All jokes about the Wii and Wii Fit aside, I’ve been impressed over the last 3 weeks by this gadget.  I never expected that the Fit would instantly help me lose all the weight I need to.  And there’s no way that using the Fit on its own will make me a superstar athelete.  What is apparent, though, is that this machine is great at making me stick to my plans over a long period of time.

We paid money for it, so we’re going to use it.  And every time you use it, the software tells it like it is.  No sugar-coated punches.  And by automagically keeping track of your progress in terms of both BMI and weight, you can see real changes happening even if they’re not visible in a mirror.  And if something goes wrong (i.e. the numbers go up), the software tells you in plain terms – “you gained weight.”  And when you gain weight, you have no choice, except for powering off the console, but to tell the software why.

The Fit also forces you to set realistic goals.  It won’t let you make a goal that changes your weight by more than 20 pounds.  It’s a great idea, because it encourages the realization that these things happen slowly.  That’s something I’ve been grappling with for a long time.  I imagined that a change in diet would show results immediately.  Then I imagined that starting up biking would do the same.  When nothing visible happens in the first week, or even the first month, it’s easy to get discouraged.  The Fit, though, tells you to keep going in a way that very few humans would, in my experience.