ChubChubs Wii Fit experiement – Day 2

Click here for day 1

Day 2:

BMI: 27.38 Overweight

Weight: 148.8lbs

Wii Fit age: 35

Total time training today: 39 mins

Total training time: 1:15

This morning I woke up and a relatively familiar feeling immediately swept over me. My enitre body was sore from yesterdays relatively short work out. I knew had done something right. There was something else very odd about today. I couldn’t wait to wake up and play with my wii fit. I got on the balance board and the cute little balance board took my measurements. apparently I gained .4 lbs over the course of yesterday, but I’m not surprised because i ate quite a bit last night and had ice cream right before bed. For those of you who don’t know, I’m a night eater. I need to work on it, I know.  Still I’m not too worried about a slight shift in my weight, as daily fluctuations are normal. I can imagine for some people daily weigh ins might be a bad thing, as most weight loss programs usually encourage people to only weigh in once a week, but i actually like weighing in and seeing how the food i eat affects my weight. This weekend I’m weighing myself in the morning because its memorial day and I like to sleep in and i’ll have the time to work out before breakfast, but the second tuesday hits, I’m sure i’ll be changing to evenings, so expect to see a slight weight gain then. I won’t be surprised at all, so neither should you.

For the record, I’ll be going in depth about a few of the games I’ve played today. I won’t do this every time…just once or twice. I want this to be as informative as possible without being repetitive.

After the weigh in, I tested my Wii fit age which increased by 1 year and told me that my center of balance was slightly to the left…which is funny. yesterday, it was slightly to the right. This of course, could be very true…but I’m more interested in the weight loss aspects. while I will strive for perfect center of balance its not really that important to me.

Strength Training

Just like yesterday, I started with my least favorite thing in the world, strength training. I like some aspects of this, as aside from the push-ups/SidePlanks and the Jackknife situps, everything else is standing, which I feel more comfortable with. The pushups for me though are utter hell. Not only can I not do a regular pushup to save the life of me but the girl pushups are giving my knees rug burn. That, to me, was not acceptable. skinned knees, as i’m sure you remember from being a kid on a bike, are horrible. Considering that I’m moving to a place with hardwood floors(next weekend), i thought it prudent to buy a travel yoga matt at barnes and nobles…nice quick solution. Hopefully, all of you out there are strong enough to do regular pushups and god bless you. like i said, my goal is to be able to do 1 real pushup by the end of the month. with the help of wii fit, I’m sure this a goal i will accomplish. At the end of the set of pushups I unlocked 10 reps. so tomorrow, I will be doing 10 repitions instead of the 6. Does it matter than i can barely get through the 6? No. No it does not. I’ll push myself as little or as hard as the damn thing recommends.

Anyway, by the end of my strength training, I unlocked 10 reps of single leg extensions, 6 reps of torso twists, which seem to build up your obliques…a lot more fun than what my trainer used to have me do at my gym( side to sides on an inverted situp bench with a 25 lb weight), and 15 sets of lunges. Lunges, as you may or may not know are great for your upper legs and your lower abs. (pooch area). Yesterday I unlocked rowing squats and single leg twists. Today I tried them for the first time. My thoughts on the rowing squats: Its hard to keep your center of balance where the board tells you too, but I could feel it working my glutes. Once I was doing it properly, according to the balance board, I could feel it helping the muscles in my back, which is where the game tells you you’re supposed to feel it.

By the end of the total workout session I unlocked sideways leg lift, which I will try tomorrow. Again, I don’t want to push myself too hard. Either way, I was off to a good start for the day. 10 minutes of strength training down and I was very ready to get to the Aerobics.

Aerobics

I went in order starting with the hula hoop game. I think i’m getting a hang of it and I have to say I really enjoy it. i landed 4 hoops no problem and set a new record for myself. this is one of those games i hear gets a lot more challenging and rewarding the better you get at it, so I’m going to stick with it. rotating my hips to burn calories is a hellofalot more fun than just using my elliptical trainer.

Next I did the basic step game. Ok. I’ve seen a lot of step aerobics classes and I can’t imagine that they go this slowly. even so, keeping up with the Miis even as a beginner is tough.  I am really hoping that they have a more advanced version of step, though. I imagine that soon this will be very repetitive. The music reminds me of elevator music, but honestly, its getting me to move, so right now, its fine.

Now I move to the basic run. Yesterday I unlocked Long run by faking out the 2-p run by holding a controller in each hand, and the only difference between the short and long run is about 1 minute, at my pace. Still, considering how much I hate to run, I’m actually liking the motivation and very simple instruction the game is giving. The scene is a peaceful park and your given a mii to run behind. In running terms, I’ve heard that many runners like to have someone to run behind as a "rabbit", you know, to chase.  either way, the game encourages you to pace yourself, and I am all for that. Once I passed my Rabbit Mii, and a pop-up told me to slow down a bit. Way to be responsible, Nintendo. Clearly, you’ve done your homework. Unless I wanted to fake my way through another 2-p run, which i did not…I want to do this right, that was all the aerobics the game is offering and I had to move on.

Overall thoughts, I’d like more aerobics…but I can understand why the game wants to keep this balanced with everything else. I just want to burn calories, but surely, surely, nintendo has a plan. Having grudgingly finished the malnourished aerobics section i went into the balance games. The game informed me that after this section I had unlocked a new yoga pose. read the yoga section to find out about it.

