Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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152 of 154 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
my health coach good and bad points, 2 Jul 2008
Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars
I waited for 5 days after I got this game before I wrote my review so I was sure of all its components before I wrote the review. I don't want to dwell to much on negative points as other reviewers have mentioned the same but you may only read one review and its important. Firstly only one person can use this game as it can only store data for one person. Secondly its not developed for the UK market too many American terms , especially irritating when you are doing the quizzes and listing your food. Now for the positive, as a foot note I am totally into any gadgets to do with exercise, I have worn a pedometer for years, have a heart rate monitor and have also recently purchased a wii fit. I thought I knew everything thing there was to know on this subject, and I have scored high on the quizzes but have got questions wrong as well. What I really like so far it has identified my problem areas mainly that I don't eat a good balanced diet and subsequently has taken points off me for this (rightly so). I also like the fact it worked out my BMI first and told me I did not need to lose weight with a BMI of 22.5 which is totally correct but the wii fit constantly tells me I need to have a BMI of 22 to be truly fit which is rubbish! Overall this is a first class game even with its faults and as I have done some personal training I will be recommending it to some of my friends I think its got enough to motivate you and certaily a good aid for somebody who is trying to lose weight (you can track your progress with a graph) or do more exercise. If you like the brain train this is the game for you, in the same league.
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57 of 58 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The best slimming and health aid ever, 9 Aug 2008
Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars
I read the reviews on Amazon before purchasing My Health Coach; thank you to the woman who wrote the detailed report, saying it was fun feeding the stick person and seeing it get fat after it had been fed what she ate, it made up my mind to buy it, as it sounded fun. A lot of these things are a big disappointment when you get them home but I am so impressed with this I have recommended it to friends.
What I like about this is its simplicity. The challenges are very do-able. My first one was to stand and sit ten times, and the second was to dance energetically to two songs.
I had read that the pedometer was unwieldy and that the reset button was inclined to be accidentally pressed and lose the data, but I haven't found it so. I was prepared to fish out my small pedometer, as you can use your own if you wish, but I like the DS acquiring my results and resetting the device. If you are worried about losing your score, you can input the steps whenever you want as long as you don't tick 'wrap the day' as that will close off that day's results. I like the countdown on 24 hour challenges as you can see how much time you've got left to complete them. It motivates me when there is a deadline. Best of all, it's unlike slimming clubs, which patronise us by having us clap the loss of so little as one pound(Harvey, on tv, says 'I could CRAP one pound!') and stay silent when those who didn't lose anything, or who(horror of horrors)gained weight, are mentioned. I don't like anything that makes people feel bad about themselves, even it is is by default. This device is nothing like a slimming club. It is totally private, and you are not competing with others but being privately coached to do a little more than you have been doing; making small changes, and not obsessing over food. I like the way it showed that the initial 500 steps you did with the pedometer took only five minutes (you could rack up 300-400 steps during an ad' break).
I like that it measures your progress in distance (rather than slimming club silver and gold stars) as it translates as 'See how far you have come'. If motivation wains you have only to look at how far you have come to want to have that stick figure walk more of your miles on screen. I like this product. It's well thought out. I hope they use it in schools as overweight children would enjoy the fun element of the stick figure doing what it does, and the challenges, but most of all, being in charge of their own health.
But more than that, I have adult daughters who are very weight conscious, thanks to the media; one of them worryingly underweight, and I felt relieved that it is not about calorie-counting or weight, but 'energy in/energy out' and it informs an underweight person why their body needs nourishment. Out of all the weight loss options I have tried, this is the one that impresses me most, because it's simple, it's encouraging, and it doesn't have you thinking about food all the time, but rather, the positive side of making changes; the challenges and the feel-good factor when after you've done them. You get back a sense of your own power. If you have been rebelling against people's attitude to your extra weight, as I have, this little coach is on your side.
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158 of 166 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Help Yourself to a Healthier Lifestyle, 21 Jun 2008
Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars
I love tech, have practically everything you can think off and am a Mam with two sons the oldest being nearly 20. I also lead a healthy lifestyle but also would like to keep it that way. Apart from normal exercising, we have the Wii Fit and now My Health Coach Weight Management for the DS.
The game does come with a free pedometer to record your steps each day which can be inserted into the DS Lite to transfer the amount everyday (or as often as you want). I would add too, that it is possible to manually input the steps you have done too. I thought this was a good idea in case you broke this pedometer or lost it, so at least you know you could use another one. The pedometer is quite strong and fits securely on a waistband. It automatically resets itself after connection to the DS Lite.
