Two weeks of Wii Fit
So far I’ve gained three pounds. I don’t think it’s working yet.
I have mixed feelings about Wii Fit. It’s not the panacea I knew it wouldn’t be but hoped for nonetheless. Its lack of direction sometimes leaves me confused as to what to do next. And it’s not a substitute for going to the gym. But on the other hand, I think gyms are a scam, and Wii Fit can be kind of fun. If nothing else it’s incredibly useful for making me aware of how out of shape I am. It encourages you, even if you don’t exercise every day, to at least do the daily weigh-in and balance test, and it’ll make a little mark on a graph and let you put a stamp on the calendar to show that you can step up on a scale. If you end up gaining weight between tests, it’ll make you stop and think about it, giving you a list of options to choose from to explain yourself (e.g., too much snacking, not exercising). At first I thought this was meant to just be a pause for reflection, a moment to think about why you’re so dang fat, but no, that reason gets written on that graph right next to your big ol’ weight. Going back through the graph was kind of depressing; every time I passed over one of those red dots my poor, sad Mii would hang his head and say, “I ate too much,” or “I didn’t exercise,” or whatever horrible thing I did that day. Even if it hasn’t helped me lose any weight yet, it at least keeps me thinking about it while I chomp down that second helping of extra salty french fries.
But weight is only half of what the Wii balance board knows about you, and it’s not even the interesting half. The thing looks like a curvy white bathroom scale, but it does live up to its name; it can tell with surprising precision where your center of balance is, and balance is the real concentration of most of the exercises along with a whole section of actual games that use that balance board more like a traditional controller that happens to be controlled with your feet. Some of the exercises critique you based on how balanced you remain throughout, but it’s the yoga where this feature really shines. Sure, you might be able to stand on one foot and stick your finger in your ear or whatever the pose might call for, but it doesn’t count for much if you’re swaying like sawgrass in a hurricane. And I think it’s the yoga that’s really helping. I feel like my gut is in a little better shape than when I started, but my balance is very noticeably better.
When I first used the Wii Fit, my back was about seven kinds of jacked up. Even the simplest pose, just standing there and breathing slow and big, left me aching. I was swaying and shaking and just generally being uncoordinated. I suspect the accident had some contribution to this, since I did notice a couple of oddities while doing the yoga poses: when standing on both feet I favored my left side, and when standing on one foot I was more stable on my right. The latter may seem a little odd, but for that I blame Fitness Forum for doing too good a job. I may have been hopping around on my left foot for a couple of months, but I was only balancing on my right without the crutches during physical therapy. Standing on one foot isn’t something I do much on my own, and while in a cast I was standing on three.
As part of the daily body test, after it weighs you, takes off your rose-colored glasses and adjusts your Mii’s chubbiness to match reality, there are a couple of balance tests and a Wii Fit age based on how badly you do. When I started I came out in the 40’s, my Mii hunched over and gripping his back in pain at such an increase in virtual age, but I’ve since pretty consistently hit 23. The BMI graph is a depressing thing, and I seem to be traveling away from the weight goal the game had me set, but the game has me walking tall and evenly. Maybe the Wii Fit has me doing what my mother couldn’t: stand up straight and quit slouching. I hope with more Wii Fit and more of the bike that I’ll start to shed those pounds and hear more encouraging words from the cheery balance board character, but maybe the improvement in balance is enough to make it worthwhile.