ila's Wii Fit Log

[ila]

Well SFGHQ, I'll admit to you guys that I had Wii Fit preordered last month. Since Freshman year of college (back in 06) I've gained a considerable amount of weight, with DDR being my main means of excercise... long story short, wasn't able to play on a daily basis for the past year or so and I really haven't got out much. Enter Wii Fit.

I'm perfectly aware that Wii Fit is not a personal trainer in a box. Its not a full daily regimine and what not. However I am using it as a sort of "inspiration" for a 3 month plan for me to shed some weight. I'll be posting daily updates in this topic for you to look at and/or completely ignore, whatever your cup of tea is. I admit that I'm partially posting my journal here, rather than my blog, is because I want the attention, negative or positive. Other reason is I think its just easier to get opinions here... and I cannot remember my blog's login info.

Feel free to post whatever Wii Fit or other related discussion you like, even "ila you're a fatty" if you want.

[ila]

Day 0 - March 21, 2008

Today was a test day. Actual analysis starts on the 22.

[shadowgoten]

I'm all for this sc00ter, and don't be ashamed that you preordered wii fit, I preordered that shit too, can't wait to finally get some daily routine going so i can motivate myself to go to the gym or just perform excersize on a daily basis.

[Aerosol]

I'd preorder it cause it looks fun. No shame dude

[StarKrafter]

That's cool, ila. I wish you the best of luck.

You should take some before and after pictures for your routine. I find it's an excellent motivation when you can physically compare differences.

[wesker]

I didn't preorder it. But I did wait on a line with like 50 other people at Nintendo World yesterday waiting for it. Just about all of them looked like healthy people too, the wii fit isn't just for fatty's, it's also fun and a cheap motivator (Hey! I am doing push ups again )

Great idea btw ila, can't wait to see some results. Just remember eating right is a huge part of any exercise regimen.

[Herotokami]

There is nothing to be shy about, I am saving up to buy it eventually as well. I would recommend you to try out P90X if you feel motivated enough.

I recently finished P90X which lasted 90 days. Sad thing is, I only did about 70 days and didn't diet until about a month ago. I was totally oblivious to the whole diet thing and was either busy or plain lazy a few of the days. I have before and after pictures that look nothing alike, even some video logs. I don't know why but I love it when people decide to go active.

[ila]

Day 1 - May 22, 2008

BMI: 29.58 (Overweight)

Weight: 188.5 lb

Wii Fit Age: 22

Wii Fit Units: 15 (may change later if I get time tonight, obviously going to increase daily)

Today's Balance Test: Left 45.5% - Right 54.6%

Other stuff:

Height: 5'7

[Aerosol]

Herotokami, P90X is expensive. How's the average joe supposed to afford this!?

[Pheonix Gamma]

There's a post on GameFAQs by some guy who's too fat for the game to work properly, and it says you exceed the weight limit once you reach a certain weight.

His advice:

Don't know if anybody else suffered this problem, but for the bigger people here is a solution. If the board keeps saying you exceed the limit, one way to fix this is really by sitting on the board. Mainly cause the legs add probably an extra 30-50 pounds. But since I been doing this, it now let's me continue. However it won't read you real weight but heard it isn't accurate anyway.

But just posting this in case anybody else had any problems. Since it isn't the board cause after I got though that step, the balance parts and such work great, and amazed the board and even stand my weight hehe.

HAX.

Anywho, my mom's all into fitness and shit, and when I asked what she wants for her birthday, she seriously suggested WiiFit. I told her to stay the hell away from my hobby, but then realized that it's the only gift idea I can think of.

[Slingerland]

WiiFit said I was overweight. I laughed.

[wesker]

Fatty.

EDIT:

Herotokami, P90X is expensive. How's the average joe supposed to afford this!?

I saw somewhere on the internet where you can get it for free. Might wanna do a google search or something.

[Guest Shadix]

Herotokami, P90X is expensive. How's the average joe supposed to afford this!?

It's just a DVD kit.

AKA *insert torrent site here* + Protein Powder \ Creatine (Hell, Walmart even has this crap) + A Pull-up Bar + Water + Elastic Bands. (Which, if you want to be a cheap bastard, you can also get at Walmart)

I'm not liking this topic that much though. If you want to lose weight, walk outside your front door and run until your heart bleeds out. Seriously, if you aren't willing to push yourself to the limit it is going to be hard to stay on any exercise program, this "wii fit" included. All you need for motivation is a scale and a mirror.

Also, steer clear of "diet" products, they aren't good for you (especially aspartame based colas), and I believe a recent study actually showed Diet Soda to actually make you gain weight. If you are actually going to workout though do not go and cut all your carbs out either.

You need carbs, despite what most commercial diets make you think, just not shit. It may be painful (it was for me), but try cutting yourself from sweets that you are addicted to, such as sodas and the likes. If possible try to find some sort of healthy alternative to supplement your thirst for soda. Most importantly try to cut your serving sizes down. There is usually an enemy food or foods that cause you to gain weight, and you want to neutralize that so your exercise isn't fighting against your eating habits.

