What is this Whole Life Challenge all about??

For the last two plus years, I have the Captain of a Whole Life Challenge , Team BFF.  Whole Life Challenge (WLC) is a 6-week challenge focusing on 7 habits - nutrition, exercise, mobility, sleep, hydration, well-being and reflection.  Players commit to these 7 habits for the 6-weeks, score daily and earn prizes along the way.  WLC provides an app for the day-to-day game play and Team BFF has a Facebook group for team support, motivation and questions.  I have either been doing a series of posts on the background or a virtual kickoff meeting on how-tos for each challenge but it clutters the FB group and convenient scheduling can be difficult.  For this round (starting January 20, 2018), I thought I would use my rarely-used blog to "host" these posts.  Hopefully in the next week or so, I can find some time write a blog post on my experiences with WLC and why I continue to play.  

Here is the Team BFF summary on each habit, how it is scored and what you need to know to be successful at WLC!!

GENERAL SCORING

• Each night starting at 7pm, you will be able to record your scores for the day. And its 7pm based on the time zone you selected in your profile.
• You can record you score via the app or the website.
• Each night starting at 7pm, you will record your score based on your actions that day for nutrition, hydration, exercise, mobilization, lifestyle, and reflection and sleep for the previous night. For example, at 7pm on January 20, you will score yourself on nutrition, hydration, exercise, mobility, well being, and reflection for Saturday, January 20 and sleep from the night of Friday, January 19 to the morning of Saturday, January 20.
• Scoring will remain open for 29 hours. So going with our example of scoring for Saturday, January 20. You will have until midnight of the following night (Sunday, January 21 at 12:00am) to record that score.
• But what happens if I forget to record my score? The WLC does have offers some "mulligans" for you to use for these instances. Performance is awarded 1 mulligan, lifestyle has 2 and kickstarter has 3. These mulligans allow you to record a score outside of the official reporting time. How to use these mulligans is described below under Bonuses.
• Oh no! I recorded my score wrong? When you record your score, you will be given 2-3 minutes after your initial recording to edit your score. If for some reason this does not work, you should email WLC directly for assistance. You can do this via the website or info@wholelifechallenge.com.
• Now the veterans know that there can be some issues recording scores on both the app and website (with the app being the most troublesome). These issues are less and less frequent with the updates they have made but the do happen. As a way of ensuring your score is recorded, make sure you see the box that has the countdown for the edit. If you do not see this box, please log out and log back in to confirm your score was recorded.

NUTRITION

• Each day you start with 5 points.  For each serving of a non-compliant food (per your level of play) you eat, you lose 1 point. Once you lose 5 points, you just stop at a score of 0 for the day.  Points are per day and not per meal.
• This is best explained through some examples: 
• You are playing on Kickstarter and you eat a cheeseburger with a bun. You would lose 1 point. Yes, you ate 2 non-complaint foods (cheese and bread) but since it was 1 serving of a burger, you only lose 1 point. 
• You eat a side of fries with that cheeseburger, you would lose a second point - 1 for the burger and 1 for the fries. 
• You are playing at Lifestyle and for breakfast, you eat a bowl of Lucky Charms with whole milk.  You would lose 1 point.  Same clarification as above - even though you had both cereal and milk, its one serving so 1 point, leaving you at 4 points.  
• For lunch, you are busy so you grab a turkey sub from a sandwich shop.  You lose another point so you now have 3 remaining.
• For dinner, you are out with friends and can't pass up those chips and salsa and margarita.  Gone are 2 more points (chips and sugar in the margarita) leaving you with 0 for the day.  
• At any level, you drink 3 beers. You would lose 3 points: 1 point for each serving.
• Use a realistic serving size for each item. A whole large pizza is NOT a serving size. 2 slices is likely a serving.

I know we have lots of questions with Nutrition Scoring so please your our facebook group to ask for clarification and guidance.  

EXERCISE

• To earn you 5 exercise points, you must exercise for 10 minutes per day. You can do any exercise you want walking, running, strength, basketball, softball, roller derby, etc. Generally speaking, if your heart-rate is elevated and you are doing something to build your strength, endurance, stamina, flexibility, speed, power, balance, coordination, agility, or accuracy, then we’d call it exercise. This doesn't mean to only exercise 10 minutes per day but 10 minutes is a minimum to get your points.
• Exercise is worth 5 points and are scored as either 0 or 5. Think of it as a yes or no question. Yes, I complete the exercise requirements so I get 5 points or No, I didn't complete the exercise requirements so I get 0 points. There is no gray area or intermediate points. Its either all (5) or nothing (0).

MOBILITY

• Mobility is worth 5 points and is scored as either 0 or 5. Just like exercise, its either all (5) or nothing (0).
• To earn you 5 mobility points, you must stretch/mobilize for 10 minutes per day. You can do any stretching you want - dynamic, static, yoga, Pilates, etc. If you are working on flexibility and joint mobility, it counts. 
• If you are using yoga or similar as your exercise and mobility, the total time must be at least 20 minutes: 10 for exercise and 10 for mobility. No double counting time. 
• Your mobility can be split between as many sessions as you want as long as the total time accrues to 10 minutes. So feel free to get up at work, walk around and stretch for 2 minutes 5 times per day. Or do a 5 min AM and 6 min PM yoga session. 
• Massage, trigger point, chiro adjustments, active release therapy or similar do NOT count as mobility time. You must be actively participating in your mobility work.

