I finally got my hands on a copy of Psycho-Cybernetics, by Maxwell Maltz the other day. I’ve been recommended this book by friends, business colleagues, and at least three authors I’ve read have recommended Maltz’s work. You could easily label the book an “Epic” or “Magnum Opus”… untold thousands of people from all walks of life, and from any profession you can name seem to have used Psycho-Cybernetics to their great benefit.
Psycho-Cybernetics is also widely hailed as the book that seeded the self-help movement. Before its release, self help was seen as something to be done in private, something embarrassing to be engaged in. Self-help’s massive popular following today can be directly traced back to Maltz’s work.
Now… I’m only a third of my way through the book, but I was inspired enough to post now, and promise you that I’ll have a review up shortly on how I think the book can be applied to weight loss.
But just briefly on that… so you know what kind of book this is… Psycho-Cybernetics revolves around shaping your own self image, so that rather than struggling to lose weight, pay down debt, or be more confident in social situations, you create a better self image of yourself so that all these things become natural, and easy for you.
I finished my Ruckus Nation Judging today. I can tell you it was a fascinating experience… but as to the details on what exactly I judged? Unfortunately I can’t go into that.
What I will say is that I got a lot of entries that used very popular current day technology and tweaked it to make it more enjoyable for kids, and to provide education at the same time. Some were much, much more successful at this than others, mind you. I really had a good chuckle at some of the entries, and some were quite mind blowing and wow worthy.
I can’t say I judged any entries which were cures to modern day obesity in kids… But who knows, I’m no Nostradamus.
Until next time, enjoy yourselves, and get active!
Are you letting your ill-founded notions of progress get in your way at the gym? Have you started your exercise program or gym-going schedule only three or four months ago, but already becoming frustrated with your lack of progress? Cut yourself some slack, your frustration & apparent lack of progress might be the only thing getting in your way.
A quick lesson on fat. If you’re into exercise to lose fat & look good, hear this: The unsightly fat that hangs around beneath your skin (called subcutaneous fat) is not the only fat you’ll find (or lose via exercise) in your body. Did you know you have reserves of fat inside your body too? You also have intramuscular fat, and visceral fat. Intramuscular fat is the fat found in your muscles (think fat marbling in a cut of steak), and visceral fat is fat found around your organs.
Why the lesson on fat? Well, I just want you to realize that fat won’t just drop off your body from exactly where it’ll make you look best in your new dress, or make your gut look good in your new suit. In fact, fat can be very stubborn when it comes to coming off the “problem areas”, such as the stomach for men, and the hips and bum for the girls. Thanks very much, DNA!
So after all this bad news, what have I got for you? Just some very basic and I believe, effective advice. Forget about the scales, just keep learning about safe and effective ways to exercise and eat healthily, and above all, make your program fun and a long term lifestyle choice. Your fat will eventually come off. Its just a matter of persistence, and when your exercise is fun, that persistence will be all the more easy to maintain.
90% of success is persistence. The other 10% is learning how to use the exercise time your persistence brings you.
What do motivated people have that you do not? A better body, that’s what! I’m sure you, like a lot of people, ask yourself how the lean and mean gym goers you see every week keep their motivation up. That forceful drive of motivation is all they really need to stay looking like Greek Gods and Goddesses year round. This article will help you supercharge your own motivation, driving you down the fast road to attain your perfect figure!
Asking yourself, “Why?” will make you fit, and help you lose weight by determining what exactly you want out of an exercise program. So many people I know go to the gym once, maybe twice a week, on and off again for years at a time, never quite making their gym visits a habit. The key to developing a habit in the early stages is to make yourself aware of WHY you are exercising in the first place.
I’m certain many of you are just rolling your eyes now, thinking, “of course I know why I go to the gym, to lose weight“. I’m asking you to look further past the obvious here. Ask yourself the deeper reasons for why you want to lose weight. And after you’ve done this, continue through these questions deeper and deeper until you arrive at the most basic reason, for example:
You ask yourself, “Why do I want to lose weight?” … Because I’ve gained weight over the past few years and I don’t think members of the opposite sex find me attractive anymore.
