When we first started the RV lifestyle – I was looking forward to being active. For some reason I thought that, just by virtue of living in an RV, we would be more active. I guess I had visions of hiking and biking and swimming.
I was wrong.
When you live fulltime in an RV, it’s your life – not a vacation. And, our life involves sitting at the computer a lot. When we’re in travel mode, it means sitting in car seats a lot. In other words, we have to make a conscious effort to get exercise in our life just like before we became RVers. And, since we’re always in someplace new, we can’t get into a habit of any walking route.
Enter the Wii Fit. We love it! We got the Wii Fit several months ago – but it’s been in hiding for the last couple months 🙁 We just got the Wii Fit Plus to re-energize us. Both Jim and I have done our ‘workouts’ twice this week. It’s something that actually fits in our lifestyle, *and* in our RV. If you’re already fit, the exercises will be laughably easy, but if you’re a ‘mouse-potato’ like us that’s a good thing!
One great thing about the Wii Fit is that it keeps records for you. It knows how long since you last worked out, it knows how much you weighed last time and how much you weigh now. It has no hesitation in telling you in a clear voice, “You’re Overweight!”
If you’ve never seen a Wii Fit – it’s hard to describe. It’s a video game, but you don’t sit down and operate a game controller. You stand on a ‘Balance Board’ (that’s how it knows how much you weigh) and hold sensing devices in your hand(s) so it knows where your hand(s) are. Here’s the promo video from Nintendo who makes it:
It will take you thru yoga exercises, strength exercises, and aerobics exercises. It’s not a group game – it’s one person at a time. At first I didn’t like this, I thought it was something we could do together. But, the positive is – I have no excuse – I don’t have to wait for Jim, and he doesn’t have to wait for me. We each must take responsibility for doing our own exercising. Also, since it’s just one person, it really can be done in the RV. It’s tight, but it’s doable. The only thing that doesn’t work is the exercises where you need to stretch your arms overhead. My hands touch the ceiling, Jim can’t raise his arms at all without hitting the ceiling.
I *LOVE* the yoga exercises – flexibility has always been my focal point for feeling good. Jim loves the games – there’s a new one in the Wii Fit Plus where your character on-screen is a bird. Your job is to flap your wings and lean in different direction to fly to places on the screen and gather points. It’s so fun. And, your arms are tired when you’re done!
The Wii Fit Plus also includes mind/memory games along with the fitness. There’s one where your onscreen character is standing amongst a group of balls – you’re kind of like a pinball amongst the bumpers – your job is to bump the balls by moving your hips. The game comes in by the fact that the balls have different numbers on them and the goal is to bump just those balls where the numbers will add up to 10. It’s harder than it sounds!
And, last but not least – the Wii Fit provides a lot of laughs – especially when I watch Jim flapping his arms like a bird 🙂
Someday we’ll get brave enough to take some video – meanwhile, check out this guy who took his Wii Fit on an RV Road Trip:
Then you need the balance board and the controllers along with the sensor bar. You can buy many of these pieces separately. If you get the whole package it will set you back around $350.
It’s meant to plug into a TV, but we use a projector and screen. If you want all this to be portable, you may consider the mini-projector – Joybee. I wrote about that in a previous post.
Now, get off that couch! Let go of the mouse! And, go work off that holiday cheer.