January 11, 2010

BMI: 25.22
Weight: 176.1
Minutes: 23
Calories: 76

I got up early enough today! Put my bedroom lamp on a timer and that definitely helped. Took me awhile to peel out of bed, but it'll become easier in time. I hope.

BODY TEST
The Wii told me today that by doing the Body Tests regularly eventually I will get a new option called Simple Test. It doesn't calculate your Wii Age. When I was talking with a coworker later, she said it really wasn't that much shorter. Besides, it's kinda nice to score low Wii Ages :)

Basic Balance = 51.1L: 48.9R
The Wii told me to try to put pressure on my whole foot - heel, big toe and little toe. I'll try.

Single Leg Test
Naturally, with this test, I chose my left leg to stand on. (sigh) I have 74% stability - previous score 66%. I found it rather hard. You stand as still as you can for 20 seconds while the channel narrows.

Memory Test
This one has the sliding line dots with numbers. You have to assess whether the one in the middle is a higher number than the one on the right. If it is, you squat quick to squish the dot. It's very sensitive. You have to squat really fast and not too low or else it will squish the next dot too, which may not be correct. Then it starts to cover up the dots so you have to memorize them as you go. And it doesn't just slide in one direction! It is also timed. I got 21/25 - previous score 16. I think I'll improve on this one.

Wii Age: 32

BALANCE GAMES
Soccer Heading
I'm still ranking as an amateur, but I scored 3 new high scores! My new goal is to maintain over 100. Or maybe 90? LOL. The trick is to score as many in a row as possible at the beginning while the Wii is taking it easy on you. The points increase with consecutive success. Once it starts throwing things at you, watch out - the shoes are -1 and the pandas are -3. Avoid the pandas!

At the end of my reps, I accidentally hit Retry instead of Quit. I think I was giddy from my last score of 148. Once in and with a game starting, I couldn't figure out how to cancel. I hit the Home button on the Wii remote and wound up all the way back at the main Wii menu. But once I got back to the Balance Games, I saw that it saved my minutes from before - that's nice.

Ski Jump (2.0 METs)
I'm doing okay on this one too. Still ranking Amateur, but I scored one Professional with a new high score of 272! I understand the basics of what I need to do, but suspect there are some subtle nuances yet to be discovered. For example, when accelerating, the more you lean forward the faster you go, which is indicated by the balance visual having a yellow band at top (and lots of wind noise). Is that good or bad? Can a person go too fast? And there are lines in the snow at the bottom of the slope - do I get a super high score if I can make it to them? I hope to make it there someday to find out!

Table Tilt (2.0 METs)
Ok, earlier I was thinking that Table 5 had some special evil force like gravity keeping me away from the holes. Now I am noticing these little hills in the way. The trick is to back off the hills and then 'zoom' at them to get over. Not too much though or you'll go off the table. Rocking can sometimes help too. If you just coast up to the hill, no amount of pushing will get you over without completely knocking all the balls off the table.

So I finally made it past Table 5 - not once but three times! I made it up to Table 8! I'm still an Amateur but I don't care!

You'll notice that I only did three exercises today, and I earned more Minutes than the four I did yesterday. Must be the METs calculation? I did it in about the same amount of time too.

Happiness. I really, really like the idea of starting out my day with something I enjoy that gives me a sense of accomplishment. This is a new concept for me. I look forward to getting up early again tomorrow!
Amy