Day 37--Finish

I finished the EA Active 30 Day Challenge on Easy. It really lived up to its name. I think I had a slight difficulty with my breath twice during all 20 exercises. I don't think I felt the day-after muscles soreness much, if at all during the month and I know I didn't break a sweat. I was using 3 pound weights for half the month, too. It would have been even easier with the resistance band. Tomorrow I will start over, but on Hard/Difficult. If it's going to do me any good physically, I really need it to be tougher. I also want to make a stronger commitment to doing the yoga every day that I work out on EA Fitness. The sporadic yoga I did over the last month probably did more for my body than all the workouts on EA Fitness.

I thought I'd check out my measurements, just in case any of them changed, but not actually expecting any change. That'll teach me to make assumptions.

My waist is down another 1/2 inch to 31. Same story with my hips; I'm down to 38. That puts my waist to hip ratio down a bit, but still not great. None of my other measurements have changed at all. I'll check my measurements again at the end of March.

Day 36--Sick

I have a killer cold that has settled into my lungs. I was not able to say the letter m or n yesterday, or get a full breath. Luckily, it was a rest day on the 30 day challenge, so I didn't really slack by coming home and doing nothing but reclining. I only have 2 days to go until I restart the challenge, but on HARD. The easy was too easy, and I'd rather push myself with hard than go with medium. I did take the time to weigh in yesterday, though. I was back down a bit below 133 pounds. With not eating much the last few days because I can't really taste anything, I feel that I could break the 130 mark soon. I haven't weighed less than 130 in years. I'm not sure when I crossed it on the way up, but I'm sure it was over 2 years ago. I'm not sure what I will do to celebrate that milestone, but it sure won't be cheesecake or ice cream. Maybe I'll buy a nice piece of clothing.

Day 35--Core

I was discussing my record in the ski jump on Twitter today. (Follow me on Twitter, too. I'm on there as bodybywii) After that, I thought I would try it again. I couldn't get my total to beat my old total, but I did find that getting myself up to 60 mph was much easier. I didn't get the 404 meters that the guy in the video did, but I did hit 377 today and my record is 381. I did try a few of the other balance games that I haven't done in ages. It's possible that I haven't done them since moving to Wii Fit Plus from the original. I still suck at the penguin and soccer games. Although they're much, much more fun since I've downloaded famous Miis from the Mii channel. There is nothing like Ice Cube, Oprah, Jack Black and Jesus chucking panda heads and soccer cleats at you.

Day 34--photos

I know they're not "Before" pictures, but they're not "After" pictures, either. As you can see, I have Mom Waddle under my arm, and a Baby Bumper hanging out around my belly button. There are other parts of my body that I don't find to be perfect, but these are the ones that bother me most and are probably the most common. I'm only 5'3", so a few pounds is a little bit more visible on me than on someone who is 5'8". I also benefit because a small weight loss is also more visible. If anyone reading this is looking for work-out motivation, I highly suggest having photos taken of your trouble spots and then zoom in on them. I keep looking at the photos above and they make me want to do hours of ab work. I swear my belly button looks like a canyon in those photos. That's way deeper than it looks from my normal viewpoint. I think I'll turn on "The Biggest Loser" at 8 to put this into some perspective.

Day 33--One Year

I've now had my Wii for 365 days. In that time, I've lost 14 pounds and shed 3 points off my BMI. Much of that was during the summer when I was biking 15 miles (no hills) every day. I was also doing the EA Active workouts most days along with the Gold's Gym boxing. That was all during my company's step total contest. I came in 2nd place with over 2.5 million steps over the course of 12 weeks. I think I may have to start doing more than the Wii fit and EA Active if I want to see any more weight loss. The Gold's Gym is a great aerobic workout, something that I'm not really feeling right now, but might get in the hard version of the 30 Day Challenge.

One great thing that has come out of a year of Wii Fit is great posture. When I first got the game, it took every ounce of strength and concentration to keep my posture anywhere near the 50% mark when weighing in. As soon as the measuring was done, I would bend one knee and put all my weight on one side. I rarely, if ever stand that way anymore. I don't cross my legs when sitting in a chair or slouch as much, either. The Wii fit exercises and games really help build up core muscles and improve posture.

Day 32--Flexibility

I have never been a very flexible person. My hamstrings, especially, are really tight. I have to stretch them every day for weeks, if not months, before I can touch my toes without bending my knees. Even when I've had really low weight and high muscle percentage, I've still had a hard time keeping my hamstrings limber. Years ago, Christy Turlington was on Oprah to promote her yoga line and she mentioned she had the same issue. I think the only reason I remember it is because it made me feel a lot better.

There is a yoga move in the Wii fit Plus that they call the spine extension. It's just moving your one leg right behind the leg on the board and then leaning forward. The part that trips me up is putting my arms together behind my back. You're supposed to put them back there palm to palm, which I can't seem to do, but don't know which muscle is actually preventing me from doing it. After some discussion and attempts it seems to be a forearm muscle issue. There are about a million muscles that it could be though. I'm hoping that some time will help with it.

Day 31--Hangover

I don't have an actual hangover, because I only had a few beers, but I still feel a bit off. Thursday was a rest day and I didn't have any time at home yesterday to work out, so I'm two days without a workout. yesterday was the first time in a month that I hadn't weighed in on Wii Fit Plus. Of course, the balance board gave me a hard time about missing a day, too. I did have my bowling league yesterday, so that is some exercise at least. Our team won all of our games and total pins, so we went 7-0 last night. We were in 4th place going into last night, so I'm pretty sure we'll move up a bit. The good night at bowling and then the post-bowling fun at karaoke almost makes up for the fact that the few days off are evident on the numbers on the scale. It's not like I gained 10 pounds, or even 5, but I did gain a little bit and I even weighed in this morning before having any coffee or water. Normally, the dehydration of a few beers will be good for a temporary loss of a pound or two. Ah, well, off to another day of trying to be good and not eat a bag of Doritos with Frank's hot sauce on them. (Don't knock it, it's delicious)