EA Active - Over and Out!

Well, I made it through the 30-day challenge for the EA Active Wii game and... it was OK. Towards the end of the challenge, I'd primarily done workouts in the Advanced category, with only a few Intermediates snuck in when I didn't have time for a fuller workout.

The four main elements that every workout uses are:

1. Cardio: there were several things that were slipped into this category.
   
   • My favorite was the boxing (no surprise here): alternating between punching targets, punching the bag and standing on the balance board and kicking the bag. Good stuff, always raises my heart rate and gets me sweating. Also good for getting out that aggressive energy.
     
   • Also quite good: the track running, high knees, and kick backs. The track workouts were surprisingly good for what is essentially just running in place. The high knee and kick back intervals particularly really got my heart pumping and I'd be sweating by the end. The visuals were fun and having other people run on the track actually worked to make me speed up to pass them. No interval was ever longer than 6 minutes, but as long as I don't use EA Active as my primary source of cardio workouts, that's just fine.
   • My least favorite here was the Dance. So lame. It was basically a much less exciting version of DDR (either just upper body with the Wiimotes or upper and lower using the balance board). Sorry, it was just super lame and no matter how vigorously I tried to do the moves, I still didn't feel particularly worked out.
2. Upper body strength: a variety of the standard either isolated or combined strength moves using the band. They were pretty good, I've definitely felt a difference in my upper body but the band isn't great for all the moves. Also, I think it would have been a smart move to add some pushups or something along those lines which I feel is much better for ramping up the upper body strength. One thing I really didn't like here was that with two workouts in a row, 2 days back to back, it had me do one workout that focussed on upper body the first day, but then still had me doing upper body strength the second day, instead of resting it. Not cool.
   
3. Lower body strength: decent array of squats, lunges, with some interesting challenging moves thrown in, like the jump squats, the stationary squats and stuff like that. In general, this focus felt effective. I definitely had days when I was brutally sore after a lower body focus workout.
   
4. Sports: Now this part is just fun. I really enjoyed all the sports (tennis, basketball, volleyball, baseball and skating) and they typically felt like a good distraction from the focus of the workout while still doing something of a workout.
   

Having completed the challenge though, I don't know that I would do it again, since it doesn't seem to scale to my ability level. One of the things I liked about Maya and Yourself! Fitness (aka My Fitness Coach), was that there was a check in each workout to see how it was and if it was too easy, the program would adjust to make it harder. There were also fitness tests every certain number of workouts to gauge my improvement. With Wii Fit, while the workouts aren't as challenging as EA Active can be, I can both track my ability to do certain moves and see improvement, as well as track my weight.

In the end, that kind of interaction with the program makes it something that's worth going back to (and ultimately owning). With EA Active, I'm only likely to do one of those workouts every once in a blue moon, if I'm bored with whatever else I have going on. The awards that the program gives me aren't interesting enough for me to come back for more. The only thing that keeps me coming back is being able to track my progress.

Your Body's Return Policy

Thank you for purchasing your male or female body. We hope you're satisfied with your purchase!

Proper maintenance of your body is key to its proper performance and longevity. Here are a few tips to keep your body happy and functioning for a long time:

1. You must fuel your body! Yes, it's true, your body will cease to function properly if you neglect this step. The best fuels for your body are lean proteins, complex carbohydrates including whole grains and unsaturated fats. 
2. Your body must be watered several times a day. You will release the fluids several times a day, which may seem odd at first, but keeping your body happily saturated makes it function at the high levels for which it was designed.
3. Your body loves to move. Take it for walks, runs and periods of energetic play. If you can make your body sweat a few times a week, your body will reward you with strength, flexibility and a nice frame for tailored cloth.
4. Your body also loves a good rest. Be sure to give it enough time to regenerate. Should you not give your body long periods of rest, it will become cranky and irritable. This is not a design flaw.

It's possible that after several years, your body may become bloated and unable to perform the duties for which it was designed. This is most likely to occur if you do not follow the four steps above for proper maintenance. Remember, you can return to proper maintenance at any point as long as you own your body, and reverse the disfunction.

However, should you decide not to follow proper maintenance steps, we must advise you that there is no return policy for this product. For a list of disposal options, please consult your local medical clinics and waste maintenance and dumpster companies. Please note: you will likely not be able to complete the disposal yourself; please assign these tasks to someone close to you, and warn them of the likely obscene expense of the process.

We strongly recommend proper maintenance of your purchase. Really. 

