My last week of using Wii Fit for this experiment was also the busiest. The experiment finished only a few days before my wedding. I am still trying to sort out everything so my final wrap-up and evaluation of the experiment will be posted in 2 parts. This first part has my logs from week 7 and some final weight totals. Tomorrow I will post the second part with “before and after pictures” and my final thoughts.

Day 43 (March 18th)
BMI: 24.57
Balance Age: 20
In game playing time: 40 minutes
Actual playing time: 50 minutes

Once again my workout started late at night. I was very sleepy but I still put in a good workout. Today was spent doing the fairly difficult (for me at least) arm exercises, so even though my workout was a bit brief, I was satisfied with it.

Something else that I noticed is that the balance board has very good battery life. Beyond the hour or so I put in every day, many of my friends have played with the game. The board has probably been in operation for more than 60 hours now and it is still working great on the batteries it came with. I was worried that the board would eat through batteries, but that hasn’t been the case.

Day 44 (March 19th)
BMI: 24.57
Balance Age: 25
In game playing time: 52 minutes
Actual playing time: 1 hour

My comic timing is perfect. Yesterday I wrote about being impressed with the battery life on Wii Fit and today the first screen that pops up is a message telling me to change the batteries on the balance board.

I was able to do a great workout today. I did all the abdominal exercises (this made up most of my workout) and then I decided to give running in place another try. I still don’t really like it and think actual running would be better, but just as an aerobic activity to get your heart pumping, it sort of works. I did a 20-minute “run” today and I was instantly reminded of playing the Power Pad back in the late 80’s, because you never really run, just lift your legs rapidly. I came into the game expecting it to actually be some running-like exercise, so of course I was disappointed when it wasn’t. However, if I start the game with the mind set that it is “stomping training” then it makes a bit of sense. I still don’t like it as much as the other mini-games but I don’t dislike it as much, and from time to time I think I will put it in my workout.

An interesting thing I noticed is that for the last 3 days my BMI has been exactly the same. Has my body decided that this is my ideal weight? I am sure it is just a coincidence but it is still a bit surprising.

Day 45 (March 20th)
BMI: 24.31
Balance Age: 20
In-game playing time: 34 minutes
Actual playing time: 44 minutes

Another short workout due to lack of time, but I really made that time count. Push-ups and other arm exercises made up the majority of the workout and core body strength training made up the rest of it. Aerobics is easy compared to this stuff.

Recently I find myself hoping that in the future there will be a Wii Fit 2, or an expansion disc for the original. There are tons of activities included with Wii Fit and 7 weeks in I still haven’t gotten bored with them. However, I miss the experience from the first two or three weeks of constantly finding new things to unlock. At about the 5-week point I unlocked every new skill level of every activity and was a bit sad that some of them have become too easy. This is good from a workout perspective since I now have more choices than ever before but from the perspective of a video game fan I want to find new things. I would be glad to buy a sequel as long as it is of the same quality.

Day 46 (March 21st)
BMI: 24.47
Balance Age: 30
In game playing time: 48 minutes
Actual playing time: 50 minutes

At this point my self-esteem is through the roof. Whenever I run into a friend whom I haven’s seen in a long time they first thing they do is make a comment on how much slimmer I look. These days I have more energy, sleep better and just overall feel amazing. But even more than that I have a feeling of pride an accomplishment just knowing that I was able to stick with something for 46 days and not give up.

Today I had an easier workout. (just aerobics and stretching). The hula-hoop game is now so easy that I really have a hard time remembering that I used to struggle with it. Many other exercises are also getting too easy. I think I could do the 100 jackknife sit-ups in my sleep now. But I still remember when I finished doing 100 for the first time. I was so proud.

Day 47 (March 22nd)
BMI: 24.31
Balance Age: 20
In game playing time: 36 minutes
Actual playing time: 45 minutes

Yet another short training session but still effective I think. I am amazed by how many push-ups I can now do. They are still the hardest singe activity for me, but they are no longer the impossible feat they once were. When I started this experiment I was focusing on weight loss and getting rid of my “beer belly”. But as I go on the focus is shifting to “better overall body shape” and my arms and shoulders seem to have shown the most improvement. In retrospect I wish I had measured my arm strength and overall muscle levels before starting. I didn’t expect to gain so much muscle mass and now I wish I had a way of knowing exactly how big the improvement really is.

My “balance age” is 20 again. Recently it has been 20 (the lowest age on the game I think) many times. I still think the number isn’t very important but if I am getting better at the balance games maybe my balance really is getting better in general.

Today my fiancée told me many times how happy she was about my new body and attitude. She plans to start doing Wii Fit daily as soon as the honeymoon is over. I worry our first fight as a married couple might be over who gets to play it first. At least I hope that is what our first fight is about; I can handle that sort of argument.

Day 48 (March 23rd)
BMI: 24.31
Balance Age: 32
In game playing time: 31 minutes
Actual playing time: 40 minutes

Today I needed to pick my family up from the airport. Since they wanted to see the city we decided to get a hotel room for the night and we will go sightseeing tomorrow. Because of this I had to do my Wii Fit exercises early in the day again. My workout today was done before 2:00pm. Overall, it is probably a good time to workout but since I usually do it later in the day it felt a bit odd to break my routine. Still, I had a nice (though short) workout.

The jack-knife sit-ups and hula-hoop game are starting to really make my stomach tighter. It’s still bigger than I want it to be but that change will come in time I am told. As I said a few weeks ago, my actual body weight is no longer very important to me; it’s the body shape that I am now working hard to improve.

Tomorrow will be my final journal entry. My wedding is on Saturday. However, I have no intention to stop doing Wii Fit. As soon as the honeymoon is over and things settle a bit, I plan to continue using Wii Fit on a daily basis.

Day 49 (March 23rd)
BMI: 24.24
Balance Age: 43
In game playing time: 32 minutes
Actual playing time: 40 minutes

My family arrived at my house today. And the first thing they got to see (after a quick tour of the house) was their son playing Wii Fit. During my exercises they kept commenting on how slim I looked. They haven’t seen me in months and they said the difference in my appearance was dramatic. My father decided that he would buy Wii Fit as soon as it comes out in the United States.

Instead of my normal workout I decided to show them several different part of Wii Fit. So today I did yoga and minigames more than I usually do. They thought it was amazing and I had a good time showing them, but really the workout itself was not very satisfying today.

Today I end my daily logs for Wii Fit. But not Wii Fit itself. It will be hard to get in any more training sessions before my wedding and I might have to wait until after my honeymoon to start training daily again but I know my time with this game is far from over.

Week 7 Wrap-up

Total time spent this week: 4 hours 27 minutes
Total time since beginning the experiment: 35 hours 5 minutes
Current weight: 75.1 kg (about 165.6 lbs)
Total weight change this week: -1 kg (-2.2 lbs)
Total weight change in 7 weeks: -4.9 kg (-10.8 lbs)

This is my 6th straight week of weight loss. I was very worried that this week with me being so busy and eating richer food than usual (with my parents) that my weight would go up. But not giving up has paid off and I was able to wrap the experiment up with losing more than 10 pounds and gaining some muscle to boot.

Come back tomorrow to read my final wrap-up of the experiment and to see my progress in pictures.

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