The hard part of sticking to any diet is the initial disappointment. Yeah, it's unrealistic to expect quantifiable results after a mere week of dieting and exercise, but the complete absence of any visible change is sorta disillusioning. Still, it's been an instructive week.

Visual, aural, and physical bliss

   Early on in the week I found a roster of songs I liked and stuck to it, which is evident up until day six. That was the day the game inexplicably presented me with a new song, the Theme of Inoki, which I've since incorporated into the schedule. Certain other things about the daily schedule will present themselves to careful readers: somewhere around day four or five, I completely stopped getting the special stage on Normal mode. So much for "almost invariably" doing well; that'll teach me to brag in public. On the other hand, halfway through day six I figured out the real way to hold the maracas.

   Believe it or not, this makes a difference. When you hold the maraca, it's not the actual instrument that sends the signal to the floor sensors. The key element here is actually the wedge-shaped dongle. Held one way--the way I've been doing it since I got the game--results in not infrequent misreadings of your position. Now, though, I've discovered the right way, and my noticeably improved scores on the last half of day six and all of day seven speak for themselves.

   Another important thing to do is to check the connection between the maracas and the floor sensor between every song. Some of the below-50% scores you see are a direct result of maracas inadvertently disconnecting due to my spastic thrashing around. And I hate to sound like I'm blaming all my Ds and Es on the equipment, but make sure your cords don't get tangled either. If you have fight a twisted cord in order to raise the maracas all the way to the top position, it could be over in seconds on Hard or Super Hard modes.

   On to other business. It occurred to me shortly after I posted the initial feature that "The Samba de Amigo diet" is a very prosaic name for a weight-loss plan, which tend to have catchier titles like "The Zone," "Sugar Busters," or "Buns of Steel." So I'm opening it up for readers to come up with a better, more fitness-guru sounding name. If you're artistically inclined, feel free to make a logo from your entry, possibly using the Japanese logo or Samba character designs as a starting point.

Week Two
Day One	Day Two
Day Three	Day Four
Day Five	Day Six
Day Seven