Back in late January a friend of mine from Columbus drove down to visit. He had just purchased the Wii Fit, and brought it with him for what would become quite the wiikend. I been working out for about a month, weighing myself at the gym when I was there playing racquetball. I didn’t have a weight loss goal in mind, but I knew I was really out of shape from four months of injury recovery. My goal was to be healthy and active, and I knew the weight would take care of itself if I focused on that goal. I still paid attention to it however, and at the time my friend came down I had already lost about 6 lbs. When his new ‘toy’ told me I was 190 lbs I was surprised at how accurate it was. The scale matched up with the class-leading Tanita scale I used at the gym (not a paid endorsement, just what I’ve come to trust over time) within .2 lbs.

That weekend I learned all about the balance games, strength training, yoga, and aerobic workouts that came as part of the Wii Fit package. I was hooked, and my friend wasn’t even back to Columbus yet by the time I ordered my own Fit.

When the package showed up in my lobby I was ecstatic. I vowed to use it every day, getting stronger and more flexible with my own body weight, on my own accord. For a long time that held true–damn near every day after work I came home, weighed myself, and began a regime of yoga and strength training. After that I would run or bike, and later in the evening I would have fun ski jumping or heading soccer balls (my favorite of the balance games).

As much fun as I had with all of the games and exercises, the best part of the whole package was watching my weight tumble. Not wanting to see the graph go up (and then have the Wii yell at me, which it does) was more motivation than I thought. The ability to set a goal for the next four weeks and watch myself get closer and closer to it was great. And if I missed the goal it was ok, this wasn’t high school wrestling (which, to be clear, I never took part in) but it was all the more incentive to try harder over the next four weeks.

Over time I began to do many of the stretching and strength training exercises without using the Fit itself, and I would hop on every once in a while to check my weight. Like I said above, hitting a certain weight was never really a goal of mine in the first place.

At this point I don’t really worry about it at all–my biggest goals were being healthy, active, and to generally feel like I was in good shape, something I have definitely accomplished (not that I’m stopping/slowing now).

And the weight took care of itself…

A nice steady trend down

Changing some of my eating habits helped as well, but that was more about being well rounded–I still eat just about anything I want, I just do it in moderation.

I’m not saying that if you buy a Wii Fit you will lose 25 lbs. You still have to put in the work to get the results, but this may be one of the best tools for the job–and we can all use as much help as possible in accomplishing our fitness goals.

So thanks to my old college roommate (who has also seen weight loss success) for coming down and introducing me to the Wii Fit, who knows where I’d be without it.

I figured I would try it out for a few weeks before I gave it any sort of review. Let me tell you, I really like it.

The site is set up for logging different workouts (running, biking, swimming, etc) which is a must for me. Using google maps you can easily create and store routes, all the while calculating your mileage. It can provide you pacing time if you keep track of your overall workout time, and you can add detailed comments about how it went.

In facebook like style you can ‘friend’ people through the system to compare progress and give each other motivation. If you leave your profile open for public viewing, you will also be able to look at a workout news feed of sorts with other local area residents sharing their routines. It’s a great way to pick up on new places to play and train.

You may have noticed I added the ‘next race’ widget to the side of the blog. I have found that racing gives me little goals to shoot for, always with another one in the distance. You can click on the link at the top of the entry, or on the widget, to get to dailymile and check it out for yourself.