Day 2: Wii Zumba and Just Dance

Today I started with another 20 minutes of Wii Zumba.  It's a bit easier than yesterday from a technical standpoint, but that must have allowed me to push myself a bit more because I was dead at the end of those 20 minutes!  I tried the Party mode, which I can't really differentiate from the class mode.  I've just done the beginner level so far, but I noticed today that an intermediate class unlocked today.

The way the game works is you put the Wii controller in a little pocket on a velcro belt and groove away.  When you're moving as the game expects you to move, the Zumba lady on the screen turns green, and when you don't she stays an orangish colour.  I think she turns yellow when you're close to the right moves.  I've noticed that the more you move your hips, the more green you get.  It doesn't really matter if your feet are in the right position, as long as your body is moving as if they are.  This realisation helped me have even MORE fun with Zumba today!

The Zumba belt: The controller goes in sensor up and pushes all the way down
(it's not in all the way in this pic)

When Zumba was over, I got my groove on even more with over an hour of Wii Just Dance.  I have the first Wii dance, so not as good music selections as Just Dance 2, but I always really enjoy this game.  You dance along with a dancer and you get little cues for what moves are coming up next (unlike Zumba which gives you no cues).

Wii Just Dance: high in fun, low in cardio

 The cardio value of Just Dance is nothing compared to Wii Zumba, but it does keep you hip hopping around enough to keep you sweaty.  I try to march or hop between songs, but it's hard because you need to point the controller at the screen.

THEN I helped put together a trampoline for 2 hours, and as if my body wasn't achy enough from all that, I just HAD to jump in it for awhile!

Livie bounces a bit before the enclosure was assembled

"Wow, thanks so much for getting me such a cool box!"

Not sure if this DailyBurn app is gonna work out for me.  Last night the app said I had a little more than 100 calories left for the day, so I poured myself a bowl of what I thought would be 100 calories worth of party mix and ate it and then a bit more, even though I wasn't hungry.  I'm pretty sure that's not how the app is supposed to work.


Getting my Glee on:
Another Sueism:
You know, for me trophies are like herpes. You can try to get rid of them but they just keep coming. Sue Sylvester has hourly flair ups of burning itchy highly contagious talent.

Day 1: Wii Zumba & Daily Burn

Today I tried Wii Zumba.

Dear 505 Games,
How many times do I need to play this game before I look like her?

It was 60 minutes of humiliation and fun rolled into one salsarific bundle.  Thank god my only witness was my cat, who must have thought I'd finally lost it.  The game isn't the greatest.  The tutorial is buggy and skips forward in unexpected ways.  I worked my way through all the lessons, doing a few of them twice before finally moving on to the 20 minute beginner workout.  I've actually taken latin dance lessons in a previous life, so the first part of the workout was kinda easy from a footwork perspective, but I did work up a good sweat.  At about the midway point, the pumping/booty shaking moves start and then it really heats up/becomes hilarious, depending on your perspective.  At one point I caught a glimpse of my reflection in the TV screen and had to will myself to continue.  There is no way in gods green earth that I would ever do this in public.  But.  Once I let go of how ridiculous I probably looked, and embraced my inner Jennifer Lopez, I have to say, it was quite a fun workout.  Really fun, actually.  I find myself looking forward to my second Wii Zumba session, despite the dorky user interface.

Wii Zumba: More fun than it looks, and a great workout!

I also decided to try using the DailyBurn iPhone app.  This is a tracking app for diet and exercise that has a cool barcode scanner (cool gadgetry always=successful weightloss, right?).  I'm not usually one for tracking stuff, but I have found in the past that it helps me stay on track, especially in the early days.

So here I am, exercising and paying attention to what I'm eating.  Not a bad place to start a weightloss blog.  If I can figure out a way to have fun losing weight, I might be able to stick with it this time.

I don't know what my weight is today (I don't have a scale other than my wii balance board).  I'll weigh myself tomorrow and record it.  It's probably practical (albeit scary) to have a "before" weight.  Maybe some (*shudder*) measurements.


Spreading a little Glee to the world:
Will Schuester: Bring it.
Sue Sylvester: Oh I will bring it, William. You know what else I'm gonna bring? I'm gonna bring some Asian cookery to wipe your head with. Cause right now you've got enough product in your hair to season a wok."


...and a totally unrelated but timely video: