Tag: Wii Fit

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Move It Mama Monday! Clean House Or Exercise?

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Oy, this almost didn’t get out today. I got hit with something yesterday that involved a very painfully swollen lymph node in my neck, plus a ton of other aches and pains all over my body. I’m thinking this was a result of too much work, too much working out, and not enough sleep. My knees have been bothering me all week. Those last couple of workouts on the EA Sports Active 30-day challenge were not easy on the jumping and squatting and lunging. Plus, I switched to the heavier weight band the week before and that probably contributed to the sore arms and shoulders. Top all that with a day at the beach, a day at a friend’s pool party, and some massive deadlines that had to be met, and I was one beat mama Sunday. No wonder then that I slept through my alarm and dragged through this morning.

However, I did perk up enough to get some exercise in. Given my knee problems, I opted to forgo EA Sports Active today and stuck with a combination of Wii Fit and DDR. I love the workout mode in DDR. I set the target number of calories I want to burn and then fail badly to hit the right arrow combinations as I stomp mercilessly all over the mat. My DDR skillz suck, but I do work up a sweat, and the kids get a laugh out of watching me flail around like a demoniacally possessed monkey on speed. In fact, on at least one occasion while I shook my booty to the cadence of DDR, Michael did consider calling in a priest to perform an exorcism on me.

But that’s not what I really wanted to talk about today. Today, I have yet another wrinkle in my routine to iron out, and that would be house cleaning, or the lack thereof. I try my best to keep this place neat, but I suck at house cleaning the way I suck at DDR. Yeah, I can do it, but once again, I flail around like the aforementioned demoniacally possessed monkey on speed.

My problem with house cleaning is not that I don’t know how to do it, but that I don’t know when to do it. We all know there aren’t enough hours in the day, right? Well my hours in the day start at 5AMish (like some others I know), and usually end around 11PMish (though I’m trying to get back to that 9PM bedtime, really I am). In between those times, I write, cook, exercise, fold laundry, play with the kids, cartoon, blog, do more writing, record, podcast, do even more writing, work on art commissions, promote my work, etc. I have a hard enough time some days finding time to clean ME, let alone the house, so the house work sort of falls by the wayside most days. I do try to keep up with the kitchen and the vacuuming and the laundry, but that’s about as good as I can do. I just can’t seem to find half an hour more in my day to do a simple chore like dust one room, and frankly, even if I did dust one room, then I have to remember which room I dusted so that if I remember to clean again the next day, I don’t end up dusting the same room twice.

I had signed on at one time with Fly Lady. Fly Lady is cool. Here is a woman who’s worked out a system to get housework done in bits and pieces. She is encouraging, she is helpful, she has her act pretty much together. For a few months, I was doing good following the Fly Lady system. The problem was, those few months occurred prior to the birth of Pixie, and once Pixie was born, it was all down hill from there! I think the reason Fly Lady worked for me at the time was because I was nesting (even though I swore at the time I wasn’t), getting my house ready for my upcoming addition. During those few months, I had no problem waking up at 4AM without needing an alarm and throwing on my clothes so I could go clean the house. Yes folks, I was cleaning house at 4AM. I was soooooo nesting.

But I can’t do that now. Now, I do my best to get up at 5AM so I can grab a quick shower and write for an hour or two. Then the kids are up and it’s breakfast, laundry, outside to play, back inside to work out, time for lunch, time to read stories, time to sit and work, and oh my god, is it really 6PM already? Crap, I haven’t even started on dinner yet!

Yeah, that’s my day. Just about every day, too.

So what am I going to do? I’ve thought that maybe I ought to give up some of my workout time to clean, but my weight isn’t were I’d like it to be, and quite frankly, I hate giving up workout time. I sure as hell ain’t giving up writing time. As for cleaning when the kids are outside… well, we don’t have a fence around our backyard. I don’t mind sending the kids out to play while I’m in the kitchen or the living room where I can keep an eye on them, but I sure as hell am not going to let a six-year-old and a three-year-old play outside by themselves when I can’t keep an eye on them. Just doesn’t seem like a smart idea.

I’m not sure what to do. House cleaning is one of those activities that would burn calories, although not as many as a good 20 minutes playing DDR will. I need to see what I can fit in. Maybe if I can get the kids to help me…

Or would I end up cleaning up after them in addition to any other house cleaning I’d be doing?

I got no solution here. Will keep thinking about it. I’m hitting the hay now, so I hope everyone has a good night.

Cynical Woman is the creative property of Helen E. H. Madden.
Be sure to visit www.cynicalwoman.com for Cynical Woman cartoons.
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Move It Mama Monday! Final thoughts on Wii Fit vs. EA Sports Active

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The 30th day of my 30-day fitness challenge on EA Sports Active has come and gone, and I now feel ready to render final judgment on which is better: Wii Fit or EA Sports Active.

