Category: Food & Exercise

VR Workouts 1 Month In

Posted on by Pete

As of this coming Thursday I will have been doing my VR workouts for a month. So far, so good.

I have lost a little weight (about 5 lbs) but a friend who is into fitness tells me not to worry about the scale but to worry about how I feel and how my clothes fit. I don’t know that my clothes feel any different but I definitely feel better. There’s more pep in my step, basically. And when work isn’t doing everything it can to destroy me, my mood has been better too.

The workouts themselves continue to be fun, and VR in general has been bringing me a lot of enjoyment.

I’ve also learned that VR workouts are a real thing and I don’t have to put ‘workout’ in quotes. In fact there are a bunch of fitness aps for the Meta Quest and PCVR platforms.

I started with Beat Saber and The Climb. I’ve added Pistol Whip and just recently, Audio Trip. I’ve so far avoided the actual fitness apps because I don’t really need them yet and I don’t want this to become a chore.

Beat Saber is starting to fail me as workout material because I’ve gotten too good at it. Let me explain. I can now do most of the original songs that came with the game in Hard mode. I can get S rank and sometimes not miss a single note. The problem is that Expert, the next logical step, gets so fast that you don’t really have time to swing your arms to cut the blocks and you have to start relying on a lot of wrist movement. As a game, this is still plenty of fun, but it’s less of a workout than taking big swings with your arms. That’s when I added Audio Trip and that game kicks my ass. As is so often the case with VR, it sounds very simple. You just have to touch incoming icons with a ‘ball’ you hold in each hand. Simple enough, but the game makes you stretch and bend and twist and it really gets my heart rate up.

Here’s an official trailer for Audio Trip. You can see it’s kind of a mix between aerobics and dance. I’m REALLY glad I don’t have to see myself playing this game because I’m sure it is a horrifying sight to behold, but like I said, it does get my heartrate up and the sweat flowing.

Oh and I learned the that Quest Move app will track you while playing Rift games through Air Link. I haven’t tested it with Steam VR via Air Link though. Tonight was supposed to be a ‘rest day’ but I was playing a Rift game that involved some fairly vigorous sword swinging and a decent amount of climbing and suddenly Move popped up to tell me I was half-way to my calorie goal. Accidental workout! By the time I was done I was near my goals so I ran through half a dozen Beat Saber songs just to hit them.

All in all, I’m really happy with my progress and that I’ve found a way to exercise that is fun and convenient. I’m gonna keep going. Let’s see if I can make it to 2 months!

By the way, the screenshot at the top of the post is from Drum Rock on Playstation VR2 and has very little to do with workouts, though it can get you a little sweaty. It’s like having the drum kit from Rock Band, only in VR so you don’t have the storage hassles. Drum Rock is pretty fun but you don’t get licensed music, only covers. I get why…it’s a $20 indie title and I’m sure they couldn’t afford licensed songs. But I can dream, right?

VR “Workouts”

Posted on by Pete

So now I’m into VR again.

I’m honestly not sure how it happened. But something got a bug up my [redacted] and I updated the Quest 2 and controllers, cleared a space in the living room and fired up, what else? Beat Saber. And had fun!

And I discovered the Meta Move app, which is like a fitness tracker. I set calories burnt and ‘minutes moving’ goals and off I went.

The games I play would probably not count as a workout for a marginally fit middle-aged person, but for my old self who spends most of his time at a keyboard, I’m able to work up a decent sweat playing.

The only two games I’ve been playing are Beat Saber (which is all about cutting blocks to a beat using totally not light sabers because copyright) and The Climb, which is about mountain climbing. I don’t get why The Climb feels like exercise. You pull yourself up a rock face by your hands, but of course you’re just standing there. You’re not really carrying weight UP anywhere. And yet I get tired. Maybe just because of all the time waving my hands around over my head? But hey, it’s fun and gets my heart pumping….I’m not going to question it.