Balance Games

I think I like putting the balance games after strength training and aerobics. Why? because they’re fun and challanging. Furthermore, I think that breaking up the very strenous workout with a couple of games in between, right after I’ve been run through the perverbial shredder(kinda) with the strength and aerobics excercise, its nice to just relax and have a little fun before the yoga.

I did the balance games in order starting with Soccer Heading, A game that is a lot tougher than it looks. i think the reason for this is that the game is so motion sensitive, that you forget that it’s only taking the input from your fe

et. and you may jerk your head to head the ball, but that’s not what the game senses. Either way, I got 37 points. the game considers me an ameture, i consider myself way improved from yersterday.

Next up: Ski Slalom. For the record, I ski. In real life, I’ve been skiing since I was three years old. You’d think I’d be better at this game. I’m not. but then looking at screen and feeling the wind in your face are two entirely different sensations.  Knowing nintendo, they’ll come up with a way in 2025 that will completely simulate the skiing experience, including that part where you accidentally forget to snap the top part of your boot closed and end up falling out of them, breaking your ankle in three places. or was that just me? Nevermind, this game is awesome. Slightly less risk for injury. Either way, I got a very low score on this game. I’ll work on it.

Ski Jump time. The ski jump has you bend your knees as you go down hill and quickly extend them as you’re preparing for take off from the ramp. If you extend your knees to early or too late, you will fall on your face and embarass yourself infront of tens of booing Miis. The good thing about this game is that you get two attemps. The first attempt, i fell on my face. The second attempt i got about 183 feet. The game may consider this ametureish. I’m thrilled. I’m also wondering how awesome I’ll be when the game considers me a pro.

Table Tilt: Yesterday, this game was grueling because I was trying to figure out how to make the damn balls go in the hole. Yesterday, I made it to level 4 and ran out of time on level 5 and struggled the whole time. Today, I made it passed level 4 and ran out of time on level 5 struggled only most of the time. I feel an improvement even if the game doesn’t see a difference.

Now time for the tight rope walk. The tight rope walk is basically forcing you to have perfect balance, as your walking in place and if you lean to the right or left, you plumet to your death and die. Did i mention the bear trap? a bear trap is choping at you and moving towards you while you’re trying to move forward. The game will queue you to extend your knees (the games version of jumping) Note, if you actually jump, the game will pause and give you an error message. No Jumping on the balance board. I’ll have to keep that in mind next time. Yesterday, on this game, I made it "7 yards." Today, I made it 20 yards. I’m psyched. I’m hoping by the end of the week(next saturday), I will have made it to the end of this tight rope. heres hopin!!!

Somewhere between all of that working out today, I unlocked an additional balnce game. Even though I plan on leaving newly unlocked games for the day after I unlock them, I decided that for balance games, there is really no point. Balance games aren’t working me into a sweat, they’re supposed to be fun, and i wanted to see how fun Balance Bubble was. This is the only game i had to repeat today. The fit piggy bank (the games way of telling you how much actual time you’ve spent working out) didn’t recognize me accidentally going backwards and dying within the first few seconds as a minute..and frankly, neither did i. That one death in this game taught me a lot however, and in my second attempt navigating my way through a winding river in a bubble, which fittingly can’t touch sharp edges, I made it about a quarter of the way to the finish line. nice to know that these games are appropriately challenging and a good way to subtely tell if you’re actually getting fit.

Yoga

Because I have only taken 1 or two Yoga classes at my gym…and really not enjoyed them. I find the instruction of the trainer and the guidence of the balance board somewhat soothing. I like the interaction that the balance board gives you with the workout. I have a few work out tapes. After the first few days of a tape, its hard to continue with it. the tape is always the same, and you find yourself getting really bored and annoyed with the lycra-clad instructor who seems to do the movements very easily…while you’re probably giving yourself an injury by screwing up the excercise. Yoga instructors, from what i remember, will occaisionally walk around and correct your pose. the small bit of instruction and feedback the wii balance board gives you on your poses is extremely helpful. furthermore, I don’t hate the trainer, because its a simulation. i don’t know why this is comforting…it just is.

I’m not going to go through the individual poses here. but I did unlock a new pose this morning, the Standing Knee, and i was eager to try it out. I have to say, it really stretched my thighs. I loved it. I think if i were a lot younger when this game came out, i would have grown up loving yoga. I am practically discovering it for the first time, and so far, I am very impressed. For the first time, thanks to the balance board, I feel as though I am doing these poses correctly and am actually feeling the response from my body in the right places.

One thing I very much like about the instruction. The first time you click "start" on a pose, you are given the demo. You can still get a demo if you forget it later, but after that first time, you go right into your reps for the day. right now, the sun salutation pose and the half moon pose are really stretching me the most. of course, they are my least favorite, but i know that these poses are correcting years of my neglect…and I will diligently try to reverse my years of lethargy.

Final thoughts for the day

Today, I knew that I had done something right, when I woke up this morning and felt a familiar soreness that only comes from working out. sure, it might have hurt to have lifted even the smallest object or walk the smallest distance today, but I was still able to get through my workout this morning and I felt more energized and had a great sense of accomplishment because of that fact. I look forward to working out tomorrow and almost can’t wait for the new day to arrive. Also for the first time in a long time, after dinner, I took my dog for a nice long walk. normally, i take him for a quick profuctory walk that satisfies his needs and then immediately take him back inside. My toy poodle is very small so a half hour game of fetch from one side of my living room to the next is enough to excercise his tiny body…but today I felt envigorated and was more than willing to take him outside and give him a nice long walk. Of course, today, I didn’t have to work. I am wondering what will happen to my energy when the work week restarts.