At the end of May (yay payday!), I picked up EA Sports new Wii fitness game, Active. I started my first day on the 31st (I was going to hold out until June 1st, but I was just too excited to give it a try).

This game is much more interactive than Wii Fit, which I've basically given up on and use as an expensive scale. It is more fun than Fitness Coach, which I still really like and will probably still use. Each day with Active you complete a journal that asks some questions about how much you ate and drank the day before, how much sleep you got the night before, how much TV you watched, and how stressed you felt. Then you can do your workout--either preset in the 30 day challenge or customized by you. I decided to got with the 30 day challenge on the hardest level. After you exercise, you can also input other activities you do in the day (you can even add activities to the previous days, which you couldn't with Fit). Then you get a bronze, silver, or gold medal based on your healthfulness.

The 30 day challenge (after three days) has been pretty good. The first day I was sweating a lot and felt like it was a good workout. The second and third days were less sweating probably because they focused more on strength training than cardio. The one main comment (and complaint) that I've seen in reviews is that there are a lot of lunges. The lunges never end. Everyday there have been lunges, lots of lunges. My butt and thighs have never been so tired. I was also skeptical of the amount of upper body work that the resistance band would give compared to using weights. Well so far, my back and arms are sore, which is a good sign.

Active also has a lot of sports-type activities, which is mixes in to keep things fun. There are tennis, basketball, volleyball, and baseball drills. Everything from hitting (tennis and baseball) to passing and shooting (basketball) to bumping and setting (volleyball) to catching and throwing (baseball). It also has some rhythm dancing, boxing, and running.

One of my favorite aspects is that it has a calorie counter on the screen so you can see how hard you are working (the accuracy of said counter may not be 100%, but it is nice to see the calories burned increasing as you progress). One thing that annoys me is that it can be finicky about holding positions before moving on. For example, with lunges you need to lunge left, hold, then return to standing and hold. If you fidget during the hold, it scolds you and delays movement to the next rep, which can be frustrating because as you get more tired (or at least for me) it is harder to stand still. I also have a habit of anticipating the next move and so starting for it wants me to.

Overall, and only 3 days in, I've been very happy with Active. I'm hoping that completing the 30 day challenge can help burn off these couple of pounds that I gained while eating everything insight in San Francisco.