A gamified approach to better health and weight loss

25 days ago I joined a multi-player game that is designed to help mix the best community formation tools of a good mmorpg (massive multiplayer online role playing game) with personal improvement. The idea is to get in, pick a topic each month, then spend that month on a team of strangers traveling together in an online “adventure”. The adventure causes the players to explore and consider improvements around those areas of a life and to share those with in the community during certain game cerimonies. The game is played as 5 people on a team, and 5 teams in a family group, and other family groups of 25 making up the community. Unlike “forum” based uses of technology, this really is a “game” that people play with their lives at a minimum commitment of 20min. a day and it provides a really closer, personal approach to change.

There were several different teams going after several different topics but the one that stood out the most was a gentleman about my age that was struggling with diabetis and wanted to go on a 1 month health journey. What the heck, I jumped in. I don’t have diabetis but I am absolutely overweight and at risk for all softs of thing as I near my 40s.

Here we are, almost done with our first month and quite by accident, without exercise, or counting callories, or powders and pills, or starvation dieting I have lost 18lbs, he has lost 10, and he is on day 9 of ZERO insulin and any other medications as well. Seriously, after 14 years of giving himself shots it took strangers, coming together, in a game context, to just go on a journey.

For me, this journey has just begun and this time, I am going in eyes-wide-open. Oh, and if you are wondering what I have been eating? Here are a few photos of the last 25 days! Here is to your journey and I hope you get to play abetterhealthgame.com in your life !