Boot Camp: 28 Day Challenge: Day 1

In addition to using my Wii Fit everyday (for different reasons, not the least of which it yells at me if I skip a day) I'm going to follow Sparkpeople.com's bootcamp workout for the next four weeks. For those who don't know, Sparkpeople is a wonderful free site where you can track calories, goals, recipes, workouts, and basically anything you would ever need to lose weight. Again, for free.

They had this workout as one of the challenges for January on the Start page, so I signed up for it. They lured me in with words like "for people of all fitness levels" and "it's called 'Bootcamp' not because it's highly intense, but because it involves daily exercise and commitment" and "10 minutes or less." I set up a Youtube playlist with all the videos and set my TV up to play the first one yesterday evening. 

I scoffed at the 11 minute length of the cardio workout - 11 minutes is nothing! How is that a cardio workout? Can you even get your heart rate up enough? Meanwhile, the instructor on the video has been power marching and I can already feel myself thinking "Ok, is this over yet?" I couldn't even DO the jumping lunges at about 6:00 and the mountain climbers and squat thrusts that followed nearly killed me. 

After the 11:00 workout finished I was sold on this bootcamp, not because it made me feel like I'd actually done some serious physical activity (which it did) but because it got me to do exercises I didn't believe I could do. I was watching MTV's I Used to Be Fat last week, and there was a girl on the show who started at 253 pounds and her trainer was making her do these mountain climber moves. When I was watching her I thought, there is no way in hell I could do those. Yesterday I proved myself wrong. :)

So it turns out Wii Fit is kind of a bitch.

I got a Wii and Wii Fit for Christmas. No, this was not a veiled attempt by my family to hint I might want to get up off the couch, I actually did ask Santa for one. (Apparently Santa reads my Amazon.com Wish List. Noted.) I wanted a new game system since my old PS2 is on its way out; I can only play three or four songs on Rock Band before the picture on the screen gets too fuzzy for me to follow the drum beats. I've played with the Wii at a few friends' houses and it was fun, and I figured it's also relatively cheap and it streams Netflix!

My parents and brother played the Sports Resort after Christmas dinner, but I didn't open the Wii Fit balance board until this morning when I knew no one was in the house. I knew from online reviews that the "game" keeps track of progress, including any weight loss, and I was not going to have my family listening to exactly how overweight I am being broadcast across our surround-sound speakers. After fiddling with syncing the board with the console, I clicked through the introductions and selected my cute little Wii Mi (an avatar I made to resemble me) in her pink shirt and kicky ponytail.

The screen version of the balance board told me to climb on and it would calculate my BMI. Here we go. I stepped onto the balance board and it exclaims "OH!" And not in a "OH! Yay! You've stepped on me and now I'm quietly calculating your BMI based on weight and height!" but more in a "OH! Holy shit, warn a balance board before you haul your fat ass on top of me, alright?!" Once it finishes the measurements, it tells me that I am obese (not a huge shock), but then makes my Wii Mi FATTER! She ballooned out in the front and the back. Now, instead of a spunky little chick with a ponytail, there's a chunky round girl with a double chin. Harsh, reality. 

The rest of the test went ok, and it put my "Fit Age" at 24, a year younger than my actual age. Which makes me feel good, but also makes me suspect that the "Fit Age" has no basis in reality. I snuck in a few of the aerobic activities before my dad came back in the house and I quickly turned it off to avoid the inevitable raucous laughter that would come at my expense if he caught a glimpse of me doing the hula hoop mini-game (I totally kill it though - 307 is my high score so far). I suspect once I get back to my apartment I will have a love-hate relationship with the Wii Fit, but if I get on it just to prove it wrong, that's good enough for me.