Jet lagged!

4-10-07 Whew! The last couple of months have been a whirlwind of traveling, speaking, and networking. In between, we did a booth at the local Redlands Classic, one of the largets multi-day bicycle races in the country. Check it out!

This first set of pictures were taken in Baltimore, where I spoke at the AAHPERD annual conference (for PE teachers). It was neat to present exergaming to over 120 attendees in my session and meet some of them afterwards who are very interested in pursuing exergaming more. In the Expo, many of our equipment vendors were there, so it was night to meet them in person after all this time of e-mailing.

Ladd is the CEO of Cobalt Flux, the company that makes are DDR pads. They make the best commercial grade pads on the planet! He's a really nice guy, and very tall, too! Here he is standing next to their newest school-version DDR station.

Here are some new skateboard controllers in the iTech booth.

Marion is the CEO of Makoto, a piece of equipment you see in our blog often. She shared some interesting news about games and research being done on the Makoto.

This is a version of the Gamebike that is going in the McDonald's new push to have exergames in their fast food chain. Trying to make it more arcade-like.

I met other vendors like Sportwall, but you'll see some pictures of them in the next set.

After Baltimore, I then went up to San Francisco for the IHRSA expo. I met some of the same vendors there, and other new ones.

3Kick's Mark's son demonstrates their newest product, Heavy Ball. It was quite a workout!

Conant is Brewer's Ledge CEO and founder. They are the makers of our bouldering wall.

There were some new exergames, like this interactive floor, that looks very promising, though the pricetag is pretty steep.

Jerry is a VP at Walk4Life, one of the major pedometer companies around. We've been e-mailing for years (he's helped me get pedometers for Beaver Medical Group) so this was the first time I got to meet him in person.

Lifeguard makes the best Omega 3 supplements on the market. Dr. Michael Gross (facing right) is the founder and medical director, and Michele Bell (behind) works with them. They both came down to the XRtZ last week to do a seminar on the importance of Omega 3, and we now carry their product line in our retail section.

Joe is our Polar rep for our area. He's been a big help in getting us supplied with our heart rate monitors for our Zone Rewards Program. Nice to meet him in person finally!

Cindy (on the left) is our sales rep and Cathi (right) is the CEO of Sportwall. They have been very supportive and helpful in steering interested folks and media are way. Since they are only a few hours away, we've been working together to set up exergaming zones for various events, especially when we aren't able to do it ourselves.

This is the man that got me started on this whole exertainment/exergaming journey--Barry French, the inventor of the Trazer. It was his product I saw way back in 1998 at the fitness center in the Celebration Center's medical facility. Of all the vendors, I've known him the longest and he's been familiar with my journey this has taken me. It's been great to see his company get picked up by Cybex, which shot them to the next level.

Andy Grove is the CEO of Cybex/Trazer, and we've been e-mailing for some time now as well. Very energetic guy!

Check out how small the 2nd generation Trazer is! Just hook it up to a TV and you're read to go!

In between my Baltimore and SF trip, we had a both at the Redlands Classic. Here are our 3 volunteers who helped us on Saturday with our health and wellness display: Monica (a RD with the county public health dept), and XRtZ members Norb and his son, Greg. A big thanks to them for their help!

Corey speaks with someone before doing her body fat analysis.

Monica asks how many teaspoons of sugar are in a 20oz bottle of soda.

Do you know the answer?

Jake now teaches others what he's learned.

Monica gives out nutrition advice to those passing by.

Check out logo as the racers go by!

During this time, Xavix's Peter Newman and his sale's manager Mike and director of operations Ed stopped by the Zone to show us their newest cartridge that will be coming out soon. Xavix has been a big supporter with our research and school projects.

Finally, my dad came from MI for some rehab and got to try out the Wii. Here he is playing golf.

Summer and my dad practice bowling. They were getting spares and strikes!

Stay tuned for more trips and events to come! Off to Atlanta next week and New Orleans in May where a student will be presenting our first research on the Xavix.

Future Chefs in Family Fit Zone Class #6!

2-25-07: Class #6 was about modifying recipes. This allowed the kids to get their hands into the food and we created a healthy recipe that was modified from the original. Earlier that day, I made the original banana bread recipe, along with a very healthy version. In the class, we made a healthy version with the addition of Splenda Brown Sugar.

That's whole grain flour he's holding there.

Thanks to Dr. Olivia Moses for taking these pictures.

Adding the applesauce instead of the oil!

While the kids and parents were doing their exergaming workout, Dr. Moses cut up the finished banana breads, all 3 versions.

