Yesterday our copy of Wii Fit arrived. I’ve spent a grand total of 90 minutes of ‘exercise time’ in there (pick an exercise, do it with the pretend-trainer for two minutes, and it records two minutes, not the five you spend picking the next exercise and wheezing).

Today I’m having trouble walking because my calves are screaming in pain. They feel like they went off and ran a marathon last night without the rest of me.

There are four types of exercises. Yoga, strength, aerobic, and balance. Aerobic and balance are treated a bit like games. Balance has stuff like ski jumping and balance controlled marble crap. Aerobic has the running one with lame virtual scenery and your consoles other Miis all over the damn place. I tend to swear at them in an out-of-breath manner when they go by.

Strength has largely been not so bad, aside from those pushup plank things. Those are brutal. But it’s been Yoga that really kicks my ass. I can’t bend far enough to properly do those Sun Salutations. The Palm Tree Pose is sorta like an Iron Cross-lite, except you look like a tool while you’re doing them. The normal Tree thing, where you stand on one foot, also kills me. That drenches me in sweat and I nearly fall over, but afterwords it tells me I did great and I mysteriously get three out of four stars. I think it’s playing games with my head.

The painful bit of the weigh in at the beginning was a good motivator. I knew I was getting fat, but I hadn’t thought I was quite that far along yet. They also do a daily balance test to determine your ‘body age’. That one is a load of crap. Yesterday I did great and registered as 28, today I came in as 37. Reviews I’ve seen online decry it as somewhat arbitrary.

But I’m hoping to stick with it. I’m going to aim for at least 30 minutes of exercise time a day, and try where possible for an hour (yesterday I managed the hour, today before work I did 30 because I had to go in late, but I’m also working late, so I worry I might not get the other half hour in). Seems reasonable.

Damn I’m old.