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I’ve been pretty excited about Wii Fit for a while now. I’ve been tracking the press releases and learning what I can. I was thrilled to find out it was going to be released in the U.S. market just prior to my birthday last year. Happily, my husband figured out the perfect gift (no, I wasn’t subtle — I told him “get me this”). As of this writing, I’m now well over 100 days into my relationship with Wii Fit.

I had a little frustration getting started, so I want to start by telling you how to avoid this and save some angst. I was not able to successfully synchronize the Wii Fit Balance Board to my Wii until I had the game installed and running. The thing won’t even stay on if you aren’t in that mode. Once I figured this out, all was well. Yes, I could have read the instructions, but it was new and fun and shiny, and I wanted to jump right in.

There are folks that like to exercise. I know — that sounds so strange to me. My mother, for one, is an avid purveyor of fitness. I’ve never understood the attraction.

Sometime after my getting the Wii Fit and using it also somewhat sporadically, I found out that my daughter’s starting time at school was moving up by an hour! Yes, an hour! I panicked. I wrote a letter to the superintendent. I pondered the horrors of getting her (and me) up a good hour earlier each day. A few weeks before school started, I finally resigned myself to the situation. (Yes, I am going to get to the pertinent part soon.) Rather than move up my start time for work (I work at home), I decided that I’d use the extra morning hour each day to exercise (regularly!) with Wii Fit. No more hit or miss exercise if I wasn’t too tired. I was going to develop an actual routine.

I am out of shape. I am overweight. I am not an exercise person. But I have a brain that is wired to love video games. I am competitive and want to beat my previous high scores. Wii Fit has magically connected the game pleasure area of my brain with actually exercising. I even miss exercising if I miss a day at this point. I even do Wii Fit on weekend mornings. Go figure.

Wii Fit has a variety of exercises so you can easily mix up your routine from day to day. You don’t have to get bored (like what used to happen when I’d try doing the same exercise tape over and over). There are activities to build your balance and agility. Yoga works on strength, flexibility and balance. Strength lets you tone different areas of your body. Aerobics gets that heart pumping.

Initially, I had just a few options in each area. Normally, I am very cranky about games that have content that has to be unlocked. In the case of Wii Fit, it actually makes sense. If I don’t have enough skill (strength/endurance/flexibility/wind/balance) to complete one activity, I’m probably not going to be able to do something harder along the same lines. When I do an activity regularly, I can open up increased repetitions, longer duration or other activities that work the same parts of the body.

I like that the Wii suggests complementary activities to make up a workout for a given area. If I do the warrior pose in yoga, I’m told that lunges in strength are a good complement. Rowing squats in strength go hand in hand with the chair pose in yoga. And if you want to work your abs without doing the traditional sit-up, wait until you try the different levels of hula-hoop. The rhythm boxing is insane cardio. My favorite warm-up is wearing a penguin suit on an iceberg — shifting right and left to catch fish — and I don’t even like fish.

I even like that I can pick a male or female trainer for my workout. I’ve named my trainer Lilah, by the way. I laughed the one morning I went to the yoga screen and it took a minute for her to appear. She yawned and said she must have been up too late last night.

I like that the Wii allows me to easily track my progress. I can see if my BMI (body mass index) is going up or down and if my weight is going up or down. I don’t know that just exercising would have a huge effect on my weight, but the combination of daily exercise and being more cognizant of what I eat has meant I’ve lost about 11 pounds in the month since school started. Wii Fit really has made a difference.

I love when my Wii Fit age (calculated based on my real age and fitness test results) is below my actual age. When I started Wii Fit, I was lucky to only test at about 10 years older. Now I’m regularly testing at three to 10 years younger. Go me! The game keeps track of my out-of-game fitness credits (that I can enter — for things like gardening or cleaning house) and shows me how much time I spent on each type of in-game activity. I’m not thrilled, exactly, that my Mii was made fat to match my BMI, but I like the idea that she’s toning up while I do.

For someone like me, this is an excellent entry-level activity to get me moving. It’s not something you would use if you were training for the triathlon by any means, but it’s definitely a way to get the gamer up and off the couch and get them moving.

If you had any doubts at this point, I highly recommend Wii Fit (if you can find it — it’s still incredibly popular and forever sold out). This year when my daughter does her fun run at school and wants me to join in, I’m going to join her, and I’m going to do great.