Your Shape Review
Mar 10, 2010 Product Review, What's Going On
Your Shape Challenge Update
I’ve been part of the Your Shape Challenge for the past eight weeks, and while I’ve mentioned the game a lot and talked about a few different aspects of it, I haven’t really done a full review, so the people running the challenge have asked me to do one.
First of all, I should mention that since the challenge started, I’ve lost ten pounds. At this point that’s two pounds more than my goal, which was to lose one pound a week. And of course I can’t attribute all that to the Your Shape game – I’ve been eating 1,500 calories or less whenever I can manage it (I’d say that was roughly five out of the eight weeks), drinking more non-carbonated liquids (that would be watered-down Crystal Light, averaging about 24 ounces a day) and just generally trying to be more active. But on top of that, I’ve been exercising with Your Shape two or three times a week (except during those three weeks when I wasn’t eating well – see how that works?!?). I feel stronger, and with the weather getting warmer I’m also going to incorporate some jogging into my routine in addition to Your Shape. All of those things together have combined into a pretty smooth and painless ten pound loss. I haven’t done anything at all drastic, I haven’t been at all miserable, and I’m fitting very comfortably into my size 14 pants – a couple of them are even too big. That’s been the great thing about this challenge: the people running it never said “Go use the Your Shape game twelve times a week and then tell us how much weight you’ve lost.” They understand that it’s part of some over-all changes that are helpful for losing weight.
The Your Shape Game
So, the game itself: to recap, there’s a little camera that sits either on top or at the bottom of your TV and connects to your Wii, and that camera shows you onscreen in the Your Shape game. You’re on the right side of the screen, and a Jenny McCarthy avatar is on left, talking to you and showing you what to do. The goal is to mimic what she’s doing. It’s not a good idea to stare at yourself in the game for two reasons: #1, there’s a tiny bit of lag between what you’re doing and what you see on the screen, which will mess you up. And #2, you’ve really got to watch Jenny. So why have the camera at all? That also has two reasons: #1, you can see if you’re doing what you should be doing: getting your legs up high enough, getting your arms straight enough, etc. In fact, I discovered pretty early on that if I thought my arms were straight out, they were actually hanging down a surprising amount.
Reason #2 for the camera is the whole point of this game: it tells you how well you’re keeping up with Jenny, and you don’t have to hold anything or strap anything to your body. The camera just reads it. It took me a few tries to get it positioned right. I started out with it at the top of my TV, and that was no good – it was telling me that I was only doing the exercises about 50% right, and I knew I was doing better than that. Then I moved it below the TV, and it got a lot more accurate. Finally I got it positioned just right at the very front of my TV shelf, and it reads me really really well – I’m consistently between 80 and 90%. If it’s telling me that I’m doing an exercise 85% right and I concentrate on getting my arms up a little higher, I watch the % tick up a few numbers. If I try to slack off a little, I get almost instant feedback telling me that I need to focus. It’s like having an aerobics instructor in front of you, except you don’t have to put on a perky spandex outfit and leave your house.
The one thing that the camera doesn’t read so well is the floor exercise portion. My % score usually drops by about ten as soon as the workout moves to the floor. But, like that five pound weight gain that I get every single month when I have my period, I just expect it and ignore it. The other problem with the floor exercises is that often you’re supposed to have your head down, or even turned away from the TV, and Jenny does not do a good job telling you that you need to change sides or do the next rep. For the next version of the game I think the designers really need to focus on those exercises that need more audio cues, and have Jenny count you down and tell you to change sides and all that, every time. This is never a problem with the standing exercises though, only the floor exercises.
My favorite part of the whole thing is that you get to choose which muscle group you really want to work on, and then get to further choose between burn, strengthen, or tone. I mean, all of your muscles are going to get some kind of work out, but if you choose abs, expect a lot of crunches and double leg lifts. If you choose legs, you get less floor work and more jumping. And if you own hand weights, a balance ball, or an aerobic stepper platform, the game will incorporate those into your routine as well. Whatever I choose, there’s good variety and after eight weeks I’m not at all tired of the exercises. There are muscle groups I’ve never chosen, so I’m sure there are a lot more exercises for me to explore.
