Fit to Game: Progress!

Written by Ryan Johnson (RyanDJ) Saturday, 22 October 2011 05:00

No matter how many Achievement Points an exercise game has, they pale in comparison to the real-world benefits. Today, I got my first, "are you losing weight?" from someone not directly following my plight. In the back of my head, I heard a little 'cheevo blip.

The scale hasn't been moving much lately, and that has been discouraging. The energy needed to keep up, especially with family emergencies, has been taxing. I continue with EA Sports Active 2 and Dance Central as my primaries, and try to walk a mile at least twice a week. My Gamerscore hasn't ratcheted up much thanks to these games needing consistency, but I feel if anything the activity is stabilizing my metabolism. My weight may not be dropping, but it must be shifting, or else I wouldn't have gotten that ego-boosting compliment. I can say now that I feel Fit to Game is a huge success. I'm no Mr. Universe, but nothing short of a year off of life to focus on exercise will do that, and I am heading in the right direction. Smaller portions at meals help as well. I am looking forward to the official "end of year" article now, instead of dreading it. While I started with the ambition to write one article a week, I am proud to say that my sporadic updates are consistently positive.

One important part of a New Year's resolution is that they never end. While these game are fun, new titles are coming out to catch the next set of resolutioners. So what to spend next year on? I'm definitely going for Dance Central 2: be on the lookout for my review next week. My understanding is if you buy it new, you'll get a code to download all of DC1's songs for free (I am assuming using the code printed on the back of my DC1 manual as well). Therefore, go ahead and preorder it on Amazon. As I am used to looking like a fool for Kinect, I may also go for the new Zumba game. After all, I'm already flailing to the beat of Dance Central, why not try one of the biggest exercise dancing crazes there is? I am sticking with EA Sports, though. Not as "fun," but it definitely works for me. You can also find it a lot cheaper these days, and it is worth a try. Kinect games in general make me feel healthier: an hour standing and running while playing Gunstringe or Child of Eden expends more energy than an hour of Red Dead Redemption.

Social recognition really pushes me to continue. Lack of scale number drops has discouraged me, but viewable progress kicks me back in gear. Even if you met your goal, do NOT fall back into your old habits! Lay off the holiday binging, and keep it up into and through 2012!