Weight and mass. Pounds and kilograms. The most important thing is that your bathroom scale is useful for you as an individual user. From my clicking around online, l have found various digital and analog and combination scales which are similar but not all the same.

My family has had the benefit of the services of a professional nutrionist for 2 separate stints over the years, for 2 of our children who needed help in this area. Actually when the nutritionist’s client is a child, she works with the food preparer/server of the household. l’m the “food lady” at my house and l had the opportunity to have these 2 positive experiences with nutritionists. We talked about all sorts of things and in our case the topic was not weight reduction. When the child was weighed bi-weekly or monthly what the nutritionist looked for was using the same scale, in the same way, consistently over time. Weigh ins at the pediatrition were also part of the overall plan however we didn’t compare number to number from the doctor’s office with the nutritionist’s scale’s results like apples to apples. We did look at trends and percentiles to get the real picture of how much progress was being made at the time if any. A few ounces got us jumping for joy at this stage in our lives. Again, thankfully we met with very good success with hard work, moral support and proper use of a tool called a scale. This brings us back to the topic of useful bathroom scales.

What do you want to do with your bathroom scale? Let it be a conscious, proactive reason that you can keep consistently in your mind over a period of time. Then look online for types of scales. Talk to friends and family, too. Give away or trade your scale with them if you are ready for a new scale in your bathroom. Oh and here is an idea, you don’t have to keep your scale in your bathroom if you want to shake it up a little bit at home. But where ever you put it, use it in the same place, the same way, to get a useful number.

Considering the human factors in actual use vs. perfect use of bathroom scales, this tip of consistent circumstances during the use of your scale is the best advice l can think of to help you make your scale useful even if it doesn’t have expensive bells and whistles and electronics.

Another side note is to realize that, even outside the laboratory, IRL “in real life”, mass and weight are different concepts. So if you expect your body composition to change due to the changes you are making in lifestyle (increase muscle mass or release fat deposits) please consider this when you look at adding a new scale to your routine.

Prevention Magazine, Moshe Morris, and apartmenttherapy.com have done some homework for us on brands of scales for your perusal.

In our society, video games and media are the supreme rulers. We bow to the sacred game consoles and and beg for the latest brain rot (video game).

But now the Guitar Hero by Harmonix series is taking a new hold on the nation, an interactive game with a mini eletric guitar with 5 or 6 keys. It encourages players to get on their feet and rock out! At least it encourages me.

I don’t know if it’s healthy, but it makes you move more than the standard sitting-down-and-veggitizing game controler. The only things those things do is make your hands hurt.

Hit the corresponding buttons on a toy plastic guitar, and some familiar rock anthems, from Weezer’s “My Name is Jonas,” to Foghat’s “Slow Ride,” blare fluidly from your television’s speakers. Miss a note, and you’ll hear a loud clanking sound.

But even better than Guitar Hero is Dance Dance Revolution by Konami! Now thats a video game that really makes you move, I belive that any movment is healthy, but when its put to music and a T.V. kids will absolutly love it.

Sorry Guild Wars, but you suck! (I didn’t really mean that)

The office – it doesn’t have to be a twisted version of a horrible gym class anymore. You know, the kind of gym class where everyone stands along the sides of the foul line and waits their turn to sprint or climb or miss a lay up. Then after the jolt of activity… it’s to the back of line with you, practically motionless.

Instead, there’s the new Walkstation, unveiled today and reported on by Money, which integrates a specially-designed treadmill with an electric height-adjustable worksurfaces. Steelcase Inc. , a global office environments manufacturer and James Levine, MD, PhD, of the renowned Mayo Clinic teamed up with manufacturer TRUE Fitness Technology, Inc. to make a product that allows for slow walking during tasks ordinarily performed sitting down.

Dr. Levine’s proprietary N.E.A.T. research suggests that increased physical activity among sedentary workers may benefit the workplace environment and increase the overall health, focus and productivity of a workforce that is typically desk-based. “The Walkstation is not intended to provide a gym-style workout in the office; its purpose is not to cause users to raise their heart rates or work up a sweat,” Dr. Levine says.

“Chair-living has proven so enticing that we have forsaken our legs. It is now time to find ways to get us back onto our legs.” Even on Health Patio!

I’m willing to encourage you to ask for a nap room at work, if you disembark from your Walkstation and feel that mid-day energy dip. Just tell the boss that Health Patio says its OK.

If you have 3 extra minutes and just need a little chuckle, watch November (the cat) get on a treadmill: