Friday Weigh In

I lost another three plus pounds. The official total is now forty - that's 40! pounds lost since May.

I'm absolutely amazed that I've lost that much. I'm nearly halfway to the target set by Dr. M. Still a long way from the target I've imposed on myself, but, I'm not even sure that's a target I will try for. I'm waiting until I get to the first target to decide whether I want to go on, and how far.

I'm still working out on the Wii. Mostly the Wii Fit. Lately I've found myself doing the aerobics module mostly, and the Step program most of all. I get a little frustrated because after all this time, I still don't have the rhythm down. You have to step slowly on and off the balance board and I guess I am stepping just a little too fast. And sometimes, it registers that I missed a step when I didn't! Maybe I was too fast, or too slow, or whatever, but I did it, dang it!

Mostly I can actually get through the entire routine without missing a step (or three or four), I turn the AC down because I can really build up a sweat doing this. Trust me, these "games" are not necessarily easy!

And every once in a while one of the dogs decides he wants to step with me. Mostly the dogs stay on the recliner, watching me like they can't quite figure out what the heck I'm doing. I guess it looks like fun, so one or the other will decide that I need some instruction or something. I'll step back and feel a rake slide down my calf. I admit, that's one time when I do miss a step or two, worried about tripping over a Chihuahua and wondering where the other one is and if I'll fall on either of them. I love my boys, but I wish they'd stay on their chair when I'm doing a step routine. 

But the games are fun. And remembering that I've lost 40 pounds makes it a bit easier. 

The Store

I set up links to The Losing Effort Store. Go, don't go, whatever you want. Just remember the number one rule: you make your own choices and you take all responsibility.

A Wii For Mii

I finally got the switcher I needed to set up my Wii. Now this is fun, but be prepared to have your ego deflated

You set up the Wii with an Mii avatar and a player name. You can design the Mii to look something like yourself. So mine has reddish hair pulled back into a pony tail, green eyes and glasses. You can also set the body type to resemble your own. So if you are a bit (or a lot) on the fluffy side (as I like to describe myself), you can make the Mii avatar to look like you look now, or what you want to look like.

The Mii follows you from game to game across the sports pack or into the Wii Fit module. If your Wii is attached to the Internet, you can allow your Mii to travel to other consoles. You might have other Miis show up on yours. That will be kinda cute, I think. You can have them line up, or parade around the plaza.

The Wii I got has the sports games attached, so I was bowling this afternoon. I used to bowl in a league, but wasn't too good. Luckily, it was a church league, so it was for fun and fellowship rather than winning. Oh, don't get me wrong, we had some teams that were in it to win, if not beat the pants off the other team, but most of us were just there to have some fun. Anyway, I think it will be neat to be able to bowl with the Wii. Maybe I can perfect my form and delivery and, if I ever bowl again, I won't embarrass myself too much. There are also baseball, tennis, golf, and boxing. I'll be getting the tennis racket and other stuff so I can play those games.

Oh, when you go into the Wii Fit, your Mii will appear in appropriate workout clothing. If you are skiing, you'll be in ski clothes and skis. If you're in a gym, you'll be in regular workout gear. When I ws bowling, my Mii was in street clothes.

As you set up the Wii Fit, you'll be asked information such as your birthday, your height, and be told to stand on the balance board. At that time, it will measure your BMI and, using all the information asked, will determine your Wii age. I'd rather not disclose mine. I used to joke that I was older than dirt, but I never said it around the Wii

So, I began my workout. I focused mostly on balance because apparently my posture is lousy, at least according to the Wii. It actually asked if I fell down a lot :/ I used to think I had pretty good posture. Now I'm not so sure. I found that the only way I could get the posture correct was to lean forward, on the balls of my feet, and try to distribute my weight evenly between my left and right legs. It's not as easy as it sounds.

Anyway....I tried out several of the games and found I stink at all of the them. With practice, I hope I'll improve. I skied a downward slope through gates. You stand on the balance board and lean left and right to go through the gates. Not as easy as it sounds. Lean a little too far and you miss the gate...or gates as it may be. I did make it through all the gates once, but mostly, I missed at least a few.

There's a table tilt game where you lean to tilt a table to drop what looks like a pool ball with your Mii's face on it through a hole in the table. As you go through the game, more Mii balls show up. It's fun, but not easy.

I tried walking a tightrope and kept falling. The soccer game was sorta fun. You're on a soccer field and the rest of the team lines up to kick soccer balls to you. You are to lean into the and hit the back with your head. And then they get mean and throw other things at you that you are to avoid. Not easy. Those boys are mean! I also tried out a step exercise. You can follow the chart or watch the Miis. The object is to do what the Miis do as they do it. As you go along, you get a "Perfect!" or an "Ok" to indicate first that you matched the Miis perfectly, or you did the step but not perfectly. Right now, I just want to get the step. I'll worry about matching the Miis as I get better.

The best game for me was the hula hoop. I made 100 spins and added hoops. I haven't played with a hula hoop since was a kid, but it came back to me. One hint: draw a big circle with your hips. That helps to keep the hoops moving.

