Dusting off my dancing shoes

I’ve now been on my diet and fitness weight loss plan for 8 weeks now. I lost a further 4lbs this week.

I’ve already lost a lot of weight and I’m getting fitting as well. Exercise seams to be addictive and I’m finding myself wanting to do more and more. One of the things I’ve now noticed is that whilst before I used to feel I was getting some good exercise using the Wii Fit, it now feels as though I need to stay on it longer to get the same workout. The Wii Fit was certainly useful early on, but I’m now looking to try and do some more energetic exercise.

Dancemat for the PS 1 (also for PS2 and Wii)

I don’t have any dancing shoes, but the next best thing is my dance mat that I’ve had for about 10 years or so, back when the PS 1 was still considered a reasonable games console. So that has come down from the top of the wardrobe and I’ve been having a go on that again.

If you get to a reasonable level then it is far more energetic than the Wii fit. I can actually get up a sweat on the dancemat which I’m not really doing on the Wii fit anymore.

The PS One is pretty ancient now, the ’80s music is a bit dated and it’s very repetitive, but it’s made a nice change so far. I’d like to get a more recent version, perhaps for the Wii – which has some more recent music and can use the controller and nunchuck as well. It’s a bit hard to justify at the moment when the old PS 1 dance mat is still working okay (but I’m working on it). I’m still looking for other ways to get more exercise in the evenings to give a bit of variety, but that’s hard.

Gym, Walking or Jogging

I would like to either go to the gym, walking or jogging in the evenings, but I have kids that I have to look after, and I don’t think my wife would like me to disappear every spare night we have together, so those are not an option at the moment.

Gym equipment at home

I’ve tried having gym equipment at home before, but the only space we had for it was in the garage and as a result it hardly ever got used. It would be nice to have an exercise bike or a treadmill, so that I can watch TV whilst exercising but we don’t have the space for those.

Actually the Wii does have a couple of useful activities such as “free jog” and “free step” which allow you to watch TV at the same time which works fairly well. The step is pretty low intensity, but as you can do it for longer without getting bored it’s quite good.

Low tech

Finally it’s possible to go low tech, just doing push-ups and sit-ups etc. but I’ve never really been that good at any of that to stick with it. I also used to have weights and dumbbells in the past, but found that I would push myself too far and strain my muscles. This would be extremely counter active as it would affect my swimming (which is also improving).

More of the same

For now it looks like it’s going to a case of carrying on with the Wii Fit, Wii Sports and PS1 dancemat (until I get to buy myself a Wii one). Perhaps also look at upping the pace on my lunchtime walks as well.