That’s a fine answer, then go deeper, “Why do I care if people don’t find me attractive any more?” … Because I like looking good.
Deeper, “Why do I like looking good?” … Because I feel confident and respect myself.
And deeper, “Any other reasons why I want to look good?” … Because if I don’t look better, I might never find someone to be in a fulfilling long term relationship with.
And obviously we can go further, and say that after all is said and done, if you don’t find a partner, and don’t respect yourself or feel confident, you won’t be as happy on a day to day basis.
Asking yourself these kinds of questions helps you get to the heart of the reasons why you want to lose weight, so that you can challenge yourself at any time during your life! For example, you don’t want to go to the gym because its nice and warm in bed. You’ve previously had an in depth conversation with yourself as to why you want to lose weight, and now you can use these extremely good reasons to eject yourself out of bed. Still can’t get out of bed? Force yourself to imagine how your life will be if you don’t. Make yourself amplify and intensify how miserable you’ll be if you keep your current habits, keep gaining weight, and never feel confident or sexy. Really feel the emotions that you’d feel if in 20 years you were even further from your goal than you are now.
You can use these techniques to motivate yourself to lose weight if you go far enough with your personal questioning. Just remember: the best things in life can come from enjoying a fit healthy body, you just might have to go through a bit of imaginary hell to get there!
The first Wii Workout Week comes to an end with a review of the thoroughly enjoyable release title for the Wii: Red Steel. We should have all heard plenty about this game, a familiar feeling shooter that also has samurai sword fighting as an interesting aside to the normal shoot em up game play. You won’t be able to call this one an exergaming title unfortunately, but at least it’ll get you off the couch and upright for some good bad guy blasting fun.
Fitness:
Its a pity Red Steel doesn’t make greater use of its sword fighting sections, I mean… The fighting sections are great, but I think we’d all like to be making sweeping slashing movements with a samurai sword to dispatch the enemy rather than merely making small flicks of our wrist. If only it was more like Wii Sports baseball, where you make large powerful strikes. Or perhaps I’m just being overly critical of the game, because I’d like to see everyone working a little harder when they play games..!
There’s no scope in Red Steel to get creative with our exercise either unfortunately- the game is non-stop action, but that action only has you making very small precise movements with your Wiimote. I’d love to see a shooter take a page out of Call of Duty’s book and use both a novel aiming solution, and a reloading mechanic which has the player mimic shot gun reloads with the nunchuck, or mimicking pushing the bolt forward in machine guns. Perhaps we’ll have to wait for the next generation of motion sensitive console.
Fun:
Despite the lack of exercise here, the game is great fun and follows a tried and tested first person shoot em up formula that has you wielding a variety of classic weapons such as the pistol, uzi and shotgun. The game has a good sense of desperation to it as you’re given objectives through out the game to save your fiancé, sometimes including time based objectives that really make you panic as you chase after the yakuza.
All the environments in the game are presented authentically, the level design makes you feel like you’re really in a high rise building and the sounds and atmosphere make good use of the Wii’s hardware capabilities.
You could probably call Red Steel a tad on the toned down side for violence, which is probably a good point if you don’t like your kids splattering enemy blood all over the walls, but not so good if you’re an adult who likes to indulge in a realistic shoot em up experience… so to speak!
Motivation:
Red Steel is a solid story based title, and if like most gamers you like a good story line and unlocking new weapons, this game will definitely keep you coming back for more. However, if you’re after a Wii title to get your heart rate elevated & limbs flailing, Red Steel isn’t it.
If my review hasn’t convinced you otherwise, support placeintheground.com’s fun fitness focus and buy Red Steel from Amazon, here.
That concludes our first Wii Workout Week! The majority of the games reviewed this week have been release titles, which means you can probably buy them quite cheaply today, and still get a workout out of them… at least in the case of Mario Strikers if you get creative, and Rayman Raving Rabbids for some furious arm pumping fun.
