Week 1: Day 7

Session 1 Calories Burned: 167.8/154.1
Session 2 Calories Burned: 83.9/74.3

Feeling a bit lazy today so I wont be doing much of a posting! Iv been keeping up well with the exercises given to me this week and havnt skipped a session or a workout! Im not feeling or looking much different but expecting to have a noticable change in 7 days is rather optamistic!! LOL

My eating habits have been great this week and there has been NO chocolate either. Drinking lots of water and eating yoghurts and fruit for snacks has made a big difference to any cravings! Im looking forward to my weigh in tomorrow. Lets hope im not dissapointed and start a week on a low! xx

Week 1: Day 6

Session 1: Calories Burned: 156.2/146.1
Session 2: Calories Burned: 81.4/74.3
X-Trainer 20 mins: Calories burned 129.4

The workout today workout concentrated on my upper body wth bicep curles, rowing thingymabobs (not helpful i know) shoulder press', and boxing. Some lunges and running were also thrown in for good measure (and were great to give those arms a break...... if only for a minute!)

Again i exceeded my projected calories. I find this part of the "game" keeps me motivated because i want to beat it! And i found myself sweating again, but not sore! Once more im going to throw in my x-trainer tonight for some extra cardio and im doing my best to stay optamistic about my weight loss.......

Week 1: day 5

Session 1: Calories burned: 140.2/133.6
Session 2: Calories burned 83.7/74.3
X-Trainer 20 mins: Calories burned: 127.8

I think im expecting far too much from myself :( I weighed myself today and nothing has come off yet. Ok i know its only day 5, but something would be nice! on the plus side, nothing has gone on either. Im going to stick at it and try to stop weighing in every ten minutes as its so discouraging when nothing has come off!!!

I trundled on with my exercises that were give to me. They were mostly lower body such as jump squats and jump lunges . A bit of cardio was thrown in, but im soon finding this game is targeting mostly at toning. I decided to ake my own custom 10 minute cardio workout to add onto the end of each 30 day challenge regim so i can get my heart pumping more. Im also going to incorporate some weights and my x-trainer 3 times a week to help give me a boost.

Week 1: day 4

Today is a REST day.

I have been keeping active by running a number of errands and later I went swimming with my youngest son. Im soo tired today and I do feel a little guilty for not doing any intese exercise but I do need to let my muscles relax so im at my peek to begin another 3 days of working out!

Signing off...

Week 1 : day 3

Calories burned 153/123 projected
Session 2 - Calories burned 171.5/162 .8 projected

Today was supposed to be a "rest" day (maybe so because your muscles feel as though they might walk out the front door on you because of the abuse!). Well, I'm feeling too up and at it to be doing that this morning so i had my 30 minute "fix"!! The workout on the agenda was for upper body toning, which involved alot of bicep curls, rows , triceps kickbacks etc etc. The absolute killer in this workout were the Lateral Shoulder Press', VERY painful! but hopefully worth it!

Iv done alot over the past 3 days, so much so I have reached 2 of my 3 targets - Total calories burned in 7 days (500) and the amount of workouts completed in the same time frame (5). My "trophy room" is filling up nicely.

Going to jump onto my X-Trainer later for 20/30 mins as I didn't feel I had enough cardio fitted in to todays routine (although I did break a sweat!).

S x

Week 1: day 2

Session 1 - Calories burned: 134/127 projected
Additional Exercise: X-Trainer: 20 Mins / 124cals

Completed day 2 of my workout. Although im feeling sore from yesterday, i was feeling a little disapointed with todays regime. I still broke a sweat but I didnt feel as though i was really being pushed hard enough. Although, today did mostly consist of lunges, side lunges and resistance for muscle build and toning which is exeactly what im after to i must stop moaning! That said, im off onto my x-trainer for 30mins to burn some fat...

Week 1: day 1

Week 1 Stats: (cant believe im putting this out there for you all!)
Height: 64 inches / 5ft 4 inches
Weight: 136lbs / 9st 10lbs
Bust: 34 inches
Waist: 28 inches
Hips: 35 inches

After reading many positive reviews, and hearing much hype, EA WII ACTIVE sounded like the perfect boost I needed to my monotonous exercise regime. I lugged my ass over to our local Asda and forked out the £44.99 for the EAs "personal trainer in a box".

Upon getting home, I eagerly shredded open the box to find 2 neat little packages and the game. Package 1 was the rather disappointingly flimsy looking Resistance band (red) with hand straps. In package 2 was the leg strap (which seems to be good quality). This is designed to go around your right top leg to hold the nunchuck for certain exercises.

I assembled the band as per instructions, popped on the leg strap and loaded the game. EA ACTIVE started with a somewhat cheesy tune (a theme that carried on throughout the game!) along side a brief intro, from who I am lead to believe is Opera Winfrey's personal trainer Bob Greene? (Thinking this is more of a novelty for our American counterparts than for us brits??) ACTIVE is easy enough to set up. Your vital stats are input via imperial or metric options (gender, height, weight etc) and you are also led through various options for personalising your avatar. Once you have completed your profile, you are led into the main menu. From here you can choose either custom or pre-determined workouts, The 30 day challenge and Journal. The layout is simple to navigate and its so easy just to jump straight in and get started.

On choosing the 30 day challenge (as thats all iv got until my shopping spree for a "new me" wardrobe) I am then asked to select which gender I would prefer as my trainer (I chose a man). Im led into a new screen which reveals a weekly calendar. Here it shows us past work outs, what day I am on, how many workouts iv completed and a few other dribs and drabs such as telling me what I can expect from "todays" workout. As I get started on day one, im asked if I would like to intricate a Wii Balance Board. I chose "yes" as I do own one of these. Im also questioned on what intensity I would like to have my workout set at. Here I went for the highest setting as I am quite fit already and I wanted to see what this exercise game classed as a hard workout! Further more, the game gives you a prediction of how many calories it expects you to burn (based on the stats you input earlier) in any one session in the form of a graph.

Each exercise is started with a brief guide as to what you will need and how to hold or place your controllers, followed on by a video demo of the exercise. After following the warm-up routine (walking and jogging) Im thrown into a 20 minute world of sweat and pain! I was given a great variety of exercises which included lunges, bicep curls, in line stating (a killer by the way!) and loads more which im struggling to remember. It was enough to get me sweating, which so far only 30 mins on either my x-trainer and bike have only been able to do. I finished the game with a cool off and exceeded EA ACTIVES pre determined calorie chart by 7 calories (ok not much but enough to make you feel rather smug!!) I also won a few medals on my way to keep that motivation going!

The game certainly has my attention and I will be keeping at my 30 day challenge, if only to feel that satisfying burn you get, knowing you have had a good workout! There are a few niggles though. The music for the game is soooo cheesy and the trainers are very much the all encouraging American "you can do it!" cliche, but in future I intend to pop on my headphones and listen to my ipod for workouts so its not so much as an issue as it is nit-picking.

Overall, iv enjoyed my experience of the game and feel as though iv had a better workout that other fitness games claim to give you, and have woken up today feeling a little sore!!

Heres to the rest of my challenge! WISH ME LUCK!!

Sam xx