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What?

I’m sure you’re wondering how in the world, could these things all come together. Sit back, I promise you it will make sense shorty. I had a hard time deciding what to do my post on night. So I thought I would write about some of the things I’ve been playing around with. I am a man of many hobbies. The cold weather makes for a perfect time to play with some of my toys.

For my birthday, Heather’s parents got me my first Star Wars LEGO set ever! The Star Wars Darth Vader’s TIE Fighter LEGO Set. Tonight we ripped open the box and put it together. Page by page, Heather and I took turns picking parts and putting the set together. We felt gitty, like little kids. Unlike other LEGO sets that I’m use to, it has many unique pieces. Being of a dark side (it’s Darth Vader, we’re talking about) most of the pieces are black, dark gray and light gray. We found some interesting surprises.

“You’ll Shoot Your Eye Out!”

Well for one. We didn’t know that it can shoot stuff. On the page where you assemble the firing mechanisms it has a warning label. Heather bet me to saying “You’ll shoot your eye out!” As you can see I had to post the picture from the instructions. I think it’s pretty self explanatory. Another surprise was the fact there is a place to store Darth Vader’s light saber. Well it wasn’t too much of a surprise for me. I saw it on the box. New lesson learned. If ya wanta be surprised when putting LEGOs together, don’t look at the box first.

Final thoughts.

After the 200+ piece assembly was complete we flew it around a few times. However it kinda came apart when we were seating mini-figure Darth Vader. I could see someone who plays with it a lot would get kinda frustrated. However I’m not going to say it’s just a model. It’s a toy too! To some, it’s a collectible. After Vader was seated we rebuilt the bottom of the TIE fighter and proceeded another test fire of the lasers. Long, long ago… Ok, I better stop here. I can see the non-Star Wars fans started to leave the blog now. Moving on to the The Biggest Loser Update!

The Biggest Loser Update

As you know. We’re working to better ourselves. Tonight I had my second session with Jillian and my on screen counterpart. We worked through another 7 minute warm-up. We only did 2 circuits tonight. It was about 20 minutes. The game introduced another move to my training. The wood chopping exercise. You make a swinging motion with Wii-mote like you’re chopping wood. I was pretty good at that one. I also had to do lunges as well. I did feel the burn, as some people say. I’m just glad for three things, one there are breath and water breaks. Two, there is a cool down stage after-wards. Three during the circuits there are mini-breaks, shake off periods. Not to mention the after-effects of making it through the program. The weight loss!

I noticed something else about the game feedback. As you’re doing the exercises it will reward you with points. It’s like instant gratification for doing the task correctly. I haven’t completed an official second weigh in. Not sure how I can force it to do a weigh in. But I jumped on Wii Fit and it said I gain .7 pound. I try to keep in mind that two things can cause results like this. One, generally people vary anywhere between 1 to 2 pounds day to day. Second I could be building muscle. Let’s hope more for number two. I could use all the extra muscle I can get. Well I guess that’s enough for tonight. I’ll keep you posted on how things are going! Thanks for all the support and comment love from the last few posts!

One word “Exhausted.” It best describes how I’m feeling right now. Last night was the first night of The Bigggest Loser Wii Game at our place. I started a new profile on the game labeled “Matt” and input my age, height and weight. Then I chose my trainer (Jillian), I think she’s very tough on the contestants. Then I selected a four week training plan as a beginner. In this time period I’m aiming to lose at least 10 pounds. Little goals at first and then I’ll work my way up.

After I got my profile out of the way, I decided to do the warm-up. The warm-up did a great job of preparing me for exercise. It’s basically a six minute series of stretching and loosening exercises. At first I wasn’t going to do it. But then I remembered the importance of stretching from high school PE class. Most of the stuff I did during this phase was very basic. It reminded me a lot of what was taught in high school PE and health class. I was very glad that I did the warm-up. Because nothing else could have prepared me better for the next thirty minutes.

Moving on to the main exercise. At first I was like “Yea, this isn’t much different than Wii Fit.” Then I realized it was nothing like Wii Fit. The exercises are completely planned out in circuits. My character on the screen worked outwith me, right along side Jillian. They showed me everything for a few brief seconds and then kicked up. Literally. Each circuit began with marches to get your heart rate up. Then we did squats with kicks exercises. Not to mention round-house kicks. The hardest for me, were the floor exercises. They were very simple, lay on your back and lift your butt up. Some of the exercises reminded me much of Tae Bo, mainly the kicking and squats. I would start to slow down, only to get harassed by Jillian (just like the show). Near the end, my lower back kept hurting. But the short breaks between circuits helped out.

After the 30 minute main exercise, I moved on to the cool down stage. Again at first I didn’t think it was that important. I just wanted to go sit down on the couch and just crash. But I found the post-exercise stretching incredible. Some of my aches and pains went away. It really did cool me down. I was sweating like I’ve sweat before. Ok, I know that sounds gross. But you get the picture.

I enjoy the constant feedback from the game. I like how Virtual Jillan and Bob provide feedback the whole way. Based off your inputs through the Wii controls, it has a sense if you’re doing it right or not. It’s almost like they’re playing bad cop/good cop. One minute Jillian will knock ya down and then Bob will pick ya up. They encourage you to drink water during your breaks. I thought was very informative. A lot of people forget to drink water while exercises. It’s very easy to get caught up in working out, forget to drink water and then get dehydrated. The plans are customizable. But I’ve decided to see how the basic program works first. Keep in mind, I have little workout training experience beyond Wii Fit, walking, jogging and running for exercise. So you could say, I’m learning as I go. I’ll post up more in later posts and keep you informed on how it’s going.

This year, Matt and I have pledged to each other that we will both be losing weight. We are both in need of losing some hefty pounds, and are going about this in several ways. If you watch The Biggest Loser at all, you’ll know that tonight was the season premiere. Although we haven’t actually been able to watch an entire season together so far, we plan to this season. And while watching, we are also participating! Matt and I will be working out using the Wii Fit program, Wii Fit Plus, The Biggest Loser Wii Game, and when it warms up a bit, we will be walking and jogging as well (working up to the jogging, of course!) We will also be dieting, and trying out the recipes on www.biggestloser.com as well as on the game!

While watching the season premiere of The Biggest Loser, we were also made aware of a great community outreach program, called the Pound for Pound Challenge. This is a great program where people pledge to lose weight, and for each pound they pledge, one pound of food will be donated to their local community food shelter. In our case, the God’s Pantry Food Bank in Lexington, KY!

In addition, I will also be working out at my workplace, the Curves for Women here in Richmond. We hope to start this year getting healthier, and we encourage all of our readers to do the same!