First, let me get this out of the way:

EEEEEE!!!! WII FIT, I LOVE YOU AND WANNA HAVE YOUR BAYBEE!!!!!!!

*Ahem*

This is my personal review of the Wii Fit. No one paid me for this review. (However, I do accept cash. And yarn.) After spending roughly an hour trying out almost all the different aspects of Wii Fit, I am officially an expert. Also, this is really long.

First and foremost, when I pulled it out of the box, it didn?t have that awful plastic smell that usually accompanies most plastic items being pulled out of a box. It?s a minor thing, but I really appreciated it. (I also think that smell is some kind of drug that makes you want to move it move it on the Wii Fit.)

The instructions to sync up the board to the Wii are very straight forward and IKEA-like with the pictures, but also include words in case you can?t decipher the pictures. With one exception (though in Wii Fit?s defense, I didn?t read all the way through the booklet. I stopped reading once I knew how to sync it up.) The button you push to activate the board faces AWAY from the Wii and TV. If you do what I did for the first half hour on the board and have it facing the WRONG WAY, you will look like a drunken monkey who can?t follow directions when attempting, oh, EVERYTHING. This may cause some frustration and possible resurfacing of teenage angst.

Moving on.

When you are doing the initial tests to set up your Wii Fit age, it will tell you that everyone has bad posture due to our current way of life. No matter how good you think your posture is, IT WILL PROVE YOU WRONG. The Wii Fit is apparently also a scale because once you tell it your age and your height; it weighs you and calculates your BMI. And then it will tell you that you are fat. And that?s when you go sit in your car and cry while drinking a bottle of wine.

Once it has determined what your age, height, weight and BMI, it will test your balance and agility and then give you your Wii Fit age. In our house, everyone is about 6 years older in Wii Fit years than reality. Except for me during that first half hour when I HAD THE BOARD SET UP BACKWARDS. During that dark period of my life, I was THIRTEEN YEARS OLDER in Wii Fit years. Once the EIGHT YEAR OLD IN THE HOUSE pointed out that I had the board set up backwards, I redid the test and my Wii Fit age improved significantly.

After that, it will ask you to set a goal. You can choose to gain or lose weight and it will show you how that will affect your BMI. (Side note/rant here: If I get down to the goal weight/BMI that the Wii Fit thinks I am supposed to be, I will make starving Ethiopian children look like Arnold Schwarzenegger and my mom will accuse me of being anorexic. Again.) You can set it up to lose X number of pounds over a specific time frame. While I am not crazy about that part of the Wii Fit experience, I do like the fact that what the game? program? stresses is posture and balance, not weight loss. It will also keep track of what activities you do each day that you use the Wii Fit. That is really nice. You can also input other activities outside of the Wii Fit to incorporate into your log.

After that you choose your trainer and begin exercising. You have the option of a male trainer or a female trainer. I tried everything but the strength training exercises last night. B did the strength training exercises and he was definitely getting a workout. I mean, I was exhausted by the time he was done, they were that effective.

Balance activities:
Once again, I cannot stress strong enough how important it is to have the board FACING THE RIGHT WAY. I am not the best at the soccer head butting game, but I gave it my best shot. I think a lot of it had to do with my form. The geniuses over at Nintendo have designed this game so that if you slack off, you suck. It insures that you get a maximum workout if you want to win the particular game you are playing. I did a lot better on the tight rope walking game since I was more conscious of proper form. I proved once again on the ski slalom that I cannot ski. What I do wonder, though, is that if I become proficient at skiing on the Wii, does that I mean I will be able to ski in real life?

Aerobics:
Until Wii Fit, I was never a fan of step aerobics because when you go to a class, everyone but you seems to know what you?re doing. Well, the Wii Fit makes it possible for you to do step aerobics in the privacy of your own home and only your family members and/or pets will know how uncoordinated (or coordinated) you are. If you struggle with it, it will give you helpful tips. It also stresses improving your rhythm. I was totally digging it. Especially since, the better you get, the more your Wii audience cheers you on. I mean, who doesn?t love an audience who loves you?

My favorite aerobics exercise, however, was the hula hooping. I could do that one for days. And it is quite the workout. Don?t believe me? Try hula hoping for five minutes straight without stopping. Or dropping the hula hoop.

I also did the short run and you basically run in place, but it stay interesting because you have to follow your running guide without passing him/her and therefore you have to pay attention to what you are doing. Also, for the running exercises, you don?t do them on the board. You either hold on tight to the remote or put it in your pocket while you run. How much your remote jiggles determines how fast your Mii runs.

Yoga/Strength Training:
The yoga and strength training exercises are similar in two ways. First, it will go through a demonstration with you on how to properly perform the exercise you are about to do. The second is that it will also show you a yellow circle in which you want to keep your red dot. The red dot is your balance. This is good in that it helps you to focus on maintaining proper form and balance. But! It is A WORKOUT and at first, hard. Not so hard that you don?t want to do it anymore, but hard in that, you are getting your money?s worth. It will work your ass out. And every other muscle in your body. I?m sure this will become easier, the more you do it. Much like anything else.

For every exercise/game you complete, you earn Wii Fit Credits in one minute increments. The more credits you earn, the more games you unlock. What I like the most about the Wii Fit is that it satisfies two things at once.

1. You are really and truly getting a workout.
2. It is FUN and you still feel like you are playing a video game. It?s like purposefully tricking yourself into working out by playing a really cool game.

I gave it two thumbs up. And also my phone number.