SLEEP

• When you setup your profile on the WLC website, you will set your sleep goal for each day. This number can be any hours you select for yourself but as sleep is very important to overall health (and weight loss), we strongly recommend aiming for a minimum of 7 hours per night.
• Sleep is worth 5 points and are scored as either 0 or 5.
• To earn you 5 sleep points, you need to sleep the number of hours you selected at the start of WLC in the 24 hour period you are scoring. This sleep can be any combination of overnight sleep and naps.
• Any time you spend lying down in a relaxed state with no books, phone, tv or other distractions will count as sleep.
• Remember you score sleep for the previous night. So scoring on Saturday, January 20 will be for sleep from overnight on Friday, January 19 to Saturday, January 20 and any naps taken on Saturday,January 20. So yes, this means the challenge technically starts on Friday, January 19 when you go to bed.

HYDRATION/WATER

• When you setup your profile on the WLC website, you will set your water goal for each day. The volume should be equal to or greater than 1/3 of your bodyweight in ounces.
• Water is worth 5 points and are scored as either 0 or 5. Think of it as a yes or no question. Yes, I complete my water intake goals so I get 5 points or No, I didn't complete the water intake goals so I get 0 points. There is no gray area or intermediate points.
• To earn you 5 water/hydration points, you consume the volume of water you committed to when you registered for the challenge. So as long as you drank the amount in your profile, you select 5! (Or yes, I can't remember exactly how it's logged)
• Water, coconut water, and herbal tea count towards your daily requirement. Coffee, other caffeinated beverages, and alcohol do not

WELL BEING (formerly Lifestyle)

• Well Being is scored as either 0 or 5 just like the others we discussed. You complete the practice and you get the points. 
• The Well Being practice changes each week and is set by the WLC (not the team). 
• Each Thursday you will get an email that details the Lifestyle practice for the upcoming week. That practice will start on Saturday and run through Friday. We will also post details on our Facebook group.
• The Well Being practices will focus on different parts of your "whole" life. Examples from past challenges have included: no digital (tv, phone, computer, etc) meals, support your teammates by commenting on a minimum of 3 posts each day, making a to-do list each morning and checking off at least 3 items, mediating for 10 minutes per day and declutter where you declutter one part of your life each day. These change from challenge to challenge so you never know what we will get.

REFLECT

• Reflection will not be listed in your dashboard as an habit you can score on. In fact, you will not be able to save a score until you complete your reflection. In other words, reflection is a (almost) free 5 points each day you log your score.
• Prior to being able to enter/save your daily score, you will have to write a reflection. This can be meaningful, can be a 1 sentence recap of your day, or can be words that fill the word count. This activity is what you make of it. 
• Your team can see your reflections, and can comment on them. Our team tends to be more active on Facebook, though Facebook is not required and does not count in your reflection.

BONUSES

• Mulligans - While not actually an earned bonus like the rest in this section, a mulligan will allow you to score outside the scoring window for a score you forgot to record.   Performance is awarded 1 mulligan, lifestyle has 2 and kickstarter has 3.  There is no way to earn additional Mulligans during the WLC.  
• You have to manually select to use a Mulligan by clicking on the number next to the word "mulligan" just above your rainbow chart, or check your notifications and accept the offer to use a mulligan for a missed day.  There is no penalty for using a Mulligan.
• Indulgence Bonus- Lose 2 or fewer nutrition points over any consecutive 4-day period, and you'll earn 1 "Indulgence Bonus." That means you will need to earn 18/20 nutrition points in the 4-day period to earn the indulgence bonus. 
• Each bonus is worth 1 food point and will be automatically applied to your nutrition score if you enter fewer than 5 points for nutrition in your daily score.
• Rest-Day Bonus- Exercise for 10 consecutive days will earn you a “Rest-Day Bonus,” worth 1 exercise day (5 exercise points). 
• This token will be applied to your exercise score when you enter a “no” in the Exercise category
• Night Owl Bonus – Earn one bonus by getting your full night's sleep for 6 consecutive days. 
• This bonus will be applied to your sleep score when you enter a "no" for Sleep in your daily score. Night Owl bonuses cannot be applied retroactively.
• Free Day Bonus -- Lose 5 or fewer total points over any consecutive 21-day period, and you'll earn a "Free Day" token. That means you will need to earn 730/735 points in the 21-day period to earn the Free Day Bonus. A free day bonus is a pass for a perfect score for any day after you have earned it. Earning and using indulgence and rest day bonuses during that 21-day period will not negatively affect your ability to earn a Free Day bonus. In other words, when you use a bonus to make up for missed points, the game will count those as equal to points you would have earned without them.