On the Search for the Genuine

Maya and Me at 30+ Workouts – Still diggin' it!

Posted by Jen - 18/02/09 at 02:02:10 pm

I am now on my 33rd workout with Maya, and she’s pretty cool.  She shaved 5 pounds off me in a month, lowered my heart rate, shaved half an inch off my thigh/bicep/waist, and has made me a HELL of a lot stronger.  I’m a little bummed that I haven’t lost more weight, but we can chalk that up to my crappy eating habits (which I have not changed substantially since meeting Maya.  Ask me about the bucket of KFC).  But I’ve gotten so into the game that I actually went out and bought an exercise pump for my exercise ball (which had not been re-inflated in nearly three years) and bought an exercise step off Craigslist for $20 (I had been using my Wii Fit for the first week of Maya-dom, but Maya and I quickly reached a stage in our relationship where I needed to jump on the step.  Often.  And that meant I couldn’t use the Wii Fit.)

Having now spent more time with the Electronic Wonder Trainer, I can say a bit more about the pros and cons.  Hope everyone will find it useful.  Those who are not familiar with the game should first check out this very handy visual tutorial from Modern Mom, who did a way better job than I would have done with a video walk-through:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIizj3zIu9A]

Pros:

• I used to think that the “Commitment” screen where you sign up to work out for certain lengths of time on certain days was just mamby pamby motivation stuff, but it turns out that it actually has a function.  If you really do show up on those days with consistency, Maya starts unlocking new areas to work out in and new music types.  Maya also has four or five outfits, which again helps break up the monotony.
• Most workouts start with a cardio workout, then some strength training time in the focus area (lower body, core, etc.), then a brief cooldown.  Helps combat boredom.
• I am definitely getting stronger and more fit.  It’s been easier these last few weeks to ride my horse and hitch my trailer, and I can do moves on My Fitness Coach that I used to find difficult or impossible.  An embarrassing example would be “Roll Like a Ball”.  A less embarrassing example would be “Corkscrew” or “Out Out In In” or “Plank”.
• I’m still doing it and I do it willingly, which is more than I can say for any other home workout program I’ve ever been on.  The elliptical machine lasted about two days; the stepper lasted about five days; the Couch to 5K Running Plan gets a reprisal every summer and only lasts about 4 weeks.  Maya has outlasted all of them.
• This is embarrassing to admit, but because Maya is not real, you can yell at her when she pisses you off.  I haven’t done this often, but it’s nice to have the option.
• I’ve been sleeping like a ROCK since Maya got her claws into me.
• The game only cost $30.  DEAL. Compare that to $8 per class at my local gym.
• Like most gamers, I didn’t read the manual, figuring that the game was “obvious”.  I did finally pick it up last week and found that it has a complete calendar of how and when you’ll unlock new workout spaces and music types.  And perhaps most importantly, if you press the “- [minus]” button during a workout, you get options like “Increase Difficulty” or “Decrease Difficulty” or “Next Music Track”.  I wish I’d found that earlier!  (Small con here–I am still trying to figure out if pressing “Increase Difficulty” increases only the section difficulty or the entire workout’s difficulty.  I am suspish because Maya made me do some really crazy sit-ups today after I told her to increase difficulty during a Lower Body segment.)
• Maya recommends the type of workout you should do each day.  She doesn’t make you do that workout, but I usually choose what she recommends, and that allows me to achieve a varied workout structure without thinking about it too hard.
• Maya is, as I mentioned in a previous post, very neutrally designed and likeable.  She’s hard to hate.

Cons:

• If you choose “Weight Loss” as your goal, you’ll find yourself doing many exercises twice in a row.  This makes good physiological sense when you’re trying to lose weight, but picture being stuck in a set of side crunches–originally conceptualized as a set of 12 on the left and 12 on the right, now expanded to two sets totalling 24 on the left and 24 on the right.  Boring, but probably good for weight loss.  Choosing “Cardio” as your goal will get rid of this problem.
• Unless you work out for 60 minutes or more, your cardio time will be about 20 minutes–not long enough, in my opinion, to really start ripping the calories off.  I tried to work out for 60 minutes a few times, and the last 15 minutes were totally boring.  I think I’m just too distractable for 60 minutes of Maya.
• Every six workouts or so, Maya will put you through a Physical Challenge.  I think it’s great that the game checks up on your progress and records it on fancy graphs for your perusal, but honestly the requirements in the Physical Challenge are minimal.  I admit this with great embarrassment since it took me nearly 4 weeks to comfortably do 2 minutes of jumping jacks.  But even with my weak, pathetic core body on the first week, I had no problem cracking out the maximum number of Physical Challenge situps (60) or the maximum number of squats (50).  I wish you could choose something like an “advanced Physical Challenge” when you are ready for it.
• Maya is not human, therefore she is unable to know your personal fitness quirks.  For example, although I have ridiculously weak lower legs, I have buns of steel (thank you to Skyler, my horse, for that one).  Donkey kicks are stupidly easy for me.  But if I were to adjust the Core Body workout intensity to get rid of the donkey kicks, the rest of the workout would be ridiculously hard.  Ditto with Upper Body–in order to get Maya to give me some exercises that would really work my muscles, I had to tolerate tons of pushups, and I suck at pushups even when my arms are in great shape (this was true even when I was in high school track and was in the best shape of my life).  To be fair to Maya, you can adjust this by pressing the “+” button and choosing Increase Difficulty/Decrease Difficulty, but that’s a pain–and you have to press it several times to make any real difference in the workout.
• My cat thinks that me on floor = time to play with the cat.
• Because I usually ride in the evenings and work all day, my only Maya time on weekdays is early in the a.m.  Which is how this post came to be written at 5:30 a.m.  Maya has knocked my sleep schedule way off!
• My husband and I have been noticing that this game is subtly but clearly directed at WOMEN, not men.  Maya sometimes makes subtle jokes like “Sort of like my date last night, huh” or encourages you to have “Strong, lean muscles”.  Dudes who lack security in their own masculinity may not like Maya.
• Music is kind of lame.  I’ve now unlocked almost all of the music types.  I was all excited about “House” but it’s not very good.  “Techno” is okay, as is Eighties.