There’s a table tennis game I want to add into the rotation but since I just bought The Climb I’m waiting a bit and hoping for a sale.

After just a couple of days, the process of clearing space and getting the visor on has become routine. I’m really glad I sprang for prescription lenses for the headset as not having to fit it over glasses helps with ease of use.

I dunno if I’ll stick with it, but for now it is working and I actually tend to feel pretty good after playing. I’ve never bought into the, y’know ‘endorphins’ effect of exercise. Every time in the past I’ve decided to exercise I was left feeling like crap after. But this must be hitting the sweet spot because it is improving my mood and, dare I say it? My energy levels.

So who knows? Maybe I’ll stick with it for a while.

No screenshots cuz VR. Sorry!

I Made Switchel

Posted on by Pete

Back in the middle of Blaugust when I was desperate for a topic that I could turn into a quick and easy post, I shared a few of my favorite YouTube channels. One of them was Townsends, a channel about life in 18th century North America. At lot of the Townsend videos focus on cooking and food preparation and while I find them interesting, most are not interesting enough for me to try to make them.

One exception was Switchel, which Jon Townsend calls “An 18th Century Energy Drink.” Here’s the video:

It’s a simple recipe:
1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup of sulpher-free molasses
a heaping tablespoon of ground ginger
1/2 gallon of water

Mix and enjoy.

My first attempt was drinkable but not great. First, my ground ginger was ancient and not very potent and it was the end of a jar and I barely had a tablespoon. End result: not a lot of ginger flavor. Second…I think I don’t really like molasses enough for this recipe.

For attempt two I used local honey instead of molasses and I had a new jar of ground ginger. I started with warm-ish water to help dissolve everything. This time it was pretty good right after mixing, but still not quite sweet enough so I added an extra dollop (that’s a technical term) of honey. Shook it all like mad to get the honey to dissolve in the now cold water. That tasted better, but when it really got good was after a few days in the fridge when a lot of the ginger settled out leaving a very clear drink, about the color of apple juice.

I really enjoy it, though due to the vinegar in it I don’t guzzle gallons of it. There’s a bunch of info on the web about how apple cider vinegar is good for you, but I don’t know how much I believe of what I read. I do, however, enjoy the taste & fragrance of vinegar (properly diluted, of course, and really you notice the vinegar more in the smell than the taste) and I feel like it does help keep my gut happy. Maybe a little acid is good for all the bacteria living in there. Who knows?

And I really like having a cold drink where I know all the ingredients that go in it. Same could be said for home-brewed ice tea or lemonade, for sure, but beyond those drinks (and good old ice water) most of what I drink comes from a factory of some kind somewhere.

Since making this Switchel I’ve discovered there are a ton of recipes for it online. Some of them are fermented, many use fresh ginger, some swap the vinegar for lemon or lime juice. This one from Townsends is one of the simplest and while I may try others, there’s something to be said for spending 5 minutes to throw together half a gallon of refreshing beverage. Bonus points for it being pretty darned cheap to make, too.

[About the header image: I tried my best to get one of those ‘beads of sweat dripping down the side of the jug’ shots but all I managed in the time allotted was fogging that just makes it look like I’m drinking from a dirty jug. I now have great respect for food photographers.]

Time for your first colonoscopy!

Posted on by Pete

So this is WAY off-topic, but I’m writing this post as a public service. A colonoscopy, if you don’t know, is a procedure where a doctor takes a look at the insides of your colon to check for cancer and other problems. The doctor does this by, well, sticking a camera up your backside.

Generally speaking, doctors want you to get a colonoscopy when you hit 50. I managed to dodge the procedure for a few years because it just sounded so horrific, but after I spent 3 days in the hospital from a bout of diverticulitis I figured it was time to buck up and get it done.

I’ve gone from someone who faced the idea with abject fear to “Hey, a colonoscopy is no big deal!” in the past few days and I wanted to share the experience with you so that you don’t have to go through that whole fear thing.

