EA SPORTS is at it again. Last year they released the highly acclaimed EA SPORTS Active, and interactive fitness game for the Nintendo Wii that used the various motion detection equipment available for the platform to offer a wide array of physically challenging workouts in a convenient 30 day program. In the same year they came out with EA SPORTS Active More Workouts, expanding the already excellent game with a broader focus on core exercises and “leveling up” the challenge to last for six weeks. The franchise seems to be working out very well for EA SPORTS (no pun intended), so much so that they even expanded their advertising push to include the Sports Authority fitness equipment chain.

On Tuesday, EA SPORTS announced that they are expanding the line yet again. EA SPORTS Active 2.0 (working title) is currently in production at the Vancouver headquarters of EA Canada.

I browse through a lot of health and fitness related news every day in order to try and find things that can help our readers here improve their lives. In doing so I come across a fair number of unusual topics, but more often than not most of the things I read tend to get repetitive. That’s why, when I opened up my reader this morning, I darn near spewed a mouthful of coffee all over my dual monitor setup after I saw one of the headlines.

Bugs Bunny and Cecil Turtle are registered trademarks of Warner Brothers

Dieting is a touchy subject. We all have our own ideas as to what is the “best” way to lose weight, and with very little research we can often find studies that back up our claim. What’s more, we’re all pretty defensive of our choices. Getting together in a room full of low-carb and low-fat dieters and asking them which is the better way to diet is as fraught with danger as standing in the middle of the lobby of the Marriott at Dragon*Con with a bullhorn and asking what the best Science Fiction series is.

In the spirit of full disclosure I have to admit that I am a low-fat, calorie counting dieter. That’s what Weight Watchers® really is, when you get right down to it. They just wrap it up in a convenient system and assign food point values. I’ve been on Weight Watchers for over 9 years now and while the amount of weight I have lost has varied consistently I have managed to maintain the large majority of my loss following that program. As a result, I am obviously biased toward low-fat diets and a big proponent of them. I truly believe that portion control, exercise, and healthy food choices are the key factors in losing weight and keeping it off.

A study released in the Annals of Internal Medicine seems to back me up on that.

There is a communication barrier that exists between self-proclaimed geeks and your typical athlete. Someone who has never spent an entire weekend sitting around a table and rolling dice or who has actually injured something more than just their thumb playing football just doesn’t understand why anyone would want to “waste” their time playing games. In fact, more often than not, it seems like many fitness enthusiasts look upon “geeky” hobbies with nothing short of derision.

This lack of groking is one of the motivating reasons why we launched ShrinkGeek in the first place. We wanted to create a place where people who thought like us could seek out others who had the same kind of interests but who also wanted to improve their health. We firmly believe that it’s entirely possible to be geeky AND healthy, and we actively seek to promote activities that are conducive to both.

via @thatkevinsmith on Twitpic

There’s been a bit of news floating around recently that I have, frankly, been hesitant to comment on here despite the fact that is probably one of the more relevant topics in recent events when it comes to our target demographic. For those of you who are unaware of what, exactly, I’m talking about (and bless you for having the ability to somehow avoid every major news outlet for the last week) – Kevin Smith (director of the highly acclaimed independent film Clerks) recently caused quite a stir on Twitter when he posted about being removed from a flight on Southwest Airlines because he was, well…Too fat.

The story is, honestly, considerably more detailed than that. If you’re interested in all the details you can hear them directly from Mr. Smith himself on his Smodcast web site. You can also see the two official responses from Southwest over on their Nuts About Southwest blog.