Wii Fit
Run, ski, do step aerobics, walk a tightrope and spin five hoola-hoops simultaneously - it's all in a day's work with the Wii Fit. And you and your kids can have an exercise blast on it this holiday. The English version of the hit fitness game from Nintendo has just been launched and after three days of 30-minutes "workouts", I have shed a grand total of about 700g. Sure, pooh pooh that as insignificant, but it's a start as far as plus-sized me is concerned. Essentially a special balance board-cum-weighing machine, the Wii Fit is connected to your Wii console wirelessly. Most of the time, you will be standing on it as you carry out the fitness routines in store. When you start the game for the first time, you will be asked to create a Mii (your alter ego or avatar in the game) and list your birthday and height. The board then measures your centre of balance to determine if you are a bloke who stands squarely on two feet, or if you are a supermodel who tends to shift her weight about. Next up, the system takes your weight and calculates your BMI. In my case, I was slapped with the truth that I seriously needed to lose weight - my BMI placed me at the 90th percentile of the Obese range (yes, Obese and not just Overweight). As far as the machine's balance test is concerned, I am a 28-year-old with the fitness of a 50-year-old man. Despite its cutesy look, the Wii Fit is not chicken feed. There are four different groups of exercise - yoga, strength, aerobics and balance. Yoga is for stretching and improving your posture. My favourite is the "tree": Stand on one leg, bend the other 90 degrees, sole resting on the inner thigh of the standing leg, both hands stretched up as far as possible and breathe for 30 seconds. Strength training is like going to the gym. You end up doing stuff to tone your muscles - like torso twists, jack-knives, lunges and push-ups. (I hate everything here.)

Aerobics and balance games are where the fun is. Swinging your hips in a wide circle while catching hoops thrown at you is a riot. Step aerobics, running and even boxing are other cool cardiovascular exercises. After you've worked out a sweat, go for tightrope walking, ski down a slope, ski jump and practise on the virtual soccer pitch to work on your balance. The soccer game requires you to shift your weight left, right or star at the centre to head balls flying towards you. Pay attention or you will get a flying shoe in your face too! My favourite is a "Marble Madness" look-a-like. This requires you to shift your body up, down, left and right to move balls into holes. You are given a score at the end of every exercise, which the balance board calculates by reading the weight shifts in your body. It shows how fast you are spnning those hoola hoops by studying how fast you gyrate those hips. Because the game centres about the balance board, the exercise generally focus on the legs and the lower body and less on building the upper torso. While there is a nice graph that charts your daily BMI and weight, the game does not offer programmed routines for more cardiovascular stuff or measure the calories burnt. Neither the heart rate. Exercise haters: Yes, there are ways to cheat, but don't even think about it.