So here we go. Obviously this isn’t medical advice and if you’re on some kind of blood thinner the prep is a bit more complicated. Ditto if you have Diabetes, mostly due to 1 day of fasting before the process. Talk to your doctor!

I’m not holding anything back and I’m gonna try to be as honest as I possibly can be.

7 days before your procedure you’ll have to stop taking aspirin and aspirin-like medicines, and lay off iron supplements. You can take Tylenol or acetaminophen but any anti-inflammatorys are a no-go.

3 days before, you have to stop eating legumes, peas, carrots, corn, tomatoes, watermelon and nuts.

So far easy, right?

The day before the process is the worst part of the whole ordeal, and it’s really not that bad.

You can’t eat for a day. Only clear liquids (broth, apple juice, ginger ale etc.) I got by on Ginger Ale and Iced Tea for a day.

Now I’m going to get specific. I assume this is typical but again, you’re doctor will give you instructions. I got a very detailed hand-out.

At 3 pm I took 4 Dulcolax tablets. This is an overnight laxative and 4 tables is 1.5-2 doses.

At 5 pm I dissolved 238 grams of Miralax into 64 ounces of Gatorade. I had to drink an 8 oz glass every 10-15 minutes. 238 grams of Miralax (another laxative) is 14 daily doses!! I used plastic cups and filled them all so I could see my progress.

I got through 4 glasses before all those laxatives started to work. Once they kicked in, I was in the bathroom for a few hours with very short breaks. You definitely want to be home for this and if you share a bathroom you should coordinate. At times I’d get up, wash my hands, leave the bathroom and get about 5 feet from the door before I had to run back in!

So let’s be blunt here: you’ll have diarrhea. It’s gross. But it doesn’t hurt. It isn’t like when you’re sick and have diarrhea and all kinds of cramping and stuff. Your belly is full of liquid and nothing else and, pardon the graphic imagery, but after the first couple of times liquid is what’s coming out. The worst part of the whole situation was that 2nd set of 4 glass of solution since I knew I was drinking more laxative.

Best advice is leave a stack of magazines in the bathroom and just let nature take its course. Again, it’s gross but it isn’t painful.

Once you get those 8 glasses of solution down, you need to drink at least 3 more glasses of clear liquid before midnight. The diarrhea will continue but it’ll be much more intermittent and by the end you’re just passing clear liquid.

I know that sounds gross but that’s the whole idea… to clean out your colon so the doc can get a good look.

After midnight, you stop drinking and eating completely. By that time your belly and your intestines are all empty and the worst of the process is over.

So finally, the big day is here!

The day of the procedure you’ll need someone to drive you home. My clinic actually insisted I list the cell number of the person who would drive me home. Even if you take a cab, you need an adult to escort you.

After hanging out in the waiting room I was taken into the clinic proper. I was told to take off all my clothes and put on a hospital “Johnny.” I answered a bunch of questions about my health history.. nothing weird. “Do I have high blood pressure?” “Do I have any metal pins or plates in my body?” and stuff like that.

I laid down in a bed and was given an I/V to help rehydrate me (it’s likely you’re at least somewhat dehydrated by this point… I had a nasty headache from not eating or drinking). I met the sedationist (I don’t know the official term!) and the doctor. The nurse talked me through what was going to happen and told me they’d inflate my colon with some air to help them see and after the procedure I’d have to expel it and that I shouldn’t be embarrassed or hold it in. She emphasized that they hear this going on all day and aren’t bothered by it, and that it’s important to get that air out to prevent cramps or whatever. So that was a little awkward and a little funny. My nurse was pretty cute. 😉

Finally it was time for the big procedure. The bed was wheeled into the procedure room. A nurse and the sedationist were there. The doctor came to the door and asked me my name, what I was there for and my date of birth. I guess this is now standard practice just to ensure they’re not doing the wrong procedure on you!

