wii fit adventure

Goal Attained! (Really!)

noreply@blogger.com (Gentry) — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 04:34:00 +0000

I reached my weight loss goal (5 lbs in 2 weeks), and actually did it early! The wii fit was concerned with my health however, thinking that anything more than 3 lbs in 2 weeks may not be healthy. That may be so for someone who is less than 200 lbs, however the more you have to loose, and the more agressivly you attack it, I think it should be reasonable for larger people to loose more weight (proportionally). I think 2% of your body weight should be reasonable in 2 weeks. So at 300 lbs, it's ok to loose 6 lbs, and at 100 lbs your entitled to loose 2lbs. (Although if you weigh only 100 lbs, some might say, you shouldn't loose any weight, unless your 4' tall or something...)

I think the clothing weight adjustment is messing with my results. The options are 2 lbs, 4 lbs, or 0 lbs, and most of the time I am weighing in shorts and maybe a t-shirt, which are probably closer to 1 lbs (if that) So I keep jumping from 2 lbs to 0 lbs, and my results keep bouncing around because of it. I think for good consistant results I will need to weigh in with the same weight of clothes each time and stop bouncing around on the adjustment, just stick with zero... I mean my floor scale doesn't have an adjustment, which is zero....

wii-out

2 Weeks in... Goal Attained (not)

noreply@blogger.com (Gentry) — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 04:34:00 +0000

Well, I reached the 2 week mark and was ready for the bad news... Due to originally using the wii-fit without the foot extensions on a low shag carpet, by original weight was about 30 lbs lower than my actual weight, so once I realized this and made the correction, my original 5 lb/2 week weight loss goal became 35lb weight loss goal, which sadly I did not make (although I have lost 10-12 lbs depending on weigh in time.

The good news is that it seemed to reset the beginning of the Goal cycle, so I'm back to 5 lbs over the next 2 weeks, which I think I can make.

My side project is seeing if the saved wii-fit data can be accessed so I can publish my workout and measurement data (although some would advise me against doing so..) But it will be much more fun to auto-matically share my workout results on this blog, then to just type it in every so often.

wii-out

Wii-fit... a mind reader....

noreply@blogger.com (Gentry) — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 04:44:00 +0000

Ok, this was very weird... I was logging in for my workout today and the wii-fit asks me if my Wife was looking more fit from doing her regular workouts. The weird thing was that she hasn't stepped on the wii-fit since we first got it. She's been working out (at the gym and running) on her own and has actually lost quite a bit of weight, but I can't see how the wii would know this. It asked me if she looked Thinner, More Toned, etc. and actually had me select what I thought of her new look. Then it told me I should tell her that I noticed a difference.

She is now offically weirded out by the wii-fit.

Wii-out

Lost 8.8 lbs!

noreply@blogger.com (Gentry) — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 04:14:00 +0000

I know this is probably due to many other factors, but apparently I dropped 8.8 lbs over the last 24 hours according to my wii-fit! The swimming 1/2 a mile probably helped, and I've also re-started a serious low-Carb induction period (which would explain a bunch of water weight initially...) but we'll have to see tomorrow if there is any bounce back on the weight...

So I'm starting to wonder if there is a way I can get my wii-fit data out into a usable format. I figure I can do a wii data backup to an SD card and take a look at the saved file on my PC, but my guess is that the files are encrypted in some fashion, so that the kiddies can't hack up their game saves and go straight to the top of the leader boards.... Hopefully it's not that challenging and Nintendo is leaving the wii-fit data in an open XML file or something... We will find out...

wii-out

Recovering from swimming... but aced the Ball Drop Game!

noreply@blogger.com (Gentry) — Fri, 30 May 2008 04:39:00 +0000

Still sort of sore from the swimming yesterday I gave myself another break from a big wii-rkout. I had to spend some time on Ski Jump to ensure I secured the top spot. (154x2=308 did the job).

Then I turned my attention to the ball drop game, and finally finished the Basic level on my first attempt! (I was stuck on level 7 for a while...) Which opened up the Advance version which I am happy to report has entirely new boards to balance (most without safety edges) and actually seemed a bit easier than the final levels on Basic. Until I got to level 5.... I'll be sad when there are no new challenges...

wii-out

Went swimming instead...but mastered the bubble game!

noreply@blogger.com (Gentry) — Thu, 29 May 2008 05:47:00 +0000

So instead of doing a wii-rkout today, I did a swim workout at the local pool. I had done competitive swimming in high school and was pretty good swimmer... but I haven't really done a proper swim workout in probably 20 years... good thing there was a swim coach and some friends (one who is a swim coach as well...) to make sure I got a proper workout.

We did around 1700 yards in 1 hour, (less the ones I had to skip to catch my breath...). So when I returned home, I added the activity to the wii-fit activity log. It wasn't too hard to find, go look at the progress graph, then click the activity log button. You can add time you spend on other exersises, and it considers (thru example) swimming to be a hard exercise, which basically doubles the time in the log. So now my log show 2 hrs & 15 minutes.... here is what I did with the 15 minutes...

I had to see if there was an additional level on the bubble break game. Last night I made it to the goal and unlocked the Advanced version, which is the same river, but the bees are more aggressive. It took me 15 minutes (and tries), but I did it, I made to the goal on the advanced level! Unfortunatly, nothing was unlocked due to my efforts... I was hoping for an Expert level or something, with a different river or obstacles or something... hopefully we will see level upgrades for wii-fit comming thru the online store.