Drum roll, please…

Wii Fit, hands down, is the better program.

Why, you may ask? There are a number of reasons. The first, and most important in my book, is that I actually gained weight this past month, an extra three pounds that I’m now going to have to work on losing. Sports Active did not give me the workouts I needed to burn calories. Each workout in the 30-day challenge ran 25 minutes, on average, the longest workout running 28 minutes. Most of those workouts concentrated on strength building exercises, which are important, but don’t burn the calories like cardio exercises do. And except for the medium and long run exercises in EA Sports Active, there’s not really any cardio to speak of. The aerobic dance segments barely get my heart rate going (and honestly, I think they’re a joke, when compared to Wii Fit’s step routine). The boxing is nice, but doesn’t last nearly long enough to keep my heart rate up. The baseball, basketball, tennis and volley ball drills don’t last long either, and they don’t pop up nearly often enough in the workouts for the 30-day challenge to make a difference, in my opinion.

(And keep in mind, this is all in my opinion. You’ll see as we go today that I expect certain things from my workouts which may not appeal to everyone.)

Another big problem I had with EA Sports Active was its emphasis on lunges, squats, and jumping. I have bad knees. Wii Fit actually improved my knees dramatically. Prior to using Wii Fit, I had problems getting into and holding many positions in my karate classes because my knees couldn’t handle the stances. A few weeks on Wii Fit fixed that. I expect it’s the focus on balance and posture that did the trick, correcting problems with how I stand in general to the point that the muscles I needed to compensate for my knee problems finally got the workout they needed. EA Sports Active doesn’t have that focus. It’s all strength training, and while the repeated lunges, squats, and jumping did strengthen my outer thighs, they did damned little for those muscles that actually support my knees. As I type this review, I can feel my knees swelling from today’s workout. And the crunching noise they make when I go up and down the stairs is just as bad as it was six months ago, before I started on Wii Fit. It’s terrible, I tell ya.

My third issue with EA Sports Active is the exercise band. The one thing I looked forward to in EA Sports Active was the upper body workout. This is one area where Wii Fit falls flat. Aside from a few moves in the strength training section, Wii Fit focuses all its attention on core muscle building. My arms were starting to get flabby. EA Sports should have taken care of that, but the exercise band they packaged with the game is pretty much useless. It’s one of the lightest-weight bands you can find, and offered very little resistance for me during workouts. EA Sports Active advises that if you need more resistance, you can double up the band and stand on it. This shortened band will provide the resistance you need. Well, it sort of does that. The problem with that fix is that I sometimes had to stand almost on the handles to make the band short enough for some exercises. Also, it was too easy to get the band uneven in the folding, thus leading to uneven resistance between arms. Finally, I managed to tear a hole in my band by the fourth week of working out, and I think it happened because of how far I had to double up the band to get the resistance I needed.

Fortunately, I did have another band on hand, one that offers four times the resistance of the band that arrived with the game. I’m definitely getting that arm workout now. But I would have liked to have had this band from the start. Better yet, I would have liked to have had a variety of bands from the start, with handles to go with them. I’m thinking of ordering some extra bands and handles to solve that problem. I’ve looked online, but have yet to see a package of such bands offered by EA Sports Active. They seriously ought to consider putting one together and selling it as an accessory.

Now that I’ve bashed poor EA Sports Active, let me say what I liked about it. It does offer strength training beyond the core muscles. I especially like that I have the option to do more upper body exercises than just the push ups and plank poses offered by Wii Fit. And I like EA Sports Active’s journal feature. By filling it out each day, I have a regular reminder to eat more fruits and vegetables, drink more water, and stay away from sugary drinks and fast food. Those are probably my biggest downfalls when it comes to losing weight, and that gentle reminder is nice to have.

Wii Fit, on the other hand, doesn’t really look at nutrition, unless you suddenly gain 2 lbs, and then the snarky little bitch wants to know why you’re so fat all of a sudden. Unfortunately, Wii Fit will only accept a certain select list of excuses, many of which have nothing to do with why I gain weight suddenly (Wii Fit does not believe in water weight gain). And once you select your excuse, you have to listen to a lecture on the evils of what you did wrong. Annoying. As is Wii Fit’s comments when you miss a day or two or more. Guess what? I can’t help missing a week when I’m out of town! It’s not like I’m going to pack the whole Wii with Balance Board and Wii Fit disk and take it on the road with me! EA Sports Active, on the other hand, simply labels any days you take off as rest days. Maybe this is a cop out. Maybe I do need the nagging reminders and the lectures that Wii Fit hands out when I miss a few days or when my weight suddenly balloons, but you know what? I don’t like it!

