Classic xkcd. See that geek? That's me, that is.
But here's an article in Wired that takes things one step further:
Weight Watchers is an RPG.
Think about it. As with an RPG, you roll a virtual character, manage your inventory and resources, and try to achieve a goal. Weight Watchers' points function precisely like hit points; each bite of food does damage until you've used up your daily amount, so you sleep and start all over again. Play well and you level up -- by losing weight! And the more you play it, the more you discover interesting combinations of the rules that aren't apparent at first. Hey, if I eat a fruit-granola breakfast and an egg-and-romaine lunch, I'll have enough points to survive a greasy hamburger dinner for a treat!
As it happens, I've just escaped from the world's biggest RPG, and although I'm pretty sure that going to Weight Watchers' meetings would be the worst possible way for me to get fit, I do find their points system easy to use, so that's the way I'll be going.
The rules of the "game" are pretty simple. Try to to eat more than 28 points a day in WW terms, and to increase my amount of daily exercise. Not being particularly sporty, the exercise, at least for now, will be walking (a target of 7500 - 10000 steps a day on my trusty pedometer) and playing on the Wii. I'll be using the blog to track my progress every day, making a note of everything I eat, as well as how far I've walked and how my Wii tennis serve is shaping up.
The Wired article also mentions a site called Chore Wars, which turns doing household tasks into an RPG. It looks a bit too twee for its own good, but it might be good for a laugh, and anything that encourages me to run the duster around the house has got to be a good thing.
Posts
