Category: Move It Mama Monday!

Topics on health, fitness, exercise and how to get your assets moving, posted on Mondays

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Move It Mama Monday! I finished EA Sports Active’s 6-week challenge! Now what?

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Well, I finished the new EA Sports Active 6-week challenge two weeks ago, just before heading out to Farpoint. I was doing the medium level challenge, since I remembered how I’d fared doing the hard level challenge in EASA’s previous incarnation. I can say I did finish the challenge within 6 weeks. However, once again I did not lose weight. I was losing weight for the first four weeks, but then the last two weeks I had some problems. First off, I hit a high stress month, and I missed a lot of my regular non-EASA workouts as a result. Second, my hormones are all out of whack right now, probably a hangover from the previous quarter’s fertility treatments and my age. I’m 40, very soon to be 41. I expect my body to do wonky things like suddenly pack on 6 pounds. And the stress of so much going on this month did not help with my eating habits. I don’t care what anybody says, eating right takes a lot of work, and it’s hard to maintain healthy habits under stress.

But I completed the challenge, so my big question is, “Now what?” EASA recommends I do another challenge at the next higher level, of course. I’m not keen on that idea for a couple of reasons. The first is that EASA’s 6 week challenge requires four workouts every week. It’s hard for me to fit that in along with regular water aerobics classes and karate classes. Those classes take up my mornings most days, leaving me unable to do anything else until the evening. I could do 20 minutes or so of exercise in the evenings, but even that is hard to fit in. Princess has needed more supervision recently for her homework, which eats into my evening time. Plus, I really need to get back into cleaning the house. I can either do 20 minutes of exercise or 20 minutes of cleaning, but not both during the evenings. Trust me, I’ve tried. I’d have to live a very regimented life to do that, and that’s not possible with kids.

My other problem is that the workouts for the EASA challenge got longer the farther I got into the 6 weeks. Initially, the workouts where only 20 minutes long. Toward the end, they ran as long as 38 minutes. That’s a lot of time to devote in the evenings to a workout! And again, very hard to accomplish when I’ve got homework to supervise, a house to clean, dinner to make, children to read to, etc.

So what to do now? I figure with my schedule I could do 3 regular workouts a week, on Sundays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. The Sunday and Wednesday workouts would be on days I have nothing else scheduled, exercise-wise, so I can afford to spend more time on a Wii workout. As much as 45 minutes, even. The Friday workout would be on an evening when I don’t have to worry about homework or cook dinner. That’s pizza and movie night, so I can easily squeeze in 20-30 minutes.

The question is though, do I stick with EASA for these 3 workouts a week, or do something else?

I’m thinking of doing something else. I’ve done EASA for 6 weeks straight, and while the latest incarnation is better than the previous, I am still getting bored with it after so many weeks. I’d like to cycle back to Gold’s Gym Cardio Workout and Wii Fit Plus. Gold’s Gym really lets me work up a sweat in very little time. And Wii Fit Plus would let me work on my core muscles and balance, as well as have fun with the games. So I’m thinking of using primarily those two programs on Sunday and Friday. I might still use EASA for Wednesday, but I’ll need to figure out if I’m going to build my own workouts or use some of the pre-programmed ones.

Of course, I could always check to see if there are any new Wii workout games out there. But for now, I’m moving back to Gold’s Gym and Wii Fit Plus. I don’t know if I’ll lose any weight with this, but the goal these days is to just keep moving and stay as healthy as I can.

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Move It Mama Monday! Not today, folks

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I apologize for the lateness of today’s blog post, but the fact is I did no moving of it or anything else today. In fact, I pretty much skipped all my workouts last week getting ready for the Farpoint science fiction convention. I simply had too much work to do last week and I was just too dang fried today to exercise. In fact, I was so tired I went back to bed after seeing the kids off to school. Yeah, it was that kind of exhausting today.

So now I’m getting ready to go back to bed again. I’ll be good tomorrow — drink lots of water, eat lots of fruit and veggies, and do an hour or so of exercise at the dojo. But today, I just want to feel half-way human again.

I’ll blog about how I finished the EA Sports Active 6-week challenge next week. For now…

To bed!