Oh, also today when I took a walk on my lunch break (I work in the downtown loop of Chicago). I saw a woman showing a friend the warrior stance... I didn't ask, but I figured she was explaining how cool the wii-fit is in the process.

wii-out

Light workout, breakthru on the bubble!

noreply@blogger.com (Gentry) — Wed, 28 May 2008 05:57:00 +0000

I only did 15 minutes of yoga today, but was able to beat the bubble balance game and unlock advanced...lets just say the bee's are more pissed off in level 2.

I also broke down and popped for the wii opera browser...which is why this post is so short... :)

Bad news, cool news!

noreply@blogger.com (Gentry) — Tue, 27 May 2008 07:16:00 +0000

So the bad news first, i really did weigh more than the wii-fit originally recorded. After returning home i put the feet on the wii-fit and sadly i did not loose the 29 lbs that i 'gained' after doing a body test on a hardwood floor vs my carpeted floor (without the feet attached)... Worse even it reported an additional 1.8 lb gain! But to be fair that was after a hearty memorial day grillout with a big fat ribeye steak...

So now the wii thinks i need to loose 30 lbs in the next 2 weeks to reach my goal (which i originally set to 5 lbs every 2 weeks) i am hoping it re-adjusts after the 2 week point, but we will have to see...

There does not seem to be a graceful way to correct this type of data error. It would be nice to allow the user to delete a bad test day, say if someone else does a test on your mii, or if this type of situation occurs...

Now the good news! Not really wii-fit news, but nintendo just added a nintendo channel to the wii store, which allows you to watch promo videos of new and upcomming wii games. The cool part of this is that it has a DS Download section, which has a bunch of demo games you can download over the air to your DS(if you have a child under 16 you probably have one of these in your house...) i played the Iron man demo game while cooling down from my wii-rkout (for like an hour!) very cool...

wii-out

No wii-rkout today, tossing logs instead

noreply@blogger.com (Gentry) — Sun, 25 May 2008 22:59:00 +0000

I skipped my wii-fit workout today, being up at the cabin with all the kids, i would have had to wrestle the wii from a dozen kids in order to get a workout (which may have been a good workout as well...)

Instead my brother in law cut and me and a my soon to be newphew-in-law stacked probably 30 cords of wood from the trees cleared to raise the cabin... Good thing i didn't workout too... I should sleep well tonight...

That didn't stop us from playing some of the balance games. One downside about the wii-fit is that it isn't really designed for multi-player, there doesn't seem to be a quick way to switch between mii's between activities.

The side effect of this is when a bunch of people want to try the wii-fit, they end up sharing a single mii account and just take turns at the games. The only apparent problem with doing this is that it seems that the sensitivity of the balance board is based on the weight of the person who setup the profile.

This actually helps in some games and hurts in others. If a heavy person profile is used and lighter people play on that profile, it seems to make it more stable for the lighter person (in salom skiing for example), however if the player is too light, they are unable to turn their skiis at all.

It would be nice if you could swap mii's from the + menu, it would make group wii-fit much more equitable.

wii-out

Day 4 - gained 29 lbs!!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Gentry) — Sun, 25 May 2008 00:15:00 +0000

So i get on the wii-fit this morning and do a body test, and it reports that i gained 28.9 lbs since yesterday! This is how it happened....

We are visting my brother in laws cabin in wisconsin, and last night we went out for an all you can eat fish fry... Plus a few drinks, and boom 29 lbs!!!!

Seriously though, i think moving the wii-fit to a hardwood floor from carpet might explain the difference. I didn't use the foot extensions on the wii-fit, and that probably messed up the initial measurement.

Bad news is, that i'm probably 29 lbs heavier than i thought i was...

Wii Fit Adventure Begins!

noreply@blogger.com (Gentry) — Thu, 22 May 2008 01:00:00 +0000

This is the beginning of my wii-fit adventure, and hopefully the end of being chronically overweight... I picked up my wii-fit on the opening day (Wed May 21st.) the line at Best Buy was huge (and I later found out they sold out in minutes..) so I went to the Circuit City just a couple of stores over in the mall, and me and 2 other people had our choice of about a dozen units...(limit one) my next stop was Target, which was open 2 hours earlier, had 20 units on the shelf and didn't look like a single wii-fit had been sold yet.

So I brought her (you can choose a boy or girl wii trainer) home and began the process.

When you start up the wii-fit for the first time you get to enroll one of your mii's to be in the training and go through a Body Test. The wii-fit checks your center of balance (COB) and your steadiness (how still you can keep your COB). It asks for your date of birth and your height, then does a balance test to test your ability.

Doing this you end up with 3 pieces of information. Your Weight, your Body Mass Index (BMI), and your... wii-fit age. I'll share these details in this blog to plot my progress, but the wii-fit age was, well, eye opening.

Other than being overweight, I think I'm in pretty good shape, generally able to handle the physical tasks that I'm faced with. I'm pretty strong (although I could use some upper body strength training...) and have great legs! My endurance isn't so hot, I have pretty good burst strength, but after 5-10 minutes, I usually need to rest, especially with aerobic activities.

I am however about 60-70 pounds heavier than I probably should be. And that extra weight is starting to wear out my pieces parts early. I blew out my knee last October and had it scoped and scraped right before Christmas. Probably wouldn't have happened if I was closer to my ideal weight.

So my wii-fit age... +12, which put me in at the big 50! I'm not ready for the (real) big 40, let alone the BIG 50... so we (I) have to do something about that...

More about the wii-fit Adventure as it happens...

wii-out