The Mental Starting Point

I guess I'm pretty smart. I've been telling everyone for months that the New York Times proposed paywall (paying for online content) won't work because no one will go from "this is free" to "OK I'm willing to pay for this." The even smarter folks at Techdirt picked up a quote from an equally smart guy named Dan Ariely, who is a behavioral economist:

The main problem of this approach is that over the years of free access, the New York Times has trained its readers for years that the right price (or the Anchor) is $0 -- and since this is the starting point it is very hard to change it...

First point: It's tough to change established thought patterns. It's something akin to fixing a gear on a bike that's buried in mud beneath a sunken boat in a sea filled with really hungry sharks.

Dan-the-behavioral-economist (cool geek job title, Dan) goes on to point out that if the NYT decided to offer something unique and desireable, the paywall might pay off. But that's not part of their plan. The Grey Lady appears to be submerged in that fixed state mentality of What Was Once Proven To Be True Will Always Be True. In this case, it's "We're the New York Times; we're the preferred source." When print was king, that was true. Now fast, first and accessible rules our news worlds.

Second point: Fixie is good for a bike, not so good for a mind.

The battle against fixed state mentality is ubiquitous and forever, so it's good to practice fluid thinking. Certain professionals - scientists, I'm thinking - know better than to trust static ideas, so they try not to take anything for granted. Is the world round? Yes, but it's also flat.  Questioning even proven truths can bring illuminating results.

A mentality I constantly question is "I'm not the athletic type." As a kid I was lousy in gym, crap on the playground, last to be picked for any team. Lots of kids were like that, but I actually trained myself to fail on the field so that I could quit and go do something else. I'd run slow and get tagged, get hit by the ball I was supposed to dodge, etc. It was an insanely successful device - I suffered far less humiliation than my fellow stumblers, who stuck with it and endured the pain of public failure.

It had a nasty backlash, though. I had created a truth for myself, so that's who I was - the non-athlete, non-competitor, bleacher kid. So in high school, when I discovered that I was really good at running hurdles, my interest hit a brick wall - I couldn't get the gym coaches to take me seriously. Changing someone's fixed idea of me - the idea I created - wasn't going to happen. Not in high school, anyway.

It took a marathon training program, a world-class fitness guru, a couple of kick-ass programs (Jim's Performance Max and Tony's P90X) and lots of brain-bending therapy over many years to finally rid myself of that programming. I still battle it, but I think I should always battle it. Now that I've finally pried that bike loose, it's a really sweet ride.

Sickness and Fitness

If you've gotten out of your own way and are working toward a personal fitness goal, you still have a couple of significant road blocks ahead. They are:

• People at work
• Everyone else

This time of year, it seems like everyone's sole mission is to get you sick; and people, dammit, are kind of unavoidable, unless you are that rare brand of hermit with a six-pack. Now that we've gotten past the H1N1 wig-out, the battleground centers on those nasty upper-respiratory maladies, transmitted with demonic speed by either a co-worker with one seriously inflated aura of self-importance (stay home, you selfish snotwad), or an adorable little spawn of your very own making (sorry, no escape).

Since I technically work from home, it was someone's adorable spawn that laid me out. I knew she was sick - sick kid snot spreads out like a nasal Mississippi River, just green - so I kept my distance, but she got me anyway. I was one week into Phase II of P90X Lean, which is the hardest phase to stick with*, and suddenly all my Bring It was brung.

(*I swear, Phase II of anything is the hardest to stick with. Phase I, there's a motivating sense of accomplishment then a wee bit of rest. Phase II starts with a schedule that feels like habit, but isn't. You think you know what to expect and start to relax. For a P90Xer, this is where that wacky robot from "Lost in Space" should roll into your head, flailing his flex duct arms, yelling, "Superman! Banana! Superman! Banana!")

Or...not. Did I mention I've been sick?

Anyway, when I miss workouts, I lose momentum - actually, I lose a wheel and go flying into the gutter.  My solution, as much it sounds obsessive/compulsive/lady-you-are-a-freakoid, tends to keep my head in the game: I do a placeholder workout.

Nah, it's not zone 4 cardio or anything, it's a fake with purpose. I'm in my jammies, my head feels like it's filled with concrete, my nose needs cotton plugs and I wheeze like a dying hair dryer, so I focus on little stuff. One of my focus areas is balance, so I do a little non-inverted yoga, some barre exercises from ballet, or I'll just stand on one leg, fling the other one around and see what kind of trouble I can get into. Squats, static lunges, stretching where I don't have to bend over (trouble) or be on the floor (cold) or even some bicep and tricep curls with light weights. 10-15 minutes and I'm back in bed, a sick but proud freakoid.