[Herotokami]

It's not too bad, I bought it used for about 95 dollars on ebay. I recently resold 6 of the dvds on Ebay, since I am finished, and I got back what I paid but still have half the collection left. Still, it's great if you are motivated and like Tony Horton.

[Aerosol]

Shadix, losing weight isn't as easy as "going out and running"

Running in circles bores the SHIT out of me. But I love playing sports. I think what Wii Fit is trying to do is to make exercising a game, so that it's fun instead of ruthlessly boring.

[Slingerland]

Or, be like me and be on a team, where you get yelled at to do something or else you're a "miserable failure" and/or "disgrace."

[wesker]

And you get to take showers with naked dudes! (hardeeharhar)

[Slingerland]

Actually, no.

[DimensionWarped]

Shadix, losing weight isn't as easy as "going out and running"

Running in circles bores the SHIT out of me. But I love playing sports. I think what Wii Fit is trying to do is to make exercising a game, so that it's fun instead of ruthlessly boring.

Thats the point. It's to get you into the state of mind to lose weight rather than simply having that as a goal. It allows you to put everything into stages and helps to get you in the mood to do the kind of shit Shadix is talking about in suplement to Wii Fit.

[ila]

And hence why I used the word "inspiration" Going to try and get up at 8 tomorrow so I can get a good hour in before work.

[Guest Shadix]

Shadix, losing weight isn't as easy as "going out and running"

Running in circles bores the SHIT out of me. But I love playing sports. I think what Wii Fit is trying to do is to make exercising a game, so that it's fun instead of ruthlessly boring.

I guess this is just personal opinion, but I've found that there is NO way to make exercise "fun", because fun implies comfort, and exercise implies discomfort. I don't know, I've tried quite a few of those magic "fun weight loss" things before, and I have to say I probably got more bored with that than anything else. Once you realize you still have to work, no amount of "fun" is going to save you when you are doing intense cardio. Then you realize how counter-productive the program itself is trying to make it "fun" and you wind up getting frustrated.

Have you actually ever gone out and just ran your heart out? It gets miserable, but it's also feels quite nice. When I started, what, 6 months ago I used to take my iPod with me so I had some pumpy motivational music, after I while I just kindof decided that I didn't need it because watching the world flow by you just makes you feel so present.

Shadix, losing weight isn't as easy as "going out and running"

What you don't realize is that it is that easy when combined with good eating habits, but you aren't mentally willing to let yourself endure the hardship. The only block is the block you are choosing to create, citing boredom as an excuse. Sure, running might actually be boring for you, but most of the time boredom is merely created by the wondering mind trying to find something more "comforting" to do.

Once you admit that it's "difficult" you've already lost the battle of self-control. Getting yourself to do it and push yourself isn't difficult, it's really, really simple, in fact if it helps the less thinking you do the better off you are. The only difficult part is keeping yourself going once you start actually working out (aka when it starts to burn\hurt\feel like you are out of energy\etc.), and it's physically taxing, not mentally.

---

TL;DR: Running is easy, quit making excuses. Losing weight literally requires sacrifice. No simulator game that helps you exercise is going to be "fun", I'm worried you just bought into Nintendo's version of the magic weightloss system. Slingerland's idea is also a good remedy for your apparent boredom.

I'm sorry if I'm coming off like an ass in this thread, it's just I'm seeing alot of the "getting around the point" reasoning I used to use before I really changed my lifestyle. There was no process or thinking involved. It's just, one day you decide to quit making excuses and endure the suffering\fun\"boredom" in order to get where you need to be. You have to quit telling yourself it's difficult. When you get down to it and quit making reasons NOT to do it, you'll find that there is really nothing in your way from leaving your house, and, if you don't live in a suburb taking a short drive to the closest trail\park\track\sidewalk >.> If you still need more motivation than merely appearance, imagine the increased maneuverability, reflexes, and whatnot that will generally make your life easier. There are many more perks to being fit than just being pretty, and the whole self-improvement bit is what keeps me going. I want to be able to move like those parkour\freerunner freaks, well and I eventually want to get into team sports, despite entering a tad late in my life. It's something I wasn't able to really do when I was young, was too phats.

[Jamie Bailey]

Ah yes, the old issue of fitness. I used to be eighteen and a half stone in January 2004, when I felt like my own body was trying to suffocate me while lying in bed. Then everything changed, I started the Atkins diet and started exercising. The good thing was the diet stopped me from getting such unbearable hunger all the time, the bad thing was, it had other effects. My normally thick hair thinned out and I couldn't drink much alcohol before being sick.

I started with an exercise machine until it broke after four months, then I started running, as I wanted to do something that didn't require a machine. After I stopped losing weight with Atkins I changed to a normal diet, and that's what I'm still with today, only I've now recovered from the Atkins side effects, but my hunger is still under control, so that's good.

When I started exercising I could only do five minutes on the machine (with very little resistance) before having to collapse, by the time it broke I was able to do it through the length of a one and a half hour film. These days I'm running five miles on weekday mornings, not much fun in the cold darkness of winter mornings, but fine in the summer.