Speaking of Rayman Raving Rabbids, it scores our first Wii Workout Week title as best fitness game, followed by Mario Strikers if you follow our workout suggestions. In fact, you can get a better workout from Mario if you throw in our suggestions, but the aim of this week was to test out a few well known games to determine how effective they are without doing any tweaking. Struggling to fit a program around a game won’t appeal to many people, but fun will. Congrats Rayman!
If you enjoyed this series please let me know, and feel free to let me know of a game that you’d like reviewed for future Wii Workout Weeks. Until then, enjoy your Wii’s and look out for other fun workout ideas on placeintheground.com.
I would genuinely love to be able to give Wii Play a great Wii Workout Week score. Its another Wii title that offers good clean fun, especially when the family or friends gather around… Unfortunately, much like Wario on the fitness front, you’ll get absolutely zero out of it exercise-wise. Never mind, you’ll have a ball!
Fitness:
The list of mini games in Wii Play are more similar to Rayman Raving Rabbids than to Wario Ware. But they’re unfortunately more like Wario Ware than Rayman when it comes to fitness, which is a shame, but to be honest the title really doesn’t even try to offer anything remotely related to sport or fitness. Its just good clean fun.
None of the titles will get your heart rate above what standing still will, and hence it earns 1 tick. The title doesn’t offer any creative ways to fit a workout into its gameplay, so I can’t drag this good title up another tick no matter what I do. However, the old get into a squat, or on your back for some abs like I described in Mario Strikers can still be applied here if you’re conscious of trying to lose a few pounds.
Fun:
Wii Play comes out of the box with the same good feel that Rayman does. Everything about it is clean, happy and out to amuse you. For example, click on your Mii after the selection screen, and he’ll react differently depending on where you “poke” him.
Each of the mini games are an absolute ball with a group of friends over, old favorites like “Laser ball” (air hockey) even feel different using the Wiimote, and will keep you amused for quite a few hours.
The list of mini games on Wii Play is as follows:
Shooting Range- an old fashioned point & shoot game. Take out normal targets, ducks, skeets and aliens trying to pick up a group of your Mii’s! Hilarious!
Find Mii- I struggled with this one. Its like a where’s Wally type game where you have to use your powers of perception to pick similar or different looking Mii’s in different situations. Good luck!
Table Tennis- A bit tough if you’re playing friends, as the board keeps spinning to a different perspective each round, but still a bit of mindless fun.
Pose Mii- An absolute hoot if you’re out for some competitive fun with friends or family. This game alone could almost be called exergaming because it got my friends and I so fired up trying to beat each other. You basically have 4 different poses which can be changed by clicking the A or B button, you then twist the Wiimote to match your floating Mii’s shape to the shape of falling bubbles… Top marks for this game.
Laser hockey- As I’ve said, just a retake on the old air hockey, but plenty of fun nonetheless.
Billiards- A well implemented billiards game, but nothing out of the ordinary or especially fun about it.
Fishing- This is a good one. Use the angle of your Wiimote and its distance from the screen to place a fishing hook next to different fish. This mini game also generated heated competition when friends came over to have a go.
Charge- Not my favorite mini game, you need to guide your bull down a long course, knocking over scarecrows for maximum points. Also not so bad in multiplayer mode… needs a bit of something extra here though me thinks.
Tanks- Guide your mini tanks over the map to destroy each other and the AI tanks. Plenty of fun again when friends are around, and a good bit of clean fun alone too.
Motivation:
Again I’m penalizing points here because while the game is really good fun, there’s just not an iota of fitness to be extracted from it. On the other hand, if you’re playing a few hours of Wii Play, rather than crowding around the Xbox, at least you’ll be standing and not all hunched up.
You’ll definitely keep coming back when friends and family are around, just not to break a sweat. Sorry Wii Play!
Wii Play comes bundled with a second controller for your Wii, making it a good option to try and find the bundle deal. Like I’ve said a bunch of times, exercising and gaming with friends and family is just a different experience to using the Nintendo on your lonesome, so I recommend grabbing a second controller if you can afford one.
Lets do it. It’s time to get some ideas together on how to really have some fun with the popular Wii games and get a workout at the same time. Its not going to be an easy stroll in the park, you’ll have to use some will power here and want to actually work yourself. Our review structure for Wii games is basic and effective and is the same system I’ll be using to review every game here.