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Move It Mama Monday! Snap goes the exercise band

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I discovered a serious flaw in EA Sports Active last Friday, and it caught me completely by surprise. I suppose I sort of knew about this, because it happened before with the previous version of the game, but this time it happened right in the middle of my work out, and it kind of stung.

I’m talking about my exercise band snapping apart, of course. The original EASA came with a wimpy elastic band that I wore a hole in pretty quickly. It definitely wasn’t made to last. But I had a much heavier band on hand and was easily able to use that one with the handles EASA provided. It worked pretty well too, until Friday.

I was right in the middle of doing some squats when suddenly SNAP! The band ripped apart just a couple inches below one handle. The long end snapped right into my leg, thus the sting I mentioned earlier, while the left end just hung there, a now useless stub. I had to pause the game to fix the matter, swearing as I struggled to undo the handle from the short remnant of elastic band. When I had the handle reattached to the remainder of the band, the whole deal was a good six inches shorter. That was great for the exercises where I frequently had to double up the band to get enough resistance, but not so much for a lot of other exercises where the original length had been just right (i.e. providing enough to make me sweat). In fact, I’m seriously afraid that the band is no longer good for some exercises, like the shoulder presses, because too much stretching on the now truncated band may cause it to snap again.

Sigh. I guess I’ll hunt down a new resistance band, or a set of them, and maybe some extra handles too so I can swap back and forth between resistance levels. I’d like to find something sturdier than what I’ve been using, but I don’t know if I’ll have any luck with that. If I do find something, I’ll be sure to post a note about it here.

I’ve only got one more week left on the 6-week challenge, and I should be finishing up my final workout in that on Wednesday. Once I do, I’m going to evaluate the final results and maybe rethink my exercise routine. EA Sports Active has definitely provided me with a workout, but it may be time for a change.

Enjoy your Monday and go work up a sweat!

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Move It Mama Monday! The real challenge of EA Sport Active’s 6-week challenge

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Well, I’m heading into the fifth week of EASA’s 6-week challenge, and it’s been interesting. I do like the new version of the game better. The exercises aren’t as painful on my knees and I especially like the fact that the game has a weekly weigh in to track my weight. Over all the game has improved, and it’s the only one I’m using right now for fitness on the Wii. And that’s the problem. It’s the only fitness game I can use right now, because the 6-week challenge demands so much time.

In order to compete 24 workouts in 6 weeks, I have to do 4 workouts a week (basic math, I know). And I thought that would be fine, especially with two of those workouts being done on days I don’t get any other exercise. But over the course of the last four weeks, a couple of things have happened. The first is that I was out of town at Marscon for three days and then came home entirely wiped out, so I missed my Sunday workout, and never got the chance to catch up on Monday. This is a real pain in the ass, because even now, a couple weeks after Marscon, I’m still one workout behind, and I can’t seem to find a day when I can sneak in a workout, because all sorts of screwy things have been going on with my schedule – parent/teacher conferences, prodding children to do homework, snow days, etc. Anything that interferes with me doing one of the two evening workouts I need to do forces me to do a makeup the very next day, which means I still haven’t caught up with that one workout session. And with 4 workouts a week, there are only 3 other days available to sneak in an extra workout. There is a reason why I didn’t choose those days to workout, and that’s because they are already full to the gills with other things to do!

So I’m behind by one workout and can’t seem to catch up. My second problem is that the workouts keep getting longer. As I progress through the 6-weeks, the sessions become more demanding, require me to do more sets and reps, and so on. I started out doing 20-25 minutes per workout, easy to fit into my schedule. Now I’m doing 30-35+ minutes a workout. Not so easy, especially when we once again look at those evening workouts. 10-15 minutes can be a huge deal in whether or not I get dinner on the table at a reasonable time, or manage to squeeze in story time with my girls before bed.

I’ve only got two weeks of the challenge left, so I will do my best to finish it, but I don’t think I will be doing another after this. I’ll have to wait until summer, when I my time is not as constricted by the demands of the girls’ school schedule and I can do more workouts in the morning. Actually that brings to mind a third problem, which ties into the other two – my enthusiasm is starting to wane. I hate exercising in the evenings, especially if the workout is tough. I’m usually dead on my feet by the time 5PM rolls around, and do not want to throw on my sweats and workout. As the workouts keep getting tougher and longer, I’m having to force myself more and more to stick with the program.