My final analysis is this. I prefer Wii Fit, but EA Sports Active has something to offer, if I use it right. I think what I’ll probably end up doing is abandoning the 30-day challenge from here on out and make up my own workouts in EA Sports Active, to supplement what I do in Wii Fit. I’d like to try putting together a series of 15-minute routines that use those strength training exercises, but scaling back on the lunging and jumping so I don’t continue to kill my knees. I can use the long run to warm up, or even do a few minutes on our elliptical machine, then do strength training with EA Sports Active. After that, I can switch to Wii Fit, do my heavy duty cardio there (about 20-25 minutes straight), and then throw in 10-15 minutes of yoga, strength training, and balance games to workout those core muscles and strengthen my poor knees. I may even consider doing extra balance games later in the day as a pick-me-up in the afternoons. I have a tendency to get tired right before sitting down to work, and this might help me perk up. Or I could pull out the DDR mat and do some of that for a few minutes to get my blood pumping before I sit down at the computer.

One final thought before I sign off. The 30-day challenge might have worked for me and helped me lose, or at least maintain, weight if I had done two things. The first is attempting to complete all 20 workouts in 30 days. I actually missed the deadline by a week; I had five workouts left to go when day 30 rolled around. But I realize now there was no way I was going to complete 20 workouts in 30 days and still do karate and swimming during that time. What can I say? I like variety in my workouts, so I continued to space out EA Sports Active with those other activities, and thus blew my deadline. Second, I might have lost more weight if I had opted for the high intensity program rather than medium. That level of intensity might have made the difference. I might have seen more aerobic exercises mixed into the workouts, or I might have done longer, more intense workouts. However, I also fear that doing that level of workout for 30 days would have completely destroyed my knees, so perhaps it’s best I didn’t go that route..

I should finish up the last two workouts of my 30-day challenge by Wednesday, then I plan to finish up the week with Wii Fit only. On Monday, I’ll start doing custom workouts mixed with Wii Fit and we’ll see how that goes for a month.

Cynical Woman is the creative property of Helen E. H. Madden.
Be sure to visit www.cynicalwoman.com for Cynical Woman cartoons.
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Move It Mama Monday! EA Sports Active part 2

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Well, the utility guys have dug up all the utility posts in my neighborhood, so cable, internet, and phone have been sketchy all day. Thus you may be seeing this on Tuesday, rather than on the Monday it was written. Oh well!

Anyway, I’ve had a week to play with EA Sports Active, and thought I’d give an update. I have NOT lost any weight in last week, and in fact have actually put on a pound or two. This may be due to the fact that it’s ‘that time of the month.’ Or it may be due to the fact that I’ve very off schedule so I haven’t done my other fitness activities like swimming, karate, walking, or gardening the past week. Or maybe it’s due to the fact that someone in the family had a birthday recently, and someone else we know graduated recently, and thus there’s been a lot of cake and backyard grilling going on, neither of which is good for my waistline.

Regardless of the reason, the weight gain has made me aware of what I consider to be the big flaw so far in EA Sports Active – the lack of cardio activity in the workouts. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m definitely getting a workout here, and I’m disgusting with sweat by the time I’m done. But each workout lasts on 35 minutes at most, and maybe only a third of that is dedicated to cardio – running on a track, boxing, dance, etc. The rest of the time I’m doing calisthenics – lunges, squats, bicep curls with the elastic band. There’s plenty of muscle building going on, and I was so sore a few times last week that I had a hard time getting out of bed in the morning. And that’s good. I need the muscle building. But I also need cardio. Lots and lots of cardio.

Wii Fit provides cardio in spades. There are nine different cardio activities to do, and many of those have 2-3 intensity levels. I can mix and match my cardio so that I do five minutes of a bunch of different activities or I can do 30 minutes of just one activity. I like that. And on some of these longer cardio activities, I can even slip in my ear buds and listen to some podcasts while I work out. That’s a big bonus for me! I can not do this with EA Sports Active.

The other problem I’m having with EA Sports Active is that all that lunging and squatting and jumping around is pretty rough on my knees. My knees sound like I’ve got a ton of gravel in them right now, lots of popping and cracking when I go up and down the stairs. Wii Fit had actually taken care of that problem for me. My knees improved significantly during the first two weeks of using Wii Fit. I think it was all the emphasis on balance and core strength that did it, and I miss that terribly.

So what to do? I like the strength building in EA Sports Active. I also like the ‘attitude’ behind it, constantly encouraging instead of occasionally snarky like Wii Fit tends to be. (That damned thing actually got rather snippy when it asked me why I’d gained weight and I responded “I don’t know.” Hey, is it my fault they don’t list water weight or illness as a reason for possible weight gain?) BUT, I prefer the cardio in Wii Fit and I need the yoga, strength and balance games to improve my knees.

