Rob Blatt's Culture of Content » the wii fit experiment

The Wii Fit Experiment Day 6: 10 Minutes of Hula Hoops

Rob Blatt — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 13:09:08 +0000

I unlocked the 10 minute version of the hula hoop game. While it looks all fun when the cute girl in her underwear does it, it’s quite different when you are a 234 pound hairy dude. I imagine it looks worse when I do it, but no one will even know because I do it at 5 am with the shades drawn in my attic.

I also unlocked the “boxing” and I’ll give a warning here in regards to my “get into it” from last time. When playing the boxing game, don’t throw real punches. A few years ago I got some mixed martial arts training, of which I retained the knowledge of how to properly throw a punch. Don’t throw real punches when doing this, or you’ll make your elbows sore for days. Throw light punches, like Tae-Bo punches. Your arms will thank you later.

Current Weight: 234

Six pounds in a few days is pretty good, even if I had a big BBQ meal on day 2.

The Wii Fit Experiment Day 3: I’m Still Obese.

Rob Blatt — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 04:08:38 +0000

When you are playing Wii Fit, there’s something important to know or else you won’t be able to realize the true benefit from the game. When you play Wii Fit, you have to commit yourself completely to your task at hand. It might look silly for a 26 year old man to clap along to the music while playing “Advanced Step”, but if I can’t get a little silly while exercising when what’s the pint of using a video game to help me lose weight?

After using the Fit for three days I’m beginning to see where it overlaps with real life. One of the first things I noticed is my balance was off. The Fit has numerous visual ways to tell you “you slouch”. When you stand on the board, your center of balance is displayed as a red dot on crosshairs. After seeing this screen enough, I learned what standing position balanced my weight evenly between both feet and my toes and heels. Waiting for the subway, I’m finding myself shifting my weight to get an even balance between my feet.

On day 2, I had lost 3.7 lbs, but a faily BBQ for Father’s Day pushed me up 2.4 lbs. So instead losing lots of weight, I lost one pound.

Stats:
Current Weight: 240

down one pound from day one

The Wii Fit Experiment Day 1: I’m Obese?

Rob Blatt — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 02:52:41 +0000

I’m a big dude. My body disguises it relatively well, but I’m not what most people would call “in shape”. I inherited a barrel chest from my father’s side of the family, and that hides my weight pretty well. But I’m far from being in shape at the moment. From the peak of being in shape (summer of 2002) I’m about 55 lbs heavier at the moment. While I don’t believe that the BMI system is reliable, there’s still a shock when a video calls you obese.

This week, I managed to pick up a Wii Fit thanks to a friend who works in video games. I opened it up tonight and found out that I am, according to my Nintendo, obese. I’m determined to use the Wii Fit to attempt to lose weight, and over the next three months I’ll see if I can lose the 22 pounds that I have set out to lose using the Wii Fit. I would have attempted to lose more over a longer period of time, but the Wii Fit will only let me set a goal of losing 22 pounds at a time.

And, for motivation, I’ll be posting my weight on the blog for everyone to read.

Current weight: 241

Whew. That felt good.