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So, I need to get more exercise. Lots and lots and lots. And I'm really having a problem with this. One part is a time thing... this is my seriously insanely busy part of the year... but that's a short-term issue. The biggest problem is that the kind of exercise that works best for me is a little difficult for me to be doing right now. I just don't exercise well at home. I know, if I were a better person, I would buy a treadmill or something, and I would do the billion exercise DVDs that I own. But I'm not. A treadmill would become an expensive clothes rack, and the DVDs are just getting dusty. I am terrible at self-motivated exercise. Put me in the gym, and I'm happy as a clam, because I'm there to work out, and I don't get distracted. Put me on a racquetball court, and I'm really, really happy. Leave me at home with a DVD, and I'll sit on the couch curled up with a book. I know, no self discipline. I should be able to do something that bores me out of my skull and makes me miserable for a lousy half hour a day, right?

I can't go to the gym right now, and I'm having a hard time fitting in racquetball. And it sounds like an excuse, but it's all about Michael. He can't do these things, not yet. And every time I leave the house, it's a slap in the face for him... it reminds him that he still can't drive, that he still can't walk really, that he is stuck in the house and I am flitting around like a butterfly (ha!). He doesn't say this, but I see it very clearly. And so he says, go to the gym, but I can't. Not yet. Not until he can come with me. Work is not negotiable, but this kind of thing is.

So I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place. Can't do the exercise I want, too... lazy or unmotivated or intolerant of boredom or whatever... to just DO the things that I could do at home. So this week, in a "let's do something even if it's stupid" move, I bought a Wii Fit balance board. We had a Wii anyway (also gathering dust, I might add), so it wasn't a huge investment. And I've done this the last couple of days, and I have to report that this thing is really kind of fun.

So, here is a report based only on a couple of days of use.

Pros:
1. This is the big one for me. It's interactive. Every exercise requires some kind of paying attention... focusing on where your balance is, that kind of thing. So you have to pay attention, and there's something that gives you some kind of feedback on whether you're doing well or not. Those DVD fitness instructors never notice if you sit down and drink tea instead of following along! I really like this part, and I suspect that this is what might make this work for me.
2. There are "rewards." Do a certain amount of whatever, and you unlock new games/exercises. I like rewards.
3. If you are way out of shape, like me, even the fairly simple exercises really are a workout of sorts. I am sore. A little anyway.
4. There are a variety of things to do, and some of them are pretty fun. The basic step thing is fun. The balance games would probably be fun if I had any sense of balance. And there are four different areas... balance games, yoga, strength training, and aerobics. Some of these would clearly not be very challenging if you were already in great shape, but just about everyone needs to work on balance.

Cons:
1. What I said above about difficulty level. But I'm a long way from there.
2. Response time is pretty good, but there are a lot of screens you have to flip through. Makes it take about 25 minutes to do 14 minutes of actual workout time. Haven't found a good way to streamline this yet, if there is one.
3. I get the impression from other reviewers that there isn't really a great workout disc for the Wii Fit yet. Like all startup Wii programs (like Wii Sports, for example), there's a lot of good stuff here but some clear limits. As far a I know, the only other disc for this is by Jillian Michaels, and it does not seem to be getting good reviews, in part due to poor response time.

All in all... definitely worth it at the moment. Let's see where I'm at with it in a few weeks.

Mostly good things...

Michael is just fractionally over 500 today. If we're very lucky, maybe he'll be below that tomorrow. That would be such good news. He's fretting, as usual, because now that he's really interested in losing weight, it can't be fast enough... and that's, of course, partly because he's in a lot of pain with his knees and everything else. But I can't see that it's possible to average more than a 3-4 lb weight loss weekly, even in his weight range... and trying is more likely to make your body shut down on the whole thing than anything else.

We spent a lazy, warm day mostly watching Property Ladder and marveling that it's possible for people who do everything wrong to make money flipping houses... but of course, these shows were mostly filmed at the height of the market, when you really could be an idiot and still have it all come out ok. And I cooked a lot... roast beef, and a beef stew for later in the week, and one for the freezer. It's going to be a busy week, and those always seem to be the worst here... I'm not home enough to keep things stable. But we'll hope for the best, I guess.

