The Great Experiment: Wii Fit

“The Great Experiment: Wii Fit” is an ongoing project to see if incorporating Wii Fit exercising into daily life can lead to weight loss. Wii Fit will be used each day from February 5th-March 25th (a few days before Vinnk’s Wedding day). He will record his results each day and make notes about his progress or lack thereof.

Links:

February 5th – Outline of the Experiment
February 12th – Week 1 Report
February 19th – Week 2 Report
February 26th – Week 3 Report
March 4th – Week 4 Report
March 11th – Week 5 Report
March 18th – Week 6 Report
April 1st – Week 7 Report
April 2nd – Final Report

Today’s Log:

More journals coming as soon as I can type up my notes

Day 55 (April 26th)
BMI: 24.41
Balance Age: 28
Playing time: 35 minutes

It turns out that 2 days ago I got more workout than my body was ready for. My arms were still sore today. Because of this I didn’t do arm exercises today; instead I did more aerobics and yoga. I will do arm exercises tomorrow.

My balance is still pretty good. I was finally able to finish the marble rolling game. Admittedly I don’t lay it very often, but is has been one of my goals to finish it. It is so much harder than it looks and is hard exercise if I do it (as was suggested to me) with my
Knees bent.

Day 54 (April 25th)
BMI: 24.47
Balance Age: 20
In game playing time: 32 minutes

This morning I work up sore for the first time in a long time. It feels good to have a bit of soreness in my muscles again. It just means that the workout worked. However this is a bit sorer than I am used to.

I did Wii Fit kind of late at night today but it worked out well. Started with sit-ups and squats and then I worked up a sweat doing step aerobics. I was able to jump right in the shower and now after writing this, I will go to bed.

I have stopped posting the “actual playing time” because the number isn’t very important anymore. When I first started these numbers were often very different because I had to take time to have things explained to me via tutorials. Now the only thing I do that doesn’t could on my minutes is navigate menus and weigh myself. From now on I will only post the number of minutes Wii Fit records for me.

Day 53 (April 24th)
BMI: 24.60
Useless Age: 35
In game playing time: 34 minutes
Actual playing time: 41 minutes

I had an excellent workout today. It is starting to feel really good again. Today was arm exercises. They are still l a lot harder than they used to be but I am starting to return to doing a large number of them. The exercise is sweaty and strenuous but the feeling after finishing is wonderful. I did push-ups today followed by several other arm exercises and finished with some yoga.

I have to admit that this is my first time doing yoga since re-starting my Wii Fit routine. I guess I just wanted to get right back into the “good” exercises. But it actually felt very nice to do a bit of yoga and I discovered something interesting. My balance is still as good as it was before my wedding. My weight went up and bit and my strength went down a bit, but my balance has not changed.

Day 52 (April 23rd)
BMI: 24.54
Balance Age: 25
In game playing time: 32 minutes
Actual playing time: 40 minutes

I made the mistake of having a big dinner before using Wii Fit today. The sit-ups were therefore less comfortable than I would have liked. Still it is good to do something after a big meal other than fall asleep on the couch watching TV. That is what I used to always do.

I am back to doing the hula-hoop game every day. I would like to build up the abdominal muscles a bit more and this exercise also seems to tighten up the flab on my sides a bit.

It is starting to feel like a daily activity again now. It is also once again starting to be something I look forward to rather than simply an obligation. I haven’t gotten back “in the zone” yet but I think that will come fairly soon.

Day 51 (April 22nd)
BMI: 24.37
Balance Age: 20
In game playing time: 33 minutes
Actual Playing time: 39 minutes

Today was arm day and I really felt it. I did a lot of walking around Barcelona with my wife on our honeymoon but it has been a solid 4 weeks since I worked on my upper body. The push-ups were very difficult. I am still much better at them than I was before starting Wii Fit, but I was a lot better right before my wedding.

Maybe I should more gradually work my way back to the harder exercises. I really wish I had never stopped. I am remembering how much I enjoy doing Wii Fit and I feel bad that I am not doing to powerful workouts I used to. I’ll give it some time.

Day 50: (April 21st)
BMI: 24.50
Balance Age: 26
In game playing time: 30 minutes
Actual playing time: 42 minutes

It’s good to be back doing Wii Fit. It’s been 4 weeks since my last journal entry and in that time I only did Wii Fit twice, but now I am ready to get back to my workout routine.

During my almost one month of not doing Wii Fit (and eating restaurant food twice daily during my honeymoon) I have managed to gain back almost one kilo (0.8kg to be exact). I was actually surprised that I didn’t gain more. Whenever I dieted in the past and stopped, I would gain the weight back almost instantly.

Today it was a bit hard to jump right back into my normal routine. The jack-knife sit-ups were not as easy as I remembered them. I still got through 100 of them but it took more work than usual. The hula-hoop game was also a bit more difficult, so I over-compensated and actually managed to set a record today.

I’m excited to see how long it takes to get back to my “wedding weight” I also wonder if I can get it even lower, or more importantly, build more muscle. I’ll do my best.