The Game On Diet comes from the book Game On! by Krista Vernoff and Az Ferguson. You can visit their website, here. This is the blurb from their website:
Whatever your fitness goals, whatever your life goals, the Game On! Diet will help you meet them. More than that, you'll actually have FUN doing it. The Game On! Diet is fun, funny and fiercely competitive. You'll have such a blast playing that you won't even notice you're dieting (until your jeans start to fall off!)
The Game On approach is not just a diet. It is an all-out assault on unhealthy choices and habits that have been getting in the way of your goals. Playing the game allows you to establish healthy daily habits of diet, exercise, water intake, and sleeping and get support and encouragement from a team working towards the same goals.
Here are the basics:
- You participate in the challenge with a team. Ideally, you have enough people playing that you can divide into two teams that compete against one another for a pre-determined prize.
- Each day, you earn points based upon positive actions, including: eating 5 healthy meals (of foods selected from a prescribed list), eating a 100 calorie snack, drinking 3 liters of water, exercising intensely for 20 minutes, getting 7+ hours of sleep, and communicating with your teammates. You can earn additional points for establishing a new habit and/or extinguishing a bad habit.
- At the end of each week, you submit the points you earned to your team leader, who tallies the team points and gets an average. At the end of four weeks, the two teams add up their points and declare a winner.
What's it like?
- This is not a diet that teaches you to count calories. It is not a fitness program that pushes you to the edge of your limits. It is a better-life, goal-meeting, habit-improving "game" that teaches you to set goals, end bad habits, and create better habits.
- There is a prescribed list of foods (called "Flatten Your Tummy Foods") to choose from when preparing your meals. Meals are to consist of a protein portion, a carbohydrate portion (whole grain or fruit), and a fat portion (olive oil, nuts, etc.). Green vegetables can be consumed in unlimited quantities.
- You can take 1 day off of each habit without losing any points. That means you can have one day each week where you don't follow any of the rules for the meals. It means you can take one day off each week from drinking water. And so on.
- Weight loss is not an emphasis. While you can earn bonus points at the end of each week for weight loss, it's just that: a bonus. No points are deducted if you don't lose weight.
I've found that this approach works really well for me, but it might not be for everyone. Here's why it works for me:
- I'm incredibly motivated by guilt. The fact that my actions could jeopardize my team keeps me on track. I'm less likely to sabotage my diet with cheesecake if I know my team is counting on me!
- I need guidance, but I don't like being told exactly what to eat or how to exercise. Game On gives me boundaries and guidance via the rules, but also gives me a lot of wiggle room when it comes to meal choices and exercise options.
- The accountability factor. Again with the guilt, but the team approach is very motivating to me. Knowing that I have to track points and report them at the end of the week really keeps me on task and focused on my goals.
- The communication. The requirement to communicated with my team once a day seemed silly at first, but it proved to be really, really helpful. When I'm having the kind of day that makes me want to give up, I can email my teammates for some extra encouragement.
Playing the game is so motivating to me, that I do tend to slack off when the game ends. While I had some terrific achievements the last time I played, once the game was over, I gradually slipped into my old habits. This time around, I plan to keep the game going well beyond four weeks. I'm hoping that if I go for longer than three months, I'll have really, really established the rules as genuine good habits in my life.
Are you interested? Want to find out more? A You can find Game On! at your local library or on Amazon. To be honest with you, I haven't purchased the book, myself. I did check it out with the library, but I was unimpressed by the authors' use of some naughty words. (I'm not a fan of the naughty words. From anyone.) Both times that I've played, one of my team members has sent out rules, score sheets, and food lists based on the book. You don't have to own a copy of the book to play.
Since I plan to keep participating in the Game On Challenge for more than one round this time (2011), I'm always on the look-out for more teammates! If you think you'd be interested in playing, let me know! (triptoholland{at}gmail{dot}com. It is entirely possible to set up long-distance teams. My next round will begin on Wednesday, February 16th.