The nurse asked me to roll over on my left side while the sedationist warned me that the sedative can cause a burning feeling where the I/V enters your skin. I never felt that. The nurse said “I have to uncover your bum.” as the sedationist administered the sedative and….

Next thing I know I’m in recovery. Things are a little foggy here. The doc told me everything was OK. She’d removed a few polyps (which are very common) and would send them off for biopsy. The nurse asked me if I’d passed gas and in my addled state I quipped “Yes, and I’m proud of it!” — that was the most embarrassing part of the whole process! I’m guessing she’s heard worse.

I was told to take it easy. Not to drive or exercise. Not to sign any legal documents because “whether it feels like it or not, you’re under the influence and anything you sign won’t be binding.” I was given a printed summary of what was done, including color pictures of the inside of my colon. Sparkling clean it was, thanks to the ordeal from the day before!

After a few minutes they had me sit on the edge of the bed. Then I got dressed, carefully, and wobbled out to the waiting room where Angela waited to collect me. We went home and I slept for a lot of the rest of the day.

In the evening I took the dog for a walk and that was a bit too much; I had to call Angela to come pick us up. I felt fine before I set out but I got really tired really fast. So my advice is just to lay around the house for the rest of the day.

I never had any pain. I was warned “You may notice blood tinged discharge on your underwear or toilet tissue.” and I did experience this. I wouldn’t wear white pants to the procedure.

Post-procedure, if you had any biopsies taken you’re told to continue to avoid aspirin for a week. No alcohol the day of the procedure. You should avoid raw veggies and crazy spicy food. Basically go easy on your belly for a day. Remember at this point its been close to 48 hours since you had solid food. I had some pasta and sauce…figured that would be easy to handle and it was.

And that, really, is it.

TL;DR: The prep the day before is going to have you sitting on the toilet for about 2 hours almost non-stop and that is by far the worst part of the procedure.

I’d like to thank the staff of Charles River Endoscopy and Dr. Greta Taitelbaum and her staff for taking such good care of me.

Looking back on how I freaked out I’d been about this procedure, I feel silly. It was the least painful medical procedure I can recall…much less painful than a trip to the dentist! And when you get to the clinic or hospital and you see 10 or 12 other people waiting for the same thing to happen to them, the whole embarrassment factor just goes away.

Every polyp they find and painlessly remove is one less chance you’ll get cancer. So when you hit 50 and your doctor says “Time for a colonoscopy.” you should just agree and get it done. It’s really no big deal and it can save your life.

Active Day 30!

Posted on by Pete

So today was Day 30 of my EA Sports Active 30 Day Challenge. I wish I could say it felt great, but it didn’t; I was just having one of those off days, and so was Active (exercises I never have a problem with weren’t registering properly). I toughed it out though, as I’ve had to tough it out about 5 other times during the month. I wish I could figure out what leads to these really low energy days, so I could stop doing whatever it is that causes them!

Of the 3 goals that are automatically set for you (you can change them, of course) I hit 2 really quickly… easily within the first two weeks of the program. And the third I never hit. 🙁 It’s a goal of spending X hours with Active in 30 days, and I only got 96% of the way there.

I’m going to take 2 days off, and start another 30 Day Challenge on Light. I’m going to use a stronger band to increase the challenge of the upper body stuff. The lower body stuff is still enough of a struggle that I think I can get plenty more out of the Light program (my body and running do not get along well). I want to get where I can do all the running in a workout at “Perfect” speed, for one thing, and my left leg in particular got hurt 3 times in the 30 days, so I think it needs more work at Light. I’m in this for the long haul.

I bought a box of Pilates bands at Target for $10 or so, but they’re a little short. I can use them for bent over stuff, but doing overhead presses just seems impossible with them. You can feel when these bands ‘run out of stretch’ and that’s what happens when I try to use these bands in overhead workouts. I think I’m going to buy a 2nd box and just tie them together. If the knot is always between my feet it should be fine.