I'm a week behind my goal, but I'm fine with that. I recovered quickly by getting lots of rest and staying home: I am a conscientious snotwad.

EA Active - Week 2 Down

Having completed the second week of training, I just wanted to check in briefly and give you a little update. I'm still enjoying the workouts, they're still working me out well and keeping me entertained. I upgraded one of my days to the advanced level, which had me complete a solid 37 minute, very effective workout. The track sessions were longer and harder (3 full minutes of knees!!!), I had to hold several stationary squats at longer than a minute each. By the end of the workout, I thought my legs were gonna give out on me! Awesome!

After two full weeks of this program, I do also have a sense of what I'm missing now. As I mentioned before, the plan is low on cardio. It has many cardio bursts but they're typically only several minutes at a time. Not a problem, I can easily supplement that by complementing the workout with running.

The second thing I realized this past week I was really missing was ab and core work. Nothing: no situps, pushups, planks... All those things that strengthen the core and really pull the whole body together. I've decided my solution for that is to add a couple of Ab Rippers a week (either with Big E or Tamsen as they do their P90X plans).

The third thing I'm missing is stretching and yoga. Neither of those are included in the plan (though to be fair, they do mention at some point that stretching is important. I think. Did I just make that up?) I definitely want to keep doing yoga, so I'm going to have to figure out a schedule to fit it all in, but for now, I'd like to try to sneak one monster yoga session in a week by doing the P90X Yoga X and then possibly a few shorter session from the Yogamazing* podcast or something like that.

Two weeks into this program, I don't feel dramatically different. I know two weeks isn't that long, but I'm still motivated to workout harder, so let's see how the next two weeks go with these new additions.

*Yogamazing: It's free! It's awesome! You can choose 20 minute workouts that specifically target your body's needs! Wheee!

The Great Millet Mash Fiasco of 2010

Here we are again, Big E and I, both working our little hearts out, trying to get back into better shape. For me, it's the launch of my running year. For Big E, it's his build-up to Paga. And as always, as we start to throw all of our efforts into working out more, and start feeling better and stronger, I start to ponder our nutrition again.

We generally eat pretty well, pretty healthfully. I cook fairly often, we get a fabulous veggie box that I've gotten better and better at using up, and I do tons of research and reading on the best nutrition for athletes for my hopefully upcoming cookbook.

The key things I work on improving whenever I'm paying attention are increasing the variety of vegetables, relying on leaner proteins (and eating a vegetarian diet more frequently) and incorporating more whole grains.

The last of those options took me on a bit of a wild goose chase yesterday. I had a lovely head of green cauliflower and decided to check out a recipe I'd seen in The New Whole Grain Cookbook, a millet and cauliflower mash that pretended to be mashed potatoes. Now, I'd like to point out for the record that while I love mashed potatoes, I'm also quite fond of puréed cauliflower and don't think it needs to disguise itself as anything else. Cauliflower purée is definitely better for you that most mashed potatoes and the texture is silky smooth and the flavour is delicately delicious. So there.

That being said, I love millet and thought doing this blend could take a good thing (cauliflower purée) and make it even better by adding the whole graininess, little bit of protein and loads of nutrients that millet contains.

That didn't really happen. I started out by following the recipe to the word: 1/2 cup of millet (rinsed) to 4 oz of cauliflower (roughly chopped) to 2 1/2 cups of water and a pinch of salt. After I cooked and puréed it, it was terribly thick and gluey. A horrible texture and the lovely delicate cauliflower taste was gone. It didn't resemble mashed potatoes either.

I tried and tried to salvage the recipe (adding more liquid, adding some butter, add some cream...) None of things worked - it was just a big porridgey sticky mess. I'll probably try again, my guess is the ratio of millet to cauliflower was off, so I think I would try halving the amount of millet next time. I'll keep you posted.

The thought I'd like to leave you with is this: whole grains like millet, quinoa and amaranth are fabulous things to swap into your diet if you're on a fitness kick. They're packed with nutrients, much better for you than rice or pasta and they can really taste delicious. I've been swapping them into all kinds of recipes with much better success than this story. I think the key is using them in situations where you'd normally use rice or couscous, boiled or steamed as a side dish or under a lovely sauce. As for the more advanced moves, like trying to sneak grains in odd places and have them masquerade as other creatures (barley chocolate mousse, anyone?), maybe it's good to hold off until some really solid recipes are found. I'm a bit skeptical about the whole grain book, but am not giving up yet! As I experiment, I'll definitely tell you about the winners.

