
• Turn Your Workout Into an Adventure With City of Epic (escapistmagazine.com)
• Prescribing Wii Fit? (physical-activity-pharmacy.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!

Related articles

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Food, Glorious Food

Image via Wikipedia Passover Seders; Holy Week food fests. What's a girl to do when she's watching her weight and trying not to watch it skyrocket this week?

Exercise helps somewhat. While travelling to and from family, and spending a lot of time in kitchens and dining rooms in this holiday week, exercising at other times during the day is somewhat limited. But I do count going to the local Italian bakery and walking around while picking up baked goods as exercise. So is one hour a few times a week on the Wii with The Biggest Loser Challenge. So get active in ways that work for you, you don't need to go crazy, just mobile.

Make better choices. The New York Times must have known that publishing "Is Sugar Toxic?" on Palm Sunday, one day before Passover begins, is somewhat ironic. What else do people do this week, other than sit and mill around eating dense food, whether leavened or unleavened? In our household, we read the article and thought, "well, yes, of course; that makes sense; duh; what took them so long to put this out." The theory put forth in the article won't stop us from having a piece of wheatberry pie on Easter, but it will have us keeping our consumption to one instead of two pieces. Everything in moderation, mind you.

Allow yourself to indulge. Ok, seriously, this is Holy Week. For Christians, this is the week where we celebrate the foundation of our faith - Christ's rising from the dead. For those of us with wee ones, it's a bit more about the Easter Bunny and Easter baskets, whether filled with candy or not, but I digress. The point is, it happens once a year. If there would be three times in the (American) year that one goes whole hog, if you will, it'd be this week, Thanksgiving and Christmas. So one can go all out, allow oneself to indulge and pick up the pieces next week. Life is about overall balance, after all. Which leads me to...

Pick yourself up again. Whether you're going to eat a second (or so) piece of wheatberry pie, flourless chocolate cake, or Cadberry cream (CC) egg, it's all ok. Just do it knowingly, balance your other activities this week around your ability to do so (like try to exercise an extra hour for each extra CC egg), and assess next week what you need to do to clean up from this week's bacchanalia.

How are you approaching the holiday food fests?

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Spring Springing

With temperatures reliably hitting the mid-sixties, and today even going up to the mid-eighties, one’s mind naturally turns to outside activities. Like our blooming daffodils, pictured above, I want to turn my face up to the sun.

But practicality prevails. Generally I can work out early in the morning, before shifting my attention to work. Right now, with early morning temperatures still in the 30s, my Wii is a much more realistic workout for me. Most other people around here seem to feel the same way, as we see runners jogging by in the weekend afternoons, but no one is on the road on foot as I work out in the workweek mornings.

Video game publishers seem to understand this will to go outside. Both EA Sports Active 2 and The Biggest Loser 2 set a good portion of their workouts outside. It’s as though nature is calling us to be healthy and simply stick with the program.  Unfortunately, the setting doesn’t make the workouts any easier.

In this season of renewal, with green things blossoming and baby animals frolicking, personal rebirth also comes into play. Lent, Passover and Easter all guide us renew ourselves spiritually. I’d argue that it’s also a good time to revitalize our contracts with ourselves to get fit and lose weight.

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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Wii Fit Balance Board & CTA Digital Step Raiser

I’ve been using the Wii balance board (aka step) for the last three months. It was one of my Christmas presents, along with the Wii Fit program, so I started using the step and the program about a month into my Losing Gamer campaign. It was pretty easy to set up, even for me.

In a future post, I’ll discuss my initial thoughts on the Wii Fit program, but this post concentrates on the Wii balance board and CTA Digital’s Wii Fit Balance Board Multi Functional Aerobic Step System.

The balance board itself looks like a short aerobic step. It syncs up with the Wii system and helps track your balance, weight, and accuracy in doing different exercises with various exergames. One would think it’s pretty straight forward, but I’ve had a few issues with the balance board.

First, its weight calibration is off. I thought something was odd the first few times I used it to weigh myself. Then I had the brilliant idea of testing it with some known-weight objects, such as five and twenty-five pound bags of flour. Each time, the scale found the object two pounds heavier than the object’s stated weight. The Wii Fit program allows for clothing weights of two and four pounds, so weighing oneself naked and saying one was wearing two pounds of clothing was a relatively easy fix. A better fix could be for Nintendo to program a nob or other calibration in the program to allow for incorrect weights without a consumer having to use the clothing allowance for that.

Secondly, the center of gravity is off. Wii Fit and other exergaming programs have many uses for one’s gravity – it helps ascertain how fit you are, whether you’re holding yourself up straight, whether you’re doing different exercises correctly, and the list goes on. It seemed odd to me that I was listing a few degrees to the left every single time I was on the balance board – even when I actively leaned waaaaay over to the left, but I really didn’t think much of it other than I must be THAT off balance. You see, as a left-handed person, my left side is my dominant side. I assumed that over time I’d simply shifted my center of balance that far over to the left….but it did seem odd.

Then, one morning I got a call while I was about to stand on the balance board to measure my balance. I had to take the call, so I stood behind the board talking on the phone. To my amazement, the empty board registered my center of gravity as five percent over to the left.  After my call, I tried wiggling the four balance board feet, removing and reattaching them, placing things to one side or the other to see if I could fix the gravity issue. Basically, I couldn’t. To this day, my balance board registers a list to the left and I take that into account and compensate when necessary in order to get the job and workout done.

Finally, the balance board height is annoyingly low. I had assumed it would be the same height as a regular aerobic step, because it’s shaped the same as a step and looks like it’s modeled on a step. But, alas, it’s much shorter. Generally aerobic steps are about four inches higher than the Wii balance board. But certain innovative companies have found a fix for us.

CTA Digital has been around since 1992 and they’re an excellent example of a company that does well making accessories for video games. While they’re not a video game publisher, they “live” in the video game space and they employ many people, helping lift the economy. I’ve discussed companies like CTA Digital quite often with legislators, when violent video game bills come down the pike. Often legislators see video games as “games” and not industries of people employing people to create art as well as accessories for that art. But getting back to their step…

I love it!

It’s really easy to put together. I didn’t even need the instructions to try out the 4” and 6” levels.
It’s stable. The feet of the balance board rest in depressions in the riser so that it stays in place. I did balance exercises for the Wii Fit, EA Sports Active 2, and some self programmed step aerobics classes and it didn’t slide, topple or make me nervous.

It bulked up my work out! I could feel the extra burn of the taller step, and the EA Sports Active 2 heart rate monitor showed a 10-30 beat per minute lift in my heart rate from when I did the same exercises without the riser.

If you’re looking for a fix on the Wii balance board height, CTA Digital’s Wii Fit Balance Board Multi Functional Aerobic Step System is the way to go.

Buy It.


Full Disclosure: CTA Digital gave me their step system to try out and use.

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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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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.

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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