The workouts that I’m getting are intense. I almost always do a 30 minute routine, and the first 20 minutes just kill me – constant movement. After that it slows down a bit, with some floor work and more breaks. At the end I’m always sweaty, a little out of breath, and tired – just what I want from a workout. I never felt that tired after a workout DVD, and I realize now it’s because I wasn’t pushing myself hard enough. It’s so easy to slack of when nobody’s telling you that you are. As hard as I’m working, though, one small thing on the game that just seems wrong is the calorie counter. It will tell you how many calories you’ve burned, but it will lie. Monday, for example, I did a 30 minute burn routine focusing on legs. It was intense, and I absolutely got a great workout. But there’s no way that I burned over 600 calories in 30 minutes. I would only burn half of that jogging. So until they fix that equation, ignore it.
There are other parts of the game that I don’t really use. For example, there are challenges that can get you ready for a bathing suit, a New Year’s resolution plan, and a de-stressing challenge that’s basically yoga. My daughter loves to do that one. I set her up with her own profile so that she would stop messing with mine, and she’ll do yoga for an hour at a time.
To sum up, I would definitely recommend this game for anyone wanting a tiring routine with lots of variety. You’ve got the freedom to move around without holding a controller, and the added motivation of seeing yourself on camera. It’s helped me get stronger and smaller during the coldest part of winter, a time when I usually wouldn’t be getting any purposeful exercise at all.
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has Compensation Levels of 1 & 8. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information. Amy also blogs at Filming In Brooklyn, Behind the Screen, and the NYC Moms Blog.
Tags: Jeny McCarthy, Wii, Your Shape
Win a Your Shape to get yours in shape!
Feb 24, 2010 Contest/Giveaway, Weight Loss
UPDATE: Congratulations to the winner of the Your Shape game, Christine W.!
The Challenges
So I completely killed the week five challenge for the Your Shape challenge that I’m participating in. The ten participants get weekly challenges, like drink more water (which I did OK at, not great) or walk 10,000 steps a day (which was easy when I was at home, not so much when I was sitting my ass in sessions at the Blissdom conference). But week five I was awesome on. OK, I really didn’t do anything special at all, it’s just that the challenge was to get outside every day, getting some kind of exercise, even if it was only for ten minutes. And it was the week that I was at Disney World. I walked miles and miles around the parks every day. If that challenge had happened last week, though, I would have totally lost. My family was out of town and I didn’t leave my house for four solid days. I would make an awesome hermit. That is, as long as I had access to the internet and could have things delivered to me.
Anyway, the week six challenge was to be innovative with healthy snacking. Each participant was given a Wal-Mart gift certificate to buy food to make the snacks. Only problem was, there’s no Wal-Mart anywhere near me, and they don’t sell food online. So, instead, I tried to stick to the spirit of the challenge, and I bought a few things that would help me to eat at home more. When I go out to eat, I tend to go a little crazy. It’s not that the food I’m eating is necessarily all that terrible, it’s just that I have no way of knowing the calorie content. So, I usually say “screw it” and eat whatever. Therefore, the more I eat at home, the more likely I am to eat less and better. So, I bought three things to help me cook at home more, stuff that I love to get at restaurants. That way, I can control what goes into it and know exactly how many calories I’m eating.
I love getting sandwiches in restaurants, they’re just fancier than what I make. So I bought a cast-iron panini press. I love getting nice, creamy soups in restaurants, and I like to make homemade soup but I hate cleaning my blender, so I bought an immersion blender. And last, my kids – Jake especially – are always dragging me to the coffee shop for Belgian waffles, so I bought a waffle iron. Besides eating better, I’m hoping I’ll save a little money too!
The Giveaway
What I love about the Your Shape Challenge is that it involves more than just the game. Drinking more water, walking more, these things all contribute to healthy living and weight loss. But the heart of the challenge, of course, is the Your Shape game for the Wii. And I get to give one away! (Sorry, Wii not included.)
All you have to do to enter is leave a comment stating what you weight loss or health goal is: lose ten pounds, be able to do a pull-up, walk up stairs without getting winded, etc. For a second entry, you can tweet about this giveaway (don’t forget to leave a separate comment linking to your tweet or it won’t count; instructions on how to link to your tweet can be found here). Just make sure to mention what the prize is and link back to this post, or you can just copy and tweet this:
Win a #YourShape exercise game for Wii from @SelfishMom! http://bit.ly/9se1iF
So, that’s a maximum of two entries per household, please. The comments will close at noon-ish on Friday, February 26th and random.org will draw the winner. Contest open to residents of the U.S., and shipping is available in the continental U.S. only. Entrants must be 18 years or older. For complete rules, please see my Giveaway Rules page.
