My second week of daily Wii Fit training has come to a close. This week was a lot busier than the first so I am learning not only how to balance on the little white board, but also how to balance Wii Fit into my life.

After the first week I had lost no weight, but I was still very optimistic about the program. This week I have continued to build that positive mental attitude as you can read in the logs below. But is there any weight loss to go with it? Read more to find out.

Day 8 (February 12th)
BMI: 25.34
Body Age: 22
In game training time: 45 minutes
Actual playing time: 54 minutes

I have unlocked almost all of the exercises at this point. Some of the later ones can really be put into the “silly” category. For example one of the exercises has you lie down on the floor with the Wii remote pointed at the ceiling and you are to repeatedly stand up and fall back to the ground while shaking the remote as little as possible. It is perhaps good for leg training, but it really looks stupid.

Focusing more on yoga is starting to pay off. I am seeing definite improvement in my yoga poses. I really hope my balance is actually getting better and not that I am just learning how to trick the board.

As I begin my second week, I have decided to set a goal of unlocking the remaining exercises and mini-games (I have unlocked all of the yoga already). Once I have every exercise available I can start developing a good routine for myself.

Day 9 (February 13th)
BMI: 25.41
Body Age: 39
In game training time: 45 minutes
Actual playing time: 1 hour

Arm training was the focus today. For as long as I can remember I have had a hard time doing push-ups. I don’t think I have ever been able to do more than 15 proper push-ups in a row. I would watch films set in the military and hear the sergeant yell, “drop and give me twenty!” and I always thought to myself, “I couldn’t do that”. I have decided that by the end of this month I want to be able to do 20 in a row. If I can reach that goal, Wii Fit will have made some change in my life.

I did a bit of yoga today but I made the mistake of doing it after the arm training. It seems I have more trouble with balance after the harder training exercises. I used to always begin my workout with yoga. I should go back to that.

Turns out someone noticed my little project. The site Nintendo Wii Fanboy posted this story about it. I have to say I love the little Photoshop they did. With all this attention, I hope this experiment will be a success.

Day 10 (February 14th)
BMI: 25.37
Body Age: 34
In game playing time: 34 minutes
Actual playing time: 50 minutes

In addition to the focus on arm exercises I mentioned yesterday, I am also working my abs quite a bit. I do the endurance sit-ups every day now. You see, I am not exactly fat but the fat I do have has all decided to set up camp in my gut. My dad has the same problem. So do all the men on his side of the family. It might be my destiny (via DNA) to conform to this body shape, but I’d like to do all I can to prevent it. The balance board doesn’t really do much for the abdominal exercises (for example sit-ups); mostly it just counts for you. Still, it gives me the motivation to keep doing them. When I’m alone doing sit-ups I usually stop around 30-35, but for the last 5 workout sessions, I have done a daily set of 100.

I hate balancing on one leg. I just can’t seem to do it for more than about 20 seconds. On most of the yoga poses I have improved a lot over the last 10 days. But on any one-legged pose, just staying on the balance board is the main challenge. Definite room for improvement.

Today I unlocked my last general training exercise. Since I unlocked all of yoga last week that just leaves some mini-games. I should have everything available by the end of the week as planned.

Day 11 (February 15th)
BMI: 25.21
Body Age: 28
In game playing time: 13 minutes
Actual playing time: 24 minutes

For the first time since I started this experiment, I failed to put in 30+ minutes. The reason for this is that my girlfriend was visiting. I put in a bit of time while she watched and then she wanted to give the game a try. By the time she finished it was after midnight so I couldn’t put in any more time for the day.

She had a good time with the game. Once again I’ll say that it is fun to watch other people play and give them encouragement. It seems my fiancée has much better balance than me. It was her first time with various yoga poses and she got the same scores as me (or better). She wasn’t able to play the skiing mini-game because it makes her dizzy, for this reason she doesn’t play any 3D games.

I have to do an extra long workout tomorrow to make up for the lost time. I’m feeling weird for not putting in all my time today, like my day is missing something. I’ve never really felt that way about exercise before.

Day 12 (February 16th)
BMI: 25.15
Body Age: 28
In game playing time: 31 minutes
Actual playing time: 1 hour 3 minutes

Today I had a small dinner party at my house. Everyone wanted to try out Wii Fit. As I said in previous posts there is something fun about playing it in a group. However I really cannot recommend it as a party game. First of all everyone who wants to try it has to create a character, weight themselves (potentially embarrassing) and set fitness goals for a game they just want to try for the evening. This process takes about 10 minutes per person, which really does not give it a pick-up-and play feeling like Wii Sports or WarioWare. Also, once they make that character, most of the best mini-games need to be unlocked before they can try them. Still they enjoyed watching me put in my 31 minutes and gave me a lot of encouragement.

Perhaps due to the fact that I have been doing 100 sit-ups each day on Wii Fit, my back is really sore today. I am not sure why it is sore now after so many days of training. But I am giving the sit-ups a bit of a rest until it feels better. I focused a lot on arm exercises and step aerobics. They are fun to do and fun for others to watch.

Tomorrow I will try to get 45+ minutes in to make up for two days of fairly light workouts.

Day 13 (February 17th)
BMI: 25.31
Body Age: 23
In game playing time: 44 minutes
Actual playing time: 1 hour 6 minutes

My back is still sore so I did mostly aerobic and arm exercises again today. I have only 2 mini-games left to unlock and I’m not sure how to do it. I spent most of today’s workout playing various mini-games to get scores high enough t open the remaining two.

It turns out the mini-games are a lot of fun. But some of them don’t provide all that much in the way of actual exercise. Usually after about 20 minutes of what I consider “serious training” I will reward myself with one of these games. As I said they are fun, but if I am playing a game only for fun I would rather play something else.

I’m going to try to go back to my normal routine of sit-ups and push-ups tomorrow. The back pain is still a bit of a mystery but Wii Fit may not have caused it at all.

Day 14 (February 18th)
BMI: 25.41
Body Age: 29
In game playing time: 36 minutes
Actual playing time: 55 minutes

My back has returned to normal today and I began sit-ups again. It actually felt great to get back to them. Mini-games are fun but this actual training and working up a sweat is why I bought the game.

I wish that I had taken a picture of my arms before I started this experiment. It might be my imagination (probably is) but they look like they are getting a bit bigger. I do the push-ups every day and I am able to do more each day so it is possible my arms are getting stronger, but I never expected to see a physical change after only 2 weeks. But as I said it might be my imagination. I feel stronger these days so maybe I am trying to see things that aren’t there.

Week 2 Wrap-up

Total time spent this week: 4 hours 10 minutes
Total time since beginning the experiment: 8 hours 20 minutes
Current weight: 78.8 kg (173.7 lbs)
Total weight change this week: -1.2 kg (-2.3lbs)
Total weight change: -1.2 kg (-2.3lbs)

It’s not a big change but it’s a start. And even though I feel Wii Fit is helping just from how I feel day by day it is nice to have a number to put with that. But even if my eight had once again remained the same, I would still be very enthusiastic about Wii Fit. Since I started Wii Fit I have had more energy at work, higher self-esteem and a daily feeling of accomplishment. I think the same would be true of an exercise program. This is not a unique feature of Wii Fit. The difference, for me at least, is that this is the first program that I have not given up on. I am stoked to begin my 3rd week now and hoping that the weight doesn’t come back. Either way, I’ll be here to tell you all about it.

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