I have always struggled with fitting exercise into my day, simply because by the time I've decided to go to the gym, I conveniently find something that stops me from going. I'm a healthy weight so don't particularly want to lose any, but I feel much better after a bit of exercise and the wii fit helps me to fit some extra activity into my day.

We first bought a Wii console in 2007 and ending up having to buy it from Germany as they were, for a long time, like gold dust! A similar story occurred with the Wii fit and this, in itself, proves the quality and popularity of the product.

The Wii fit comes with a Wii balance board, used for many of the activities and this connects to the Wii console. This may be seen as a disadvantage, as in order to use the Wii fit you have to have a Wii console and buying both of these together can be pricey. On Amazon, at the minute the Wii console costs £161.47 while the wii fit is £57.99 making purchasing both pretty pricey. It is a good idea to buy the wii console first and make use of games such as Wii Sports, which often comes with it, before buying the Wii fit a bit later on.

Wii Fit is a great way of increasing your stamina and overall fitness, as well as losing weight and toning up. When you first create a user, after entering your height and weighing yourself using the balance board the console calculates your BMI (Body Mass Index) which tells you whether you are underweight, ideal,overweight or obese. This is particularly helpful as it gives you an idea of whether you are a healthy weight and you are able to set targets to reach a healthier weight or simply tone up. You can choose a male of female personal trainer who will help you through many of the exercises and ensure that you are on the right track to reach your targets. A talking 'Wii board' also provides encouragement and tips on how to make the most of the exercises, as well as general fitness advice.

The exercises are divided into four main areas; yoga exercises, those which improve your muscle strength, balance games and aerobic exercises. This is particularly useful as you can choose to target specific areas that you feel need improving. Some of my favourite exercises are the hula hooping, step aerobics and table tilt game, all of which help you to really improve your fitness. The console also targets your posture informing you of the importance of correct alignment and giving advice on how to improve this.

Another great advantage of the Wii fit is that you can monitor your progress daily so you can start to see results as soon as they happen. You are asked to perform a 'body test' everyday where you are given two seperate exercises measuring you balance and ability and your 'wii fit age' is calculated. The aim of the training exercises is to lower your measured age, supposedly indicating improved fitness. Don't be discouraged if your 'wii fit age' is horribly high, mine was 40 years older than my real age when I started but it soon goes down!

Perhaps another bad point to the product is that once you have unlocked all of the exercise they can become tedious. Most of my family have lost interest in them and only use the console very occasionally. There are jogging and stepping exercises where you can watch television at the same time, however, and I find these much less boring than some of the others. By varying your routine you shouldn't get bored and exercising while watching tv can only be a good thing right?

The Wii fit is great for all ages and is literally suitable for the whole family. It is great for entertainment at family gatherings and we never heard the last of it last christmas when my grandad's wii fit age was 10 years younger than his real age! It can be a bit embarrassing stepping onto the scales (the board) in front of everyone, but the comments of the wii board are lighthearted and focused on changing for the better.

I am hoping that nintendo bring out some add ons in the future for different exercises and challenges, however this product is great for a quick fix of exercise when you are short on time or, as is more likely in Britain, you are prevented from exercising outside due to the weather!

(Also on Ciao under the name of Blonde09)