Good luck!
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has Compensation Levels of 1 and 10. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Tags: Wii, Your Shape
Weight Loss Tuesday: Hitting the Road
Feb 3, 2010 Weight Loss
Travel is scaring me
I’ll be out of town for most of the next two weeks. That’s a little scary for me right now. I panic when I’m in situations where I can’t count calories, say “screw it” and go crazy. I also have a hard time passing up free food and buffets, and the next two weeks will be filled with both. But I’ve laid a good foundation over the past few weeks and hopefully I’ll be able to stay on track. I have no illusions about losing weight with all this travel though – if I come out even I’ll call it a win and be thrilled. I lost less than a pound this week, but I’m not surprised. It’s that time of the month, you know what I’m talking about. I’m only not naming it so as not to attract weird googlers.
So this past week, the third week of the Your Shape Challenge, has been really good. I did manage to get in three 30-minute Your Shape workouts, which was my goal. I also went ice skating last week, which worked some leg muscles that hadn’t been worked in a while. However, I’m going to be without my Wii for five out of the next seven days. If I can get in two 30-minute Your Shape workouts in the next week, I think that will be an accomplishment. I’m going to try to get in a little exercise on the road, but it’s never happened before so I’m trying to manage my expectations rather than set myself up for failure. In other words, I’m setting the bar low in the hope that I can leap over it with ease.
I made my water goal three days this week, and not coincidentally it was the same three days that I worked out. I need to stop thinking about drinking water (and yes, by that I mean Crystal Light) only when working out. I feel better when I drink more water. It’s such a no-brainer I don’t know why I struggle with it. But I’m going to bring my little “On the Go” packets of Crystal Light with me. Don’t worry, I won’t take them in my carry-on. I don’t want to be arrested at the airport for carrying a suspicious red powder.
This week’s challenge: step to it
The Your Shape challengers have a new challenge this week, and that’s to walk as many steps as possible each day. To help us keep track we were each sent a pedometer, and I’ve been wearing mine faithfully for the past two days, despite a few close calls where I almost dropped it in the toilet. It’s going to happen eventually. Whether or not I rescue it depends on what it lands in. :-) Yesterday I walked just a few hundred steps shy of 10,000 steps, which is the magic number that’s always thrown around about how active a person should be. I almost got there even though the only time I left the house yesterday was walking the kids to school and picking them up. At home, I’m always going up and down the stairs and all over the place, so it was pretty easy. Today was even easier. I went into the city with the kids, and we did a good deal of walking. I’m over 14,600 steps right now and not quite done yet – hoping to hit 15,000 before I fall into bed.
So, things have been going well. Pretty easy. I’m really glad that this all started during a really busy, crazy time for me. If I had more time to pay attention to the challenge, I’d probably over-do it in the beginning and then flame out. Instead I took things slow, and I’m still going strong. At the end of the day My Food Diary tells me when I will reach my goal if I ate the same way every day. Today it told me that I would reach my goal on my birthday, which is in October. Far off, yes, but I really feel like I could keep this up until then. What a great birthday gift that would be.
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 1. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Tags: Crystal Light, Wii, Your Shape
Weight Loss Tuesday: A Little Better (and the scale winner)
Jan 26, 2010 Contest/Giveaway, Weight Loss
So I listed two goals in last week’s Weight Loss Tuesday post: drink more water, and do my Your Shape exercises three times in the second week of the Your Shape challenge. How did I do? Well, I did better than the first week, when I only exercised once. Last week I exercised twice. I’m really shooting for three this coming week. And since the special challenge for the participants this week is to add time to our workouts, I’m not only going to try to do three workouts, but three 30 minute workouts.
As for water, after drinking practically no water, at all, for a very long time, I had two days where I drank 64 ounces and one day where I drank 32 ounces. OK, it wasn’t water. It was watered-down Crystal Light (Fruit Punch flavor, if you’re interested – it’s the only one I like). But I hate water. Hate. And don’t try to tell me I would like it with a twist of lemon or a splash of juice. I would not. But I drank the watery Crystal Light and will continue to do so until I find a nutritionist who tells me that fizzy drinks filled with caffeine count as water.
So, improvement. I’m not going to beat myself up about not meeting last week’s goals, I’m just going to be happy that I did a little better.
