An Update on how The “Sweet” Life is Moving Along

A nifty little gadget that makes exercising fun, easy to incorporate into a busy day and shows results...? Yes, please!

When last I left you here at The “Sweet” Life, I was about to embark on a journey towards a more balanced, healthy, active life as opposed to a life where I resemble a whale, elephant or any other large mammal you can imagine. My approach to achieving this goal involves more exercise and consuming the bare minimum of unhealthy food. Incorporating exercise into my life three days a week seemed like an easy enough task and it worked out pretty well for the first week. I’ve been making a solid effort to limit the amount of unhealthy food I consume and I haven’t done too badly on that front with the exception of one Steers incident and a reception for a baptism I attended with The Greek over the weekend. The baptism reception was a huge party with great Greek music, good company and plenty of amazing food, served buffet-style of course. Even though the Greeks organised a great party with so much delicious food, I made sure to dish up plenty of veggies and had fruit salad for dessert. I sincerely hope you’re proud of me, dear reader!

I’m sure you’re thinking: “This is all good and well but what was that you mentioned about your gym plans only working out for the first week?” Well, I’m here to confess that I did lack some motivation after the first week. It’s easy to hit the gym when your trusty companion, in my case – Sarah, is with you but when you have to go on your own it doesn’t seem like as much fun. Sarah had to skip a day or two of gym that second week, and I was proud of myself for going on my own but I didn’t feel quite as excited about heading off to fight the battle of the bulge all on my lonesome.

Then, at the beginning of last week I decided that I would head back to my former nest to spend a few days with my folks. While this was great for bonding and catching up, it would mean that I would miss two days of gym because my contract limits which gyms I can visit and I wouldn’t be able to go to gym while I was in Kempton. Luckily for me, Daddy dearest invested in a wonderful gadget called the Nintendo™ Wii Fit_™ Plus not too long ago and he assured me that I would be able to supplement my gym routine with this for a few days.

I didn’t think that I would feel the same effects using the Wii as what I usually felt after a gym workout, but let me tell you, the Wii is NOT a joke! This clever little gadget has changed the way I look at exercise. It measures your weight, Body Mass Index, balance and mental skills before each workout and keeps a record of these so that you can monitor your progress along the road to a healthier, more active you. The Wii uses a combination of the following exercises to assist you in a total body workout each time you train:

• Training exercises – these are cardio exercises like jogging and cycling.
• Aerobic exercises – these include stepping workouts much the same as those you would do in an aerobics class at the gym.
• Yoga routines – there are several poses that can be practiced, each focusing on toning a specific area of the body.
• Muscle training – these exercises are much the same as those you would do on the circuit at the gym, only instead of using weights, you use your own body weight or other objects to do these exercises.
• Balance training – these exercises are designed to help improve your balance and agility and are mostly fun exercises, not really used for serious training.

Each time you select an activity the Wii explains how to do the exercises and provides regular tips to help you improve. Your progress is measured with every exercise you do as well as the time spent on that particular exercise. This is very useful for monitoring your progress and keeping track of how much time you spend working out each day. The Wii allows you to choose how many activities you want to do in each of the training categories mentioned above, which allows you to focus your training on specific areas of your body. I found this feature really helpful because I often feel that some of the problem areas of my body don’t get enough attention when I work out at the gym. Being able to repeat the same exercise a few times in one workout makes me feel like I’ve made a solid effort to really tackle the areas of my body that I feel need more work.

For the three days that I used the Wii as opposed to going to gym, I followed the following routine:

• I started every workout by measuring my weight, BMI, balance and mental skills.
• I then moved on to cardio training by jogging.
• I then moved on to stepping and “kung-fu” poses for some aerobics training.
• I spent a great deal of my workout time on Yoga training, focusing on poses that would improve my posture and strengthen my core. I found that the poses I chose helped to strengthen my abdominal muscles, stretch my waist and strengthen the muscles in my arms and legs. Anyone who says that Yoga is easy should go fly a kite! I definitely felt the effects of practicing these poses!
• After Yoga, I moved on to muscle training. I chose to focus on toning my arms, waist and abdominal muscles. These exercises seem really harmless while you’re doing them but I could feel that my muscles had had a solid workout the next day. I was really impressed that I could feel the effects of these exercises, which are similar to those I do at the gym three days a week, without having to use heavy weights to achieve results.
• The balance training exercises were a fun way to end off my workouts, I did more laughing with these than actual training, but I suppose that worked my abdominal muscles, right?

After following this routine for three days and feeling the results of these exercises, I got to thinking. My gym contract expires in May, I could renew it and pay a hefty price every month for another year – knowing that I may not always go to gym as often as I should in order to get my money’s worth. Or I could save my pennies and purchase a Wii. The latter option certainly has benefits that make it seem better than renewing my gym contract!

While the initial purchase of the Wii is pricy, I would get much more use out of the product than if I paid for gym every month and didn’t go as regularly as I should. I can exercise in the comfort of my own home, without having to make time to drive to the gym and back each time I want to work out. This will save me some money on petrol as well! Exercising at home gives me the opportunity to work as hard as I want to without worrying about my appearance and how other gym members look at me and, more importantly, I can repeat the same exercises as many times as I want to without holding up a queue of people who want to do the same exercise – something that often happens at the gym. Being able to focus on areas of my body that I feel need special attention will most probably help me to achieve better results and the fact that my progress will be monitored every time I work out is a very useful way to help me improve. A great aspect of using a Wii as opposed to going to gym is that I can do it on my own without feeling lonely because the “trainers” on-screen constantly talk and give tips on how to improve your workout, making you feel as if they are really there.

After listing all of the pros and cons of having a gym contract versus using a Wii for workouts, I have decided to start saving up in order to purchase a Wii (donations welcome!) after my contract expires in May. But until then I will still be working towards my health and wellness goals and will visit the gym as regularly as I can.

Stay tuned for more updates on my journey to a thinner, happier, healthier and “sweeter” life!