Category: Weight Loss Exercise

I know lots of people have talked in the last year about using a Wii for getting exercise but I sat on the sidelines, sad because I had no Nintendo Wii.

Well this has all changed now since I got a Nintendo Wii yesterday for the kids for Christmas. I am not sure if the Wii is really going to be a fitness machine but I am really excited about Christmas morning and trying this thing out.

I just ran across a site for a Wii workout called Wii Healthy. The site has a workout program that i will have to try and see how well it works.

Really the Wii looks like more fun than exercise but if you are moving then you are getting exercise right? Well I am sure we will soon se a bunch more Wii related “get in shape” type articles so it will again be fun to see since I can actually take part.

Now in response to everything that Nintendo has heard and seen about response to the Wii. Nintendo has come out with an actual fitness program called Wii Fit. The idea behind Wii Fit is that you get a board around 18 inches or so wide and do certain exercises on this and see yourself (or a reasonable facsimile of yourself) on the screen. You can also track your results as can everyone else in the family. I can imagine this whole idea scaling out where you can have fitness contests with other people online. Very exciting to be sure.

If you and your family are looking for a Wii and live in Canada I posted a few tips on my Tech Blog on how to get a Wii. If you are living in the US there are a few great articles here otherwise follow my other suggestion and just watch the stores and network with the managers of the games department at the WalMart and Target stores.

As someone that follows the ebb and flow of diets I get a chance to see a lot of diets as well as the reports as to whether they work or not.

Over the last few years there have been probably 100 diets released on an unsuspecting public, some gain traction and others don’t but the big diets over the last few years have been Atkins, The Zone Diet, LA Weight Loss, Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig. Most of the diets have not been successful for the vast number of people but two diets have stood out, sort of.

Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers have been the most successful diets over the last few years mostly because of the marketing that they do. Weight Watchers has the Duchess of York and Jenny Craig has had Kirstie Alley and now Valerie Bertenelli as spokespeople. Everyone loves to follow famous people and these famous people have lost so why not listen to the success and follow it.

Actually both Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig have been successful as diets the diets are balances with three meals and a couple of snacks and not extreme for high protein or low fat. Mostly Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers are middle of the road type diets that work for most anyone.

The sad thing about these successful diets are the lack of losses that people have seen on them. The average person will lose 10 to 15 pounds in a year on either Weight Watchers or Jenny Craig but the bulk of the lost on any organized diet is the fact that there is some kind of accountability in both of these diets.

In fact accountability seems to be the most important factor in any diet. I have seen how some people will not be successful at all with a diet and as soon as they start writing out the factors that make a diet work well for them they realize that it is the answering to themselves about what they are doing right or wrong.

In Weight Watchers there are meetings, and a food journal where you track your food and exercise. In the Jenny Craig diet there is forced portion control by eating prepackaged meals and also a calendar that you check off what you eat and what you do. Nothing can beat this kind of accountability to yourself.

No matter what diet you are on whether it is Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, Fat Loss for Idiots or Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle, it is important to track and to make sure that you are accountable for everything going into your mouth or any exercise that you do.