Losing It! An Urban Mom's Weight Loss Blog

Wii Too Much Fun!

Yes.

I did it.

I stood in line in the freezing cold rain on Saturday morning for no less than two hours.

Just to get my hands on one of these:

You got it! Sucker for gadgets, right here! It's a funny story, actually, how I came to be standing in line for a video game accessory. See, my little sister has one of these babies, and judging by her enthusiastic praise, I wanted one. Truthfully, I was curious about the Yoga (being an enthusiastic yogini myself) and I wanted to know if I could beat her Wii Fit age of 47 (she's actually 35...but don't tell her I told you!).

So there you have it. A little bit of "my toy" syndrome, a little bit of curiosity, and a little bit of sibling competition, and I wanted that Wii Fit.

I mentioned it to the Hubster, and he was opposed. They cost $89, and he couldn't see any real reason to get one. Until he saw the Toys 'R Us flyer, with the ad for the new "Wii Ski" game. Each Toys 'R Us store was guaranteed a minimum of 20 Wii Fits, and I was duly dispatched to stand in line for ours.

It wasn't all that bad actually; there was a sense of solidarity and camaraderie amongst the first 20 people that Saturday morning. We speculated on how many Wii Fits the store would receive, how they would disburse them fairly, and whether any poor souls were lined up at the mall entrance. We laughed at ourselves for standing out in the rain and cold, but in a conspiratorial "I'm going to get one and the other poor souls who don't know that you have to be here EARLY...hours early are not" kind of way.

In the end, I was the ninth person to get a Wii Fit at that store that morning, and am I ever glad I did.

Honestly. This thing is so much more fun that just the Wii...and that's saying a lot, because the Wii on it's own is pretty damn fun. To give you some idea, the kids and I fight over it regularly, and I've logged over 1 hour of activities on it each day. And they're not just dumb video game activities, either. I am seriously stiff now - especially in my quads, glutes and abs - from the strength training activities, which (in my humble opinion) is where this little board shines.

The best features of this baby?

The Miis. You gotta love this. When you first step on the board, it puts you through a body test, and your Mii is then sized accordingly. I, with my BMI at 27 (embarrassingly overweight), had to witness my Mii grow 3 sizes into this plump little number:

While my kids (whose Miis, at BMIs of 14, look like beanpoles) laughed themselves to tears. And oh yeah, by the way, my Wii Fit age was 47 - just like my sister's!

Trainers: you get to choose between a male or female virtual trainer who coaches you through the Yoga and Strength Training exercises. Who did I choose? The buff guy, of course!



Hubba hubba!

Strength Training: as I said, I think this is the Wii Fit's forte. It really helps you target the muscle groups you're working on in each exercise, with some really cool bio-feedback from the board. For example, when you're doing the lunges, a bar appears on the screen representing the weight you're placing on the leg you're working on: you have to keep your weight within a narrow range, and it really makes you work so much more! And a similar feedback mechanism is at work on all the exercises - doing situps? The board knows when your feet touch back down. Plank? You've got to keep your centre of balance centred in the middle of the board...left to right, front to back. I am honestly more sore now than I usually was after working with a personal trainer at the gym. Really.

Aerobics/Balance Games: You have not lived until you've ski jumped or hoola hooped or (funnest!) taken a step class on the Wii Fit.

All in all? Worth every one of the 120 cold, wet minutes I stood outside the store! Wii too much fun, actually. Go get one. Now.

Have Trainer, Will Ache

Ouch! How sore is my butt right now? No wait...don't answer that question...

So, you may have guessed by now (oh, so clever you are) that I had my first session with my awesome personal trainer, Shaun, yesterday.

Today, I cannot stand up from a chair without pushing up with my arms. Like we all did way back when we were about 9.3 months pregnant? One, two, three...HOIST! Yeah. Like that.

Okay, clearly that is not me, nor did I use those barbells (I used 10lbs), but I did do that exercise!

I think the reason might be due in part to the 6,000 vertical feet of skiing I logged at Sunshine Village on Sunday. Then into the gym for a tough workout on Monday and, well...let's just say the one-legged squats in the Smith machine were a wee bit more challenging than they had any right to be.

But that doesn't really explain the full picture of my pain today. I am stiff, sore and tender in the following places:

• triceps (don't be touchin' my elbows!)
• deltoids (even putting on a shirt this morning was painful!)
• glutes (owie! sitting, standing, walking and - worst of all - climbing stairs!)
• quads (words do not exist to explain what has happened to my quads)
• some inner-thigh muscle that I cannot name and in fact did not know existed until it started to hurt this morning!

That about sums up the worst of the lot.

But ya know? I think it's a good thing. I'll be back in the gym for more Wednesday or Thursday, and I'm really looking forward to it. Shaun (a girl, fyi) has a way of motivating that is friendly but not slack, either. She's nothing like that nasty lady on The Biggest Loser, but she still manages to make me do just. One. More. Rep. Right when I thought my trembling muscles would give way, I somehow managed to dig deep and find one more. A rep that I wouldn't have bothered to reach for on my own was there for the taking with Shaun at my side.

I think I'll keep her!

Her and her fit balls, and strange things that look like a fit-ball amputated in half that you have to do push-ups on (left), and bars, and tubing, and weights and whatnot. We'll see what we can accomplish together.

And by the way, check out the Discovery Health Programming Highlights (at right). I happened to catch this particular show "Fat Men Can't Hunt" on the weekend and it was freakin' hilarious. The best is this old, toothless Namibian hunter who says, of one of the British women, "she is too fat. We will send her out in the desert to track. That will thin her out." And they did! Listen to me: YOU WANT TO WATCH THIS SHOW!

Catch more Kath over here.