Exercise update (Emily Sue)

Yes, I know I could have edited my previous entry to add this but I couldn't be bothered. That doesn't bode well for an exercise update, does it?

As I have mentioned, it was my birthday a week ago. Being a round-number birthday, my parents lashed out for a bigger present than usual. They knew (because I told my younger sister to tell them) that I wanted a Wii and Wii Fit, so they deposited money into my bank account. I did briefly contemplate putting the money towards a mixmaster, but decided in the end that buying something to enable me to exercise might be better than buying something that would enable me to make more cakes.

So the Wii arrived yesterday afternoon and I had a quick go at it then. The Wii Fit will track your weight and fitness, which is great. It also calculates your "Wii Fit Age", based on your weight and a particular exercise it gets you to do. Yesterday my 'age' was 50. FIFTY. That's brutal. Today... it was 24. Huh? Sure, a good night's sleep can do wonders, but even so it's not that great. The age calculation is possibly not an exact science, then.

My assessment of using it twice is:

1. It's fun; and
2. It's more exercise than it appears at first.

For example - I did a 'cycling' exercise, where you stand on the balance board and move your legs up and down in a cycling motion. You can do it just by lifting your heels up and down whilst on the balls of your feet. I did this for about 8 minutes. If you made me do that for 8 minutes without the Wii I'd probably tell you to get nicked. However, part of the game is that you're cycling around an island and have to find and steer through 13 checkpoints (holding the controller sideways and tilting it to steer left and right). So my attention was taken off my legs as I cycled all around the island looking for the checkpoints... and before I knew it, I'd 'cycled' 2km.

There was another game where you have wings and have to 'fly' from one point to another, leaning left or right with your legs to change direction. You fly by flapping your arms up and down. It is totally silly and fun... and my arms were sore at the end. Oh yes, and then there was a boxing game where you have to punch in the same order as the instructor, in time with the music... and the more you're 'in time', the more points. I was concentrating so hard on the timing (NOT my strong point) that I didn't notice I'd just had a workout.

Verdict: the Wii is LOADS of fun and I love it!

Also, because I hadn't had a sustained cardio workout (you can get cardio programs for the Wii; I just don't have one yet) I decided to do 15 minutes on the treadmill at the end. I walked for 3 minutes, jogged for TEN, then walked for two. TEN MINUTES of jogging. I've never done that before, ever. It was only at 6kmh, which is the pace of a brisk walk, but still... ten minutes. I am so stoked.
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