Fitting the workout into life continues to be a challenge. On workout days we don’t get to dinner until nearly 8 o’clock, which really cuts into free time, but I guess that’s a small price to pay in exchange for not being a decrepit old man in a few years. 🙂

The weight loss isn’t really coming too consistently yet. I tend to go down during the week then shoot back up over the weekend, so at least I know where to focus my attentions. Too many opportunities for snacking on weekends, I guess.

This will probably be my last Active blog post for a while. It’s all fairly routine at this point and I don’t have a lot more to say about it. Maybe I’ll check in after my next challenge, or if something dramatic happens.

Overall, I’m a big fan of the program even if it isn’t perfect. It’s better than any other ‘home gym’ solution I’ve tried, at least for me.

Active Day 22

Posted on by Pete

Today was Day 22 of my 30 day challenge in EA Sports Active.

First a recap. On Sunday, I pulled/tore something in my left calf during the “warm up” portion of the workout. Nothing terribly serious but I kind of limped/hobbled through the workout, then limped through the rest of the day. Happily yesterday was a rest day.

One of the few complaints I (and many others) have about Active is that the warmup and cooldown periods are so short as to be useless. The warmup when I hurt myself consisted of, Exercise 1: RUN! with the trainer urging me to pick up the pace, which I did, and suddenly it was like someone drove a knife into my calf (the pain eased a lot fairly quickly, but that first ouch was intense). Active needs both some stretching exercises built in, and a longer warm-up, at least. Maybe in the expansion coming this holiday.

So today, my calf was still tender but I finally did what I’ve *known* I should be doing all along. I stretched first. Angela helped me out there as she used to do martial arts and knows all kinds of stretches from doing them. And what a difference that made! I was so much more limber, and exercises like the side lunge with toe touches became pretty easy, and touching the floor with the tip of the remote was a cinch (without stretching I’d get about as far down as my ankle).

Luckily today was heavy on upper body stuff, so it was easy on the hurt calf. I still jogged very slowly on the final ‘cooldown’ run, just to be safe. So it wasn’t a particularly strenuous workout, but it felt really good, and I felt really good after it.

I’ve got a bit more than a week left in the challenge and I’m not sure what the program will point me towards when its done, but left to my own devices, I think I’ll re-do the 30 Day Challenge on “Light” difficulty, only using a Medium weight elastic band to increase the difficulty of the upper body stuff. I know there’s a fine line between being careful and slacking, but I am nearly 50 and horribly out of shape. I can not yet do the “Long” running sections at a “Perfect” pace (when I started I couldn’t even get up to a Perfect pace, now I can do about 1.5 laps at it…the program wants 2.5) and I figure a second time through Light will help me get up to speed on that. At the same time, the upper body exercises with the Active band have been so trivial that I don’t feel like I’ve made any progress with my arms/shoulders, so doing those all again with a store-bought medium band might get some development going on there.

Weight-wise I’ve been all over the place, according to the Wii Balance Board and Wii Fit. I was losing, then one day it said I’d gained 1.8 lbs, then the next day another .4 lbs, then the day after that it said I’d lost 1.5 lbs! Averaging it all out, I don’t think I’ve lost anything, but I haven’t changed my eating habits significantly, beyond snacking.

I’m not too upset about that, though. This first 30 Day Challenge is more about making a habit of working out. Getting myself and Angela used to the new schedule, getting used to having pleasantly sore legs and sort of being more aware of my body. If I lose weight, great. If not.. well I *know* I’m feeling more limber and my legs feel stronger, so the program is having a positive impact. The weight can come later after I’ve laid down the foundations of a healthier lifestyle.

EA Active Day 13

Posted on by Pete

Ran into a bit of a setback with my 30 Day Challenge yesterday, when I wrenched my back (this was on a rest day, and it was doing chores, not working out.) By mid-afternoon I could barely walk or stand  up straight. I popped a bunch of naproxen and then after dinner laid on the couch watching TV all evening with one of those heat packs strapped on. I sorta curled up in a semi-fetal position so my lower back muscles could relax, and that helped a lot.

