Calorie Counting

I awoke to snow for the 2nd day. It didn't snow as much or for as long, but still. 71 degrees on Fri, snowing on Sat and Sun, 60 tomorrow and 70 on Tuesday. Crazy.

I have felt it coming for some time, and this morning while still in bed I decided today would be the day I began counting calories. My daily goal is 1500-1600 cals, and to move more. For Christmas I asked for and received the Biggest Loser Wii game, and after a wee wii lesson from Carcass B I began the BL journey. The light warm-up, routine, and cool down, totaling 30 minutes, took me 125 minutes. My routine included several rests and a laying/lying-down DS Lite session.

Since that experience I had not touched the Wii BL "game" again. I hated it. Today I decided I would do something active, extra, every single day, and decided to try the "game" again. It took me 10 minutes to find it, as my daughter had every single wii game and disc in the wrong cases. Then it took me 8 minutes to figure out how to get it started.

I again chose the light routine, and was determined to NOT STOP TO REST. I'm proud to admit I made it all the way through, excluding the cool down. I know that's not officially all the way through, but the part I completed was done with no breaks. I had a dog on one side of me and a cat on the other during the entire "game", and when I had to lay on the floor the cat nosed all around my face and I couldn't swat him away.

At the end, I was given congratulations because I had burned 28 calories. 28 calories? Are you kidding? I could have burned more by going out and picking up Ed's poop. I could have burned more if I had had a good poop myself. Right now I am still tired and hurt a little. I hope I rarely have to resort to this "game" for my activity.

At caloriesperhour.com I calculated I would burn about twice as many cals per hour of hiking over an hour of walking. Now that we're on DST I will have time to get in at least an hour at TM after work, on good days. At my weight I can burn a good 400-700 cals per hour, depending on my route and speed. That certainly beats 28 cals for 18 min on the "game", plus it doesn't make me angry. The next time I want to complain about screaming kids and their ineffective parents, I'll just remember that I could be doing the "game". That should calm me down.

I'm through eating for the day, and according to my careful calculations, have consumed approximately 1218 cals, so am having 200 cals worth of real Sprite. I have been off Pepsi since Jan. 5th (which also happens to be the day I first played the "game") and have used small ice and some Sprite to help. And after making a commitment to eat better and move more, the Sprite just doesn't taste quite as good. But I'm drinking it anyway.