I recently came across a "game," my friend had called Yourself! Fitness. It is basically an electronic fitness trainer. Her name is Maya and she is interactive. After she creates your profile with the baseline information you provide (age, gender, height, weight, baseline heart rate, heart rate after jumping jacks, the number of sit ups you can do, the number of push ups you can do, etc), she creates a fitness plan for you. She recommends the focus you should take, whether it is to focus on your cardiovascular health, toning, core strength, upper body strength, lower body strength, or weight loss. She asks you which exercise equipment you have at home so that she can modify your workouts accordingly. There are over five hundred exercises, so you will never get bored. There is plenty of variety. Then you choose which days of the week you want to work out with Maya. If you miss a day, she says, "I missed you, where were you," which holds you accountable for missing a workout, unlike a regular workout tape. There is also a meal planner that allows you to enter in the amount of calories you want to consume for each day of the week. After you do that, the program outputs your meal plan which you can then browse. Once you've saved it, it outputs to an html file that you can print, either for a reminder, or a grocery list. The recipes sound delicious and they don't look like they have hard to find ingredients. All recipes have nutritional content, so you can not only count your calories, but cholesterol, sodium, and carbohydrates/sugar, which is very important if you have dietary restricitons. Maya is able to track your progress through workout training and the meals you consume. It is very convenient to have a "personal" trainer in you living room and always accessible. The best part is that my friend bought it for 25 dollars. The program is available for Windows 2000 / XP, XBOX, and Playstation. I am definitely going to buy one. I can't wait.

 

 

 

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This new game doesn't sound very entertaining from the description but I must say it is unique as I have never heard of this type of game before. I think this would be better if it were made to be more like a existing styles of games game. Perhaps incorporate fitness equipment into RPG's or something like that. Then it would probably be more fun and could possibly be a strong tool against child obesity.

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I'm not famliliar with the term RPG, but I do know that the program incorporates a music selection, and certain songs/genres are unlocked as you progress, kind of like "Dance Dance Revolution." Also, there are different exercises available, including the one's you may be familiar with, plus pilates, and yoga. The exercise program you follow also depends on the exercise equipment that you own, which you tell Maya when you create your profile before you begin your regimine. Each exercise if thoroughly explained, and if you don't understand them, there is a tutorial available. This program would best serve someone who is interested in becoming fit, and doesn't exactly know how to do it. Like myself. I also don't have hundreds of dollars to spend on a gym membership and seperate costs for a fitness trainer/nutritionist. $25 is not a lot, but you get so much in return. I think it's a wise investment, and could definitely be used for children in schools, as well as adults with busy lifestyles who also have reasonable budgets. If you do an internet search, you'll find nothing but praises.

 

 

 

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RPG stands for Role-Playing Game, which is a game in which one takes the role of a character throughout a virtual world and develops that character through different plotlines and experiences.

But I don't think that trying to incorporate a fitness program into an RPG directly would be a good idea - it would just result in a cheesy mixture that people would consider to be easily dismissed as nothing BUT a game, and as a result they would not take any of it seriously.

I must say this is an impressive program, especially for only $25. I'll have to read more about it.

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Thanks for the heads up. I am a little bit older, but have smidge more gaming knowledge than I did growing up because of my son (I didn't have a lot back then). I agree, role playing would take away from Yourself! Fitness. The whole point of the "game" (and I say "game" loosely), is to work out and start living a healthy lifestyle. It's not some "Jetsons"-type exercise tool, in which you can watch yourself workout. It's much like Dance Dance Revolution, as I've said before. You are dancing to an instructors rhythm and beats, and you are losing calories whether you realize it or not. This game is just more focused than that. It takes it a step further by extracting data from you, monitoring your results, and providing meal plans. Everything a fitness trainer would charge you $100/session for. The great thing about it is that it also assesses your mood. Let say, the workout was a bit hard and you are sore, Maya will modify your workout accordingly after she asks you how you are feeling. This is a viable alternative if you are budgeting and want to save money on a gym membership / fitness trainer.

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DDR is ood for workouts...hehe im only 13 and underweight and i still burn monster calories on it. I don't do it much anymore...not enough time.

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Maybe I should purchase Dance Dance Revolution sometime, for the sake of exercising at home and still having fun (currently there is no way to accompish both those goals at once). Of course, I don't want to end up looking like a total moron for having bought it, so maybe I'll wait for DDR2 (assuming there will be one).

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though the idea of fitness or exercises being integrated on the game is good I still would go to the normal way of doing my exercises, if you want a healthy body you need to have discipline and not depend on some games that will provide you that, but if it helps others that there's nothing wrong with that, it's just not for me.

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