Just Dance; Wii

I absolutely love this game! I didn’t think I would, but I do. My sister-in-law has been raving about it for months and has graduated onto Just Dance 2, but I thought I’d play it safe and stick with the first one.

My sister-in-law had been threatening to have a girly night with us all having a dance – I couldn’t imagine anything worse as I just can’t dance, but my mum got Just dance for Christmas so I thought I’d give it a go. Irrelevant that she’d only just taken it out of the wrapper when we went to visit for Easter!

We put it on on an overcast Saturday afternoon and we sweating within minutes. Songs like Eye of the Tiger and Surfin’ Bird  are such a good workout and I’ve found myself putting the game on for 30 minutes when I get in – rather than putting on Wii Fit as it’s a much more enjoyable workout!

There are lots of great song on there, and one of the great things is you’re constantly striving to beat your best score – it’s like a personal competition!

My only criticism is that you can often be following the moves and it not register what you’re doing. Maybe I’m not doing it 100% correct, but it can be very frustrating. Perhaps it’ll be sorted out in Just Dance 2? It’s on my wish list…

Wii Fit Plus

Wii Fit was pretty fun when it first came out, and although I like to dip in and out of it every now and again, it never quite worked for me.  there were too many chances to stop and give up (unlike the Wii Active), and you spent more time trying to decide what to play next than actually completing exercises – but this seems to have all changed with the new Wii Fit Plus.

It has all the same exercises as before – plus a few extras and a handful of new games – but the best thing about this is you can now plan workouts to do all your favourite exercises in one go – with no stopping.  And all the games and exercises you still hadn’t unlocked because you lost interest, are now available for you to play.

I’ve yet to try everything out, but it looks like so much fun – the flying game is particularly cool and I can’t wait to try the Kung-Fu – certainly ticks all the right boxes for me

It makes the old Wii Fit disc a bit redundant, but it can always be traded in for something else, and the same Wii balance board can be used.

Wii Active Part 3

So the month is up…and I didn’t manage the 20 workouts in 30 days – no surprise there!

I managed to get to 13 workouts – which was the most I’d ever got to so I’m still feeling slightly proud of myself, but still pretty bad as I didn’t complete the challenge. I’m going to finish the 20 workouts, and then try it again – who knows I might get there!

Trouble is, if you stop for a few days (a week in my case as everything else seemed to get in the way), you quickly lose motivation and the tummy starts to come back – makes you wonder why you bother!

Wii Active Part 2

I’ve had Wii Active for about two and a half months now, and I’m yet to complete the 30-Day challenge. I love the idea of this – 20 workouts in 30 days, but in practice – I find it hard to achieve, not because I’m not motivated, but because something else always comes up! I started the challenge again at the beginning of September and I’m about half-way thorough, so I’m certainly on track to complete it this time. I’m even trying to fit in other exercise in my ‘rest days’ as I still don’t see any results. If anything I’ve put more weight on!

Michael says its the muscle, which is fine, and yes my legs, bum and arms are looking a little more toned, but what about my stomach? I still have an unsightly (at least for me to look at) bulge to deal with. I wonder if there will be any exercises to combat that coming up; I certainly hope so.

Once I’ve completed this work out, the plan is to move on the the next level, where workout should be a bit tougher, and probably a bit longer. I’m hoping this will have a more noticeable effect!

Wii Active Part 1

Love it! This is so simple, but seem to encompass everything! You’ve got a daily diary to complete, where you can log physical activities for the previous day, and a food questionnaire to note down how much water you’ve been drinking and whether you’ve managed your five-a-day, complete with advice and comments from your trainer.

Set up is easy – you create your character, put in all the vitals and pick whether you want a male or female trainer. Then you chose whether you want to try to 30-Day Challenge or just work out using the pre-set workouts. You can even opt to build your own workouts too. The game comes with a resistance band and leg strap, and is compatible with the Wii Balance Board. I’ve opted for the 30-Day Challenge; I feel pretty motivated at the moment and figure it’d probably do me some good to do some serious exercise. I say serious but it’s all done on the easy setting but it doesn’t stop me sweating buckets though – how unfit am I?

The workouts are simple enough; there are videos (with real people) showing you how to do each exercise, and then an animated image of the trainer appears in the bottom right hand corner while you do the exercise. They talk you through it, when to lift, when to squat etc, which is fine, except the game is American so the trainers all have an annoying American twang to their accents.

I’ve only been doing it a few weeks, but my husband says it is making a difference, he thinks some of the love handles are disappearing – I’ve not noticed yet, but I am one to expect miracle results. Best I go do another workout then…

I really should do some exercise…but…

I’m pretty lazy; I walk to work each day and do the housework and some gardening and consider that my exercise for the week.

I was never particularly sporty at school, and never really needed to exercise as my jobs in retail and behind a bar meant I was constantly on the go. I was a trim size 8, and was pretty happy with my shape and size, that was until I started in my current job; basically I’m sat at a desk in front of a computer for seven hours a day, five days a week.

Unfortunately, it’s meant putting on about a stone and going up to a size 10-12 – okay so that’s nothing major, but a 5’3″ it’s made a big difference to how I see myself (especially as I can’t find a decent fitting pair of jeans!).

The idea of going to the gym doesn’t appeal to me; for one I’d be too self concious, but I knew I’d never keep it up. Even when my company got four gym memberships, I never went to the gym. I did use the swimming pool though, especially before I got married last year. Trouble with swimming is the wet hair, especially in the Winter and smell of chlorine, so that went out the window. I keep meaning to start up again, but not until I’ve shifted a few more pounds.

Running has never been my strong point, so this was out the window, but I bought a ‘stepper’ from Tesco for £20 a little while ago and thought I’d give that go. That seemed to work – 1000 calories in 20 minutes was easy, but it was pretty boring and there was no motivation, except for my husbands encouraging words telling me that it was working.

My brother bought me Wii Fit for my birthday – so much fun! Its a great game, but with so much stopping and starting I found it hard to do a proper workout, and although its a bit more motivational (ie it makes you feel bad if you’ve not been on it for a few days) it still wasn’t working for me. I’ve still got half the exercised to unlock or try out. I really enjoy the Yoga though and it can be a nice way to relax.

I did get pretty excited when I saw the advert for Wii Active though – the thought of a personal trainer to show you how to do the exercises and to motivate you sounded pretty good. I pre-ordered it and hoped I could tell you all about it, but it’s only just arrived! I’ll update you on my progress in another post…