Day One of the first “Wii Workout Week” is a review of Mario Strikers Charged Football.
Fitness:
I picked this one up on a whim yesterday, thinking maybe there would be something vaguely exercise related that I could do with a Wii soccer game. I was right and wrong; the game intrinsically has no real exercise value, unless you include a bit of arm waggling to knock down your opponents. However, the game can definitely be played by an exerciser to shed kilos or stay fit. The game would receive a miserable 1 tick if you’re just going to stand up and play it normally, but picks up an extra 2 ticks because you can workout around the game fairly effectively.
For fitness, I strongly recommend playing a best of 5 series, splitting up different workout ideas that I list below into different games in the series. I’ll include a sample workout at the end of this article to show what I mean.
Here’s how:
Bouncing. Ever seen a boxer bouncing around the ring? Add this simple motion to your Mario Strikers game to get your heart rate up.
Jumping. Every time you win a goal jump as high as you can for as many goals as you score, plus the total score. For example, you just scored 1 goal, but the total goals in the game is 5- jump 6 times.
The point above is the best part of this game if you have friends around and you’re a little competitive. Each time your opponent scores, you jump the number of total goals scored. Work your friends in to a sweating heap on the floor with your Mario skills!
Alternatively, jump, and keep jumping for as long as it takes for the replay to play out, without any skipping ahead.
Push-ups. Every time a goal is scored, get down and bust out push-ups to the game goal total. Or, if playing friends, your friend gets down and pumps them out.
Tons of push-ups. Don’t just pump out push-ups every time a goal is scored, do them every time there’s a delay in the game; goals, replays, super strikes while the computer/your friend defends your shots, and so on.
Work your Abs. Get down on your back and play with the Wiimote through your legs. Keep your abs contracted to sit up well enough to see the screen (probably depends on your t.v. setup).
Super abs. Do crunches constantly while the opponent has possession of the ball, play ‘keep away’ with friends to burn their abs into aching piles of lactic acid.
Planks! You can get down and do some planks for as long as you can handle it while you play- you can still waggle that Wiimote from your wrists! Throw in side planks to change it up.
Squats. Take the same game technique from push-ups and apply it for a great body weight squat workout
Extended squats. I once had a karate class when my instructors told us to get our backs to the wall, and squat down until our thighs burned furiously from the lactic acid build up. I’ve never forgotten that torture, and now pass it on to you, my poor readers. Get down in a squat position while you play and stay there for as long as you can. Once you give up, let yourself rest until you think you can take a little more and repeat.
Power shots. If you’re particularly fit, competitive, or maybe a little silly, while you play with friends take the extended squats option & make it a game breaker. Get down and squat until you can squat no more, whoever breaks first lets his opponent have a free power shot with his captain.
Boxing. One of my favorite things about this game is the beat down you can give friends. Rather than waggling the Wiimote like a sissy to make your players knock each other down, break out massive punches. It’ll work your biceps and back so well you’ll feel it the next day (just like Wii Sports Boxing!). For an even better workout ban slide tackles, its beat down time!
Choose teams with the lowest defense rating so that more goals are scored, or alternatively, just set your level of difficulty by doubling, tripling or quadrupling the repetitions you do to number of goals scored. For example, a super strike by a captain lands 3 goals, the game total is 2 goals, that makes it 5. Double that, and you’re doing 10 push ups.
Example workout:
Game 1: Start with a whole game of bouncing to get warmed up and ready for the more serious exercise
Game 2: Push ups on goals
Game 3: Jumps on goals
Game 4: Squats on goals
Game 5: Abdominal planks and crunches
Set your difficulty higher by doubling or tripling jumps/push-ups/etc if you need to, or just set arbitrary numbers of repetitions per goal scored. Remember, the whole idea behind this is to get a workout in while you enjoy yourself.
Fun:
The fun side of this game is huge. There’s nothing about this game that would make me consider bringing it out of the 5 tick class.
