By DrFran Babcock
In my First Life I am called upon often to read and evaluate
research, and I get to read a lot of it. I was very surprised to find that a
study was conducted at the University of Kansas (see reference at the end of
this article) using Second Life™ as a support for weight loss. Since the most
common resolution for the New Year is to lose weight, this could not be
timelier.
I figure folks are not really interested in me providing
details of the research, but I am sure you would like to know what they
researchers uncovered. Basically, two groups of sedentary people were put on
packaged food weight loss programs. One group had actual face-to-face support
in a group and the other group had virtual support groups held in Second Life™
that used voice. It was found that the
face-to-face group lost more weight, but, the Second Life™ group maintained
their weight loss for a longer time—in my opinion, a far more important
indication of success.
With this in mind I tried to track down support groups in
world, and I found an amazing location for all things fitness and health: The
Avatar Fitness Club, or AFC.
The Avatar Fitness
Club
The club is a project of the Cooperative Extension (news article
). DrFran is quite fit (cough, cough) so she sent Morleena in a
skimpy bikini to explore the site. The build is set up to be a virtual health
center, and contains aerobic equipment, a weight room, yoga room, swimming
pool, and more. She was happy to see that there are actual support groups
starting there that are held in the AFC Lounge on Fridays at 1:30 PM SL time.
If you are interested you have to IM Jaye Jeffries to reserve a spot. Jaye is
in school in First Life, studying Exercise Physiology, so he is a perfect
candidate for this kind of venue.
It is true that just having your avatar run laps and lift
weights will not do a thing, but wouldn’t it be nice to talk to other people
who are working on weight loss while your avatar motivates you to do exercise
in First Life?
Morleena ran on the treadmill, swam a few laps, lifted
weights, and did a bit of yoga. She didn’t go to a support group, because there
was none at the times she was there, but there were a few avatars using the
equipment.
So, are you feeling as if you’d like to get rid of
those
2013 holiday pounds? A trip to the Avatar Fitness Club might be just the
push
you need to motivate you to make some changes for your health. I suspect
that
if enough people join the (free) group, that the owners of the club will
add
some more support groups. After all, the research does seem to indicate
that talking about weighty issues does help keep off the weight.
You can find the Avatar Fitness Club here: http://slurl.com/secondlife/
DrFran Babcock
Great information provided. I appreciate your work. I like the way you write. Awesome, keep it up.
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