At the end of the day, it’s an aerobics game–a good one in my opinion.  I feel I got my $30 worth out of it within the first week, and I look forward to sticking with Maya at least until summertime, and maybe even longer.  I recommend it highly!

For those who want to learn more, GameStop has a pretty decent section on it too.  Check it out.

A Battery Charger that can SAVE your crappy batteries

Posted by Jen - 11/02/09 at 08:02:18 pm

Years ago for Christmas, my mom bought me the Rayovac 15-Minute Rechargeable Batteries with 15-Minute Recharger for my first digital camera.  I loffed those batteries–I mean really, who wouldn’t like recharging in 15 minutes?  The problem was that the batteries tended to completely lose steam after about a dozen uses.  Soon, they couldn’t even run my alarm clock when fully charged.  But we always managed to have just enough batteries charged for the digital camera, which we barely use anyway, so hubby and I didn’t worry about it.

Then hubby and I got a Wii, and suddenly when all of our batteries were dead, there was a serious consequence: boredom.  So hubby and I started doing some research into battery chargers and found The La Crosse BC-900 Battery Charger and Sanyo Eneloop Batteries.

I gather that among camera buffs, these two products are no big surprise.  In fact, I think we first learned about them from Steve’s Digicams, my favorite Camera Review site. Apparently if you charge your batteries on 15-minute speed rechargers, it dramatically reduces their battery life.  The La Crosse BC-900, however, can actually refresh your batteries back to life.  It took several days, but the BC-900 took our washed-up Rayovac 15-Minute batteries from something like 300 mA and .94 volts to 2100 mA and 1.40 volts.  Freaking awesome.

We ordered ours from Thomas Distributing, which I link to above.  It came with Sanyo Eneloop batteries, which are low discharge batteries that take a lot longer to go kaput.  For about $50 shipped, it’s a hell of a package–not only do you get 8 new batteries plus a charger, but it can bring your old batteries back to life.  Badass.

Positive Review for Ann Arbor Optometry

Posted by Jen - 11/02/09 at 07:02:33 pm

Those of you who live in A2 may be familiar with Kellogg Eye Center at UM–an amazing facility for specialized problems, but if all you need is a basic optical exam, their appointment wait time is absurd, like 8 weeks or more.

So this year, I decided to branch out and try someone else that took my vision insurance (Davis Vision). My idiotic choosing method? Go to davisvision.com, look up all the optometrists within 5 miles, and scroll to the last page. I figured that the folks on the last page would be less busy than the ones on the first page.

Sure enough, they had availability for my very limited schedule about 11 days after I called. The shop was Ann Arbor Optometry, and I had a great experience.  The optometrist was efficient but pleasantly chatty; we had a great discussion about high-stakes writing experiences (somehow even when I’m not at work, I’m still at work).  It sounds like Ann Arbor Optometry is a fairly new shop, 2 years old or less.

It’s not the shop I’d choose if I were on a budget without vision insurance–in that case, I’d just go to Sam’s Club–but it felt good to support a local business when possible.  I will be sending my husband in for an appointment with them next week.  For those who are in town and want to check it out, they’re on Oak Valley Drive near the A2 Pittsfield library, the Ice Cube, and the Wide World of Sports.

PS to the Eye Geeks: As much as I like Ann Arbor Optometry, I highly recommend The Glassy Eyes Blog about places to order your glasses and contacts online for peanuts.  My optometrist today said that the glasses I ordered 18 months ago from Zenni Optical were a good fit for me, the guy who does their eyeglasses adjustments said they were well constructed (I did not mention that they were $25 eyeglasses, so I assume these were unbiased opinions).   I look forward to ordering my next set of glasses from Zenni Optical too!

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