Lots of kudos to the game designers, there’s a variety of balanced, interesting ways to make an offensive play, from passing it around to power the ball up, defensive jinks, sprinting to break away from defenders, and my personal favorite, dishing out multiple player beat downs before making a quick break back towards your opponents half with your full 4 man team to their 2.
Defense is fun too, again, beating players up and throwing them against the electric fence is great for a laugh, but leaves the ball rolling away free, while slide tackling can let you come away with possession of the ball immediately. There’s pros and cons to each way of tackling, and different teams are better at different options.
Continuing from my last point, another game play aspect I like in Mario Strikers is the difference between team captains. If you like fast nimble teams you can go with speedy captains, or if you like slow juggernauts who can lay the smack down, go with that- it offers great re playability and a unique feel for each match up.
Online mode can be great too, giving you the ability to play multi player when you’re home alone, however about the only black mark I can give this game is that I can’t play someone of lower skill level (I could hardly believe how high the skill level was online).
Motivation:
Mario Strikers, like most good games is very addictive, and will have you coming back game after game. Motivation drops a bit for me when I’m playing alone, but is much higher if I’m playing friends where we can get competitive, and rub victories in each other’s faces.
I’m a big believer in fun being the biggest motivator, so if you can integrate these workout ideas into your Mario Striker’s games, you’re already half way there.
I hope you enjoyed day one of the Wii Workout Week. If you’d like to support my web site, and like the sound of Mario Strikers, buy it here at Amazon.
The perfect body and fantastic health could be yours if only you knew how not to start an exercise program. Think about how many times you’ve started an exercise program only to stop shortly after. People start exercise programs every day, but can you stick with it?
If you want to beat off members of the opposite sex like Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s baby will have to, a few key principles will stop you bailing out like an overweight skydiver, keen to plummet to earth to devour a box of sweet, tasty donuts.
If you want to fail, make the following mistakes:
Always exercise alone
Keep your weight loss goals a big secret
Follow every starvation diet plan you read about
Stay away from fresh fruit and vegetables, they give you gas anyway. And we’d rather never get gas than be skinny, right?
Run run for hours on the treadmill alongside all the skinny 18 year old girls who’s metabolisms haven’t caught up with them yet (guys, maybe forget this point).
Choose an exercise plan, and
change that plan every week to something completely different (you can’t track your progress)
don’t tweak the plan sufficiently to keep you interested
Choose an exercise plan that you have no interest in; for me, thats the “treadmill only” plan
Choose an exercise plan written by a body building magazine, even though you’re a total beginner
Choose an exercise plan that you can’t have fun with. I.e. you love exercising with your dog, but you choose to workout in a commercial gym- and your dog isn’t for your blindness
Start a new program and give it 1000% You’ll get injured, and then you’ll gain weight. Why did you start this exercise program in the first place…?
Start a new program and be scared to try new things, and don’t give it your best shot. Just read my 1000% percent comment again though, please?
Do exactly what you did last time you started, and then gave up on, an exercise program. Learn from your mistakes, okay?
Start exercising without even considering seeing your doctor. From www.fitness.gov:
If you’re under 35 and in good health, you don’t need to see a doctor before beginning an exercise program. But if you are over 35 and have been inactive for several years, you should consult your physician.
Plan, and plan, and plan, and then research… and research some more, and then forget you need to start some day. Its called the, “Ready, aim, aim, aim… aim… now your old and fat” approach. Summon the courage to start, then build upon your experience. This plan is called the “Ready, Fire, Aim” approach. It’s my favorite. Again, remember my doctor point, above.
Take crazy full on weight loss products that do terrible things to your body. Forget stuff that’s good for you and helps you look good- you know; like fish oil, green tea, and multivitamins. Unless you’re a painter at heart, I’d stay away from drugs that stop your body absorbing fat. You get the picture.
Never record or measure anything. Just because “some guy your friend knows” is ripped (read low body fat) from going to the gym twice a week, or as I alluded to earlier, just because the 18 year old skinny girls at the gym are only ever on the treadmill, doesn’t mean those methods are the best for you. Make meaningful long term efforts and record your progress.
Don’t make yourself accountable by using social networking sites like my friend at “The Fit Blog” suggests. Failing to keep up with your promises to those new friends is a great motivator.
