Starling Fitness: Daily writings on Fitness, Diet, and Health

Laura wrote about the Reebok Cyber Rider last week. If you’re looking for an alternative and have an unlimited budget, you might want to try one of TACX’s VR Trainers instead. These use a combination of software (for the PC) and a steering frame—you add the bicycle—to simulate cycling. Their new Fortius model will include a motor and brake that rotate or stop your rear tire to simulate uphill and downhill rides.

You’ll need over $1000 and a compatible bike to set this up, so it’s a serious expense—I suppose this is intended to target professional bicyclists rather than ordinary “exergaming” consumers, but it looks like a very professional product. The TACX website, by contrast, is nearly worthless, so you’ll probably find out more from this PDF catalog.

Via Engadget, which also mentions that the Fortius sends the power generated by your exercise back into the grid so it can power your other appliances—I don’t think the power you generate will be significant unless you’re a very obsessive biker, but if lowering the electric bill motivates you to exercise, more power to you.

Sony is testing a health monitoring system that uses RFIDs to automatically record the nutritional information that employees eat in the company cafeteria. It makes me wonder what working at Sony is like. What is it like when your employer watches what you eat and makes recommendations to live a healthier life?

Popgadget – RFID’d employee health control – by Regine

There was an old country song called, “I Sold My Soul to the Company Store.” Now, I think it would go, “I’m Hungry, but the Company Cafeteria Thinks I’m Fat.” Despite my reservations about my employer knowing about my binges, I think anything that makes it easier to monitor my own health is a great idea.

Just think of how easy it could be. I could just hold up my food to my RFID tag and it would keep a log of everything I eat. No more writing in my Palm, no more lists to look up the food. All I would have to do is just live my life and be able to check the data.

It’s so exciting to live in this time. I can’t wait to see what this will look like when it’s available on the market.

This weight loss book and hypnosis CD is another selection that I got from the library. The first couple of times I listened to the CD, I fell asleep about 10 minutes into it. I had no idea what instructions it was giving me and I always woke up a couple of seconds before it ended when the instructor said that I was fully awake and refreshed now. I actually worried that it might be telling me to kill people or something, so I consciously sat through it without following the directions to relax in order to make sure it wasn’t malignant.

• Mission possible a therapist’s guide to weight loss with hypnosis – by Herb Hamilton

I haven’t tried following the diet program that the book describes. It cuts out groups of food, which is something that I’ve never succeeded at. I have a good diet plan with Weight Watchers, so I’m not looking for a way of eating. I was hoping for something positive to go into my head when I’m on my lunch hour.

Falling asleep is what you’re supposed to do when you listen to this CD, so it does a good job of causing a sense of relaxation. He spends a lot of the time just getting the subject to relax. The actual message of the hypnosis CD starts sixteen minutes into the session, so if you are hyperactive, like me, you might find his calm voice a little unnerving at first. Just let yourself listen. Worst case scenario, you’ll get an extra nap out of it. If you are looking for some positive ear candy before you go to bed or while you’re on your lunch break, this is a good book/CD for you.

This is the first exercise bike game controller I’ve seen that’s released by a well-known company.

• Reebok Cyber Rider

Reebok has developed a fully dedicated website for the Cyber Rider, but it crashes spectacularly on Internet Explorer. Try viewing it with Mozilla Firefox to see the details.

This game controller is made to work with the PC or with Playstation 1 or 2. Considering the lime green coloring, I’m shocked that it doesn’t work with Xbox or Nintendo Gamecube right now, but according to their documentation, there should be upgrades available to let them work with the other formats in about three months or so. I know of some PS2 to Xbox converter cables that are available, but I suspect things would run better with the upgrade from Reebok.

• Reebok Cyber Rider Owner’s Manual

How fast you pedal is how fast you go in the video game. You can control the other functions in the game using buttons on the handle bars. It looks like a really well-built bike that could be used by itself or as a controller for your game.

