My name is batty, and I’m a modern day cavewoman.

…yeeeeaaaaaaaahno.

Does anyone remember Encino Man? No? OK, we won’t mention it again.

What I mean is that I live a primal lifestyle.  In my neverending quest for fitness and health, I came across a few blogs that advocated living and eating the way our ancestors did, prior to the agricultural revolution. The more I read, the more it made sense to me.  I nom-nom-nomed my last processed protein bar back in March of this year, and haven’t looked back.  The ensuing changes – mental and physical – over the last few months have been astounding.

Want to know more? Drag your clubs this way, please.

Buried deep within the comments on one of my recent articles over at WoW.com was an interesting little bit of information from a poster named Saitenyo. She talked about how she set up a platform near a recumbent bike in her home so that she could use her laptop to play World of Warcraft while exercising. I was curious to learn more about this, because while we’ve talked about getting in exercise while playing an MMORPG like WoW, in all my years of gaming I’ve never really known anyone that has put a serious effort into doing so.

A brief exchange of emails later, and I had the full story from the player behind the avatar, one Chelsea Brown. Ms. Brown is a recent BFA graduate from the Laguna College of Art and Design and a self-proclaimed fan of a long list of things that would make her a perfect candidate for attendance at Dragon*Con. She did such a great job of explaining her set up and the benefits that she got from it that I figured I’d go ahead and let her do so in her own words.

Standing on the scale doesn't burn many calories, however. (Photo by Alan Cleaver)

It’s become something of a running joke around here that “eat less and exercise more” is overly simplistic, and not all that sexy. In that respect, this mantra is kind of like Bejeweled (actually, there is Bejeweled pron out there. Verily, the internet is full of things. Whether those things should exist is left as an exercise for the reader).

However, sometimes it’s useful to know more precisely how much we should be eating. This is especially true if you’re not on any kind of scripted dietary program, or one that gives you a daily allotment of something other than plain old calories.

Handy tool is handy.

While the First Lady of the United States of America has no official title or responsibilities, it has become tradition for the women in this arguably influential role to associate themselves with a humanitarian cause during their husbands administration. In the past few decades we have seen examples of this in Laura Bush’s efforts in support of womens’ rights and childhood literacy, Hillary Clinton’s push for Health Care reform, and (perhaps most famously) Nancy Reagan and her Just Say No anti-drug campaign. First Lady Michelle Obama is no exception to this tradition, and she’s taken up the fight against what many feel is an increasingly dangerous threat to our overall health as a nation – childhood obesity.

According to statistics from the Center for Disease Control, the number of children who are overweight to the point of obesity has increased dramatically since 1980. The percentage of children aged 12 to 19 who fell into this extremely unhealthy weight range (generally considered to be 50 pounds or more overweight) increased from 5% to a stunning 17.6% in 2006, more than tripling the 1980 numbers. Unsurprisingly, research has shown that nearly 80% of children who are obese between the ages of 10 and 15 continue to hold that unhappy distinction into adulthood. With obesity being linked to serious life threatening diseases such as Type II Diabetes and Heart Disease, it is clear that this trend is not only bad for our well-being as a nation but that it is also puts a strain on our already financially strapped health care system.

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.