I’ve started doing workouts that combine the two games. I start with EA Sports Active, getting all my strength building out of the way, and then switch to Wii Fit for cardio and a bit of yoga or strength or balance games. On Sunday I spent a walloping 60 minutes between the two. I was ready to drop when I was done. Didn’t seem to affect the needle on the scale any, but I’m hopeful that more workouts combining the two programs will give me the results I need. I have noticed that my legs look nicer and that it’s gotten easier for me to do lunges, so that’s a good sign. I’ll give another update in a few weeks to let you all know how this works out.

Cynical Woman is the creative property of Helen E. H. Madden.
Be sure to visit www.cynicalwoman.com for Cynical Woman cartoons.
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Move It Mama Monday! EA Sports Active is here

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So I completely blew off Move It Mama Monday last week. I had expected to do the blog post a day late, due to the fact that I was at Balticon through the entire four-day weekend. I was completely unprepared though for how wiped out I was after the convention. Seriously, Balticon kicked my ass. I’m forty, a stay-at-home mom, and not used to partying like that anymore. What was I thinking, staying up until 2AM every morning?! Especially when I normally get up at 5AM?

It took me all last week to recover, and then catch up on work as well. I worked straight through the weekend and got a lot done (audio recording, 2 stories written, 2 book covers finished for a client, and I got to see Wicked! the musical), but to do that I had to let a few other things slide, like say… exercise. And house work.

Of course, we’re not here today to discuss the state of my house (it’s bad, really bad). Instead, we’re here to talk about exercise, and I do have something to discuss. Namely, EA Sports Active, the new game for the Wii! I ordered this game over a month ago as a wedding anniversary present for my husband and I. It showed up the day after I got back from Balticon and I let it sit until Friday, being too wiped out to even open the box. On Friday, when I finally did pull it out and get it set up, EA Sports Active proceeded to kick my ass just as badly as Balticon had, only using tortuous exercise in lieu of partying.

Since Friday, I’ve used the game three times. That’s long enough for me to give it my initial opinion, I think. And that opinion is…

I like it. It’s not as perky or game oriented as Wii Fit, but it does have a lot going for it. Active is based on a 30-day challenge by Bob Greene, he of the sacred circle of Oprah experts. Bob Greene is probably the only one in that circle I can tolerate, having read one of his books and decided for myself that his advice on fitness makes sense. You only get to see Mr. Greene in the little introductory video, which is probably good because he’s so damned healthy it’s scary.

After the intro video, Mr. Greene disappears and you have a choice of two smiling trainers to guide you through the workouts. These are real people as opposed to the digital trainers used in Wii Fit. The workouts in Active are the best part about the game. You can either go with the preset routines, of which there are several, or build a customized routine. There is also something called the “30-day challenge” that puts you through 30 days of workouts, pushing you a little harder each time. These workouts switch up between several exercises, mostly strength but with some cardio, and each day gets a different focus, so it looks like this won’t get boring any time soon. And from what I can see, if you decide not to do the 30-day challenge, you can still pick from PLENTY of preset routines to do, though if you want to build your own routine, you’re free to do so. It will probably be a while before I feel the need to customize a routine. I’m opting for the 30-day challenge right now, letting Active pick the routines for me. This means I can just workout on autopilot and not have to think about what I’m doing. This right here is one of the biggest differences between EA Sports Active and Wii Fit. With Wii Fit, there are no preset routines. You have to decide for yourself what you’re going to do each day. I find that I tend to avoid certain exercises on the Wii Fit because of that, and those are probably exactly the exercises I need to do. I could avoid certain exercises on the Active game as well, but I would actually have to go to the trouble of picking through the routine to decide what I don’t want to do. If I just shut off my brain and go with the routine, that doesn’t happen and I get those extra exercises in.

Another big difference between Wii Fit and EA Sports Active is on what aspect of fitness the two games focus on. Wii Fit places a lot of emphasis on balance and core muscle strength, tracking your center of balance through every strength and yoga exercise. Not so with Active. Active favors more traditional gym exercises like lunges, arm curls, etc.. With Wii Fit, I usually only do one set of a particular exercise per workout. With Active, I may visit the same exercise 2-3 times, depending on the preset routine. That’s not to say I don’t sweat when I do Wii Fit. Doing each exercise once usually lets me work up quite a sweat, so I have no preference of one over the other here.

Accessories is another category to look at. Due to its focus on balance and posture, Wii Fit utilizes the balance board heavily (in fact, I don’t think there was no balance board before there was Wii Fit, was there?). For Active, however, the Wii balance board is an optional accessory. You can use it for some exercises, but if you don’t have one, don’t sweat it. Those exercises that use it don’t actually require it, so that’s nice if you haven’t shelled out for the balance board yet. Instead, Active uses an elastic resistance band included in the game package to do a lot of the strength exercises. The band is pretty light weight, and after another week, I’ll probably pull out one of the bands I used to use for physical therapy to up the resistance. There’s also a leg band that you strap around your upper thigh. This has a pocket in it to hold the nunchuk through out exercises that only require the one remote.

