Love is Family Fitness

Make exercising fun with your family!

This weekend, I rode a whitewater raft down level four rapids, learned hip hop dance moves from a master, and played a killer game of beach volleyball…all without leaving my living room. I experienced all these via the magic of Xbox Kinect*.

You see, I’m one of those women who does not like to exercise. At all. Nada. Not one little bit. Sure, my brain knows that regular exercise is extremely important. I can tout statistics about how regular exercise positively impacts one’s mood, cholesterol, metabolism, and weight. And when I do exercise, I know that my body feels better afterward. I have more energy, sleep better, and make better choices with food.

But getting started to exercise takes every ounce of willpower that I have, and honestly, many times that amount falls short and I just simply do not exercise. When I don’t exercise, I don’t have more energy, don’t sleep well, and don’t make better choices about food…which leads to not feeling up to exercise. And the vicious cycle repeats.

But I do love to have fun. And if that fun involves spending time with my boys, ages 15 and 12, even better! My boys (who will admit to knowing that Santa isn’t real only after you’ve signed a release stating that they will still receive gifts even if they admit to that knowledge) have had an Xbox for years, but this past Christmas, Santa brought them the Kinect sensor and several games.

Since Christmas, our family has been actively engaged in playing games with the Xbox Kinect almost every day. We play the sports games, we play the driving games, we play the adventure games, the shooting games and the dancing games. Okay, truthfully, I’m the only one who plays the dancing games. But we’re having a blast. We laugh, we compete, we get a workout. Together. The way it should be.