I know self-discipline is part of the challenge, but man. What I wouldn’t give to be able to set up a challenge that only required 3 workouts a week. Then I’d only have to worry about one evening workout, and that could easily be done on Friday, the day I’m least likely to be wiped out.

So, it looks like after this challenge, I’ll be doing something a little different with the Wii for fitness. I’ll probably still use EASA, but pick my workouts ala carte, and maybe throw in some Wii Fit Plus and Gold’s Gym Cardio Boxing, two other games I enjoy. In fact, I could easily see myself doing a session of each game once a week. That would round out my workout schedule quite nicely and combat the boredom.

But first things first. Finish up that 6-week challenge. We’ll see how I feel by the end of it.

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Move It Mama Monday! Does the new EASA work?

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It’s been over four weeks since I got the new EA Sports Active for Christmas. Since then, I’ve started the 6-Week Challenge (at medium intensity level) and am now half-way through that. Am I seeing any results?

Yes. Since Christmas, I’ve lost four pounds and I can definitely see more muscle definition. Even better, the new EASA doesn’t seem intent on destroying my knees like the old version was. A lot of the exercises that caused me so much pain have either been removed from the game or modified. So yes, this game definitely seems to be working for me.

However, I don’t believe I’m getting those results through EASA alone. Keep in mind, we are now past the holidays, which means I am also past the holiday eating. All those cookies, cakes, pies, candies, plus meat heavy meals are now three weeks behind me. I’ve since switched to eating two vegetarian meals a day, plus I’m drinking a lot more water. I’m not perfect at following these two rules, but I do them often enough that I think they’ve also had an effect on my health and weight. Plus I continue to take water aerobics classes and karate classes, both twice a week.

I think what’s worked more than anything is that I’m settled back into my old routine, with a little more emphasis on eating healthy and getting more exercise. Not being able to determine how the day would go over the holidays often meant I had no idea when or what I would be eating, so I ate a lot of junk and high fat meals as a result. I’d love to have more control over my schedule next year, if only so I could control my eating better. To do so, however, will probably mean I’ll have to make some changes to my schedule over all. Celebrating the holidays, in many ways, is like taking on an extra part-time job from October through December. To do all the things I’d like to do for the holidays – baking, decorating, sewing, parties, concerts, etc. – I’d have to cut back on my regular work during those months. It’s something I’ll have to think about before next October rolls around.

In any event, I’m enjoying the new EASA and the new eating habits. So far, I’ve cooked three vegetarian soups that did not suck, which means I’d cook and eat them again. In fact one of those soups, the carrot puree soup, was so good I’d make that any time and enjoy it.

So there you go, the secret to weight loss; healthy eating, plenty of water, regular exercise and a normal, livable schedule. Am I a genius for figuring out the obvious or what?

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Move It Mama Monday! New Year’s Goals

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Since I spent last Monday babbling about the wonders of the new EA Sports Active game for the Wii, I thought I should take today to blog about my fitness goals for 2010. These are pretty much just a continuation of what I’ve been doing already, with a few small changes. Without further ado, here’s the plan for this year.

Eat 5 servings of fruits and vegetables every day – I usually eat at least 3 servings, but I really need to up it to 5. Also I need to get in a little more variety, so I’ll be trying things I normally turned my nose up at. I’ve already shocked the hell out of my best friend by eating carrots cooked in homemade split pea soup. We’ll see if I can shock her some more with brocolli, brussel sprouts, artichokes, etc.

Eat 1-2 vegetarian meals a day – This goes with the above goal. I made myself sick over the holidays by eating too many fatty foods, mainly greasy meat dishes. And when I say sick, I mean painfully sick. I had my gall bladder removed 12 years ago, so I don’t process a lot of fat real well. Thus when I overwhelm my digestive system with fatty foods, I get shooting, stabbing pains all through my abdomen and lower chest area. Naturally, the longer I’ve been without a gall bladder, the less I am able to deal with a lot of grease and fat in my meals. Since it royally sucks to spend 3 or more days doubled over in agony, I’m going to do my damnedest to avoid being in that position ever again.