My two-week weight loss is very encouraging. As of this morning I’ve lost seven pounds! Yay me! Yes, I know the first couple of weeks you always lose a lot, but still, it’s a nice way to start.
And as for my two Your Shape workouts? Yelling at Jenny McCarthy is fun. And helps keep me motivated. I’m experimenting with the sound features on the game. I don’t want to hear Jenny correct my form every five seconds, but I do want to hear the other things she says – when she names an exercise, for example, or says we’re almost done. But while there’s a volume control specific to her voice, there’s no way to turn off the critiques but keep the other chatter. So I’ve just turned her down most of the way. And that’s my big suggestion for Ubisoft if they do another version of the game: let players choose which parts of Jenny they want to hear.
Everything else with the game is going really well. Granted I’ve only done three workouts so far, but they’ve all been interesting. Yesterday I had done a core strengthening workout and woke up with sore abs, so today I added my 3lb hand weights and did an upper body strength workout. I like that I don’t know which exercise is going to come next. With DVDs I always knew what was coming and got bored easily. Jenny keeps me on my toes.
***
I just picked a winner for the EatSmart Digital Bathroom Scale, and it’s Lydia! Thanks so much for entering, and thank you to EatSmart for providing the great prize!
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has Compensation Levels of 1 & 10. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Tags: EatSmart Digital Bathroom Scale, Jenny McCarthy, Your Shape
Fashion Monday: Workout Clothes
Jan 25, 2010 Weight Loss
Here’s what I do when I don’t want to do something: I convince myself I shouldn’t do that thing. Workout clothes are not something I want to spend money on right now. We’re redoing our kitchen, the kids keep stubbornly growing out of their clothes, our car is on its last legs (wheels?)…new workout clothes were pretty low on the list of potential purchases.
This morning I was doing my Your Shape workout, and I couldn’t help but notice how crappy I looked. You can’t hide from yourself with the Your Shape workout, because you’re right there on the TV, next to a buff, made-up, fashionably-dressed Jenny McCarthy avatar. And there I was, wearing black track pants that were too big six month ago, and now magically fitting again (sigh), and completely worn out. And I have a matching pair in gray, just as worn out.
On top I was wearing a green workout shirt that supposedly has a built-in “shelf” bra. I don’t know why I fall for that time and time again. I’m a 36D. There is no built-in shelf bra that will work for me. But I keep buying them anyway, and my boobs keep flopping around as I work out.
But, I had convinced myself that these things didn’t matter, that I was exercising privately so who cares what I look like?
Only, it does matter. Nobody needs to put on make-up and a $300 Juicy Couture track suit to work out, but when I look shlubby I feel shlubby. And when I feel shlubby I want to sit on the couch and eat potato chips and watch Cops.
This afternoon I received a very generous gift card to Lady Foot Locker for my participation in the Your Shape challenge, and I got myself two complete outfits – track pants, shirts, and sports bras (good ones, underwire). The pants are plain but the shirts are bright colors. I hate to admit that I’m affected by such silly things, it seems weak and shallow. But when I go to an event dressed in something I know I look good in, I feel more confident. Perhaps the first new work-out clothes I’ve bought in six or seven years will make me feel strong.
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 1. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Tags: Your Shape
Weight Loss Tuesday: I will do anything to avoid working out
Jan 13, 2010 Product Review, Weight Loss
I just did my first “Your Shape” workout for the Wii. It was hard.
I agreed to do a three-month weight loss/fitness challenge with nine other women. The great folks at Nintendo recently sent me a Wii, so I jumped at the chance to use it to get fit when the “Your Shape” opportunity came along. I could have gone out and bought the game myself, but it’s about more than that: it’s about motivation. I’ve been in a slump for the past few months, weight-loss wise. So I thought that maybe some friendly competition would help. We’ll see.
Today was the official start of the challenge, and I spent the whole day avoiding it. I had a couple of guys in my house installing a kitchen for most of the day, then the kids were home and it was time to do homework and go to Tae Kwon Do and out to dinner at Subway (we have no kitchen right now, and really won’t for at least a couple of weeks). Then it was bedtime for the kids, and time to work out. So what did I do? I caulked the front door. Then I cleaned up the living room. That delay was excusable, because I knew that I’d need room to exercise – the kitchen stuff was encroaching on the living room, not to mention the fact that my bags from the Vegas trip were still sitting in the middle of the floor. But by the time I was done tidying up the room, it was almost midnight and I knew that if I didn’t do the workout then, it wouldn’t happen and I’d have messed up on the very first day.
