On Pace: Maya: Plug 'n buff

I'm just not a morning person — and at any other time of day, my gym is more crowded than Mecca during a religious pilgrimage.

Well, not really, but it's hard to get the machines you need.

What's a girl to do?

One solution: Work out at home. It sounds old-fashioned — considering that joining a gym gives us access to machines and classes that can whip us into shape in no time. But it's not a perfect world, and it's a lot easier to roll out of bed and walk over to the living room than to worry about fighting over machines at the gym.

I can even brew my morning coffee while I pump iron.

If you have some experience with free weights and stability balls and have memorized a strength-training routine, then you're all set.

If you've strength trained before but you're not totally comfortable left to your own devices, then you can buy yourself an at-home trainer.

Yes, an at-home trainer. Yourself! Fitness is a virtual personal-training game that you pop into your personal computer, PlayStation 2 or Xbox. The game costs $29.99-$34.99.The trainer's name is Maya, and she's sleek and toned and looks great in Spandex (don't hold it against her.)

Before you start your training with Maya, you create a profile with your name, age, gender, height and weight. This is how Maya gets to know you.

Then you take a fitness test and she suggests workouts to begin your training. She tests your resting heart rate, your cardiovascular fitness, your upper and lower body strength, core strength and your flexibility.

You periodically gauge your progress through perceived exertion ratings, and Maya modifies the training accordingly. (This is a great relief. Old-fashioned workout videos aren't interactive and keep us on the same routine day after day, regardless of our fitness gains.)

You can customize each day's workout by selecting the area you'd like to focus on: core strength, upper or lower body strength, cardio, flexibility or weight loss. Maya even helps you decide.

You can choose the music you'd like to hear, the setting of Maya's studio and how long you want to work out.

There's a "meditation garden" option that takes you through a seemingly soothing yoga and stretching workout, but I have to say, it doesn't compare to a real yoga class. Something about interacting with a television seems counterintuitive to the yoga philosophy.

But the "meditation garden" also doesn't cost $5 per class.

So, either deal with the less-than-Zen yoga or just move on to the workout portion. That's why you have the video in the first place.

Maya's moves are easy to follow, and if you get confused you can select a tutorial that will walk you through the body movements and alignments. It's a little annoying to make choices with a video game controller, but, again, this isn't an ideal world, it's a virtual world.

But Maya does come close to being an ideal personal trainer: You pay only once, and she offers a workout that's customized to your needs and can be done in the comfort of your living room.

The best part: She doesn't make you get up at dawn.

I'm not so sure this program would be the best introduction to exercise for a complete novice. There are tutorials that will demonstrate the exercise, but it's not the same as a certified professional watching your every move. If you're new to exercise, be cautious and learn proper form before you make friends with Maya and work out on your own.

For the rest of us, Maya's the perfect solution to our gym absences.

She might even make my flesh-and-blood workout buddy jealous.

• Check your ingredients labels. Even foods marked with zero grams of trans fat can have trace amounts of partially hydrogenated and hydrogenated oils. That means if you eat more than the recommended serving size, which many of us often do, you're consuming trans fat.

• Be label savvy and read the ingredients as well as the nutrition facts. These oils are in more things than you think — even foods marked "fat free."

• If you're interested in training with Maya, pick up a copy of Yourself! Fitness for $29.99-$34.99 at yourselffitness.com online.

• You'll need a PlayStation 2, an Xbox or a PC with Windows 2000.