One final big difference is the body test and goal setting. Wii Fit does this, Active doesn’t. In fact, Active doesn’t even check your weight. This is both good and bad. I can’t stand being scolded by Wii Fit, especially when I know my weight gains are due to water-weight or some other excuse not in it’s “why are you fat today?” list. But tracking my weight as well as my activity does make me more likely to eat better and drink more water in addition to exercising, and that’s what it takes for me to maintain a healthy weight. Active will track my workouts and ask about my eating habits if I choose to fill out my journal entries. But it doesn’t track my weight or test my balance.

So those are the main differences between the two games. Do I like Active better than Wii Fit? I’m going to say no. It’s different, but not better. I like having the preset workouts, but have to admit some of the exercises in those workouts, like lunges and side-to-side jumping, are a little rough on my knees. Still, I can get through that and I’m hopeful that my knees will improve as I continue to do these exercises. What I miss is the check on my balance. I swear, Wii Fit and the balance board did more to improve my knees than even several weeks of dedicated physical therapy. I need those balance-oriented exercises to maintain my knees’ health. I also miss the game aspect of Wii Fit. I like scoring points for stuff that I do. Active sort of does that, awarding trophies for workouts completed and such, but it’s not as much fun as Wii Fit. Graphics-wise, I definitely prefer the Wii Fit. I can’t help it, I like being a kitschy little cartoon character. Seeing my Mii run and box and do other stuff is just too fun. My avatar in Active looks like a real person, sort of, and that also serves to remind me this isn’t a game so much as a work out.

I’ll have to find some balance between the two games. I want to continue doing both, but having limited time, I’ll need to be careful how much time I spend on each. With the 30-day challenge, I’ve pretty much committed myself to using Active almost everyday for the next month. Juggling that with karate, swimming, Wii Fit, housework, and career might be… tricky.

We’ll see what I do. I haven’t had time yet to think about how I want to incorporate EA Sports Active into my workouts, but I’ll get it sorted in the next couple of weeks. Meanwhile, if you’re looking for a good workout that provides plenty of variety, check it out. You’ll be sore like I was for a few days, probably, but I think it’s going to be worth it.

Cynical Woman is the creative property of Helen E. H. Madden.
Be sure to visit www.cynicalwoman.com for Cynical Woman cartoons.
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Move It Mama Monday! Did I Make My Goal?

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No.

No, no, no, no. I did not make my Wii Fit goal. In fact, if you ask Wii Fit, I’m only a pound less than where I started from three months ago. I know that sounds terribly disappointing. However…

My bathroom scale says I’m about four pounds lighter. And my weight has been fluctuating between 146 and 148, rather than 149 and 152. And I’ve even gotten as low as 144.5 at one point. Plus my clothes fit better. For Mother’s Day, I wore the slinky dress I made for my honeymoon almost 16 years ago, and it fit perfectly. And my knees are doing a lot better in karate class. I can now get through two hours of class without limping out of the dojo afterward.

So I’m going to say this was a success, even if I didn’t lose the 11 pounds I set out to lose.

But I’m also going to say that there are areas I could stand to improve, and they’re things Wii Fit doesn’t monitor. Things like sleep, drinking water, and eating lots of fresh fruits and vegetables.

I know what it takes for me to really lose this weight. The biggest factor is the amount of sleep I get every night. I do best when I can climb into bed at 9PM. Then I have no problems getting up at 5AM the next morning to start my day and go on to accomplish everything on my to-do list. Also, if I can sleep straight from 9PM until 5AM, I don’t end up craving sugary or salty foods all day long. However, if I don’t rigorously enforce that early bed time, I’m pretty much screwed. I won’t be able to get out of bed at 5 and I won’t be able to take control of my day from the get go. I end up scrambling to get stuff accomplished, including exercise, and my eating habits go south fast.

When I’m tired, I have problems doing things I know I should do to lose weight, like drink lots of water and eat fresh fruits and veggies. Instead of water, I’ll down cup after cup of hot tea or coffee with plenty of sugar in it. Instead of reaching for an apple or pear when I’m hungry, I’ll dig out the chips. It’s stupid, I know, especially since I know the fruit is better for me and I know I’m sabotaging myself when I go for the chips. But when I’m tired, I just don’t have the will power to do what I should do. Or rather, I refuse to summon the will power to reach for the fruit instead. There’s this little voice in my mind that tells me I’m tired and I’ve been working so hard, why not just relax a bit and reward myself with some comfort food. Again, really stupid, and I know it even as I do it, yet I do it anyway.

