A Workout for T.V. Addicts

By Leah

I'm on the path to losing my baby weight, and it's about as fun as it sounds. Eating less, moving more, yadda yadda. Dieting while breastfeeding is haaaaard (consume all the things!), so my major plan of attack is to burn extra calories and build some muscle and mom-of-two-boys endurance by exercising. But oh. I am not a fan.

Aside from the muscle fatigue and burning lungs and, ahem, leakage (solidarity fistbump to all the moms out there), my two biggest complaints about exercising are (a) it's boring and (b) the time spent gearing up for and gearing down from a workout can easily turn a 20-minute session into a 2-hour ordeal. Because, see, you can't just exercise for 20 minutes. You have to change your clothes, maybe drive to a park or gym, maybe assemble a jogging stroller, and then get home and shower afterward. I have a three-year-old and a newborn; I don't have time for that. And even if I did, it's still boring.

Enter the Wii Fit Plus.

I like it because I can work out at home. I like it because I can do it on demand, as soon as the baby goes down for a nap. I like it because I can do it in my p.j.s. I like it because I can work out while watching t.v. shows I have saved on the DVR (more on that below; it's the best part).

In addition to the basic Wii system and remotes and the Wii Fit Plus disc, you'll need the Wii Balance Board (you do workouts and play games on it, but it also acts as a scale that will record your weight), but otherwise, just make sure you have a pair of good tennis shoes and a little bit of space in front of your t.v. to move. The games are fun to play with others, but I'm really digging the more straightforward exercise options for when I'm home with the baby during the day. I do the 6-minute hula hoop routine for a warm-up, then a free run for 20 or 30 minutes while I watch some guilty-pleasure t.v. (because I feel less guilty if I watch it while jogging, obvs), and then I end with some yoga and strength moves if the baby's still asleep. I love that I can switch the t.v. set over to my recorded shows while the Wii remote keeps track of how long (time and distance) I'm jogging. The remote itself has a speaker in it, so I get updates on how much farther I have to go, plus a few little motivational quips here and there. If you're a fan of charts and graphs, you'll appreciate that the Wii Fit Plus tracks times, distances, your weight, and also calories burned. It also lets you set a daily calorie-burn goal, or weight and BMI goals over several weeks.

Check out all the specs here. There's a lot of fun stuff going on in the system, but if you're looking for a hard, fast, do-at-home, non-boring cardio routine, I give two thumbs up for the running-while-you-watch-t.v. program. May I recommend catching an episode of America's Next Top Model for motivation? I want legs like that.

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Editor's note: Leah received a Wii Fit apart from her role at Style Lush, as part of the Nintendo Amabassador Program. She purchased all games and other Wii Fit equipment on her own and was never under any obligation to post about the console here or elsewhere. All the opinions in this post are exclusively hers!