Jump Around Get Up and Get Down

So, Kinect.

 

I swore a million times over I would not spend money on a glorified Wii until a killer app appeared, something appealed to me as a "core" gamer. Something that would make me give a damn and make the gameplay unique and compelling.

 

So, here we are, with a mechanized black eyeball tracking my movement across the room and (mostly) obeying my verbal commands. It is neat. It is slow and cumbersome to navigate a menu compared to the swish-clicks of buttons and thumbsticks.

 

What finally compelled me to bring this tiny Wall-E into my home was a change needed in my actual lifestyle, not the world(s) inside the game.

 

I am a big fatty fat fat. Weight has been a bouncing ball all of my life, tied entirely to my interest in activity. When given a social motivation to exercise I have and when left to my own devices I haven't, and I have been left to my own devices for the better part of seven years.

 

My real life is a litany of injury and pain, constant reminders that I am carrying the equivalent of an 8-yr old around all of time. Watching my body shift to compensate where my lower back arches more now, straining my stomach muscles to try and hold aloft a shelf of flesh that now migrates over and below my belt-line sickens and saddens me.

 

Depression and body image go way back with me.

 

So, after consulting with my wife, we plunged in and immediately bought a single game, Your Shape Fitness (we rented Dance Central to see if it would be fun or even possible given flinging nearly 300 lbs around to a beat is difficult at the best of times).

 

I figured, in my desperation and laziness, that if I tied exercising to my escapism of gaming (and fed my desire for achievements) I might break a sweat.

 

Your Shape has a clumsy finicky interface that is easily confused by dangling clothing or an errant cat that meanders through the frame. However it is a reasonably deep exercise class, marking you on body position and timing. It measures your BMI and adjusts the workout to something that hopefully won't kill you. The Tai Chi movements are a wonderful low impact way to warm up and down.

 

The only thing that will keep me from using this successfully is me. I literally have no excuses now, no reasons not to get off my fat ass and move.

 

It hurt my ass the day after my first 30 mins of huffing and puffing. I think that's a good thing.