Are Wii Fit Yet?

I have spent the last 3 years trying to eat healthy, to lose weight, and to get myself fitter, so imagine my horror when I got on the scales last week for the first time in several months and found that I had put on 10lbs.

YES TEN POUNDS!

I put a lot of it down to it being Winter, and with the dark evenings, the cold and ice of England, or if not that the rain. These combined make it very unpleasant to take a walk when I get home after work, or even at the weekends, and what's worse, the cold weather makes you want to eat more wholesome food, like stews and warming dishes with lots of gravy.

It's also partly due to my new lifestyle, since I started a new job 3 months ago, and now instead of walking at lunchtime, as I used to do when I lived in Florida, I usually spend my time on the computer and write articles - like this one...

I am guilty too of having been addicted to Evony (which I wrote about in another article), and for the last 6 months of last year I spent far more time sitting at the computer playing an on-line game than getting out and exercising.

Well, it's now 2010, today is the 1st February, and I want to lose those 10 pounds and more and to return to being a bit fitter again.

My fiancee bought us a Wii for Christmas, primarily so that we could use the Wii Fit package, but we haven't really used it until the end of last week. She registered on Wii Fit and tried it out, and on Saturday I thought "Right, it's my turn to try and do something about my situation!.

So on the Wii Fit Board I get, and go through the registration process and tests. My balance has always been fairly good, although I couldn't walk along a narrow beam to save my life, but imagine my surprise when the results showed that my Wii Fit Age was 38! Not bad since I am actually 55!

I thought it best to start with Yoga, since stretching and pose are good for you, but I quickly found out that this is not really my thing. I need to get into this later as I know it will do me good, but when your body is stiff and overweight, it's not exactly easy.

So I moved onto Muscle Toning, and this seemed just as bad as Yoga. By now I was getting a little frustrated, and so I moved onto Aerobic Workout, and here I found I could have some fun. I started off by heading Soccer Balls, which took some doing, since I was leaning towards them with my upper body and not changing my body balance. Doing the Hula Hoops is not something I can do well in real life, but I quickly mastered this on the Wii, even though my fiancee was laughing hysterically at my movements. I think she got almost as good a workout as I did from just laughing!

Off now to do some Step Exercises, which not having done this in real life I found a bit hard, until I was shown how, and then I was off. I think of all the Aerobics exercises I enjoy the Hula Hoop and Step Aerobics best, since they are not too strenuous, but you can feel the effects.

Finally, I moved on to the Jogging, which again is something that I have never been good at. Having been overweight all my life and not having the greatest knees in the world, this is quite strenuous on my body, but off I set, jogging on the spot in the middle of the living room floor, and the way that my legs were kicking out had my other half in hysterics again. Even on the lowest level, by the time I got to the end of the course my legs had turned to jelly, but I could feel the benefits as I was puffing and panting away.

"OK it's YOUR turn I said", knowing that my fiancee isn't any better at exercising than I am, and so she logged into the Wii Fit program and set about doing the Hula Hoops. Well, I practically got the camcorder out it was so funny to watch. I wish we had both videoed ourselves, as we looked ridiculous.

She then tried the jogging, and I could tell by the time she got halfway through the course that she was puffed and about to give in, but she didn't, and kept going right on to the end, but like me it left her out of breath for ages.

I will keep you up to date as we progress, and I know that this will help us to get fitter over time. It's still not the same as being outside in the fresh air though, and fortunately the days have started getting longer, and it's possible to start going for evening walks again, which we both really enjoy.

Do you have a Wii and use it for keeping fit? I would love to hear how you are using it and what success you have had, so if you do, please leave a comment and let me know.