One week ago we purchased a Wii Fit for Snoring Daddy’s 32nd birthday. After trying it out and writing an open love letter to Nintendo about the Wii Fit, I didn’t get back on it until this past weekend. I’ve used it every day since.

When we first used the Wii Fit balance board, we didn’t employ the risers that are included for use with the carpet.

Sadly, I weigh so much that the board had difficulty recognizing and processing my data without the risers—because my giant, honkin’ ass sunk it that deep into the carpet.

So we put the risers on.

And our weights promptly increased. Mine increased by 12.5 lbs according to the Wii. Snoring Daddy was not happy with his increase of 15 lbs, arguing vehemently that he did not weigh that much and never had in his life.

The truth hurts people. And the first step is acknowledging it. He still hasn’t taken that first step.

Anyway, the beauty of the Wii is that it’s fun and it gets you up and moving.

But the genius of Wii Fit is that it provides you with tools to track your fitness level and your progress, while letting you workout with friends and family, competing with them to beat their scores, or weightloss progress, or Wii Fit Age, or just to watch your own fitness improve.

This is a huge motivation tool for me because my family is working out with me. For the first time in my life, I have workout partners and it’s all because of it is a game.

When you begin setting up your Wii, you create an avatar called a Mii. While playing various games you will see all the Miis, created by your family and friends, playing along side you, competing against you, or cheering you on throughout the games. It’s almost like you are playing with them in the game—it’s very interactive even when you play alone.

The Wii Fit takes your height data combined with your weight and gives you your BMI. Then it plumps up or slims down your Mii to fit that information.

As a side note, the BMI information should not be taken at face value. There have been reports of atheletic young people–kids full of muscle–being told they are overweight or obese. My oldest son’s data reports him as obese. His father and I disagree but we acknowledge that he is a bit overweight. The BMI scale does not measure bone mass or muscle and his frame is just like mine. He’s built big with a large bone structure and lots of muscle mass. The boy doesn’t realize it, but he was built to be a football linebacker, should he ever decide to pursue that sport.

I would like to stop him from taking the body test to shield him from that particular feature, but he likes to see what his Wii Fit Age is. I just keep reminding him that the BMI feature is not an accurate measure of fitness because it doesn’t take into account muscle weight.

I, however, totally admit that I am severely obese.

I don’t have the muscle I had as a kid.

The body test measures your weight and any fluctuations in that measurement from your last test. It takes this information combined with your age and the results of two balance tests to present you with your Wii Fit age.

Another great feature is the competitive aspect of the Wii Fit. You can choose to compete with your workout partners—your family and friends—or you can choose to compete against yourself. Either way, you have charts and graphs to monitor your progress and I LOVE CHARTS AND GRAPHS.

The first screen takes you to the Wii Fit plaza where you see all of the registered users and their Miis and a graph of their progress.

Once you have clicked on your Mii,

and entered your password, (if you choose to lock your information from nosy individuals—which I did)

it takes you to a calendar page with stamps indicating the days that you have taken the body test.

From there you can choose to take a body test that day or you can choose to train. There are four workout areas to choose from. Yoga, Strength, Aerobics, and Balance. The Wii Fit is big on balance, stating that good balance helps improve your overall health and fitness.

When you do yoga or strength training you get a virtual trainer. You can choose to work with a male or female trainer.

Most of us, at my house, have chosen the male, because the female’s voice and how she talked was a bit annoying. The first day, Snoring Daddy named the male “Trainer Matt”, but over the weekend our brother-in-law renamed him “Greg”.

This is Greg. His lips don’t move when he talks, but his head and hands do. He’s a little odd, but we like him. And yes. We do talk back to him.

When you are finished playing the Wii Fit for the day, you can click on the graph symbol on the calendar page. There you can view your individual graphs charting your Weight, BMI, Wii Fit Age, and your Fit Credits.

This breaks down the number of minutes you spent training and what types of activities you chose to do. It also includes another feature. You can click on the Activity Log to enter more information about any other exercises or activities you have done OUTSIDE of the Wii Fit exercises.

There is one other feature I want to address and that is goal setting. The Wii Fit lets you set weightloss or weight gain goals, but it limits you to 22 lbs at a time. You can set the time to one week (totally unrealistic for 22 lbs and hopefully most people realize this) or several months—but the key is that it doesn’t let you set overwhelming goals in terms of the number of pounds you can lose or gain for each individual goal. This encourages focus on reasonable, reachable goals which in turn keeps you motivated. Once you reach that goal you can set a new one.

I’ve started to make healthy changes in my lifestyle so many times before only to give up a few weeks or a few months in when I didn’t see fast enough progress or I was faced with some kind of stress that detoured me from working out or eating right.

This time feels different because I’m not doing this alone. See, there’s Snoring Daddy and his sister Pascha (or their Miis anyway) getting ready to throw hula hoops at me.

My biggest challenge has always been getting and staying active and maintaining that level of activity no matter how much is going on in my life—good or bad. The Wii Fit gaming system makes me want to work out. It’s fun, because I’m playing a game. It’s not just work. It’s motivating and that’s something I desperately need. Now that I am using the Wii Fit daily I’ve found myself seeking out healthier food choices this week, instead of snacking on junk or eating just because someone around me is eating. I don’t want to waste any progress I may have made by playing the Wii, so I make better food choices.

I’ve lost 5.7 lbs since Sunday. But I’m reminding myself that the first week of any exercise and healthy eating program nets the biggest loss because of all the water weight lost from cutting down on salty processed foods and upping water intake.

But I’ll take it. I just hope, that this time, I can keep it up.

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