According to the owner’s manual, it looks like there is a lot of assembly required, which worries me. I’d hate to find out that the reason I can’t win any races on Project Gotham is because I put the bike together incorrectly. I guess I would figure that out pretty quickly.

If you are enjoying your spinning classes, this looks like a good alternative for home. You get to play some games, win some races and get some exercise. Now, we just need the game programmers to create a cool mountain biking game with calorie counting and workout modes.

The risk of me finding weight loss inspiration on the cheap is that I’ll find something that you might not be able to find. Sure, it’s available at Amazon.com, but the likeliness that you’ll find it at your local library like I did is slim.

• Meditations for Weight Loss – by Allen Holmquist

This CD is pretty good to listen to. I wouldn’t recommend the track for preventing overeating when you’re in the mood to overeat. I haven’t tried it when I was in that mood, but after listening to it, I don’t think I could sit through it when I’m in that mood. That doesn’t mean it’s not a really good track to listen to, though.

I always feel a little hokey listening to meditation and hypnosis CDs. I cringe when I imagine my coworkers finding out what I’m listening to. The truth of the matter, however, is that they are really helpful. We are bombarded all day long on the television and radio urging us to eat. It’s time we started putting some positive messages in our head.

This CD has been around since 1997, so there is a chance that your library may have it available. What is more likely is that your library has another weight loss based meditation CD available. Try it out, even if you feel like a hippie. You might enjoy it more than you thought you would.

Dr. James Levine and his colleagues at the Mayo Clinic are testing workstations that allow you to stand at a computer and walk on the attached treadmill while you work. If the speed is set to something like 1.0 MPH, he’s found that you can burn an extra 100 calories per hour without losing your balance or being too distracted from work.

• USA Today – Researcher sees future where people walk at work

Other fit-at-work innovations they’re experimenting with include a carpeted track around the workspace to encourage walking and “a hockey net on the wall” so colleagues can play with something while talking to Levine. I get the impression that the Mayo Clinic is a fun place to work.

Of course, there’s no commercial product like these treadmill workstations available yet, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we see one in a few years. It’s also not too hard to rig something like this yourself if your employer doesn’t object—I’d suggest leaving the hockey net out of your proposal, though.

[via Engadget]

OMG! New game from Komani! Karaoke Revolution Party! It combines singing AND dancing with the dance mat! Could I be any happier right now?!

• Team Xbox – Karaoke Revolution Party

Just when I think that there are no cool games for the Xbox and I’m eagerly awaiting PS3, they come out with this and totally blow things out of the water! I can’t wait until I can get my grimy paws on it.

Check out Ernie’s review of the game…

• little. yellow. different. – dance dance humiliation

When you’re tired at Disneyland and the kids have dragged you all over the park, don’t take them to Innoventions. They will run in as many directions as there are kids. It’s noisy and there are lots of things to touch, but don’t fool yourself. There is no real learning going on there. It’s strictly entertainment.

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Just when my day couldn’t get any better, Sinistar gives me the best news!!!

• DDR4Health – DDR Ultramix 3 and Extreme 2 info leaked – by Sinistar

The information has been pulled from GamePro’s site, but he lets you in on the big secret. It gives me even more incentive to start getting really good at UM2 so I can kick some UM3 butt!!

I hadn’t heard anything about this game for a while, so it’s nice to know they are still working on it.

• Gamespot – EyeToy: Kinetic Hands-On Review

Based on the review, I am a little disconcerted by the idea that the trainer might be too vocal. I hope they have an option to turn the voice off if I want to. That really helped Yourself! Fitness last longer for me. Turning off Maya’s voice and listening to the ocean waves was a lot more bearable after exercising with her for a few months.

I have been waiting for this game for so long that I probably will have a Playstation by the time it comes out. The Xbox is really cool, but there are just more things available for Playstation. I guess I’ll start saving my pennies.

Via: DDR4Health