Author Archives: Michael C. McGreevy

Toll House Recalls Cookie Dough

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Image courtesy of SuperFantastic

Image courtesy of SuperFantastic

Ok.  So.  This is a health and fitness blog for geeks, right?  The whole point of this thing is to promote lifestyle choices that will help you live longer and better lives.   That’s why we’re all here.  I get that.  I mean, considering the fact I’m one of the founders one would hope that I grasp the concept of the experiment.

I also understand, however, that there are times when all the good choices in the world get tossed aside and you just have to have something decadent.  Call it a mental health break if you will, but every once in a while even the strongest of us just have to be “bad”.  I get that, too.

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Nintendo Announces Wii Fit Plus

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Fly, Chicken Man! Fly!

It appears as though the battle for supremacy in the exergame field continues!  Not content to sit back and let EA SPORTS Active steal all the thunder when it comes to fitness gaming, Nintendo recently announced an expansion to the popular Wii Fit title during the E3 conference in Los Angeles, California.

The appropriately named Wii Fit Plus is scheduled to be released this Fall in time for the Holiday shopping season.  Available as a complete package with the Wii Balance Board or as a stand-alone expansion for those who already own Wii Fit, Wii Fit Plus includes all the exercises of the original game along with 15 new balance games and six new yoga and strength training activities.

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In Pursuit of the Pull-Up

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Photo by uuzinger

Photo by uuzinger

I have never, in my entire life, done a pull-up.

This is not an easy revelation for me to make.  The truth of the matter is that it’s downright painful.

Back when I was in Middle School (6th to 8th grades down here in Florida) physical education was a mandatory class that everyone had daily.  For some kids it was an excuse to get outside and have some fun during the school day.  For me it was a daily reminder of how much I sucked.  It was an opportunity for me to get picked on for how slow I was, how much I was sweating in the hot Florida sun, how I was horrible at team sports, and how ugly I looked when I didn’t have my shirt on.  The latter, of course, only happened on one of the very rare occasions when I would actually get up the nerve to “dress out.”  When I didn’t, which was most of the time, I got picked on instead because of how badly I smelled due to not taking a shower after class.

The absolute worst humiliation I had to endure during that time, however, was a direct result of The President’s Challenge.

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Umm….What?

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So I have a Cafe Press store.  I got to playing around with it today because Summer said something really funny that sounded T-Shirt worthy.  In doing so I cam across the following product that was in my shop –

The reason I find this noteworthy is because I have NO IDEA WHAT THIS BUMPER STICKER MEANS.

Seriously.  None.

I can only assume that it came about during my days hanging out with the ladies on the Bad Girl Swirl.  Perhaps it was something Anais said.  That’s as close as I get to an explanation.

My life is weird.

Namco/Bandai Is Weird

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You will never unsee this. Ever.

You will never un-see this. Ever.

I’ve been writing a lot about the whole fitness gaming genre recently.  I’m doing so because I think the genre has a tremendous amount of potential to really push video games as something good in our lives instead of the common misconception that gaming is bad for you (a misconception that, unfortunately, our current President seems to share).

As with anything that becomes a hit in popular culture, though, there will inevitably be a flood of cheap imitators that simply wish to capitalize on the success of those who came before them.  Airplane! was brilliant.  Meet The Spartans? Not so much.  Creativity and innovation have a tendency to get watered down in pursuit of the all mighty dollar in the long run.

I don’t think we’ve gotten quite to that point when it comes to the exergame genre yet, but I know we have at least one entry that’s causing me to react with a hearty WTF?

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Workout of the Day – June 17th

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65 Minutes Treadmill at 4 MPH (5 minute intervals on level surface followed by 1 minute intervals at 6% incline)

Assisted Pull Up – 190 pound counterweight (5 sets of 5)

Pulldown – 80 pounds (5 sets of 5)

Dumbbell Rows – 25 pounds (5 sets of 5)

Bicep Curls – 25 pounds (5 sets of 5)

100 Pushup Challenge – Week Two, Column 1, Set 1 (4-6-4-4-8)

200 Situp Challenge – Exhaustion Test (80)

I have decided to re-boot my situp challenge  paying close attention to form and allowing the full one second hold time on the crunch.  While I can still do 80 I’m not getting 200 in at this point methinks.

A summary of my strengths

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As supplied by the folks over at Gallup…

Instinctively, you understand the utility that technology can bring to an organization and are always looking for the best equipment and the best ways to use that equipment.  In addition to your technical expertise, you possess social and emotional talents that are often rare in the information technology field.  Socially initiating and verstaile, your primary social instinct is to intentionally expand the breadth of your social network as you are comfortable and effective in meeting new people.  Possessing high levels of emotional intelligence, your empathy gives you a strong awareness of human emotions that helps you to understand the emotional implications of decisions and actions.  Your positivity contributes to your emotional intelligence as it enables you to be emotionally influential.  You have a  natural capacity for helping others to feel better.  While some might ignore or minimize the value of human emotion, your possess a holistic view of humans and a view of the world that places a high value on all human beings.

I’d be interested to hear how accurate you all feel that is.

Humana Games For Health Wants Your Exergame Ideas

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InsertCoinIf the video game industry worked the way my naive mind believed it did the steps involved in the creation of a new video game would look something like this.

1) Come up with an awesome idea for a new video game.

2) ???

3) Profit!

Step 2 probably involves all kinds of, you know, work.  The kind of thing I generally try to avoid as much as I possibly can.  Fortunately for slackers like me the folks over at Humana Games For Health are having a contest that pretty much fulfills my game design dreams.

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