It hasn’t helped that I tried going to bed early last week, but had insomnia just about every night. That really killed my fitness goals, and I couldn’t do much but suffer through it. I’ve been plagued by insomnia off and on for as long as I can remember, and I really wish I could figure out a way to beat it. I don’t drink any coffee or sodas after 2PM, so caffeine really shouldn’t be the problem. I do tend to use the evening hours to catch up on work, so that’s probably the culprit. I should stop working in the evenings and do some winding down instead, but if I cut out those work hours, I’m afraid I’ll really get behind in work.

It may be that I need to look at my schedule again and try something new. I loved doing some exercise early in the morning before doing work, because I know that helps me lose weight, but I need the word hours desperately, especially if I’m going to eliminate those work hours from the evening. So my plan for this go around is to move the exercise to later in the day, probably mid morning after I’ve gotten some work done and gotten Pixie outside for some play time and gardening. We’ll see if that helps.

Two final notes: first, I’m still waiting to see what Wii Fit says I weigh after I get through my current menstrual cycle. Remember, I’m carrying around a lot of excess tissue held over from the previous cycle, and I’m wondering if that’s causing me to hold onto a little extra weight as well. Second, I’m waiting for the new EA Sports Active game for Wii Fit to come out. I pre-ordered a copy and am anxious to see how it works. I love the current Wii Fit, but would like to have something to add to my repertoire of fitness tools. Variety never hurts when it comes to losing weight!

Next week’s Move It Mama Monday will probably be late. I’ll be up in Maryland for Balticon all through Memorial Day weekend and won’t get home until late Monday, so look for an update on Tuesday instead. I could write the post in advance, but I’d like to give myself a week to see if I can convince Wii Fit I weigh a little less. So until then, have fun and keep moving!

Cynical Woman is the creative property of Helen E. H. Madden.
Be sure to visit www.cynicalwoman.com for Cynical Woman cartoons.
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Move It Mama Monday! Crunched For Time

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Greetings and salutions on this fine Monday morn–!

Eh, who am I kidding? I’m dead on my feet today. But hopefully you’re doing better.

I’m going up on my first three months with the Wii Fit. This week is the last week for me to meet my goal, although I’m not going to make it. I had set a goal of losing 11 lbs in three months. I’m 6 lbs short of that goal. But I’m not upset about that, especially considering how high my weight shot up last week (water weight really sucks, but it can be gotten rid of, thankfully!).

While I won’t manage to meet my goal, I did lose and manage to keep off 5 lbs, which I haven’t been able to do before. My scale these days more often reads 146 than 151, and that’s a huge difference for me. My jeans fit much better (hurray!). But better than that, I’ve noticed a huge improvement in my knees. I have lousy knees, ruined by sparring injuries and hormones from two pregnancies. They’d gotten really bad this past year, but after working on Wii Fit for a few weeks, I started noticing a significant difference in my ability to hold the more demanding stances. I can get lower and hold those stances longer, and that makes me really happy.

Still, I’d like to eventually lose those last 6 lbs., and I’ve been thinking about what it will take to make that happen. Do I need to exercise more? I’d love to, but my schedule is pretty full, and I’m already having a hard time fitting everything in each day. So I started playing around with my daily schedule to see if I could squeeze in an extra half hour of Wii Fit each day. I got up most mornings at 5 AM last week to do 45 minutes of Wii Fit, and then scheduled some sort of fitness activity later in the day like swimming or karate. I definitely got results. Unfortunately, I normally get up at 5AM to work on my writing and podcast, and I couldn’t figure out how to fit in the work time I needed now that I’d given up an hour or so each morning to do the extra Wii Fit.

Bottom line, the schedule change helped me shed that water weight plus another pound or so, but it ruined my work schedule, and I can’t have that. So I’m trying a different schedule this week. I realized one of the reasons the Wii Fit early in the morning worked so well is that I was getting my cardio exercise in first thing in the morning.

Cardio in the AM has always helped me maintain my weight, so this is something I want to continue. However, I don’t have to do 45 minutes of Wii Fit to get those results (and keep in mind that 45 minutes on the Wii Fit translates to at least an hour of actual time). What I do need to do is about 20 minutes of cardio, either using the Wii Fit or the new monster elliptical machine the Hubster bought. Then I could do my body test, an extra 5 minutes or so, and move on to writing for the morning. Then later in the day, after the Pixie and I have had some time to play outside and garden, I can come back in and spend another 20-25 minutes doing the strength, yoga or balance games on the Wii Fit. Or I can head out to the Y for a swim or the dojo for an hour of karate class.

I’m hoping this compromise works and gives me the time to both workout and work. I’ll let you know next week how it goes.

