Wiiiiiiiii

I did it.  With much pomp and circumstance I spent 25 minutes with the Wii today.
It didn't come easy, I assure you.  When my 23-month old son is down for his nap and the 5-month old twins are chillin' on their own I have to quickly decide how I want to spend those precious moments!  Shower?  Read for a few minutes?  Complete a task on my never-ending "to do" list?  Use the bathroom in silence?  And the list goes on.  Since my recent trip to the doctor and resulting resolution to eat better and increase physical activity I have to add exercise to that list.  And exercise is exactly what I did today.

Determining to do the exercise was the first big step.  Finding the disc for Wii Fit was the second hurdle to overcome.  We have three levels in our home.  Each level is equipped with a tv.  Each tv has had the Wii hooked up to it in the last year.  I had to search each "station" on each floor in search of said disc.  To no avail.  I then enlisted Pete to help me in my quest (I could sense the free/peaceful moments slipping away, like sand through the hourglass).  He too looked on each level of our home, finally to return to the basement to suggest I look in the drawer at the bottom of our entertainment center, which of course held the Wii Fit disc.

I got the Wii Fit step in place, hooked the remote control on my wrist and pushed "A" to begin.  I followed the prompts on the screen only to find that the power button on the fitness step wasn't working.  I pushed with my foot, pushed with my finger.  Lifted it, returned it to the floor, pressed again.  I picked it up, shook it.  Nothing.  Pete came to assist me in this and determined that perhaps the batteries were dead.  I went and found 4 AA batteries to replace the old ones and put them in.  No joy.  Again, I asked Pete to help problem solve.  He looked at my work and switched the batteries around.  I had put them in backwards...+/-...whatever.

Finally, I was ready to begin!  Oops, not supposed to wear shoes on the Wii Fit board/step thing...stopped, took off my shoes, ready now!  And so I began.  It had been 863 days since I had last signed in to work out with Wii Fit.  So, okay, it's been YEARS since I've exercised at home...I said I wasn't going to sugar coat any of this.  And in the spirit of full disclosure, my Wii fitness age is 47.  Ouch.  They don't pull any punches during training either.  I was receiving prompts that said, "Your body is weak" and the rating of "Couch potato" during and at the end of each exercise.  The virtual trainer would say, "Good job!" and "Keep going!" while I was in the midst of an exercise but afterward he would say things like, "Your left side is very weak" or "I noticed you took a break during that exercise.  Those muscles won't work themselves out."  I didn't take it personaly and put in my full 25 minutes anyway.  (I'll show that virtual trainer!)

I have a lot of work to do here!  The upside is that my weight is "normal".  BMI could/should be reduced by 5 and I really need to work on strenghtening.  All in all I felt very good about the time I spent and was able to do things that at the start I didn't think I'd be able to do.  It was the completion of a task I had challenged myself to complete that was so very rewarding. I may have become overly zealous as later in the afternoon I went for a walk with a friend and all three of my boys.  We were gone for over an hour.  My glutes are complaining, friends. 

Wii Fit works for me.  What exercises have you all found that work best for you?  Have any good core-building exercises you could share with me?

Hasta luego!