Drink 8 glasses of water a day – I need to research this one a bit to see what amount of water qualifies as a “glass.” Is it 8 oz.? More? I usually drink from these huge glasses that hold about 16 oz., so I figure if I get 4-5 big glasses of water a day, I’ll be good, but I’ll have to check.

Attend 2-4 karate classes a week – I’m a second degree black belt, and I need to get to class on a regular basis, especially if I want to eventually reach third degree. The dojo I go to offers day time classes, including weapons class, and has just added a daytime black belt class. This means if I show up on Tuesdays and Thursdays on a regular basis, I can get in 4 hours easily.

Attend water aerobics twice a week – I’m loving the water aerobics, especially since it seems to strengthen my lousy knees. I don’t think this will be a hard goal to meet, given how much fun I’m having.

Complete at least 1 EASA 6-week challenge – I’ve already started the challenge and am finishing up my second week. Unlike the previous version of EASA, the new version doesn’t seem to destroy my knees. The challenge requires I do 4 sessions a week, which is a little challenging to fit into my schedule (but I guess that’s part of why they call it a 6-week challenge). However, this ties in perfectly with the next goal, which is…

Complete 3-5 evening workouts a week – these evening workouts are going to be mini-workouts, 20 minutes or so in length. The average EASA workout is 22 minutes, so this works just fine. When I’m not doing the EASA workouts in the evening, I’m going to fill in with Wii Fit Plus and Gold’s Gym Cardio Boxing. My Fitness Coach is going on the shelf for a while, unless I’m really craving a yoga workout. While it is a very effective workout, I dislike the aerobics style warm up, and just like the old EASA, I’m finding a lot of the leg exercises are killing my knees.

Go to bed no later than 10:30PM – I get up at 4:45AM most mornings, so I really need to get to bed by 10, 10:30 at the latest. The more sleep I get, the better able I am to get up at the ass-crack of dawn the next morning and get a jump on my day. This really matters to me.

Get outside 2-3 times a week, for at least 30 minutes – gardening, yard work, playing games with the kids, taking a walk. I need to do all these things. Of course, it’s unseasonably cold the past coupel of weeks, so I’ve been a real weenie about this one so far. I’m thinking that maybe what I could do is leave the house half an hour early to pick up the kids and use that time to go for a brisk walk or to do some quick clean up around the yard. I’d rather do it after the kids get home, but my resolve always seems to break down when we walk back inside to get hot cocoa and a snack. You see my problem. In any event, I plan to pull out my book on herb gardening and start looking at plans for spring yardwork and gardening.

Get a physical, annual pelvic exam and pap smear, mammogram, dental exam, and eye exam – VERY IMPORTANT. I don’t want to get caught by surprise by any diseases or health conditions, and this is the best way to avoid that. I’ve already had the pelvic exam and pap smear this month. My physical is today. My mammogram is next month, and the dental exam is too. I still need to schedule the eye exam, but I will get that done this week.

And that’s pretty much my goals for 2010. I realize it’s a big list, but keep in mind, a lot of this I was already doing or had a good start on last year. Note I did not list losing weight. Yes, I weigh 10 lbs more than I would like, but I’m not going to beat myself up about that. I’d rather focus on taking care of myself, eating right, and getting plenty of activity than on counting calories and fighting with my weight. Maybe this will be enough to take care of the weight, maybe this will just keep my healthy in other ways. In any event, I’m NOT giving up the occasional dessert and my Friday night pizza.

Have fun this week, and I’ll let you know next week how things are going.

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Move It Mama Monday! The new EA Sports Active

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Guess what I got for Christmas! The new EA Sports Active. You know, the one labeled “More Games!” My younger sister gave it to me as a gift, and it has been very much appreciated, let me tell you!

If you’ve been following Move It Mama Monday for a while, you’ll probably recall I had a love/hate relationship with the previous incarnation of EASA. I liked that the game included plenty of strength exercises, but I lamented its lack of cardio activity and the damage it seemed to do to my knees. After completing my one and only 30-day challenge with the original EASA, I wound up having to take 2-4 Advil a day for a week to deal with the knee pain I suffered. In the end, I pretty much shelved EASA in favor of Wii Fit, although by that point I’d played Wii Fit to death.

Well, out comes the new EASA, and so far I’ve completed 6 workouts on it in the last two weeks. I definitely think the new game is an improvement. For starters, all the preprogrammed workouts now include a warm-up and cool-down session to help loosen up the old joints. Many of the original exercises that caused me so many problems with my knees have either been replaced or reworked, although this game does still include a lot of jumping around and lunging, so be careful if you have bad knees. Many of the strength exercises have been reworked too, making them more effective and easier to do in my opinion. And the biggest change? The scenery. No longer are you stuck at the local park/track doing your workout. Now the game centers on a beach resort, which I think is an improvement.

For my first three workouts with the game, I picked sessions from the preprogrammed workouts menu. I stuck with either the medium or easy workouts, recalling how much I had hurt when I first started with the original EASA. The workouts at these levels are still intense enough to make me really sweat, which made me very happy.

On New Year’s Eve, I started my 6-week challenge. Apparently too many people (including yours truly) had trouble completing the old 30-day challenge within 30 days, so the time frame was expanded to 6 weeks. It’s still a demand on the schedule though, requiring 4 workouts a week to meet that 6 week goal. I can do it, especially since I’ve started doing shorter workouts in the evenings anyway, but if you’re already on a regular workout schedule with some other activity, you might want to think twice about the 6-week challenge.

I’ll keep you updated on my progress with my 6-week challenge (and once again, learning from prior experience, I opted for the medium intensity challenge, not the hard!). Meantime, here are a quick list of the pros and cons that I see so far with the new EASA.

Pros:

  • The exercises I hated most, the ones that really killed my knees, appear to be gone or replaced by exercises that aren’t as painful to do.
  • The new scenery is much nicer. Quite frankly, I was getting pretty dang tired of that park in the old game. If I’m going to work out in a virtual world, then I’ll take a virtual tropical island any day.
  • The new EASA now uses the balance board to check your weight every week! And you don’t have to put up with any snarky attitude if you gain a couple pounds. The game just tracks your weight; it doesn’t try to destroy your soul (like a certain Wii Fit game that shall otherwise remain nameless…).
  • There are some interesting new games, like squash, water skiing, an obstacle course, etc., that are fun to do.
  • The challenge now takes 6-weeks as opposed to only 30 days. I can handle 6 weeks.
  • No more freaky inspirational videos from Bob Whatshisface! I don’t know about you guys, but that very nice man who pimps EASA really creeped me out every time he showed up on camera. The way he grinned, I was afraid he was going to jump out of the TV and eat me!

Now for the cons:

  • The game is still rough on the knees. I’m hoping that getting back into my regular water aerobics class will fix this. Water aerobics seems to go a long way toward strengthening the muscles that support my knees. I’ll need that to keep up with all the lunging and jumping that still shows up in EASA.
  • The new EASA doesn’t seem to have “More Exercises” so much as “All New Exercises.” In other words, a lot of the old stuff is gone. While they updated and improved the boxing, I have yet to see the tennis, volley ball, or baseball games. I can’t say yet if those are really gone, but from comments I’ve seen on line, it looks like they may be. This would be a shame, because those were the games that I enjoyed the most on the original EASA.
  • The warm up and cool down are the same for every single workout. I was hoping for more in the stretching department. Instead, every workout starts and ends out with the same exercises. That’s not just boring, it’s a waste. They couldn’t put together a few more warm up and cool down routines? How about more stretches for the arms and legs? Neck rotations even! Bah! I will never find a Wii game that really includes stretching.

And that’s about it. I’m hopeful that between my regular daytime workouts (water aerobics, karate) and regular evening workouts (EASA, Gold’s Gym Cardio, Wii Fit Plus), I’ll be able to get myself back into shape. We’ll see what the results are in a month, I suppose.

Next week, I’ll make a list of New Year’s health and fitness resolutions. I should have done that this week, but what can I say? I was just too danged excited about the new EASA.

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Move It Mama Monday! Sneaky ways to exercise this Christmas

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I was looking at my schedule for the upcoming week and I realized that there is pretty much no way in hell I’m going to make it to any of my usually scheduled exercise classes. Princess has a party today, which is early enough that I can’t make it to water aerobics. Then she comes home early tomorrow from school, which means I can’t go to karate class. My sister is showing up Wednesday, again early enough to kill any chance of me slipping in a water aerobics class. The dojo is closed on Thursday, the Y is closed on Friday, etc., etc., etc.