Meanwhile, I’m doing okay. I spent some time working on Operation Kill A Lot Of Plants this past week. I’ve filled a total of 23 pots with soil and seedlings. Yeah, I’m nuts. But remember, this is Operation Kill A LOT Of Plants, so we’re good so far. I also have some plants that have survived previous gardening attempts, so right now my deck is pretty full. I still have some sunflowers and marigolds to plant. They’ll go in one last big pot later this week.

For Mother’s Day, the Hubster took me to Barnes & Noble, where I picked two blank journals, one for me and one for Princess. I told her we would keep journals this summer of our gardening and other activities. We also got a simple weather science kit for Princess and set that up yesterday. She spent the afternoon taking little notes about the weather and then drew our deck with all the plants on it. I’ll have to scan in her drawings later this week, but for now, here are some picks of the garden so far.

We’ve got lots of herbs on the back deck…

Plus tomatoes and corn and peppers…

Did I mention we had lots of herbs on the back deck?

Okay, that’s it for this week. Pixie’s starting to climb all over me, so you know what that means.

Mama’s got to move it!

Cynical Woman is the creative property of Helen E. H. Madden.
Be sure to visit www.cynicalwoman.com for Cynical Woman cartoons.
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Move It Mama Monday – Fighting the Sleepies

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I don’t know about anybody else, but I tend to get the sleepies around 1PM most days. This is usually the time right after lunch when I’m reading stories to the Pixie before sending her to her room for quiet time. I’m fed, I’m lying on a bed or sitting on a couch, curled up with a snuggly bundle of Pixie joy, and I’m reading aloud, which for some reason always makes me yawn. I usually have a hard time keeping my eyes open after the first story, and by the third story, I’m nodding off in the middle of reading, only to be poked awake by my daughter who wants “more story, Mama!”

I know already that I don’t get enough sleep. I like to get up at 5AM to work for a couple of hours before everyone else wakes, and that means I really should be in bed by 9PM. Most nights though, I’m lucky if I’m in bed by 10:30. That’s not really enough sleep for me, especially if I do an intense workout that day. Invariably, I either end up fueling myself on caffeine, which I know is bad for me, or I eat too much to stay awake (also bad for me), or I crash around 1PM, and lose some of my precious afternoon work hours.

To fight the problem, I’m doing the following things. First, I’m trying my best to be in bed by 10PM. I really do feel the difference the next day. At least I don’t feel the need to eat so much to stay awake. I’m also trying to clear my work schedule so I have less to do, making it easier to get to bed at 10. And finally, I’m trying to fight the afternoon sleepies by getting up and moving when I’d really rather take a nap.

I’ve decided that at 1PM, I can either do a few of the Wii Fit balance games or I can pull out the DDR mat and do 10-15 minutes on that. I stink at both activities, but I’m getting the results I want. I have to concentrate, and I have to keep moving, and that’s usually enough to wake me up when I’m tired. It’s the best solution I’ve come up with so far.

Of course, there are days when it doesn’t work, days when I’ve stayed up far too late the night before and there’s no way I can possibly stay awake. What to do then? Lie down and take a nap. I feel guilty later for not using that time to work, but I also have to admit I enjoy snuggling up beneath a blanket and catching a few Zs. So good in fact, I’m wondering if I should make it a part of my routine followed by a few minutes of DDR or Wii Fit to wake up. I’ll have to see.

Do you get sleepy in the afternoon? How do you stay awake? Or do you prefer to nap?

So I’m working

Cynical Woman is the creative property of Helen E. H. Madden.
Be sure to visit www.cynicalwoman.com for Cynical Woman cartoons.
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Move It Mama Monday – Wii Fit Hates Me!

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I’m knocking this out real quick before I go to bed, because I promised I’d do a Move It Mama Monday post every week, and after the first post I promptly missed the next week, and I’m about to miss this week too.

First off, I still love the Wii Fit, but it hates me. WTF? you ask. It’s simple. I love getting on the Wii Fit and playing the games, and I was seeing a slow, steady decline in my weight, but then I went to Vegas for a few days and when I got back my weight was up 2.2 lbs, and Wii Fit scolded me for it, and nagged at me for not being around the last five days! Yes, it said I was a slacker who had gained weight and it wanted to know the reason why I was suddenly so porky. And you know what? That little twerp doesn’t offer water weight as an excuse!

In all honesty, I went to Vegas for 5 days for EPICon 2009, an e-publishing convention. One of those days was mostly spent on the plane flying out there and then another was spent on the trip coming back. I came down with a nasty cold the day I left, and had a jam-packed schedule from the moment I landed in Vegas, so that made exercising and foraging for healthy food a little tough. Still, I didn’t think I had done that badly. I swam laps in the pool twice while I was there, and walked around the resort, making sure to take the steps instead of any elevators. Plus, except for two meals, I really didn’t feel like I had over-indulged. Yeah, I got two desserts at the Eppies Awards Banquet, and yes, there weren’t nearly enough fresh fruits and vegetables in my diet during those few days. But damn, I tried! I avoided eating lots and lots of greasy meals by going out every day. In fact, I only ordered two meals for room service – dinner the night I arrived and breakfast the next morning, because I had no other way to get a meal being on a resort. It was either room service or go to the resort restaurants. And I stretched those two meals I ordered, making them both last a couple of days because they were so huge. But other than that, I was good I tell you!

