Friday, December 17, 2010

Holiday weight explosion

Ugh... too many holiday commitments that I can't get out of, and too many holiday cookies around to tempt me... I am hoping to get out of December at the weight I entered into it!

How are you coping with all the eating out and sweets around you? I have so little willpower and I'm always hungry, too - despite eating my usual protein- and fiber-heavy foods.

Thursday, December 9, 2010

EA Active 2 - Calories burned dramatically less than More Workouts

Has anyone else encountered this yet? (I'm using the Wii without the Balance Board turned on - and yes, the BB is not enabled in the settings)

I was religious about doing the step aerobics on More Workouts - and I'd burn at least 150 calories per 10 minute segment. In particular, doing any step repeater would burn almost one full calorie per step (3 kicks = almost 1 calorie).

On Active 2, I'm lucky if I burn 100 calories in a 10 minute segment. The step repeaters burn about .2 calories instead of .8-1.0. It's dramatic. Today I got frustrated and stopped moving, and the calorie counter kept on moving (slowly but still went up). I took off the heart rate monitor in case it was based on that, and the calorie counter still moved as though I was doing the exercise.

I'm so frustrated - this was my favorite component of More Workouts and it's so inaccurate in Active 2... I was elated to not be smacking myself with the cord from the nunchuk, but I am unhappy about the calorie burned issues!

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Luna Bar Lemon Zest

I needed a bar today since I knew I would need to eat while on the go. I picked up this Luna Bar yesterday to give it a try. If you're not familiar with Luna, it's "the whole nutrition bar for women", and also 70% organic.

I wanted something that wasn't chocolate (I know, a shocker!) so I went with this flavor. Unfortunately... and this is coming from someone who loves lemons... this is an 11 on the lemon-o-meter. It truly is like eating a ton of lemon zest wrapped around a bunch of soy crisps. Even after finishing it and then chugging a bunch of water, I still sit here with lemon zest flavor permeating my mouth. Fooey.

I'm also not thrilled about the 2 grams of saturated fat - why?! I should've spotted that before I bought this :(

Nutrition Facts
Calories 180
Total Fat 5 g
Saturated Fat 2 g
Trans Fat 0
Cholesterol 0
Sodium 115 mg
Carb 27 g
Fiber 3 g
Sugars 18g
Protein 9g

Monday, December 6, 2010

Bodybugg or Gruve or some other gadget to track activity?

Hi there internets!

I really want to track my activity levels better - I would LOVE a way to track my actual calories burned throughout the day and when I'm working out.

I bought a fitbit last year - and I returned it :( It was completely unreliable on the one thing I could measure for certain - my sleep - so I didn't trust it at all on its other readings. I was heartbroken.

I like the idea of the Bodybugg, but I don't want to wear a big bulky strap around my upper arm and call attention to myself like that. (And it's really expensive!) The Gruve sounds interesting too, but also pricey - but no armband!

I also generally fear the idea of a chest-strap heart-rate monitor, as I don't even like the pressure of my bra on my chest. ;)

Any ideas? What do you use (or what would use if money was no object)?

Thursday, December 2, 2010

EA Sports Active 2 day 2

So.... today did not go so well with the new EA Sports Active 2. I wasn't allowed to do the next day of the 9 week challenge - you can't do the next workout on a previously-designated rest day. Suck. My schedule is so unpredictable, and on the previous games, I was always allowed to skip a rest day to keep on going. Not cool at all.

I did a trainer-generated full-body workout instead, and I got very frustrated. It felt like the leg sensor just wasn't working. I was doing "foot fires" and it didn't register a SINGLE move. It's like doing a squat and then running super-fast in place. Not one bleepin' motion registered. I yelled many obscenities at the tv today, I must admit. I had to skip a bunch of exercises and felt so frustrated by the end.

So I decided to try a 10 minute step aerobics workout. I love the step on the More Workouts game - been doing it a bunch - and usually I burn 160 calories in the 10 minutes on that previous game. The new game has a bunch more moves in the step workout, which is great! Also some boxing moves in there. Aaaaand... I burned only 105 calories in the 10 minutes. Why did I burn 1/3 less calories even though I was moving SO much more? I was watching the calorie count and it just crawled so slowly, it was ridiculous.

We'll see how tomorrow goes. I was definitely reminded today how much I hate the trainer's nagging when a motion doesn't register correctly - and also why I was just doing step and boxing at the end with the previous game. ;)

Total with the 2 workouts today:
33 minutes
254 calories
0.8 km
121 average heart rate
157 max heart rate

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

EA Sports Active 2 - New game!

SO EXCITED!! Thanks to the wonderful folks at EA, I received a copy of the new EA Sports Active 2 game yesterday! I've posted a lot in the past about their two previous games and have been very anxious to get into this new game.

Big changes with this one - first of all, it's available for all three platforms, not just the Wii. Each version has some differences, but for me, the Wii is still very convenient (and I liked that I could import my stats from the previous two games into here).

The biggest change of all - NO MORE NUNCHUK NEEDED!!! Seriously, I cannot express how much this improves the whole experience here. I was constantly smacking myself during many of the exercises on the previous games, because you needed to have motion sensors in each hand and the only option was to use the nunchuk. This time around, they've added a separate leg sensor (replacing the old nunchuk holder) and also a heart-rate monitor (replacing the need to hold a second sensor - the nunchuk - in your left hand). I'm excited about the heart rate monitor feature of course, but simply delighted to never need that darned nunchuk again for this game. ;)

I'll be posting about this more as I get into the game more, of course. Today I started the three week "Cardio Kick Start" but frankly, it was too beginner for me (even on medium intensity). It was only 15 minutes long, and I want to do more than that. So... time to switch challenges!

I started "The 9 Week Program" on medium intensity. Since I had just finished the other workout, I skipped the stretches and jumped right in. Tons of new exercises (and much prettier backgrounds too!), and overall much quicker loading. No longer do you need to press the "A" key twice between exercises, it just starts loading the next one when you finish the current one. Nice. Unfortunately, since you can go some time without touching the remote, you can get interrupted mid-exercise because the remote shuts off. DOH. So I try to remember to just grab the remote and press "A" between each exercise anyway. ;)

I'll try to review more of the individual exercises as I get a chance. Another big improvement here is the integration with the web - I can view a lot of my stats and goals and other details on their web site! Sweet! Nice graphs show me my calorie burn and heart rate from each individual exercise, too. Very nice.

Total with the 2 workouts today:
37 minutes
280 calories
4 km
111 average heart rate
162 max heart rate

I created a workout group on their community site if you'd like to join: group name "loseit" and password "weight"

Let me know what you think!