Sunday, November 29, 2009

Post-surgery

Surgery itself went okay, but the recovery is not so smooth - I can't walk without pain, so no more steps right now for me.  And I'm woozy and/or nauseated often, so I've spent most of the past week laying down, and eating anything that actually sounds good.  I'm super-disappointed that I've gained weight through this, but if everything heals up correctly, it'll be worth it.  Surgery wasn't optional, so you've got to do what you have to do here, I suppose.  I definitely won't hit that 4 million step goal, and I'm likely not going to hit my -100 pound goal this year either, but hopefully I can stay in good health and appreciate all the blessings that I do have in my life.

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Walking Goal Met!

As of this afternoon, I have walked 3,652,100 steps this year - meeting my goal of 10,000 steps a day (3,650,000).  WOOHOO!!! :)

I'm having surgery on Tuesday, so I expect my steps will drop for a little while, but I'd love to hit 4 million by the end of the year.  We'll see how it goes!

Also due to the surgery, I didn't start a 6 week challenge on the EA Sports Active game since I know I'd have to miss a bunch.  I'd love to start one soon though! :)

Monday, November 16, 2009

About this blog

Hi there. :)

I've had this blog for over two years now but a good post on Food Blog Alliance made me realize that I never got around to making a proper "About" page here.

Hi, my name is Shannon, and I'm losing it. ;) "It" is 125 pounds. I've been overweight my entire life, and I'm so done with it. I started with Weight Watchers at Work in late 2006, and lost 14 pounds that year. In 2007, I lost 66 more pounds - 80 pounds total. Awesome! Then 2008 rolled around - the day I hit my lowest weight in a decade, my grandfather passed away after a long and slow decline. While I went out to be with my family, my husband's mother was diagnosed with stomach cancer. Right after I return home, we find out it's stage four. She fought hard, but less than four months later, cancer took her. I got laid off from a company I adored in November. I ended 2008 just a couple pounds down. My doctor put an interesting spin on - she said most people would've gained 20 pounds given all that happened that year, so I should think of myself as amazing for maintaining that weight loss throughout. I'm not sure if I believe her. ;)

As I write this on November 16, 2009, I'm down a little more than 10 pounds for the year. I have about 35 pounds to go. It's been so slow and so frustrating, but I know I need to lose more weight and hopefully hard work will make it happen.

On January 1, 2008, I set a goal for the year to walk 10,000 steps a day - or 3.66 million steps for the year. I finished my 3.66 million steps on December 18.

I set the same goal in 2009, and was off to a rockin' start but things have slowed down recently. I should hit my goal this week though, if all goes well. ;)

I tend to post about my walking, plus foods and other healthy-living products that I like (and don't like). I don't get paid for anything I post here, and you will always get my honest opinion.

Here's to healthy living for us all.
shannon -at- shannonislosingit -dot- com

More on EA Sports Active More Workouts

A week ago, I got to try a preview of EA Sports Active More Workout (and you can read my initial reaction) at a mall demo, and this weekend I ended up with a copy of the game, courtesy of EA Sports for helping out with the 5k challenge online event last month. (Disclaimer: EA Sports didn't pay me for this review nor did they require I post about it.) So I cracked into it this morning and here's some additional feedback on it.

First, it imports your profile from the original EA Sports Active game, and I was surprised by the stats it showed me. In that original game, I completed 94 workouts for a total time of 19 hours and 47 minutes, burning a total of 12,900 calories. Pretty interesting! And it looks like it'll keep track of these stats in the new game as well, but separately. You can import from the old game again, it looks like, so you can update the stats if you go back to play the old game. You'd think this would be automatic, but ah well. ;)

Speaking of stats, I do like that this game seems to be more forthcoming with them. I had a big complaint with the original that I couldn't figure out how to go back and see how many calories I burned on previous days - it looks like they've fixed that in this game. And added some cute graphs to show you calories and minutes and such per day. Should be a nice added motivator. I am a fan of this "Weekly Fitness Tracker" feature! Another minor thing - you can now weigh yourself with the Wii Balance Board for the game (I prefer to just enter my true weight from my scale, but it's nice to have that option).

Onto the game! I only did one workout this morning - I wasted too much time setting up my character and poking around the new features (I still hate the face and hairstyle options, by the way, and don't get me started on the body shape one!). I jumped into one of the built-in workouts, "Island Cardio Blast (Low Impact)". It said it would be 24 minutes and I'd burn 172 calories. When I finished, it told me I spent 28 minutes and burned 188 calories.