Oh, but I did get a gellato one afternoon.

And there was this greasy bagel sandwich I ate at the airport the morning I left.

And the Moe’s burrito I had during my layover in Atlanta.

Plus a huge Cinnabun thing on the morning flying back.

And an order of Moe’s nachos during the layover on my way back.

Well crud. I guess I wasn’t so good after all. Back to vegetarian meals and more Wii Fit for me! We’ll see how much I weigh next Monday.

Cynical Woman is the creative property of Helen E. H. Madden.
Be sure to visit www.cynicalwoman.com for Cynical Woman cartoons.
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Move It Mama Monday

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Well, I’m finally going to declare 2009 officially started because I have no choice in the matter. Yeah, yeah, I know. 2009 started almost two months ago. Well I had so much stuff from 2008 left hanging over my head that I wasn’t really ready to start 2009 until today. And I’m starting today because (drumroll please)…

I turned 40 today. That’s right, I’ve hit not-quite-middle-old-age.

I have to say 39 was pretty rough. I had a lot going on – the podcast, promoting my first book, writing and publishing my second book, the webcomic, Princess starting kindergarten, Saint Michael the Magnificent’s work schedule (he’s telecommuting with a NASA center on the opposite coast). I’ve been struggling to keep up, and I finally hit the point where I decided to start shoving stuff of my plate and not adding anything else on. This year I’ve decided to focus on certain basic things that I need to do, that I really want to do, that I enjoy doing, and nothing else needs to be added.

And one of these things is getting back in shape. I know I said back in January that I wanted to lose about 10 pounds. Well I hadn’t made much headway in that as of a week ago. Being so busy means lousy sleep and eating habits for me, which means low motivation and a sporadic exercise schedule at best. But on Valentine’s Day weekend, while I was away at a sci-fi convention pimping the new book, Michael picked up a Wii for the family, and now everything has changed.

I got to play with a Wii a bit back in December when we went to visit my in-laws. One of my brothers-in-law brought his over for all of us to play, and I thought it was fun. I also thought that maybe playing DDR would be a fun way for me to squeeze in a little exercise every now and then. I hadn’t seen the Wii Fit yet. But when Michael showed me the new set up in our living room, he handed me the Wii Fit disk and I thought, “Hmmm… this might be interesting.”

I had seen the Wii Fit demo online at Nintendo’s website, and wasn’t sure I’d be getting much of a workout from the program. Boy was I wrong about that! I’ve been doing Wii Fit for 8 days now, and I can honestly say it’s a butt-kicking workout. I put in between 30-60 minutes a day on that thing and I’m always dripping sweat when I’m done. I haven’t seen much change in my weight yet – I’ve lost one pound since I started 8 days ago – but I did notice a difference tonight when I went to my evening karate class. I’ve been struggling the last several months in karate. My knees have been nothing but trouble since my first pregnancy, and after Pixie was born, they were pretty much shot to hell. Constant pain in my knees plus extra weight plus being tired all the time has added up to me really not wanting to go to karate… and I’m a second degree black belt! I’m supposed to be good at this stuff, but I’ve been sucking wind for ages trying to keep up in class. I have to wear these humongous braces on each leg to protect my knees, which really makes it tough to do class. It’s a fight to kick or lift my legs, and my balance has been so off that some of the katas and stances have been downright painful.

Well not tonight. This evening I went through two hours of class, and I don’t hurt at all! I’m a little tired, but that’s nothing compared to how I usually feel after an evening of karate. I was able to do everything with no pain today, and I saw marked improvement in my stances and balance. It’s all due to the Wii Fit. That thing measures and tracks my balance and gives me instant feedback throughout the workout so I can correct myself on the spot. It’s really been a workout for my legs. I can actually see my hamstrings, and I know from working with a physical therapist that strong hamstrings alleviate a lot of knee problems. This is nothing short of a miracle for me!

So in honor of my new found energy and to mark my 40th birthday, I’m thinking of doing a regular bit on Mondays called “Move It Mama Monday,” where I’ll blog a bit about what I’m doing to get myself back into shape and stay there. If anyone is interested in contributing ideas for this particular series of posts, don’t hesitate to e-mail me at helenmadden (at) cox (dot) net. I’m looking forward to seeing if I can get my thirty-something body back now that I’m forty.

Cynical Woman is the creative property of Helen E. H. Madden.
Be sure to visit www.cynicalwoman.com for Cynical Woman cartoons.