Wii Fit = BEST THING EVER

So it's no secret to anyone who reads this blog that I'm a little obsessed with my new Wii right now. But for my early birthday, Blake got me a Dance Dance Revolution and a Wii Fit and I must update about them because they are fantastic.

First the DDR. I thought that the 10 years of dance lessons I took meant I have rhythm, but apparently not. I am AWFUL at this game. I will need a LOT of practice. I improved a bit in the 45 minutes I played, but it was definitely rough. I look forward to continuing to play though. It had a continuous calorie burning mode where you tell it how much you weigh and how many calories you want to burn and it estimates how long to stay on for...which will be cool as soon as I can get through one song without tripping all over myself.

Brief interlude: I also got the KitchenAid food processor I wanted. Woop!

OK, now the Wii Fit. I had my doubts about how good of a workout you could really get from this. From the onset, it was just really really cool. The features are great. Although I was a bit upset that it gauges your progress based on BMI...which isn't the best indicator of health given that it doesn't take into account muscle mass. But how much can you expect a wireless balance board to do, right?

Anyway, you play with your Mii character, and it's wearing a little workout outfit, it's very cute. There are four areas: Aerobics, Balance games, Yoga, and Strength training. Because I was so sore from the Kettlebell incident of Friday afternoon, I have yet to try the strength section. But the rest is great. It's nice to be able to design my own 10-15 minute yoga workout on the fly whenever I have some time rather than scheduling in a class. The balance games are really hard at first but very fun. And I'm a huge fan of the aerobics. The hula hooping and the stepping are my favorites. You would NOT believe how sweaty you can get from 6 minutes of doing hip circles continuously. The step class is challenging, but fun. You start out with easy versions of each and eventually unlock more difficult options.

I can't believe how much I want to do this every day. So, based on the theory I always read that squeezing in as little as 10 minutes of activity helps your health, I'm going to work it into every day (that I'm at home, anyway). Days that I also go to the gym, I'm going to do it for 30 minutes. Days that I don't go to the gym, I'll work in an hour. I had to leave for WVa at 6am today, and I actually woke up excited at 4:45 to do Wii Fit for 30 minutes. It's also a good amount of time to play. I do 5 minutes aerobics, 10 yoga, another 3 aerobics, 6 minutes of balance games, and then 6 more of aerobics. It's super fun. I'm definitely trying the strength stuff this weekend. I brought the kettlebell to WVa (we drove so we had a lot of cargo room) so I'll do that twice this week and then the Wii stuff once.

This all being said, clearly the gym isn't obsolete for me or anything, but this makes me really excited to work out. There is also a feature where you can log your daily activity outside of the Fit so they work it into the charts that they keep of your daily progress and activity levels. I cannot say enough great stuff about it. If you have a Wii you should get it. But maybe just wait until they're widely available and not pay above retail for it like my boyfriend did. Not that I don't really really appreciate it, but I feel a little bit bad.