Side note: I can’t believe there are people who watch 3 hours of tv every night. I was going stir crazy by the end of it.

This morning it was feeling somewhat better, but I still decided that working out would be a bad idea. I didn’t want to risk hurting my back worse and missing a week of exercise. But as the day wore on I felt more and more guilty about missing a day, so I ended up doing the day’s workout afterall, with the adjustment that I just kind of shuffled along during the running part, because when I really ran, the jarring started to make my back twinge. Nothing else really bothered it, which I guess suggests my form is ok, since they’re always telling you to hold your back straight.

Today’s new torture was Squat & Hold. Sounds so simple, so un-threatening, but I was cursing a blue streak as the timer counted down. The idea is simply to squat and stay in that squatting position for 20 seconds. Something little kids do without a 2nd thought. It killed me.

Also more basketball, which I really have trouble with. The idea is you turn left to “grab” a ball from a bin, then face forward and “shoot” the ball at a basket or “pass” it at a target. I can’t get this to work reliably. I’ll turn and reach out for the “ball” and my onscreen avatar doesn’t budge. Other times I’ll be holding still and my avatar suddenly turns, grabs a ball and flops it towards a target. If I do get the avatar to grab a ball, when I turn to face forward he almost always throws the ball before I mean to.

Basketball is the one activity that I just can’t get to work right. I’ve licked my issues with the running, I don’t have troubles with the leg strap sliding down. Everything works pretty well except basketball (which feels more like a gimmick in any case).

If anyone has tips for getting this to work I’d love to hear them.

I’m not closely monitoring my weight, but I seem to have lost a couple pounds since starting to use Active. More importantly I feel better, more energized (most of the time). We’ve been slowly modifying our diet. Just as an example, we used to have sandwiches and chips for lunch (when we were both home). Then we replaced the chips with Triscuits, which were probably just as fattening but seemed slightly more nutritional. Then to low-fat Triscuits. Now we’ve been having veggies (baby carrots, celerey sticks or raw brocoli) with non-fat veggie dip along side our sandwiches. This is to try to meet Active’s “eat 5-6 helpings of veggies every day” directive.

I used to drink a vat of a blend of ice tea and yerba mat´ with sugar to start every day. Now I’ve been taking a 32 ounce bottle of filtered water with me in the morning. And curiously I feel just as awake after that hydration as I did after the morning caffeine injection (Ihaven’t “give up” caffeine though… I still enjoy a Pepsi Throwback at lunch). I did this to try to fill Active’s “drink 8 glasses of water a day” directive.

So all in all, things are looking good. I feel better, am eating better, less caffeine, lost a few pounds, and I’m sticking to an exercise routine. And I’m almost half-way through the 30-day challenge!

EA Active Day 8

Posted on by Pete

I know, I know, I promised this wouldn’t turn into a fitness blog, and it really isn’t. But I’ve been mega-overdrive busy lately (back to work after this post) and what gaming time I’ve had has been spent in LOTRO, and y’know, it’s LOTRO. I enjoy it but don’t have a lot to say about it other than “Hey, I really enjoy this!” Enough that I spent all day Sunday playing, and blew off work on Monday to play some more, and I’m paying for that now. Shoulda spent the holiday getting a jump start on the week.

Anyway, so today was Day 8 of EA Sports Active.  Before I start I want to point something out. This isn’t a game. I keep hearing people as “Is that EA Active game any good?” There’re no game modes in the package. It’s just a workout tool. I just don’t want someone to be disappointed and think they’ll be getting stuff like the downhill skiing that comes in Wii Fit.

So Workout #6 and I’m still getting new things thrown my way…today was shooting baskets (which was kind of difficult for me…the game registering a throw when I didn’t mean to be throwing, ending up with a wimpy toss that wouldn’t make it halfway to the basket). It was a nice break but didn’t feel much like exercise.

