Yes I can! (with apologies to President-elect Obama for co-opting his slogan)

The last time I was at anything resembling a healthy weight was the last time we had a democrat in the White House. In fact, I first made my Weight Watchers goal weight in 1993, during the first year of the first Clinton administration, and while Clinton was in office, I got to overweight, but never obese, let alone morbidly obese which I have been as recently as 2005. In BMI terms, I'm still obese, working my way toward overweight and then down to healthy.

Last night's election results have me fired up in all kinds of ways, not the least of which is a desire to feel good about myself again, and one of the best ways for me to do that is to achieve my rather reasonable Weight Watchers goal, not the weight number, but the reason I go to a meeting every Saturday morning and spend $39.95 every month on my monthly pass. I want to look good naked.

And I can do that. Yes, I can.

To that end, I played on the WiiFit this morning for 35 minutes and busted my ass. The trusty heart rate monitor said I burned 433 calories. My WiiFit age is still too high, at 52, but we'll see how close I can get that to my actual age by my birthday which is in 3 weeks.

Wii and kitteh stuff

So yesterday, I didn't train, but I did the body test on the WiiFit. I was 56 (ouch). Today I haven't trained yet, although I did bowl a game while my coffee brewed. I did body test again, and I got my youngest age ever, 45, which is only 2 years off my actual age for 27 more days and then it'll be 1 year off. I'll be training later on today after I make sure that Ms. Thang and That Boy's issues are taken care of and everyone gets to work OK.

In kitteh news, before I posted the last blog, but after I had determined the subject, I discovered that one of the little darlings (shits) had damaged the cord to the sensor bar for the Wii. This is why I watched neither the Obama infomercial nor Pushing Daisies (which would have been my choice anyway) on Wednesday night. Nope, I was on my way to Best Buy to purchase a new bar so that the Wii remotes would work. Then this morning as I was getting ready to do the body test, I saw Meredith nosing around the various wires like she wanted to chew. I employed the best training technique I knew, I yelled and swatted lightly on the nose. She ran right the hell away, but came back shortly afterward (while maintaining her distance from the wires) to watch the TV while I was playing with the Wii. They're just fascinated by the Wii, they hear the sound of it turning on and they come running. It's adorable, when they're not chewing the wires.

WiiFit report 10/29

Today's activities: Basic Step, Advanced Step, Island Run, Yoga (half moon and tree pose).
Minutes in Fit bank: 39.
WiiFit age: 47

Heart rate monitor says I burned 488 calories; the run was fun, and I did it 3 times.

My age was up a year today, but it turns out that I hadn't put the extenders on the balance board which means it was not recording my weight properly. Now the darn thing thinks that I gained 24 pounds since Monday, but now the difference between what it says I weigh and what my bathroom scale and Weight Watchers say I way is not as off as it was. If you use the balance board on carpet, put the little extender cups on the feet to begin with; my graph is ugly right now.

I did not train yesterday. My legs and butt were really sore from Monday's workout, and my right shoulder was killing me from the hour of bowling practice I put in on Monday evening when everyone else was out of the house. I'm working on getting my pro certification so that I can get a sparkly bowling ball like That Boy has. My new high score there is 159; hopefully I can break 200 by my actual birthday. And I want to try the tennis, too. That Boy hates it but Ms. Thang says it's a blast, so I figure I'll have to see for myself.

What I did on the WiiFit today

Activities: Hula Hoop, Basic Step, Advanced Step, Free Step, Slalom Skiing.
Minutes in Fit Bank: 32
WiiFit age: 46

And I'm unbalanced, I figure everyone who reads this already knew that. You knew that, right?

Last night, after True Blood was over, Ms. Thang and I decided to try our hands at bowling. I beat her soundly the first game (bowled a 140-something), but then That Boy came in and wanted to play with us. The second game was a 3-person one, and I didn't break 100, didn't even pick up a single stinking spare the whole game. Must practice bowling privately and secretly so that I may beat my children.

Yeah, I'm nothing if not competitive.

Look to your right

There's a new element in the sidebar called Check this Out. It's only got one link and that's Fat Chicks Running. I'm not running, but I am the other thing. I'm also not necessarily a poster on that blog, but I do comment, and I've made my commitment to the group of getting off my ass and shrinking it some.

To that end, yesterday I bought myself an early birthday present, a Wii and a WiiFit! Unfortunately for me, I had to work all day yesterday, so That Boy got to have all the first day fun with Wii Sports and setting it all up for me.

Apparently, I'm old, fat, weak, and unbalanced, and even though I won't be thirty-fourteen until next month, my WiiFit age is 57! That was an unpleasant eye opener. So my current goal is one that I'm sure that most women hold close to their hearts. I want to get younger!

Today was my first day with my new toy, and after I made my Mii (complete with blond dreadlocks because I've always wanted those), I spent time in WiiFit land. Hula hoop was fun, except I kept getting conked on the head when the other people tried to play ring toss with me. That's a skill I'll need to work on. Then I moved on to basic step. That was fun, and I did well enough at it (and repeated it enough) to unlock advanced step and some other strength and yoga moves and balance games. After I had my aerobic stuff done, I went for the balance for a little while. I really suck at that. The tightrope walk in particular was brutal. I died repeatedly and my best effort was 19 yards.

Then later, I decided I needed another remote controller, so I picked up Wii Play which had 9 games and the controller, plus a second nunchuck so that boxing against someone can become an option. Next payday, I'm sure I'll want the rechargable battery backs and the charger for the remotes. (Plus there was this game I saw . . . No Connie! Bad Connie! You do NOT need the ski game right now!)

Come check out Fat Chicks Running if you're so inclined, and I'll also be posting here about my WiiFit experiences.