Healthy Habits Heptathlon
The Object of the Game
To score as many points as possible, have fun and become healthier. At the end of the game, money will be awarded to both the player and team with the most points.
There will be two or more teams, with two or more players per team. Teams do not need to be of equal size as team scores will be averaged.
The game will start on Monday, October 8, 2012. It will last for eight consecutive weeks, ending on Sunday December 2, 2012.
The Prizes
Each player who would like to play for prize money will pay $20 before the game starts. This money will be pooled. At the end of the game, the individual winner will receive 30% of the total, and the winning team will receive the other 70% to split amongst its members.* For example, if there are 10 total players, there will be $200 in prize money; the individual winner would receive $60, and the winning team would receive $140 ($70/each for a 2-person team, $47/each for a 3-person team, or $35/each for a 4-person team).
* You may have realized this means there is an advantage to having a smaller team - if your team wins and has 2 players, each player will get more money than if the team is larger. On the other hand, if your team has 3 or 4 players and one player struggles to earn their points, the damage to the team's average score will be less than for a 2-player team.
Keeping Score
Players earn points in eight categories. A perfect day is worth 10 points. A perfect day includes:
2 Exercise Points
2 Fruit & Veggie Points
1 Sweets Points
1 Water Point
1 Nighttime Snacking Point
1 Bedtime Point
1 Habit Point
1 Team Contact Point
1. Exercise: Earn 2 points each day by doing 30 minutes of exercise. Earn 1 point by doing 20 minutes of exercise. What counts as exercise? If it feels strenuous to you, it's exercise. If it doesn't feel strenuous, it's probably not.
2.
Fruit & Veggie: Earn 2 points each day for eating 5 "cups" of fruit and vegetables, of which at least 3 are vegetables. You can earn 1 point for eating 5 "cups" of fruits and vegetables, of which less than three are vegetables. What counts as a cup?
Click here for fruits.
Here for vegetables.
3. Sweets: Earn 1 point each day for avoiding sweets. What counts as a sweet? Cake, cookies, candy, soda, doughnuts, etc. Be suspicious of anything that tastes very sweet, unless it's a fruit.
4. Water: Earn 1 water point for drinking 64 ounces (8 cups) of water during the day.
5. Nighttime Snacking: Earn 1 point each day for not eating after 9pm.
6. Bedtime: Earn 1 point each day by going to bed at your allotted bedtime. You want to aim at getting a least 7 hours of sleep for a healthy lifestyle. This will be up to you to determine because I know many people have to get their teenagers up for seminary or, like me, you have little people that get up at night. For me bedtime (in bed, lights out) will be 11pm because I know in general I am up and going by 7am. That gives me an hour buffer in the night depending how many times I have to get up with my kids.
6. Habit: At the start of the game, you will select either a bad habit that you would like to break, or a good habit you would like to implement – specific to you personally. Earn 1 point for each day you avoid the bad habit, or for each day you remember to do the good habit.
7. Team Contact: You can earn 1 point for each day that you make contact with another member of your team via any method (Facebook, email, phone, texts, in person, etc.).
Players can use the “HHH Points” spreadsheet to keep track points earned each day. Which I emailed to you please let me know if you didn't get it!
Scorekeeping is based on the honor system. So, be honest when reporting points. Obviously.
Days Off
Each week, each player gets three days off from exercise. You decide which three days you would like to take off. Give yourself full points for each of these days. (Although you cannot earn extra points by exercising every single day, don't let that keep you from doing it to reap greater health benefits!) *this is a change from last time to accommodate a more realistic lifestyle (I know myself, and others, had a hard time exercising 5 times per week)
Also, each week, each player gets one day off from the no-sweets rule. On this day (of your choosing), you may eat sweets and still earn your “Sweets” points. This caveat ensures that we don't feel deprived on holidays and other special occasions. This day cannot be saved up and carried over into the next week – for example, if you go the entire week without eating any sweets, you may not take two days off the following week. Remember not to go overboard on your day off - you don't want it to sabotage your weight loss/maintenance.
Lastly you will get two days of from your bedtime. Though I do encourage you to try and get as close to seven hours of sleep as possible.
For tracking purposes during the week, on your spreadsheet you might want to give yourself "0" on the days you don't exercise, and on the day you eat sweets; and wait until Monday just before reporting to add your bonus points for the week. That way, during the week you won't lose track of whether you've already used up your 3 free Exercise and 1 free Sweets days.
Bonus Points
Weekly Reporting Bonus: Report your points by midnight on Monday of each week. Each player can earn 2 bonus points each week for reporting his/her points on time.
Weight Bonus: Each week you will need to weigh yourself to track your progress. You will want to do this under the same conditions each week (empty/full stomach, same time of day, before/after exercise, etc.). It will make the most sense to weigh in on Sunday night or Monday morning. You'll enter your weight into your HHH Points spreadsheet. One bonus point is earned for each week that you stay at or below your starting weight.
Ready to Play?
By Saturday, October 5th, send the following to aprilnewman@gmail.com
1. The email address you'd like to use to receive information and updates throughout the game.
2. Whether you would like to receive any earned prize money through the mail or through Paypal. (If you choose Paypal, I will send your money as a Personal transfer funded through my bank account, which prevents you incurring fees.) If you choose to receive prize money through the mail, please provide the address to which you'd like to have the check sent.
3. The person or people you'd like to request as teammates (optional). I'll do my best to honor teammate requests. Also let me know your feelings about team size and configuration (if you want it to be just you and one other person, if you'd like to play on a larger team, if you have no preference, whether you're okay playing with people you don't know, etc.)
4. Which Mode you would like to play in (Weight Loss or Maintenance).
5. $20 (if you are playing for prizes). You can send this to me through
Paypal (my email for paypal is april.newman@ymail.com), or send a check via snail mail. If you use Paypal, please click the “Personal” tab and fund it through your bank account if possible, as this avoids my incurring a fee for receiving the payment.
If you have any questions send me an email at aprilnewman@gmail.com! And don't forget to join our
facebook group if you haven't already!