When you first start the coach you go through quite a lengthy process to show you exactly what it involves, it thoroughly explains itself. It is at this stage you input your age, weight and height. From this information it knows whether your BMI needs increasing, decreasing or balancing. Fortunately, it my case I just need to balance my food and exercise to maintain my present weight. I presume if you are overweight/underweight it would indicate that you need to eat more/less to reach your ideal BMI.
The coach starts with two selections, daily selection and backpack. Daily selection is further divided into 5 sections, pedometer, challenge, physical activity, food balance and calendar.
Pedometer is what you select to input how many steps you have undertaken. Each day you are given a target to reach and a further screen shows you how far you have walked to your target stage. The first target illustrates that you have effectively walked the distance up and down Mount Everest.
Challenges are exactly that, they come in a few varieties relating to food and exercise and are displayed as envelopes which you open. They also come in two types minute and 24 hours. The first are what you have to do straight away the second obviously within 24 hours. But you get to pick and if you don t want to do a challenge you don t have to do it. You are rewarded with distance points that make you get closer to your target stage. Each day you are asked to pick, in my case so far, one challenge to do. I suspect these will grow higher as you advance more into the coaching sessions. A challenge could be do an exercise, go and do the dishes, go out and do a walk till you see a green or brown car but the beauty of these are you pick what you want to do.
Physical activity is self explanatory. Once you click on this screen you are given 2 options, quick and detailed. I usually go on detailed and input the activity I have done for how many minutes. Again it is very easy to input on the touch screen using icons for types of activities and a clock that you whizz round the hands to pick the length of time. You are rewarded with distance points to get you closer to your target stage. This section is also used to balance your activity with your food intake, the DS does this by itself.
Next is food balance, again you have two options quick and detailed. I go for detailed every time and input the food I have eaten. This is easy because you have food icons which jump down to a little stick person, each icon has a selection of food items, you pick the item then feed it to the little stick person. After making all your selections you then click the tick icon and see whether your food is balanced with your activity level so far. It also knows what your metabolism is, so can judge the amount you should be eating. The idea is that you balance the scales between activity and food intake.
It doesn t give any guidance at what you should be eating (at least it hasn t so far) but does indicate with stars how much a particular item of food is worth. So you roughly know if something is high in calories or not. I think it would be quite effective in helping someone lose weight because it does give you a maximum amount of calories you do need to maintain your weight. I presume it would tell you if you are eating more or less than you need. If it doesn t it is easy enough to just eat less than it says to lose weight.
Lastly is the calendar where you can see the objectives for each day, eg number of steps, number of challenges, amount of activity and achieving perfect balance with your food intake, plus exactly what you did activity/food wise each day.
The second section is backpack. This consists of objectives, coaching, tips and games, passport, options.
Objectives are divided into graphs, progress, album and modify units. Graphs show how your bmi has performed, how your weight has performed, the distance you have walked in 7 days and 6 months. Progress illustrates the distances walked through your pedometer, or awarded via activity, food balance and challenges, both on a daily basis and overall. I am particularly looking forward to using it in Orlando this year to see exactly how many miles we walk each day because we have always felt it is a lot.
Album is just a bit of fun and show a stick person posing in front of a landmark eg Mount Everest when you have reached that target stage.
Modify units allows you to change your measuring units from kilometres to miles or vice versa. I think this is really good because I think it miles rather than kms makes more sense to me.
The Coaching section is simply that a list of coaching tips that become available over time. Initially you are given a little talk about Steps to Health. Tips and Games, have simple quizzes, etc based on health. I have only done the classic quiz so far which was multiple choice questions on health. Perhaps makes you think about your lifestyle a bit.
Passport allows you to view your bmi, metabolism, modify your weight, height, age, sex and your dossier. The dossier has a a few tick questions for the DS to understand you a bit better, ie who does the cooking, do you have a dog? You can also modify the language.
Lastly we have options, again self explanatory but it also has the erase all settings here. You can only have one user at a time with this coach no multiple users. It is also where to go if you accidentally mess up the initial set up. I did this because I ticked the wrap it up for the day button for the food input on first using it. This meant I couldn t add any more food or activities for the day. You normally only tick this button at the end of the day.
And that is the coach, I like it and can see me using it a lot. In fact I have not stopped using it since I got it. Though I don t need to lose weight I think it will help me keep my weight in check but think it would make losing weight easier for those who have the odd pound or two to lose.
I definitely recommend it.
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