lesson #3 technology, health, & wellness

When we’re young, we refer to physical activity as "play," but when we’re older we refer to it as "exercise" or "workouts." One primary reason that so many people don’t get enough exercise is probably because it simply doesn’t entertain us much anymore. I remember recess being a great time to do whatever I wanted to do on the playground. Physical education courses, which consisted of obese teachers yelling at students to run faster (and only run, due to the lack of school funding for more interesting activities), only made physical activity more of a task and less of a natural enjoyment.

In come the games, which can compete for people’s attention to the point that they don’t feel like they’re even exercising (in the work sense). The information on the sites didn’t teach me much, and I even found the article by David Pogue offensive. Nintendo did not dub their console to be primarily a fitness machine because, frankly, it is a gaming console. It is, despite what Pogue says, for gamers. (I mean, has he ever heard of, say, DDR, which preceded Wii fitness? Has he even played any of the Wii games that don’t have to do with fitness? You mostly wave your arms, which I guess is good for getting rid of arm fat, but not much else.) The point was and is to make more people gamers –and this isn’t a bad thing. Video games have, for some strange reason, had a bad reputation for a long time. The fact that you can use Wii for fitness is relatively peripheral.

I am also unimpressed by the other sites and fitness programs, and the Youtube Pilates seems like an obvious cheap solution if you need a video. I would never pay to use Cardio Coach or NikePlus, since I could track fitness information on my own and, if I don’t use self-discipline to get me through exercise, I won’t get through it at all. I am also capable of and find pleasure in creating my own playlists. However, when it comes to actual exercise, I prefer to go outside and away from electronics in general. Blading, biking, and swimming, though I don’t get to go out very often, are activities I like to do just hearing the sounds around me, and I wouldn’t use a playlist and especially not a virtual coach.

NutritionData is useful for finding out BMI and food nutrients, but I did not find it compelling or original enough to create an account. Still, I can see myself revisiting the site if I really want to know the specific nutrients in my food.