EA Active Challenge - Week 1 in review

I've been all fired up (probably a result of no longer feeling weak and crappy), so my kick-off week to the EA Active 30 day challenge was great!

When you first select the EA Active in your Wii homepage, be prepared for BLASTING ENTHUSIASTIC music. (Sorry for the caps, it's just the only way I can properly prepare you for the auditory assault that you have to bear through every time you start this thing. I've learned to start by turning down the volume, then selecting the program.)

Now you get the option of either creating a new profile, selecting a pre-existing one or using a guest pass. First step in creating a new profile is selecting gender, age, height and weight. Now, please someone tell me if you've figured this out, or if you have different starting stats, but the system seems to come automatically set with female, age thirty, and my exact height and weight - 5'9", 159lbs, which as far as I know, isn't really representative of the average woman. At first, I thought it was sneaking the info from my Wii Fit stats, but then you'd figure it would get the age right, no?

Anyway, you can then standardize your body type. I tried to make mine look like me by choosing level 3 out of 4 (on the curvier side) but that automatically gave me a double chin! So I scaled down to 2, cuz clearly it's more important for me not to have a double chin (which I don't, thank you very much) than it is for my body type to be at all accurately representative.

You then get a few more features you can mess with, a number of hairstyles, 6 hair colours (sadly nothing that strays from the "natural") and then about a gazillion workout outfits, hats, shades and shoes. This is all clearly very important.

Now you're ready to start! The next screen you get is the welcome screen you see whenever you log in from here on out. The options on this screen are: Journal, Fitness Profile, 30-Day Challenge, Preset & Custom Workouts, Help & Settings and Info.

The Journal invites you to "Start here," so I did. This screen looks like an open notebook, and is where you're supposed to fill out what you've done each day. For each day, you have the option to complete an EA Sports Active workout (it gets automatically checked once you workout), fill in a lifestyle and nutrition survey, and fill in the "Other Activity Survey." Once you start checking off these three items, you can track your progress in the lower left corner where you see the percentage of your daily requirements count up. On the opposite page, you see the trainer feedback for the things you've done, as well as a place to go check on your goals, edit your profile and view your upcoming calendar.

Now time to get started! I selected the 30-Day challenge program. There are a bunch of videos as you're getting started about the program, the challenge, the workouts. Most can be skipped but I decided to watch them all to see if there was anything really important I needed to know. There wasn't really in most of them. The only useful videos were the leg strap one and some of the demo moves ones, but even then, they were often intuitive. (Plus skipping these videos does allow you to skip some cheesy "LookForwardToANewYou!" moments)

Still more choices to make! I had to select a male or female trainer, how much of a workout I wanted: low, medium or high intensity, whether or not I have a Wii balance board, and then musical type (about 7 options). I selected Medium intensity because I figured I was still recovering from being ill, but I still don't think that the Low option would be enough of a challenge.

Finally, I made it past the questions. For every workout, the program shows a projected amount of calories burnt (it seems like the low intensity aims for around 100, the medium 130 and the high 170 or so).

I completed the first week at medium intensity, figuring I could upgrade if they were too easy. The first workout wasn't all that challenging but the trainer did explain that the purpose of the first workout was to ease me in and teach me how to use the program, so I decided to give it the benefit of the doubt and see if it got harder.

More importantly, it was really fun! There was a track workout section that alternated between slow and fast running (in place, but cool to see the little avatar moving as I moved, but along the track and passing people), inline skating on the balance board (which consisted of holding a squat position then lifting one leg or the other to go over obstacles - whooo did that burn!), boxing at changing targets... Good stuff for the short-attention spans amongst us.

In general, the format was a sort of circuit training. After several minutes of warm-ups (either running on the track or squats and side lunges), the workouts seem to have 2 or 3 strength moves, then a sport (like boxing or tennis), then back again to the strength moves, etc. They switched up frequently enough that it was fun. The moves were difficult enough that I felt my muscles burn and was sweating and tired by the end.

The challenge setup is 2 days in a row (generally one that focuses on upper body, one that focuses on lower body) and then a rest day. So far I have yet to encounter a workout longer than 25 minutes, but when I combine this with my running schedule, it's perfect because unlike P90X, I can do these workouts in addition to my running - they're just enough of a workout without wiping me out completely.

Week 1 was good - all completed at medium intensity except for Sunday's which I did at low intensity because I ran my first really long run since before Thanksgiving earlier that day and I could hardly move anymore. What is even more exciting is that I've barely even scratched the surface of types of moves this program has to offer! Looking forward to Week 2!

(I'll have screenshots to upload by then - my camera was on a little extended vacation - and I also will review the custom workout options.)