I try not to talk about my exercising much, I'm not sure whether I succeed at that but I try because I remember when I wasn't an exercise freak I hated to hear about the great deeds those who are freaks. But the dilemma I face is that it has become so much a part of my life, not talking about it seems to deny people into an important part of myself. You see, when Sue and I quit smoking (nearly 3 years ago now) we took up running both as a way to pacify cravings as well as a way to measure our success. Exercise and health have now become an important part of our life.

Now I've written many a word on how much I hate running; today I run three times a week with no less than 13 miles in total, yet while my hatred for the exercise has waned, I am a long way from enjoyment. I have had good results, however, I haven't felt better in so long it might as well be "in my life". And yet still I hate it.

So, this past Christmas we decided to opt for the all-in Wii family pack that included Wii Fit and the Balance Board which was our prime motivation; we'd played with it before and felt it would be a good addition to our exercise routine as the feedback it provides really allows one to focus on improvement. Or at least that's what it seemed to me the few times I'd tried it, and it promised to bring the family together a bit more often because it really is fun at all ages.

Well, to make a boring story short, I've been nearly religious in my approach to using the Wii since Christmas morning, maniacal even. Within one week I had unlocked every level of every "game" by obsessing over it during the holiday break but since then I have been consistently using it for a run through of all the yoga moves, occasionally running through the strength exercises and playing some balance game at least 4 times / week. It is settling down right now into a daily routine of Yoga and an occasional something else (I still run, this is all added time). Oh, and the point of this post, my daily Wii Body Test.

If you've not seen it, Wii Fit comes with a so-called Body Test that does a BMI calculation (you tell it how tall you are and how much your clothes weigh, it does the calculation) and gives you two "balance tests" out of a pool of about 1/2 dozen to test you. Apparently somebody somewhere thinks these tests are all in some sense equivalent as the results of these two tests are used along with your real age and your calculated BMI to provide a "Wii Age" .... a number designed to motivate.

Wii Fit takes motivation seriously, too seriously for my taste (I'd rather it just shut up and get on with things) and the Wii Age is an attempt to get you to either feel good about yourself or scare you into doing something about your health. Christmas day my Wii Age was 54 and I'm 47 so I wasn't impressed. As I've done this test daily now for over 30 days I now know that some tests I do better than others. The "Basic Balance Test" has one shift ones weight side to side to meet the on-screen graphic ... two vertical bar sliders representing left and right with the slider moving up as the weight is reduced, down as more weight is applied, your task is to put each slider into a small box by shifting your weight back and forth -- I suck at this; or the "stand on one leg and don't move" test, or the "walking in place" test. All the tests really show one of two things, how close your Center of Balance is to your true centre and how much control you have over your Center of Balance.

I'm not really convinced that this is a good measure of overall health but I do like the feedback ... being told I was 54 got me to fight for lower numbers. Today I hit a milestone that prompted this tripe ... my Wii Age is 29 today! It has been as low as 31 before but truthfully seemed to be converging around 34 ... I have good days and bad days and today was definitely a good day! I do believe that the daily yoga helps with the Body Test and I'm still not convinced it is THE sign of true health or even that it is a particularly important sign, but ... I'm 29 just the same :-)