Starling Fitness: Daily writings on Fitness, Diet, and Health

Nothing special happens when you complete workout number 35 on Yourself! Fitness. You don’t open up any new workout environments or unlock any music. You don’t get Platinum Status. As far as I know, there are no milestones after you unlock Gold Status. Yet, I still work out with Maya.

This morning, she said, “I’m proud of how consistent you have been.” She says something positive to me every time I make my commitment. Of course, when I haven’t seen her for a few days, she gives me a loving lecture about consistency, but I know she will be happy with me if I stay on track for a few days.

Maya is so much better than a real personal trainer. A real human being would get used to the fact that I usually show up every day for weeks on end and then go MIA (while I run on the treadmill or play DDR). A real human being would forget to give me positive feedback every single time I show up at a workout. A real human being would see when I don’t do the exercises completely right and make me do them over. A real human being would ask me personal questions and try to be my friend.

I don’t need a friend. I need a workout partner who will be there for me whenever I want to exercise, even if it’s three in the morning. Maya will do that for me and she’s chipper about it. “Hey, did you know morning workouts are a great way to jumpstart your metabolism?” Of course, she can’t hear me when I say, “I couldn’t sleep and you were the only person I could talk to who I wouldn’t wake up.” She would just start with the Step Touch and expect me to follow along.

I was browsing at Best Buy and came across Secret Formula: Ultimate Fitness for Men. It led me to believe that there might be an Ultimate Fitness for Women, but I couldn’t find it in the store. At first glance, it looked like a cool thing. It has 130 strength training exercises, 45 cardio exercises and 115 video clips. It runs you through a personal assessment, then you can customize your fitness program and track your results. It looked pretty cool until I started comparing it to Yourself! Fitness and what Maya does for me.

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Prevention Magazine has tested eighteen treadmills and has recommended their favorites. That sounds like a big commercial to me. The headline might have well said, “Seven high ticket items to buy that will make you thin.” Then again, I’ve constantly tried to Buy Fitness, so I checked the article out.

Prevention.com – We Test It: Treadmills by Denise Foley with Tanya Beers

What I found was a list of seven treadmills to buy and tips on how to buy a treadmill. There were also links on how to buy other high ticket physical fitness equipment. If I looked, however, there were hints on how to walk on a treadmill without injuring myself and how to bump up the intensity with hill workouts. Check out those articles for ideas to help keep your treadmill workouts safe and interesting.

“There’s no easy way out. If there were, I would have bought it. And believe me, it would be one of my favorite things!” – Oprah Winfrey, O Magazine, February 2005

I just found out that there are two PC versions of the arcade game, Pump It Up. They are available through Red Octane’s website, but I haven’t been able to find them anywhere else.

Anyone who has read this site knows that I’m obsessed with Dance Dance Revolution. This game variation from Andamiro Entertainment uses the corners and the middle as steps instead of the traditional up-down-left-right. I’ve seen this game at the arcades, but I’m so used to playing DDR that I was reluctant to plunk down a buck just to try it out. I was scared my feet wouldn’t work.

I’m going to get this for myself as a weight loss reward. It helps to set goals, meet them and have really cool things to reward myself with. I’m so excited!

If you have been considering buying Dance Dance Revolution to lose weight, but don’t know where to start, DDR4Health has published a concise and informed article about it.

• Getting Started with DDR

From space considerations to pad and game selection, this article covers all the issues. The only thing that I would add is that there is a version of DDR for the PC. It’s not as hard to get it working with your computer as he would make it sound, but the game is difficult to find.

Last week I made Gold Status on Yourself! Fitness. It took me longer than I thought it would. Making Gold Status opens up the Island Paradise exercise environment and lets you choose the Techno music option. The Techno music sounds like all the other music, but the Island Paradise is really nice…

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For $5.95 a month or $49.95 for a year, myGoals.com will help you get where you want to be by filling your email inbox with reminders. If only it was that simple. I can’t imagine an email that could get in the way of my binges. Instead, I envision that I would be harassed at every turn by myself. I would set up so many goals for myself that I would cringe at the sound of receiving email.

I’ve done this to myself before…

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I got a stability ball for Christmas. I’ve been reluctant to jump on the stability ball bandwagon for one reason…

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palmOne is promoting the various Palm software available to track your diet and exercise using your handheld device. If you have resolved to keep close tabs on your food and diet regime, the following products may help you.

palmOne Resolutions: They include information about the Atkins Carb Counter, Diet & Exercise Assistant 6.0 and Weight Watchers On-The-Go.

They failed to mention the following shareware products available online:

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Respondesign, the company that makes Yourself! Fitness, has announced that they are releasing a Playstation 2 version of the game/workout program in February of 2005. It is currently available for Xbox and PC computers.

The Yourself! Fitness website has an introduction video and several example workouts for you to exercise with. They are small on your screen, but they give a good idea of what a workout with Maya is like with a couple small exceptions. The workout with Maya on the website is missing the Workout Meter Line, which warns you when new exercises are coming. I find this to be really helpful in the game, so I’m surprised it’s missing in the free previews. Here’s a good example of what the Workout Meter looks like at the bottom of the screen:

Notice how the Workout Meter warns you that you’re going to be using the step right after the rest. Additionally, you can’t stop the preview workout to use a tutorial and learn the exercise or make it easier or harder. The free preview isn’t exactly as good as the real thing, but it gives you a good idea of what a workout with her is like.