Aerobic boxing has turned out to be an awesome workout, when you have to hit that bodybag 90 times as fast as possible it gets the heart pumping!

But I wanted to post because today I noticed something. Last Tuesday I did my first 30-Day Challenge workout and one of the first things I did was squats. The idea is you lower yourself until your thighs are parallel to the floor. I couldn’t do it. I was that out of shape. I got down low enough for it to count, barely (there’s a guage on the screen showing how low you’ve gone) and when I was done, I was in pain.

Today I did squats as part of the warmup. I got down far enough to put the indicator about halfway down the gauge, and doing them felt like a warm up. I think the light workout has you do 8 squats, and that was really nothing at this point.

It just really dawned on me as I was doing them. In one single week I’d made this much progress!! Now I know it won’t always come so easy…one benefit of being totally out of shape is that getting slightly-less-than-totally out of shape is pretty easy. Getting in-shape is gonna be hard. But it felt like real-world progress that I could point out and say “Look at what I can do!”

Now mind you, there are plenty of other tricks up Active trainer’s sleeve and I was still wiped out when I was done.

But at least I was nicely rewarded. I was in the shower after my workout, conditioner in my hair, washing my face, covered in soap and lather, and the building maintanance crew turned the damned water off!!! ARGH! Angela had to bring me a couple bottles of water out of the kitchen so semi-rinse off with. BRRR!

Anyway, I’m trying to eat better, too, and that’s both hard and expensive. They say 6 (?) helpings of veggies a day. If I get in 2 I think I’m doing really well.  And I always get dinged on that “How many hours did you spend in front of a computer or watching TV.” The answer tops out at 12 and that’s usually where I am. My schedule is that I get up in the morning, spend 2 hours writing and publishing a blog post for ITWorld, then go to work and spend 8 hours coding. If I watch an hour of TV and take care of my email and catching up on RSS feeds (or writing in this blog) then bam, 12 hours right there.  Oh, and I get pinged on hours of sleep. During the week I’m glad to get 6 and often get 5 or less and the trainer is always yelling at me over that.

So lifestyle changes still have a ways to go, but I’m doing great on the workouts, and I’m feeling great, too. I have a lot more energy during the day, and when I go to sleep at night, I go to *sleep*. Like deep, restful sleep, which is really nice.

There might be something to this ‘get in shape’ stuff after all!

Active Day 5

Posted on by Pete

Today was Day 5 of the 30-Day Challenge in EA Sports Active for the Wii. It was workout #4, since Thursday was a rest day (every 3rd day is rest, it seems).

Yesterday’s workout felt easy and it was over before I knew it. I was feeling cocky, then today came. Jump Squat and Jump Lunges and lots of running. Oh my aching legs.

I am doing better with the running but I’m not really sure how/why other than I’m feeling less reserved about the whole process. I realized as I started to really huff and puff that I’ve been so non-active for so long that I subconsciously have started thinking that heavy-breathing means something is wrong, and I pull back.

I don’t want to get too touchy-feely but I really feel like I’m starting to think differently about things. Even after just 5 days. After my first workout I felt terrible and really gross (sweat? EWWW!) but now, yeah, I’m wiped after the workout, but I’m kind of, I dunno, proud of the sweat? And I know I’ll feel GREAT in an hour or so, which is the best part of the whole experience.

I’m not eating any better, but I’m intending to eat better. LOL. We’ll see how that goes. Getting lots of veggies is a challenge for me. I take some baby carrots to work to snack on, but what other veggies are convenient & portable? Any suggestions?

I’m considering getting a set of these, once they release:
riiflex
I just don’t know how they’d work with having to put the Nunchuk into the pocket. Maybe have 2 Nunchuks and just plug the appropriate one into the Wii Remote?

So far, really happy with the product, and feeling a bit better about my self. I already seem to feel like I have more energy, though maybe its all in my head. But I’m not questioning it for now.

If you’re on the fence about Active, I heartily recommend you give it a shot. It’s actually working for me in ways that Wii Fit never did.

EA Sports Active Day 2

Posted on by Pete

I promise I’m not going to make this a daily workout blog! But I did think it might be of interest to some for me to relate a bit more EA Active experience.

I woke up this morning sore, but not uncomfortably so. In fact it was that “good feeling” soreness, though oddly it seemed to get worse, not better, as the day went on. That said, I worked from home today so my ‘commute’ was 15 feet from the bedroom to the office and plunked back down in the chair to write code.

I went out to do some shopping this afternoon and that loosened things up, but then it was back to work for part of the evening, so I didn’t get to EA Active until about 9:30 pm, which I think is much too late to do this kind of thing. But life happens, right?

Tonight’s workout was different from last night. A few new things, a few varieties of things I did yesterday. Yesterday I did side lunges, today it was side lunches with a toe touch, for instance. No boxing today, instead it was tennis (just returning balls at a target, not actually playing).

The leg strap was fussy again. I finally got it to stay put after Angela insisted I should wear it higher on my thigh than I’d been doing. After I looked at my on-screen trainer I saw she was right, so I put it almost as high as it would go and cinched it down pretty tight and it finally stayed in place. I kind of tucked the leg of my shorts around the pocket in the front and that seemed to work well. I think you’d have to do that with anything the least bit baggy. So under the shorts unless you’re wearing spandex or something, and believe you me, you do not want me wearing spandex. Even if you can’t see me, it would cause a darkness that would spread across the lands.

I’m already getting better at using the tension strap and pocketing/unpocketing the Nunchuk. The upper body exercises really feel kind of trivial. I know you can double up the strap but I’m afraid I’m going to break it (and I know some folks have broken them). I might see if I can find a heavier weight strap the next time I’m at a department store.

On the other hand, the lower body exercises continue to kick my behind. And I struggle on the track when it comes time to run. It *always* tells me I’m too slow. Brings back bad gym class memories. I was blaming the system, but then I just went for it and I got into the “Perfect” range, which I could maintain for about 10 seconds before I started wheezing. Plus we live on the 2nd floor and it was closing in on 10 pm and our office is technically the master bedroom so I was worried I was stomping on the floor when someone was trying to sleep.

But bottom line, it’s clear that the running is going to be an on-going challenge for me. But that’s ok.

I’ve also found that you have to be careful with the exercises and do them as instructed. For instance, I was doing these standing leg crunches… you lift one knee up high and are supposed to cross your hands over your belly and ‘crunch’ your abdomen forward. I was just lifting my leg, and I wasn’t getting any Active love. Turns out you NEED to cross your hands over you belly (thereby placing the Remote on you belly) and then you have to crunch forward in order to move the Remote, and then the rep counts.

In general, smooth controlled motions work best, but I guess those are best for maximum performance anyway. It’s important to know that you don’t have to start the exercise with the on-screen trainer…it’ll wait for you. So get your breathing right and then start. But once you start, you have to maintain cadence with him/her/it, and it will do things like make you hold a position for an extra few beats now and then. You WILL curse at this thing.

The good news is that after I was done, I didn’t feel the need to pass out. I managed to get right to the showers (yesterday after the workout I wouldn’t have trusted myself to stand up near all that hard porcelain). So Day 2 wasn’t as bad as Day 1. And Day 3 is a “rest” day and I have to confess I’m glad of that!

I have to say, I’m pretty impressed with the product. I do feel like I’ve had a full body workout, and I sure do sweat (I barely broke a sweat on Wii Fit). I’d just love to see EA take advantage of the Wii Motion Plus add-on when it comes out.

Oh, and my apologies for any typos. Apparently my brain is slightly oxygen starved after working out and my writing gets really sloppy, but I don’t really notice how bad it is until the next day!