Abstract:

The Body Balance Challenge (BBC) is a comprehensive wellness program for Dominican University students focusing on three key aspects of health: nutrition, fitness and stress management. The challenge is a 10-week program structured as a team competition. Participants earn points through a variety of individual and group activities including three individual nutrition consultations, four workshops, three fitness assessments, exercising on their own an using the on-campus Wellness Room for stress relief. All participants were members of the BBC team page on sparkpeople.com, where the majority of the points are tacked and a variety of tools and resources can be utilized. Students were also required to use their personal moblie foods to collect daily dietary intake and upload to Meallogger.

Through the Body Balance Challenge, participants were assessed on fitness improvements, anthropometric measurements of weight, BMI, body fat percentage, waist to hip ratio and fruit and vegetables intake. A pre and post diet recall will be taken and a survey to assess use, ease and effectiveness of each modality used (website, workshops, individual monitoring, and individual consultations). Improvements will be measured against use and perceived efficacy of the website to test if the use of technology has any effect on lifestyle changes when combined with traditional approaches including social-cognitive theory.

Keywords:

Dietary habits, food diaries, smart phones.