This workout, like all of the built-in workouts, starts with a warm-up segment and ends with a cool-down stretching segment. I do appreciate that the clock and calorie counter keep running during these segments, which helps motivate you to actually do these segments instead of skipping them. ;)

The warm-up clearly was a good thing, as I heard many cracks and pops in my shoulders and knees! Apparently I'm getting old. ;) After the warm-up, jumped into a squat and reach combo exercise (which was fine), and then a balance board exercise with punching, kicking and kneeing - a better boxing-style exercise than in the original game. "Follow the Leader" followed that exercise, where I had to do what my trainer did, which were the same running exercises from the first game - run, high knees and kick-ups. I fail at kick-ups, by the way. ;) After that, more squats - this time with a knee raise after each one. Then another balance board game - water skiing, which was more squats and leaning (reminiscent of the roller skating event in the previous game). More squat and reach and the boxing event again. Then "Island Outrun", which has you light jogging until you come up to another runner, and then you need to sprint to pass them. A cute way to get in some intervals! Back to squats (with knee raise), and then another balance board game, paddle surfing. It basically alternated lunges (with your arms doing the paddling) with more squats. Not too bad. Then the water skiing event, follow the leader and squat to knee raises. And then the cool down segment. The stretches were nice - just wish I had more room to work out at home so I could've really stretched well!

I didn't set up a challenge yet (this game has a 6 week challenge instead of the 30 day challenge in the original) because the folks on twitter are starting it on the 20th.

I really, really miss the tennis and baseball events from the original game. Squash is part of the new one, so hopefully it will be good. I also enjoyed the basketball and tennis, and those are all gone too. This new one comes with four ab exercises, and more step aerobics too. All things to explore in the coming weeks! ;)

Overall... I'm intrigued. ;) The name and price I think are what threw me off at first. This isn't really a "more workouts" game - with that name, I compare it to the "Wii Fit Plus", which incorporates all the original exercises and adds new events too. And it's only $20. EA Sports Active More Workouts really should be called "EA Sports Active Personal Trainer 2010" - it's a new game, stand-alone, and you don't get to incorporate those past exercises. I don't like that it's so close to the cost of the original game, either - $40 compared to $60. The original comes with the resistance band and leg strap (which cost $20 to buy separately).

I'll post another update after I've played this game more - but so far, it's definitely intriguing - and of course it kicks my butt! My thighs are sore from the squats and I worked up quite a sweat!

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Update

So, my steps-per-day goal has slipped tremendously - in mid-October I started having a womanly health issue, and my walking energy slipped away.  I'm massively determined to hit my 3,650,000 step goal this month though - and I would really love to hit 4 million steps for the year.  As of this morning, I only have 132,300 steps to go for my original goal, and then 482,300 to hit that 4 million - averaging 9,457 steps a day for the rest of the year.  With how early it gets dark outside, I know this is going to be hard.  I've been having trouble sleeping too, so waking up early to work out before work is hard now too.  But I can see that 4 million, and I would so love to hit it. ;)

Monday, November 9, 2009

EA Sports Active - More Workouts preview

I got to try out the new EA Sports Active "More Workouts" game yesterday - EA was doing a mall event that we stumbled upon, and I noticed that this game was pictures on the banners. It wasn't being demonstrated though, so I asked one of the guys working the booth if they had it so I could try it. It took awhile for him to find it - and he ended up ripping into a new sealed package to get the game out.

The package is a wider box, but it comes only with the game and some little pamphlet of some sort. No additional leg strap or plastic band or anything.

Anyway, he pops the game in and I started poking around. Now instead of a 30 day challenge, there's a 45 day version. And there are a bunch of new exercises - but sadly, all of your old favorites from the original game are *not* included here. This is a HUGE oversight that I'll talk about later on.

I noticed a variety of step aerobics exercises in here - a couple different 10 minute routines. I didn't get to try them out (they didn't have a balance board), but I like this idea. ;)

I did try several of the new exercises. I don't remember the exact titles, but I tried a new boxing one where you're working out with a trainer instead of just a punching bag. New to this game is a "hook" punch instead of just the straight-forward punches in the original. I liked having this variety. You also need to "duck" in this one too in order to avoid getting punched. ;) And yes, my arms are sore in a new place after trying this one out yesterday! Woo!

I also tried a water-skiing game, which seems a lot like the roller-blading-with-jumps from the original game - squat and jump! It was okay.

I did an obstacle course event as well, where you run a short distance and then do a mini-exercise, etc. Interesting. It seemed like a bunch of the mini-exercises were jumping-based, and I have to limit jumping around due to an ol' neck issue.

The last thing I tried was one of the abdominal exercises - it involved doing a crunch and then punching across your waist. I couldn't lay on the floor to do this, but it was interesting to see one of these new abs exercises.

So... when we left, I was thinking, "wow, I will totally pick this up!", but then I got home and checked out the price (the people at the booth didn't know the exact price or release date! I don't understand who they hire to work these things, but most of the staffers hadn't even tried out the game themselves and were watching me and commenting about it the whole time).... anyway, so the price. It's $40. And it doesn't give you access to the full set of exercises from the original game. So if you like those, you'll need to switch out games (and I don't know if they will talk to each other so my efforts in one game count for the goals in both). This is a huge flaw.

I picked up the Wii Fit Plus - and it's only $20 - and it does give me access to everything from the original.

I'm really torn here. I like some of those new exercises, but $40 to not be able to use 'em all, and the hassle of having to switch games all the time... I doubt I'll be racing out to buy this one when it comes out next week. Very sad. :(