Anyway, in addition to the "I'm not losing enough weight" fretting, he's worrying about not getting enough exercise... and this is just absolutely true in some sense, although we have been doing the seated workout most days. That's really a great thing if you have restricted mobility, and it's a surprisingly good workout (there's a link to that back in March somewhere). But mostly he's not moving a lot... and really, what should he be doing? Everyone says, walk. But walk is hard right now, to say the least. Bike maybe, but that tends to aggravate his knees, too. I think a trip to the doctor is necessary before he does anything else, but really, what can you do under these circumstances? Swim would be good, but a public pool is out of the question, and it will be June before it's warm enough for our pool... plus if his knee doesn't get stronger, I don't know how he's going to get up and down the steps. It's a puzzle, and a depressing one. I keep looking on the low-carb forums for ideas, but no luck so far. (Suggestions, anyone?)

The seated workout

Excellent, really. Again, the link is here.

We tried this today, after I walked. It's a beautiful sunny if frigid day in upstate NY, yesterday I worked out how to get an audiobook onto my iPod, and I'm feeling a tad less grumpy and ill-used about the walking, today anyway (yes, I know, shut up, stop whining, and get on with it). My weight as usual remains constant, sigh, but Michael's down another pound, woo hoo. And his leg is fractionally better.

Anyway, this workout is a series of seated exercises, and Michael could do all of them except the ab twist thing, which is the only one that I also thought had a little potential for hurting yourself, because I could feel my back in all sorts of unpleasant ways. The pros: minimal equipment needed (a set of light weights although you could use soup cans, paper plate or something slideable if you're wearing shoes, and a resistance band. You could skip the band, but it helps. Actually, I couldn't do all of that exercise.), don't have to stand up if that's an issue for you, and everything (just about) could be done by someone who is pretty immobile. And these are serious exercises... I could feel all of them, although certainly you'd need to up the reps and weight if you were doing some of them for long, especially the lower body stuff. And it doesn't take ages. The cons: doesn't work all muscles, especially glutes. But this is kind of a minor objection, particularly on the "some is better than none" theory.

So things are looking pretty positive here this afternoon!

Exercise at high weights

Well, the excellent news is that Michael is down nearly 4 lbs. this morning. I'm up but very fractionally. Maybe this is really working, if we can sustain it. I'm supposed to be walking right now, but I'm doing this instead... despite good if whiny intentions. The problem is my iPod, which Michael is trying to put new music on... I could have waited, really, but I can't walk without it! So I'm giving up for the morning, but I will walk to racquetball this afternoon, which will be nearly as good (and back up a killer hill, sigh).

So this morning, I'm once again contemplating the problem of exercise for the really obese. The last time I did a Google search for something like "exercise morbid obesity", in addition to the billion things that say that the only way to do anything about this is through bariatric surgery, there were only the standard suggestions about, get up and move. Well, yeah. But what if it hurts to move at all? What if getting up and standing up is difficult for any period of time? What are you supposed to do then? This is Michael's situation right now, with the combination of the high weight plus whatever the hell he pulled in his leg. He is so miserable and frustrated.

Anyway, I tried searching again yesterday, and got two good sorts of results. First, there were actually a few articles that talk about the real problems of this kind of weight... not being able to fit on gym equipment, not being able to move much at all... although the bottom line (and this is of course correct) is that at some point you really do have to move around some and do something, whatever it is, somehow. It's just a fine balance, that combination of trying to push through that pain barrier and yet not hurt yourself.

The other thing that I found was an excellent link from About.com that is a full body seated workout. You can find it here. There are also some related links on workouts for seniors and so forth that are beginning, gentle exercise, though standing. We're going to give the seated workout a go today, I hope, so I'll report back. The hard thing is that you just want to be doing more and faster; gentle exercise seems wrong when you've spent your life doing not-gentle things. But it's a start. I hope anyway.