As in all games, the better you do, the better your point score. Oh, that reminds me. You start out with the basic games and then as you gain points, you open more games. It will tell you that you've unlocked, say a Yoga game. I haven't tried the Yoga yet. I think I'll wait until my posture improves a bit.

Wii is fun, but it is not easy. I think it will be a perfect addition to my work out routine.

I think I'll like this.

Weigh In - Week 13

I weighed in last week and found that I had gained what I thought was a half pound. I found out it was actually closer to a pound. Oh well.

I weighed in today and found that I've lost 5 more pounds. I think my gain last week was due to.....well, to put it delicately, an elimination problem. That resolved itself and I think I would have lost my average of about 2.5 pounds. Over 2 weeks, that would be about right.

The medication (phentermine) apparently has that as a side effect. That's why we're told to drink a lot of fluids and eat a lot of fiber. Luckily, I like prunes and added them to my daily routine. I also found Benefiber packets that I can add to drinks or food. I usually add it to the water or ice tea I drink daily. Each packet adds about 3 grams of fiber (take up to 3 times a day). I like the packets because the are easy to carry in my lunch box.

It doesn't change the taste of the drink. Be sure to read the nutrition information if you plan to try it out. Another product might be better for you.

Ain't Computers Grand?

I use Sparkpeople to do my food journal, so I rely on having Internet access. A couple of days ago, I didn't.

Turns out, I had purchased a webcam and when I loaded the program for it something went haywire and sent my computer into a tizzy. I couldn't get the computer to do anything. It wasn't recognizing my commands and it was taking forever to load what it did. I'm exaggerating only a little bit. I couldn't even use Task Manager to end programs. I had to manually shut down, which I've been told is not a good thing to do.

So, I did what I usually do. I didn't know whether it was a program I had loaded (I had loaded several that day) or whether it was a hardware problem, or even a virus or something evil of that nature, so I disconnected everything from the computer and left it off overnight. Several times, I've done that and when I reconnected everything, all was good. I talked about it with a friend (who is also doing the weight program) and she gave me the number of a friend of hers who is an IT guy. She told me later that she called him and told him to "do right" by me :D

As it turns out, I didn't need to call him. When I got home, I opened up in "safe mode" and started deleting programs and reset the computer defaults to before the programs were loaded - the last time I knew I didn't have a problem. After I deleted the webcam, everything was back to normal..or close. I still had one program that was apparently corrupted somehow. I deleted that program (a favorite game) and reloaded, but it still wouldn't load. So, I downloaded the game from the website and paid to register. I bought the game twice now (from different vendors, darn it), but it's loaded and I can play!!

I've considered trying to reload the webcam program, but I'm a bit skittish about doing so. Maybe when I'm off next week, I'll give it a try. I'd really like to have the webcam going so I can talk to my niece and nephews. If not this one, then another one. But dang it! I don't want to buy another one! Maybe I can get another CD from the manufacturer if I keep having problems.

In the meantime, I have to hop over to Sparkpeople to enter my food for today.

Another Setback

As I've posted before, I have my Wii and my Wii Fit. I now need to get a switcher so that I can automatically switch from TV to DVR to TV and Wii. The one I have now only has plugs for three devices.

I went to Walmart, but the one I bought doesn't accomodate coaxial cables. I guess that's because it is for HD, which I don't have. It's got loads of plug-ins though. I'll save it since sometime in the future I will probably have HD.

The problem is, every store I went to had either HD switchers or none at all. So, I went online and found one at Walmart. The very one I need. I was getting ready to print out the information so when I went to Walmart today I would know exactly what I wanted. Then I realized that it's not available in the store, only online. So I ordered it.

It will be another few days before I can get the Wii hooked up, but when I do.....

::grin::

Not So Successful This Week

I weighed in today and found that I had gained a bit this week. Less than a pound, but it was a gain. I won't let it get to me, though. I looked at my food and don't see anywhere that I went over my allotments. Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later. If I'm right about why I didn't show a loss this week, next week it should show up.

I did the 3-month analysis today. Some more disappointment, although the news wasn't bad. My BMI is down, which is good. Still not where I want it, but it is coming down and that is good. I was disappointed that it wasn't more, but that's me, and not that I haven't done well.

Of my 29 pound weight loss, 17 was body fat and 12 was muscle loss. Obviously, I need to work on strength more to keep from losing muscle mass. In reality, I haven't been working on the strength training end of my exercise until just recently, so it's not unexpected to have lost muscle mass. Dr M said this is common and not to worry about it, but to step it up.

I talked about the analysis with Dr M and she understands what I am doing and will be doing and appears to be happy with my plan. She also was happy with my progress and congratulated me on my progress.

I'm an over-achiever in some ways (which will probably come as a surprise to people who know me), so I'm disappointed that I didn't do better, but happy that I did as well as I did. The upshot of the whole thing, and what I must focus on, is that I'm 29 pounds lighter than I was 3 months ago.

And that's a good thing.