So I need some alternate ways to sneak in some exercise this week. Here are a few ideas I’ve come up with.

1. Clean the house. I’ve got family coming, right? So I should clean from top to bottom. If I throw on some heart racing music and really get into the swing of things, I could break a sweat and bust a move while chasing dust bunnies out from behind the fridge. Never mind that my sister doesn’t give a hoot about how clean the house is. All she cares about is whether there’s a place for her to sleep or not.

2. Chase the children away from the tree, the presents, the fridge… Basically, run after the kids and keep them out of trouble. I’ll have both home, and will need to be on my guard to make sure they aren’t getting into things they shouldn’t be. Last thing I need is for Pixie to topple the tree on herself, or Princess to go digging through my closet to find out what “Santa” brought her for Christmas. I figure if I do a few laps around the house every hour, that will produce a low but steady calorie burn and let the kids know someone really is watching to see if they’ve been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake!

3. Slush ball fight. It snowed here this weekend. Not a lot, just enough to foul up traffic and turn our yard into a mud pit. If I’m really desperate for some exercise, I can take the kids outside and we can throw slush balls at each other. I’d rather throw snow balls, but hey, this is Virginia. Snow in December wasn’t going to last anyway.

4. Sex with the Hubster. He is home this week. We just need to put another holiday special in the DVD player and let the kids zone out while we go get jolly in the bedroom.

5. Post Christmas morning clean-up. Given the number of boxes currently sitting under our tree and the number of presents still waiting to be wrapped, I’d say it’s a sure bet my living room is going to be completely trashed by the time the last gift gets open. If I want a workout Christmas morning, I can pull on my sweats, grab a trash bag and a box cutter and set to work. I guarantee you I will be busy all day this way.

Any other good ideas for a holiday week workout? We could always walk through the neighborhood to look at all the lights and displays, I suppose, and I could maybe even go for a jog or just turn on the Wii. But I’m looking for the creative route here. What do you guys plan to do to squeeze in a little exercise this week, huh? Let me know!

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Move It Mama Monday! Holiday exercise

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Do you or don’t you? Exercise during the holidays, that is. I have to admit, it’s getting to be a struggle to find the time to do everything I would normally do, and I’ve missed a couple workouts and I know I’m going to miss a few more in the upcoming weeks. But still, I’m trying to fit the exercise in wherever I can. I’m afraid if I don’t, I won’t fit into any of my clothes come New Year’s Day. That and the fact that taking time off and having to dive right back into exercise after the holidays are over is just a real bitch to do.

Right now, I’m keeping up with 2 days a week of water aerobics and 2 days a week of karate. On top of that, I’m doing mini-workouts, about 15-30 minutes long, in the evenings a couple times a week. It’s still not enough to fight off the holiday flab, but it’s enough to ensure I don’t spin completely out of control healthwise over the next few weeks. And I have to admit, it also helps me stay calm. When the holiday stress really starts to get to me, I can just work up a real sweat and then be too damned tired to care.

I’m curious to know what other folks are doing, exercise-wise this holiday season? Are you cutting back, or putting more time in the gym? Are you being ultra-super-careful to eat healthy, or like me have you already given yourself a nasty case of heartburn by eating too much greasy fatty food? (You folks have no idea how much I miss my gall bladder at times like that.) Let me know what you’re up to!

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Move It Mama Monday! My Fitness Coach

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Since I reviewed Gold’s Gym Cardio for the Wii Last week, I thought I should take a look at the other game I got myself last month – My Fitness Coach.

I’ve been playing My Fitness Coach for the last couple of weeks, to give myself time to decide if I like it or not. My Fitness Coach is an apt title for the game, because it’s all based around a personal trainer character, Maya, who guides you through the workouts. Maya asks what equipment you have (balance ball, weights, step, heart rate monitor), how long you’d like to exercise (15, 30, 45, or 60 min), and what you’d like to focus on. The first time I played the game, I was prompted to take a fitness evaluation; pushups, sit ups, jumping jacks, stretching, etc. I was also asked to measure myself at various points, give a resting and active heart rate (that’s where the jumping jacks come in), and a few other odds and ends. Then Maya made a recommendation for what my primary workout goal should be. The game focuses on areas like cardio fitness, upper body, lower body, flexibility, etc. Maya will work you through all the areas, but the workouts will focus more heavily on whatever the primary goal is. You get the option to go with her recommendation or to choose your own.