Forget the latest weight loss craze of using video games to lose weight. Think of it this way: it’s a bit like getting into a car crash in that you don’t really see it coming, and then BAM! You’re losing weight and enjoying yourself. Plenty of people around the world are losing weight (or at least slowing the speed of weight gain) accidentally every time they play games. Why not use that? Fun while you exercise is key for motivation.
Never think of starting a new sport, or getting back into the old sports you played in school, you’d suck now and make a total fool of yourself. Wrong. Look for social sport listings in the paper, or in local take-aways and laundromats everywhere- there’s sports available for all skill levels.
Don’t let that little voice in your head make up excuses, start a new exercise program today, and follow my advice. I think you’ll do great.
I received an email today from Games for Health about a new competition called Ruckus Nation. This fantastic initiative invites people from all over the world to come up with a product idea that gets kids up and moving, to help control weight gain in kids. The winner of this competition could win $75,000, after which HopeLab (the non-profit group which is running the competition) will develop the idea and possibly bring it to market.
I thought this was one of the most socially valuable competitions I’ve heard about in a long time, so thought I might be able to help out with some ideas on how to best develop a winning product. Keep in mind this competition aims at kids in middle school (ages 11 through 14) and can be almost any kind of product (see the exact guidelines in PDF form here).
Without further adieu, here’s our way of helping you win $75 grand, and helping HopeLab reduce kiddy waist lines everywhere:
Kids can be competitive- does your idea pit child against child, or does it give kids a chart which shows their progress against themselves, other groups, or the world?
Kids in middle school are generally social with each other, does your idea involve groups of kids, or can it leverage off involving a social element to the game?
Kids enjoy rewards and recognition, can this idea of yours give a sense of reward or achievement to the kids using it?
Does your idea provide information which gives the child knowledge that they can then apply in life? Can your idea get both get the child up & moving, as well as provide weight loss information at the same time?
Is your product cool? Are kids going to ‘puke’ when they see it, or is it likely to become socially unacceptable for kids using it? You may need to run your idea past some kids aged around 11-14 years to gauge their reaction. Forget the perils of the generation gap and you may risk missing out on a prize!
Does your idea get kids moving, and give them incentive to keep moving? Judging guidelines for the competition state that 20% of the score given to an entry is based on whether you can keep your kids moving after you’ve given them motivation to get up to begin with. A device like a pedometer might be key to monitoring that a child is moving around, but how can you use that to motivate them to keep going?
Is your idea easily portable, or available to kids all day long? If your idea consists of a very large product that can only be accessed in large outdoor areas at limited times of the day, or only small numbers of people are able to use it at a time, the product may not appeal to HopeLab. Remember, the more kids that can afford to use it, and are able to use it at the greatest length of time during the day, the better.
Another judging criteria is whether your idea gives kids the control over the product. You shouldn’t find it hard to go wrong here, just be sure nothing about your product design requires adults to be involved. Adults aren’t cool anyway, just ask your kids!
Find some inspiration by looking at current trends. Two that I’m particularly aware of are Dance, Dance Revolution and the degree to which that has taken off as an exercise tool for schools, and the Nintendo Wii. What elements of those two products can you identify as being integral to their success? My ideas are; its fun, its cool, and it involves your friends. I doubt getting fit at the same time has ever had an influence over how popular those products are with kids.
I can’t believe it, but I almost forgot the most important, and most obvious tip! Is your product fun!? If you can make the product or game fun, or addictive, then you have a much better shot at getting a prize. Again, you will want to consult with some 11-14 year olds to see if your idea of fun is the same as theirs. If you want some inspiration from addictive games, try playing The Sims, or World of Warcraft. These games are like some kind of addictive drug- I’ve personally spent far too many hours on both. And while I’m on the topic of drugs, the competition doesn’t allow you to enter any kind of medication or surgical ideas, so you’ll have to follow that one up on your own…!