The game comes with a camera, and it captures your moves as you work out. There’s a little Jenny McCarthy avatar on the left side of the screen, and then you’re on the right side. And Jenny talks to you. A lot. I would have been happy with less of Jenny talking. I’ll have to experiment with the game and see if that’s possible. I want the feedback – the whole selling point of the game is that it tells you whether or not you’re doing the workout moves right, and motivates you along the way. But I don’t need a constant flow of chatter.
Or do I? Trying to do better when Jenny told me I wasn’t raising my arms high enough or squatting low enough not only kept me motivated, but it helped pass the time quicker. What I look for in a workout is something that distracts me from the fact that I’m working out. Often this means TV or music, but with this game it means yelling at the TV and trying to match exactly what the avatar is doing. Whatever works.
I was surprised at how well the camera picked up my movements. There’s actually a visual lag between what I’m doing and what shows up on the screen, but that doesn’t seem to be affecting the game – the game is “seeing” what I’m doing more accurately than what I’m seeing on the screen, so I just look at Jenny instead of myself, only glancing at my side of the screen every now and then to make sure I’m in the frame.
The game shows you the number of calories you’re burning as you go along, but I think the count is a bit high. While I would love to burn 200 calories in fifteen minutes, I’m guessing it was closer to 100. But I did get a good workout. My heart rate was up, I was sweating, and now I have that “heavy” feeling in my arms and legs that I know will translate to some soreness tomorrow. While I’m fairly active in my daily life – lots of walking and stair climbing – this was using different muscles, muscles that have been taking it easy for a while. Time to wake up.
The real test will be if I keep doing it. Since I started the actual workout part after midnight, the workout was counted for Wednesday on the game’s calendar. I think I’m going to take advantage of that and take tomorrow off, and let my muscles rest. :-)
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 1. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Tags: Jenny McCarthy, Nintendo, Wii, Your Shape
Weight Loss Tuesday: Resolutions are not for me
Jan 5, 2010 Weight Loss
I think my brain works differently than most people’s. The few times I’ve made eating and exercise resolutions they’ve gone something like this: I start strong on January 1st, do OK on January 2nd, and falter on January 3rd. Having messed up my brand-spanking-new resolution, I vow to start fresh on the following Monday. I do, and last until Tuesday. So I decide to give myself the rest of the month off and start fresh February 1st. When that doesn’t work, I say “screw it” and give up until the next year.
I’ve learned that I can’t be specific. If I say I’m going to exercise six times a week and I only exercise four, I feel like a complete failure. Forget about the fact that I just exercised four times! That doesn’t matter, because I had set a very specific goal and had missed it. Stupid, I know. But I’m nearing forty and I’m pretty sure my brain is not going to start working differently all of a sudden, so I’ve learned to work with it. I can make broad resolutions, like last year’s to try and do things I don’t want to do before I do the things I want to do. Vague enough that it was hard to break in such a way that I would beat myself up, but important enough that it did some good.
So, no weight loss resolutions. My one resolution was to do what I say I’m going to do. And I haven’t said what I’m going to do yet.
[Update: Someone just pointed out that I did make a weight-loss-ish resolution, very publicly, in a video that started running today on many many websites. Oops. Look to the right and you'll see the JuiceBoxJungle video widget. As of today, my face is on it. So I didn't eat the rest of the mozzarella sticks that are in the kitchen. Because I'm not hungry. But dammit I want them!]
I did say yes to trying out a Wii exercise program for three months. Nintendo sent my family a Wii last week, so the Your Shape exercise program was my first purchase for it (courtesy of Ubisoft and Collective Bias). It’s a motion control camera that plugs into the Wii, so that I won’t have to hold a controller or wear anything in order to exercise with the Wii – the camera sees what I’m doing! It should be waiting for me when I get back from the Consumer Electronics Show. I can’t wait to try it. I’ll need it after being in the land of buffets for five days.
For extra motivation, I joined the “Loser Moms” contest. A $10 buy-in gets you a chance to win cash for losing the most weight. I like money, so that should be good motivation. Plus there seems to be a lot of gratuitous swearing connected to the contest. I like that.
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 1. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Tags: Nintendo, Ubisoft, Wii, Your Shape
