Tag Archive for: Wii Fit

Just an update on my ongoing negative feelings toward the Wii Fit Plus little animated balance board dude.  So, I’ve been running, working out, and dutifully wearing my little Wii pedometer everywhere, every single day, so I can suck up to the Wii and get credit for wandering around the grocery store and walking the dogs.   “It looks like you’re only burning about 250 calories a day.”  There is never any kind of conversation like, “Hey, you’re doing great!  I see you’re making the effort to work out!”  None of that.

Instead, to meet my goal of losing two pounds in two weeks, the Wii dude said I needed to burn 500 calories a day, and I had no choice!  I had to hit “A” on the Wii Fit Plus tablet, or I couldn’t move on!  So I kept logging in and checking my calories, and I made it to 435 calories burned, and I was just done for the day.   Couldn’t do any more. Plus, I kept doing calorie-burning exercises instead of strength training and yoga, which I wanted to do.  There is no way to change this mandated calorie-burning setting, as far as I can tell.  Andy and I searched the internet and we found diddley squat.

As it happened, that same day, I weighed myself on the Wii board later in the morning than usual.  “You’ve gained 1.9 pounds.”  Then it forced me to a screen where I had to identify the reason for this weight gain.  The reasons it had available were winners like, “Late dinners.”  There was nothing I could click on that said, “I just ate breakfast!  I’m full of cereal!”

Again I got the “Just thought I’d mention it” snark that I usually weigh myself earlier (see my previous post).  There was no choice to click on that said, “My son was playing his Donkey Kong game on the Wii U and I couldn’t get on until now!”

Similarly, there is nothing to click on that says, “It’s my time of the month and I’m bloated up with water weight and my exercise pants barely fit but at least I’m here standing on your stupid scale and subjecting myself to your abuse so why don’t you just shut the hell up?”

After that, I did the two tests that the Dude came up with, “One for your body, one for your mind.”  I did okay with the balance one, then there was a new one that required me to blow into the Wii Fit Plus Tablet.  I didn’t even know where to blow, but Josh said into the microphone, so I did.  That put air into this virtual bubble.  Then the bubble started to drift to the left.  I kept blowing, and it hit a wall and burst.  Test over, with no instruction how to do it.  “Looks like lung capacity isn’t your strong point.  Do you get out of breath a lot?”   I really hate that guy.

I took yesterday off.  What a great day!  I had recently had a conversation with an anti-carb friend about eating fewer grains, and I had spent Saturday feeling guilty for my life, trying to determine which foods I could eat that would be Stone Age-appropriate.  This is a huge crock, by the way.  Those poor bastards were starving.  What do you think they’d have done if they had stumbled across a box of Cheerios?  Scarfed it down.  And the box!  They’d have eaten that, too!  Do you think they’d have sniffed at the carb load?    But I was AWOL — so we got Domino’s pizza.  I did get the thin crust, which was very good despite having fewer carbs, but I washed it down with a Coke!

I toasted the Wii Fit U, which was not on.

 

This post and all blog content Ⓒ Copyright Janet Farrar Worthington.

 

It’s Day 3 since we got Wii Fit.  If you’re not familiar with this phenomenon, there’s this annoying fake-friendly talking animated Wii board that appears on your TV screen, and you check in with him/her/it every day, and you get a “Wii age” based on how well you do.  I think the thing is a guy, I can’t tell.  He is one snarky bastard, let me tell you.  The Wii Fit games themselves are pretty fun.  Josh and I have been playing a lot, and laughing a lot as we stand on the actual Wii board and jump on a virtual trampoline or take off on ski jumps, so that part is worth it.

It’s the daily check-ins and body tests that have messed with my head.  It’s that little Wii dude.

Day One, I did the balance test.  My balance was ever so slightly on my right foot, and the Wii dude said, “It looks like balance games are not your forte.  Do you trip a lot?”  Actually, no, you little turd.  Then, at its recommendation, I played this game where you dodge soccer balls, and I kept getting hit in the head with soccer cleats as I was trying to dodge the balls.   What kind of sick crap is this?

Day Two, I put on the pedometer and ran a mile just to suck up to the Wii, so I could transfer all that data and get cheap praise.  I’m not proud, cheap praise works for me.  No praise, except for some calories burned in my Wii “piggy bank,” which I now realize is a subtle insult, i.e., I’m a piggy!  For my weigh-in, I was holding the Wii handheld device, which I hadn’t done the day before, so that added nearly a pound.  The Wii guy added 7 more years to my arbitrary “Wii age” as punishment.  For my new balance test, I had to anticipate obstacles and lean the other way.  I hit a wall and the game abruptly ended.  Only after the fact did it say that you can’t hit the wall.  Who knew?  I was trying to dodge the bricklike obstacles.  If I’d known about hitting the wall, I wouldn’t have hit it, duh.  More snark from the Wii dude, who talks in a high-pitched voice.  “It’s Japanese,” Mark said. “Humiliation is a big thing over there, I’m just saying.”

Today, Day Three, I got up early and did the body check-in, before food or drink ever crossed my lips.  For the balance test, I overcompensated and put more weight on my left foot.  “Do you trip a lot?”  Argh!  Then when I weighed in, it said that I had lost 2.2 pounds, and I’m well on my way to meeting my goal, which is to lose four pounds.  Just as I was feeling all happy about that, the Wii dude added, “Yesterday, you weighed yourself at 1 p.m.  Most people’s weight fluctuates around 2 pounds a day.  Just thought I’d mention it  You should weigh yourself at the same time every day.”  Argh!  “Just thought I’d mention it!”  Picture the catty stewardess played by David Spade on “Saturday Night Live,” saying, “buh-bye.”  Snarky Wii!  And yet, today my Wii age dropped 27 years, from a ridiculous and offensive 57 down to a more appropriate 30.

Mark said, “That thing owns you.”

“Yeah,” I said.

 

This post and all blog content Ⓒ Copyright Janet Farrar Worthington.