The competition allows you to enter solo, or as a member of a team. I strongly suggest if you’re an adult, you enlist the help of a couple of team members who are around that 11-14 age group. I’ve already mentioned a few times why this is a good idea, but having a kid around who can poke holes in what you believe to be a flawless masterpiece may elevate your idea from unsuccessful, to a $250 prize winner, a $25,000 category prize winner, or to the top $75,000 prize winner.
Is your idea original, or is it a clone of another idea? HopeLab would like the entries to be bold, creative and original. These criteria alone will help HopeLab market the idea to the media better, and hence create a more successful product which more kids will be able to use. However, be sure that while your idea is bold or creative, Ruckus Nation are looking for ideas for products that actually can be developed in the near future, so no holodecks or anti-gravity boots. More on that, here.
Ruckus Nation suggests you come up with an idea by thinking of a time when you were physically active and moving about, and it was really fun. Numerous ideas pop into my head at this point that unfortunately only over 18′s could engage in, but the guideline may help you none the less.
Finally once its all said and done, you need to submit your entry. Even if you’ve had mixed response from adults and kids, if you personally believe strongly in your idea- submit it. You never know what the greater population might think of it, or whether HopeLab can use your idea in combination with something else.
I hope you’ve found my list useful and are able to make a lot of kids healthier, and yourself wealthier!
If you’re interested in signing up, go here, you need to submit your entry by November 20 at 5pm PT. And please read all the legal and entry requirements. While I’ve done my best to be accurate regarding what I’ve written about here, its best to review all HopeLab’s documents in detail, especially the legal guidelines!
If you have any good ideas for submission to my list, please let me know via comments, below, or via my contact page.
Exergaming is the cure to a frighteningly overweight population, childhood obesity, boring workouts, and lack of motivation everywhere.
First, lets define it. Exergaming is a combination of exercise and video games. Thats all!
It may sound simple, but exergaming has the greatest chance of helping kids (and the rest of us) get a leg up in the battle against the bulge. Why? Because its fun. You’ve noticed how many people out there love video games. There’s a lot of us out there, and because exergaming has such great fun and incidental exercise potential, it also has the greatest weight loss potential when we look at society as a whole. Sure, we might not get many people losing 20 kilograms of body fat in 6 months just using the Wii, but half an hour a night is just what the world needs to keep off millions of tons of collective body fat.
“Exercise can be very boring! It takes real determination and long term commitment to drag yourself off to the gymnasium and put yourself through the paces. It is so easy to lose interest when you fail to see immediate results.” -Roland Rocchiccioli, in Fat or Fiction.
That quote, from Donna Aston’s excellent Fat or Fiction, highlights the number 1 problem for exercisers. I believe people have great difficulty staying motivated to work out, and any motivation they do have evaporates due to lack of results and boredom. We can use goal setting to help us stay motivated, however most of us either haven’t been taught effective goal setting methods, or dismiss the idea before the next ad break finishes and Law & Order resumes.
Exergaming provides you and I with an easy, perhaps irresistible urge to exercise. Again, its because its fun, addictive fun! Plenty of us bemoan the demise of children getting outside and getting some sunlight, but we can either go with the flow, or fight it, and any parent with teenagers knows how well that can backfire. Why not join your kids or parents in a game of multiplayer tennis, and build up some family spirit, rather than spouting the same “go outside and get some fresh air” that today’s kids (and plenty of adults!) dread hearing.
In their current form, exergaming machines like Nintendo’s Wii and Konami’s DDR provide excellent “incidental” or “accidental” exercise. People aren’t playing their Wii games or DDR to get healthy and lean, they’re playing it because its social, challenging, and fun. Lots, and LOTS of fun. If you accidentally burn some energy and fat while playing computer games and having fun with friends, why not capitalize on that as much as you can, rather than trying to use brute will force to get yourself to workout like Roland and so many others do?
If you know anyone with a Wii, or Dance, Dance Revolution, have a go- you might get hooked and go down a belt notch.
Asking yourself, “Why?” will make you fit, and help you lose weight by determining what exactly you want out of an exercise program. So many people I know go to the gym once, maybe twice a week, on and off again for years at a time, never quite making their gym visits a habit. The key to developing a habit in the early stages is to make yourself aware of WHY you are exercising in the first place.
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