Wii Fit

I managed to work out again this morning. It was kind of a rush because we were heading to my parents for our Christmas with them. But I did it, marking the 24th straight day. Ami was asking about it so here are some highlights.

The basics: it works with the Wii, and has a special "balance board" you stand on for most exercises. There are yoga positions in which the board measures how much weight you have on one foot or the other. There are strength exercises, where it measures your movements. Aerobics like hula hoop, running and step aerobics. And balance games to improve your balance. You can pick whichever exercise or combination you would like to do. You get scores for many of them and you are ranked based on those scores allowing for family competition.

Your little "Mii" character you create goes through aerobics and balance games with you. It interacts with other Miis and it is all quite cute. For instance when you run, you are in the park and other Miis are running past along with dogs. There seems to be no leash law in the Wii. The Wii balance board character gets all excited when you start up and cheers you on.

For strength training and yoga you choose a male or female trainer who shows you how to do the exercises and encourages you. Of course they use the same stock phrases over and over so it helps to have a good imagination when you are hearing that you should practice yoga every day to improve your posture for the billionth time.

The Wii tracks your time spent exercising. And you can do a body test weigh in that measures your weight, BMI and center of balance. You can continue with extra tests and get your "Wii Fit Age" which is rather goofy in my opinion, although today I did measure in one year younger than I actually am. I hate it when it tells me my Wii Fit Age is in the 50s.

I like Wii Fit a lot because you can really mix up your workout and customize it. It is so much more fun than the clothes rack, I mean stair stepper I have upstairs. Up, down, up, down, over and over. Boring! It is much more fun to workout with the Wii and the characters built in. I suppose for someone with no sense of humor whatsoever it would be too corny. But for those of us who like fun and silly, it is perfect.

Mom #1 was asking what my favorite things to do are. I've been doing more of the yoga and strength training combos lately. It gets me to do exercises I'd probably skip. But if they are paired together as a workout, I try them. I hate some of the yoga poses: tree and dance in particular. I always fall over. I also hate plank. Good lord I can't do that one. I do like most of the others though. I love most of the aerobics, especially the step. I'm very cautious about hula hoop though, I remember your hula hoop injuries from this summer. I do like running too. I don't do too many of the balance games, mainly because I stink at them. But I do love penguin slide! I've been trying to get better at the bubble one (I can't remember what it is called) and the marble one (can't remember that either - and the game is in the other room and would require walking to get it.) You should see Violet try to do Lotus Focus. She can't stop talking long enough to sit still for it, then gets mad when it ends so quickly. That one definitely wasn't designed with a 9 year old in mind!

Now ask me in 6 months if I'm still doing it. That will be a better time for a testimonial, won't it?