Zone Staffers Ricardo and Kelly (back to camera) sets up Version C Banana Bread for the families to taste.

Hmmmm, the kids try out all 3 versions. Which did they prefer?

Table A had the totally healthy version--no sugar, whole grain flour, egg whites, no oil = .4 g. of fat and very low kcal. For those of us used to that, we prefered it. Table B had the original recipe, which was almost 9 g. of fat per serving. Table C was modified just like "A" with the addition of the splenda. As you can guess, many liked the original, but most also said that the splenda version was good, too. Not too many preferred the ultra-healthy one except Ricardo and I!

For our exergaming challenge, we did a 5-min. relay on the 3kick, with contestants doing 30-second bouts each and then changing out. Here the moms went first to set the bar.

The kids were watching closely as the moms set a high score of 840 points in 5 mins. Could the kids beat that?

The kids were motivated, cheering their teammates on.

Look at her move--a blur of speed!

Like a well-oiled NASCAR pit crew, the kids changed teammates efficiently.

With the clock widing down, the kids cheered on the last boy.

The results? Moms = 840; Kids = 800! Guess who had to do 10 jumping jacks...again!

And so ended another fun Family Fit Zone class at the XRtainment Zone.

First presentation of 2007

2-20-07 This was a sharing forum organized by the Desert Sierra Health Network (DSHN), part of the SB County Public Health Dept. and sponsored by the 5-a-day program. This forum focused on healthcare workers, public health, school nurses, RDs, PE teachers, and those working with kids and health. This was the first of several speaking engagements that I have (March, I'll be speaking in Baltimre and in April, speaking in Atlanta, so stay tuned!)

My topic was on the use of BMI for screening kids, other forms of body composition, and local resources (such as the XRtZ) for helping fight pediatric obesity.

There were close to 200 people at this forum which heard from various speakers throughout the day.

XRtZ also had a booth space there where we set up a video clip of the Zone and our My 13 news clip running and another TV for a Xavix Dash competition.

During the breaks and over the lunch period, various attendees tried to be one of the top scorers on the Dash. Some, like uber-triathlete (i.e. super competitive) Andrea tried it several times, trying to increase her score each time. She got up to her PR of 95 by the end of the day, good enough for 4th place.

It didn't matter if they were all dressed up--they gave the Dash a try!

One of our vendors, Sportwall, had a booth there as well. Run by Cindy, she invited people to try out DDR, many who were doing it for the first time. Then XRtZ Junior Staffer, Jake "the DDR Great" Knowlton showed up and wowed the crowd with his amazing footwork on standard.

Some of the last contendors of the day. From this young group of friends, the eventual winner would emerge.

Dr. Knowlton helped answer questions and run the Dash, which was a big help while I was getting ready for my talk.

Attendee Darryl, with his score of 108 (pointing to his score on the TV screen), was the high score among attendees (Jake got a 112, and I got a 117, but we didn't count! LOL!) and chose a cool XRtZ t-shirt for his prize.

Overall, it was a great start to the presentation circuit and we made a lot of excellent contacts there, and now more people know all about XRtainment Zone as a key resource in famil wellness in our local area.

Family Fit Zone update

2-18-07 Here's an update from our Family Fit Zone class. This shows the kids (and moms!) doing their "XRGaming Rx" after which, they can do free play the rest of the time. They keep track of their scores for their various exergame stations in their Rx. We're hoping to see an improvement in their scores over the 7 weeks, indicating an increase in their fitness.

Mom watches her daughter as she does a high kick on the 3Kick.

This mom's getting busy on "Raven" in Xavix Power Boxing.

She's approaching a squashed hula hoop obstacle, which she made it through ok!

Another mom keeping an eye on her daughter doing the Makoto.

She's jumping hard (see hair) playing the Trazer.

Mom and daughter play dance on the DDR.

Our only guy, Christian, jumping over the obstacles in the Xavix Jackie Chan run.

Nice lunge, Makoto Warrior!

Competing against each other on the sportwall.

At the end of the session, we held a little competition on the Sportwall between the moms and the kids. The kids really got excited about the chance to beat their moms. You can see they were all getting into it.

The competition was fierce, with the moms taking the first two rounds. The kids had to do 10 jumping jacks each time they were defeated. Then they would request a re-match!

Could the kids pull off an upset? Here, in the last round, you can see the last 4 seconds, with the kids holding a very slight lead. Would it hold?

Hehehehe, the moms are doing the jumping jacks, much to the delight of the kids!

And so ends another fun class at the Family Fit Zone program. Next week, you'll see some of the activities we do inside the classroom!