After all that – the set up took about half an hour (yeesh!) – I was ready to workout. My Fitness Coach is just like having a real personal trainer put you through your paces. There’s a cardio warm up with the usual aerobics and step moves, then on to weight/resistance training and a little cool down and stretching at the end. After a certain number of workouts, it’s time to do another evaluation, and yes, you go through the whole schmiel all over again. I’ve been do 30 minute workouts three times a week since mid November, and so far had one re-evaluation. Do I like the game? Have I seen results?

Eh, to the first question, and maybe to the second.

Eh, because My Fitness Coach is almost exactly like having a personal trainer… but one you can’t really interact with. Maya does ask at various points in the work out how you feel. Was that section too hard, too easy, or just right? Then she stores that feedback for reference when building future workouts. But that’s about it for interaction. The game barely uses the Wii remote, and never uses the balance board. Although I wish it did use the balance board to at least check my weight during the evaluations.

Beyond that limited interaction though, My Fitness Coach is a lot like working out to an exercise video. It’s more varied, obviously, because the game switches up the workouts every time, based on the evaluations and the feedback. So it’s never the same thing twice. But it’s kind of dull, and the most I can stand to do is 30 minutes at a time.

Having said that, I get a solid workout in 30 minutes with My Fitness Coach. The warm-up segs right into a cardio session so I’m jumping and dancing around for 15 minutes or so. That gets my heart rate up pretty dang quick. So far, I’ve only been asked a couple of times to pull out the weights for the resistance training, which follows the cardio, but I’ve been using them anyway, otherwise I’m not getting any workout there, even though I’ve repeatedly told the program, “That was too easy.” Hopefully, Maya gets the hint soon. The cool down and stretching at the end last two minutes at most, but then I am only doing 30 minute workouts. But even on the days when I’m supposed to be working on flexibility, I’m still not doing a lot of stretching. Again, I keep telling Maya, “Bump it up a notch, bitch!” She’s slowly getting there.

So, results? Yes, I’ve seen some, but I honestly can’t say if it’s because I’ve been playing My Fitness Coach for the last month or because I’ve been doing water aerobics for the same period of time. It’s probably a combination of both. I do like that I’m getting plenty of strength training and that I don’t have to fiddle with an elastic band to do it (I’m lookin’ at you, EA Sports Active!). It’s much easy to follow along with weights in hand and the remote on the table. But then again, My Fitness Coach can’t tell me if I’m doing things right or not because it doesn’t use the Wii remote to get any feedback.

I will say that so far My Fitness Coach hasn’t killed my knees, but again this may be because it doesn’t rely on the feedback from the Wii remote to see if I’m doing the move exactly right. EA Sports Active did kill my knees, and doesn’t really allow me any way to modify the problem exercises to a level that’s comfortable for me (although it does let me skip them; My Fitness Coach doesn’t have that option).

I’ll stick with My Fitness Coach for a while, mainly because I had to make a commitment to do so many workouts a week. I’m slooooooooowly unlocking the new environments to work out in (another downside, there are so few goodies in the game for continued participation, and earning a new environment isn’t nearly as fun as earning new outfits to dress up your trainer in; I’m lookin’ at you, Gold’s Gym Cardio, and your hottie trainer Alex too!).

Honestly, so far, the best fitness game has been Gold’s Gym Cardio, although the focus there is almost entirely on the cardio. It’s fun, like Wii Fit, but it offers more of a heart thumping workout. EA Sports Active just kills my knees, although I do like the sports games and the ability to make my workouts or modify a premade workout. Wii Fit Plus spent too much damned time developing new mini-games and not enough time focusing on upgrading the cardio and strength training portions of the game. And My Fitness Coach is challenging, but dull.

With no perfect fitness game out there, what’s a gal to do? Continue to mix and match between the games I already have, and keep trying out new ones. At the very least, I’m getting some good variety in my exercise routine this way.