Wii Fit Plus Journey of a Fifty-Plus Mom

Like millions of other Americans, I’m resolving to lose some weight in 2010. And, like millions of other Americans, we purchased a Wii system as well as Wii Fit Plus and balance board for Christmas. My primary interest in the system lay in the fact that I had heard that people could get a good aerobic workout if they diligently used Wii Fit. I’d read that the Plus version offered even more fitness options. I resolved that in 2010 I’d get to know Wii Fit Plus thoroughly and see what happened. It’s just been a few days, but here’s what I’ve learned to far.

Wii Fit Plus lets you choose from a variety of activities. You can select a game that stresses aerobic fitness, strength training or balance. Within those categories, you can choose different activities. Some are timed. Others are not. Some are set up like a competition. Others look like you’re in a fitness center with your personal trainer right beside you. Since the activities are in separate segments, you can “assemble” a training session that targets only one particular area, or choose one the covers the gamut. As you progress, you have the option to make an activity more difficult. What I like best is that the whole thing seems more like fun than exercise!

Here we were, each entering our birthday and height into the Wii Fit Plus, and our Mii people were getting skinnier or chubbier to match the information we entered. (My 50-year-old Mii doesn’t look as thin as I’d like it to, but I’m afraid it actually depicts what I look like. Yikes!) Once we had that all settled and had determined our Wii Fit ages, we entered information for our two dogs! You can see their pictures in the group shot. By the time we finished we knew who needed to lose some weight, who had balance issues, whose posture needed improvement, and what everyone’s Wii Fit age was. We also set goals for ourselves based on what we’d found out earlier.

When you get ready to start your fitness regimen, you can choose a male or female trainer. The trainer gives you periodic tips about how to improve performance at a particular routine as well as general fitness information. You can opt to get a daily fitness tip from your trainer. In activities involving specific exercises, the trainer demonstrates the exact way to do each exercise in order to get the most benefit. He or she also tells you how you did and how you can improve. All the time you work out, you can see how long you’ve been at it and how many calories you’ve burned. As you workout, your trainer compliments your diligence. Wii Fit provides the personal trainer you guessed you might need, but thought you couldn’t afford!

Choose the yoga exercises, and the balance board becomes your meditation mat. The on-screen narrator—which is supposedly the voice of the balance board—encourages you to relax, breathe deeply and focus. As you work through the stretches, you’re coached and cheered on.   If you’re like me and get discouraged with your initial results on the strength-training, balance or aerobic exercises, you might appreciate the yoga segments.

If you are unaware of what’s going on—like I was—and register your Mii  when everyone is watching, you realize very quickly that your three teenage and twenty-something sons know exactly how much you weigh and how much you need to lose to get to your ideal weight.  It was humbling to realize that the Wii Fit agreed with what my conscience had been telling me—I need to lose 20 pounds!!  The group conscience thing activates when you realize that the Wii Fit program records your progress (or lack of progress.)  It’s like having “weigh-in” night at Weight Watchers every time you exercise!  It’s a bit spooky, but perhaps it’s just what I need to help me meet the perennial resolution to lose a few pounds.