How to Start

The game that's good for you

Ok, you are convinced! We knew you would be! Now, its a simple 5 steps to starting to play. You can come back any time and email us for advice - we at the Bank of Health are here to help!

1. Gather the players!

Choose 2 or 3 people who will play the Bank of Health. Arrange to meet, or just email each other, deciding when to start the game. You can play for 5 days, 10 days or just a weekend.

2. Choose the Moderater

One of the players (the most responsible organised person!) will have to be the "Moderator" and keep a spreadsheet of who ate, drank and did what every day. Its an important job! The spreadsheet will be a way to tally up the scores of each day. Get your free template spreadsheet here.

3. Making a deposit

It's completely up to you how much each player puts into the Bank of Health as a deposite - we recommend £10 - this means the winner will win that money, plus whatever extra money was put into the Bank of Health during the course of the game. Ask yourself - what's important to you - Money? Health? Winning? Whichever it is, you may find playing the Bank of Health is worth the investment! You will be playing with friends and of course it's flexible.

View an example day here

Download an example game here (PDF 252k)

4. Keep Score

Every day, each player should email the moderator with ideally a food and activity diary from the day before. The moderator should use the spreadsheet to keep score - and refer the points/penalty list on the Keeping Score page.

Download a Bank of Health Points Sheet to print and keep for easy reference (PDF 145k)

5. At the end of the game

You will be keeping track and keeping score throughout the game. At the end of the game, there will be one player who will have won by making the most points.

The winner can take ALL the money in the Bank of Health. So if there were 3 players playing, and they each put in £10, then there would have been £30 in the Bank of Health at the beginning of the game. At the end of the game, there would be all the extra money that was added whenever players missed out on exercise, ate chocolate, drank beer etc! So, the incentive is enormous!

Playing the Soft Option: You can if you like, use the money in the piggy bank for the non-winners to buy groceries and cook a healthy meal for all players to share! If for any reason you cannot finish the game, you can save this money for the next round of playing. Or the winner can take half the money and the rest can stay in and ROLLOVER to the next game!