Welcome to the first combined Monday Fitness/WHEE (Weight, Health, Eating & Exercise) diary.
WHEE (Weight, Health, Eating and Exercise) is a community support diary for Kossacks who are currently or planning to start losing, gaining or maintaining their weight through diet and exercise or fitness. Any supportive comments, suggestions or positive distractions are appreciated. If you are working on your weight or fitness, please -- join us! You can also click the WHEE tag to view all diary posts.
Fitness Monday is a regular diary series about fitness and exercise. If you'd like to admit confess host a Fitness Monday diary, you can sign up for an open week by going to gmail, signing in with the user name "FitnessMonday", password "exercise", and using the calendar feature to stake out a future Monday.
We're doing side to side jumps, across the fold.
Meet my latest fitness purchase. This is the Wii console.
WHEE! (Wii)
They've gone down in price - I remember them somewhere north of $400 when they first came out. They now can be found for $250, new. (Maybe less, definitely more... so look around, if you're interested.)
Eric estimated that the console is about 7 inches tall, 10 inches deep and an inch and a half wide. You plug in the power, attach the unit to the tv for audio and video, and attach a sensor that is placed on top of or under the tv. That's what "reads" the remotes.
The unit comes with one remote, and a "nunchuck" attachment - enough for one player at a time. The nunchuck is used in concert with the remote, and actually plugs into it, if it's used.
Nunchuck and Remote
The Wii comes with some games on a disc named "Wii Play." To be honest, I haven't even opened it yet... but I've played it a bit at my nephew's house. It includes golf and bowling and several other games.
The Wii Fit is a separate unit, and costs between $80 and $90, also new. They are now available in most stores that carry Wii. This is the "balance board" for the Wii Fit.
Balance Board
Most of the discs for games come in dvd boxes, like this:
Wii Games
Starting in the upper right, I have displayed: Dance Dance Revolution 2 - which I got yesterday. That is sold with a 'dance mat' - I didn't take a photo of that. (I've been concentrating on the Wii Fit.) I have a feeling that it will provide a great workout. Next is Wii Fit, which comes with the balance board. Next is the back cover of a "Rabbid" game, with the tag "Bunnies gone bad." I had to have the bad bunnies game. Lying on top of it is the Wii Play disc that came with the original Wii. On the lower left is a Sponge Bob game, and above that is a Wii Fit game called "Active."
"Active" is very cool... it comes with a holster to hold the nunchuck strapped to your leg while you hold the remote (though there are some activities where you use the nunchuck in your left hand.) It also has a rubber stretchie band for "weight lifting" exercises.
The program has a calendar, journal, area for a nutrition survey, area for adding additional exercise/activity, and a workout. There are a variety of workouts to choose from, plus a 30-day workout with low, medium and high levels. I started with low, plan to complete the 30 days, and then go through medium, then high.
You can choose from a male or female trainer. They walk you through the exercises, demonstrate, and provide videos showing how to do them. I've run, done knee raises, kick backs, walked, jumped side to side, a variety of lunges, curls, presses, played tennis, boxed, inline skated - all while in my hotel room.
And boy, did I sweat up a storm while doing those things. The game cost about $60, and you can purchase additional sets for additional players for about $20. (Garrick took a pass on that.)
While I really enjoy "Active," the Wii Fit disc that comes with the unit is pretty fun, too. It just has a different approach. A lot of the stuff with the Wii Fit program is based on balance - which is controlled some by your legs, but a lot by your core. The program does track your progress, though the journal is no where near as thorough as the "Active" one. It also assigns "Wii Fit age" to the user, each time you take the body test. I've been pegged at 47 (my real age), 50, 45 and 64. (I could not stand on one foot, and didn't re-try it.)
The Wii Fit offers Yoga, Strength Training, Balance and aerobics activities. As you perform the activities, you earn credits that are then used to open up other activities under those selections. Balance isn't my favorite, nor strength training. But the Yoga and Aerobics ones are way cool.
Garrick helped me out by taking a couple of videos - one of the screen displayed while I did the "step" exercise under aerobics, and another showing me and the screen while I repeated it. Unfortunately, neither Caribou Coffee's nor our hotel's internet connection was up to posting either of these yesterday. Blah.
He also took photos of me while performing the Yoga positions Half Moon and Warrior.
Half Moon
Warrior
My Wii Fit trainer. I call him Trevor.
Rated on balance during the Warrior.
Most of the balance exercises show you either a line or a circle to keep your balance 'dot' in, and then you get rated, after you have completed the exercise, on how well you maintained 'center.' Some are easy. Some (anything on one foot, for me) are really hard.
I have really enjoyed my Wii Fit a lot. I get on it and just sweat away, but have a lot of fun doing it. Ok, there are some drawbacks... if you hold the remote/nunchuck wrong while doing curls or presses, the unit fails to recognize them, and you end up doing a few zillion instead of one. I'm trying to figure out how to hold them correctly to avoid that. But basically, it's all good.
No, all great.
So: If you've been considering the Wii and the Wii Fit, I have to give it two thumbs WAY up. I mean, I loved my Nike+, but that was only for running and walking - this is all stuff you can do while standing under the A/C, sweating away!
Anyway, here's the one video that would upload:
And a still from that...
WHEE! (Or is that Wii?)
Planned diarists:
Mon PM - cusoon
Tue AM - Kascade Kat
Tue PM - debbieleft
Wed AM - Edward Spurlock
Wed PM - Sheddhead
Thu AM - StrangeAnimals
Thu PM - help
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1864 House
3rdGenFeminist
anotherCT dem
anotherdem
askew
batgirl71
bfitzinAR
bluesophie
Brimi
CA coastsider
Cassandra77
chicago minx
Chocolate Chris
coigue
CONEFLOWER42
crystal eyes (?)
cusoon
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Dragonladykatie
Ebby
econlibVL - cheerleader
Ed G
Edward Spurlock
Embee
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flor de jasmine
freesia
gchaucer2
GoldnI
Greasy Grant
it really is that important
jiffykeen
Kascade Kat
Ken in Tex
kkbDIA
lineatus
Lisamoe - cheerleader
louisev
luvsathoroughbred
marleycat
matching mole
Munchkn
Oke
Pandoras Box
Proylance (?)
RiaD
RLMiller
Roadette
roses
RunawayRose
SallyCat - cheerleader
Shayle
sheba
sheddhead
StageStop
StrangeAnimals - cheerleader
supenau
Tenn Wisc Dem
trs - cheerleader
volleyboy1
webranding
Wee Mama
xysea