The lowest I've got my weight to was twelve stone, but with different situations life throws at me I end up gaining some weight then losing again. I lost weight easily last year, but this year the weight doesn't really want to come off, and the only difference in what I'm doing is that I'm not eating so many bananas. Strange. But still, I'm far better off than I used to be.

[Streak Thunderstorm]

You know, technically, exercise can never actually feel miserable. Your body wont ever let it. You see, when you exercise, you release endorphins which is basically liquid pleasure hormone. So when you're workin' your ass off, your brain is pretty much thanking you by jacking off every cell in your body.

As far as fitness is concerned. Technically I am pretty fit. I can go rollerblading 10 miles a day with little need for recovery. I can bike 40 miles a day, simply because I have the genes for it. My whole father's side has pretty much horse-like legs so they're very powerful and also very heavy. I wouldn't be caught dead running because simply the shock to my knees would ruin my legs completely. I used to play football in highschool and I destroyed people[lol] with full force but in the process I have weakened my knees so now I cant run as powerful as I used to without having some knee pain.

It's always nice to pick an exercise regimen that is placed out somewhere where it's nice to look at and there's a lot of traffic around. By traffic, I mean other people exercising with you. I go out on a bike path near the Hudson river when I rollerblade and when people see me with a disgruntled face because I'm working hard, they often encourage it. Give the thumbs up and whatnot. At first I found it really odd but then I sat down once and saw lots of people do it to others. It was actually kinda refreshing. Even though its nice working out around people, it's hard working out WITH someone. Basically because it's hard keeping 2 paces together. It's often frustrating to have to slow down for someone when you're already used to your own methodology of working out. For instance. My aunt is 33. I took her to the path near the hudson once and she couldnt make it past a mile without having to go back and finish. It's a mile to the path from my house then 4 miles to the verrazanno bridge. All together it's 10 miles. She only made it a mile and wanted to go home. I wasn't even 1/4th tired yet. That's why when I am going to work out with her, I wake up extra early at 6 AM and go rollerblade with the morning crowd that exercise before work. Usually the old chinese guys doing tai-chi are out. They're pretty friendly too.

It's also good to bring some music along with you if you are alone. I often find myself working out harder when I distract myself from what my body is doing and pay attention to the music. I often get lost in thought and usually daydream when working out. In the end, I do a more solid workout when I'm not concentrating on what I'm actually doing.

At this time I would really like to encourage everyone to go out and get a pair of inline skates. You get a far better exercise when skating that when you do running. It works out all the major muscle groups as well as promotes better balance for you awkward kids, lol. It also has less shock on the knees so you wont end up having fucked up knees in your older ages. Its great for your legs, your core, and everything in between. I dont mean you have to get into all that trick shit. Some good straightway skating is actually pretty fun. and it burns hella [Yes I said hella] calories. Prime example. I went rollerblading every other week, 10 miles a day. Each day I skated, it lasted 2 hours. 2 hours, 3 times a week, 6 hours. 24 hours a month rollerblading, I lost 20 lbs. Only in one month. Imagine if I had gone every day.

Anyways, it all depends on if you like the area you're doing it. I happen to like the path near the river. The view is very scenic. Lots of pretty girls there. The sun beaming down on me while I pump it out on bike or blaze the path on blades just gets me. Its satisfying. Gyms never worked for me. A closed, sweaty environment with people grunting and doing stuff. I like to be out in the open with nature by my side as I work hard. It just feels nice to breathe in clean air and actually go somewhere. Having a destination to get to usually makes me work harder than just going at it on a treadmill. Getting to and back from somewhere helps you set your limits and reach them. It also helps to be a little competetive too. Whenever someone passes me on rollerblades, I often speed up to pass them because I HATE when people pass me, lol. So that often makes me work harder and sweat more but it's worth it. This one guy, Olypic style speed skating. He always blows past me. I catch up with him because I have the leg strength but damnit his endurance is wicked. I could only keep up with him for a mile. Anyways, enough about my exercise anecdotes. Just find something or somewhere enjoyable to do something and pound it out. Dedication is the key to success. If you're feeling like a fat fat fatty, dont sulk in it. It wont do anything. Nobody's gonna pity you because being fat is your own fault, unless you have thyroid problems.

[ila]

Just got done with the pre getting ready for work so now I'm swearty workout. Startling results with the weight. I'm going to check the bathroom scale to confirm, results later.

Just checked the bathroom scale... its right, which is weird. I'll chalk it up to freak occurence.

The shower after the workout feels good.

[Herotokami]

Don't bother about how heavy you are as compared to how you look and feel. Muscle is heavier than fat.

I am sorry if it sounds like I am bragging but I do free running all the time. I would love to be on Ninja warrior because I know I would do pretty good.

Before I got into shape for summer, these were my stats:

Weight: 180 lbs

Height: 5'9''

Body fat percentage:13 percent

Now I am in much better shape and look like a whole new guy.

Weight: 164 lbs

Height:5'9''

Body fat percentage: freakin 8-9!

I literally have P90X to thank and I hate it with a passion because I threw up a few times from going overboard. Not to mention my bad knee didn't like all the jumping but I followed the slogan/motto : Decide, Commit, Succeed.