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Ever wanted to know the techniques and tricks used by those who successfully lost weight, and kept it off?

Thanks to a scintillating survey conducted by popular weight loss site SparkPeople - we've now got some road-tested tips to give you the best chance at managing weight.

As part of an updated paperback version of the bestselling book The Spark, (new edition here), the authors at Sparkpeople undertook a comprehensive survey of over 2,000 members. Why do 50% of people report losing momentum within 2 weeks of starting a diet? And why do 18% fizz out within just 3 days?

The answer is the 'strong start'. These strong starters lost twice as much weight in the first two weeks, and were five times more likely to reach goals than the false starters.

Secrets of the Strong Start

1. Track Food and Calories

Both strong and false starters ranked "food tracking" as the one action that made the biggest difference in their programs. 82% of strong starters tracked food every day vs. 65% of false starters, and strong starters were twice as likely to track their calories.

2. Don't put certain foods off limits

Strong starters were less likely to label foods "good" or "bad" and forsake certain foods, and were three times more likely to use portion control techniques that supported consumption of unhealthier foods in moderation.

3. Spend LESS time exercising

On average, strong starters exercised for 30 minutes during the first two weeks; false starters for 60 minutes, suggesting that false starters burned themselves out.

4. Focus on both diet and exercise

74 percent of false starters made both fitness and dietary changes from the outset, compared to 50 percent offalse starters.

5. Engage more with others/have a support network

Strong starters were more than twice as likely to communicate with other members online.

6. Weigh yourself weekly, not daily

Most strong starters weighed themselves weekly, while the majority of false starters did so daily.

7. Focus first and foremost on developing healthy habits, not losing weight

Most strong starters viewed their #1 goal as "building a strong foundation of healthy habits." A majority of false starters made losing 3-4 pounds in their first two weeks their #1 goal, which backfired.

Could you get any more serious poses?

We are currently looking for another person to join The Population team. I have used Gavin Heaton's SocialMediaJobs site to advertise the position of Social Media Executive, so check it out and if you know someone who would be good for the job make sure to pass their details on.

SkipHarder is a campaign for Curios a breakfast replacement bar done by thebrandshop. It is mockumentary webisodes based around Tommy Fox a pro skater who turned to the art of skipping.

I really like an Australian company having a go at branded content. I am going to talk about this campaign over a number of posts because there are a number of things I really like about it and ways I think they could have made it better.

Watermarking letting social media flow

One of the great parts of this campaign is the use of watermarks in their videos. In all videos they have a watermark of the campaign sites URL. This is a simple but an important feature when creating links through social media channels. It is very easy for traffic to be guided towards Youtube videos (through embedding on Myspace, Blogs and Campaign sites) but I think that making traffic flow back to other sources from Youtube has always been a problem. This unobtrusive watermark is a great example of traffic making a Youtube clip flow on.

Consumer Generated Content - Axis of Awesome : Howard vs. Rudd, by mWboo6

Online is my future; I have invested a year studying the phenomena with my thesis on Online Social Networks and am going into a full time job working in it.

Therefore I have decided that my vote in the up coming Australian election will be based solely on the party that is best able to communicate with the Australian public online.

However I will not be passing judgement, I am leaving the choice up to the readers of Adspace-Pioneers. I will ask readers to vote for which party they believe joins the conversation, has the best grass roots online community and gives the best back to basic information needed to make the decision. As I am going away the decision will be made on November 11th.

The following are definitions of the three items that I want people to vote on and the information that they need to pass judgement on;

Joining the Conversation – Which party is best at joining the conversation, social media is giving politicians the chance to have a conversation with

Labor
Kevin Rudd’s Facebook Page

Australian Labor Youtube Channel

Kevin Rudd’s Myspace Page

Liberal
John Howards Facebook Page


John Howard 2007 Youtube Channel



Greens

Bob Brown’s Facebook Page

Senator Bob Brown Youtube Channel


Democrats
Lyn Allison Facebook Page

Lyn Allison Youtube Channel


Grass Roots Online Community – What party has got the best online community working for them, which groups has the most active facebook groups, bloggers, causing the most noise.

Labor

Facebook Group – I want to be Kevin Rudd’s friend too


Prominent Blogger
Polemica
Connect Through Values
Politc0
John Quiggin
Anonymous Lefty
Newz4world
Bolt Watch
Possum Comitatus
Fair news

Liberal
Facebook Group – Kevin Rudd Will Ruin Australia

Prominent Blogger
Auspundits
Andrew Norton
Oz Conservative
Catallaxy Files
Tim Blair

Greens
Facebook Group – Bob Brown for PM

Prominent Blogger
Greens Blog


Back to basic Information – What party gives the individual the information that they need, to make an informed decisions.

Labor
Home Site-
Kevin 07

Liberal
Home Site

Greens
Home Site


Democrats
Home Site

Please put your votes for the four categories in the comments below

I really like this approach by RSVP.com.au, I think Love Communication (the agency behind it) has done a really neat job at communicating a cleaner image for the brand. As picked up by information aesthetics blog it is very similar to the opening of Stranger than Fiction.



However for me Online Dating Sites are on the way out with people now choosing Facebook over dating sites. There is more security, going on a date with a friend’s friend rather than a complete random.

As my research has shown people are more likely to portray an accurate image of the person they are offline in Facebook as there offline friend’s are viewing the material they put up and will ‘call them out’ if they start expanding the truth.

However on RSVP, I could of just done AIDS work in Africa for the last 5 years and now am going back to University to study Medicine/Law, even know I don’t have to because I am inheriting my parents multi billion dollar business. Enough rambling here is the male version for RSVP




And another clever ad by Love for Ricoh Printers.

As well as looking to the future of advertising I think it is also good to look back. Today I was at the Camberwell Market, it is local trash and treasure market in Melbourne which is well worth the journey on a Sunday Morning. I found this great book ‘Symbols of Australia’ by Mimmo Cozzolino. It is a story about the history of Australia studying brands and trademarks. I was surprised to see how many of the innovative campaigns of today are replica of older advertising campaigns.


However I must give credit to Faris who showed me some examples of how he recreated the stories from The Shocking History of Advertising.

Over the next month I will be taking extracts from the book and showing how they are still relevant today.

Lesson 1: History of Vegemite, Consumer Involvement Old Hat