Yes they are, according to Joseph Proietto, a professor of medicine at the University of Melbourne.
In the article “Treatments needed to tackle obesity crisis: Experts” that has been picked up by British and Indian news aggregators but apparently hasn’t yet been widely distributed state-side, Proietto claims that lifestyle changes can only achieve so much before the body adapts. Therefore, it is “absolutely essential” to develop drugs to help people keep the weight off, he is quoted as saying.
As an athlete, I know that unless I change up my training regimen now and then, my performance will plateau. Ole Albert Einstein said it well: “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
Some speculate that diets don’t work because they are temporary measures to reach a specific target, but aren’t necessarily designed for long-term impact. The notion that the body adapts is also a possibility: what initially helps us to lose weight will decrease in effectiveness as our body becomes used to the new intake and accommodates for it. As with physical activity: as we undergo physical conditioning, activities that used to tax our muscles become easier, and we see fewer results. We then need to increase the intensity or duration of an activity to continue to see gains.
What do you think? Is varying our diet and incorporating different types of physical activity enough? Or do we need a little help to stay healthy?
Speed monitoring signs are very effective psychological speed bumps, but the Elm Grove Police took that a step further. Not only do the signs warn you of exceeding the posted speed limit, they also collate that speed to the consequences of that choice.
Do Good
This awesome ipod/iphone app unites millions of users to do one random act of kindness a day.
The application is appropriately called “DoGood”. Each day the application displays the same “DoGood” to every user on a particular day. Once you’ve completed the DoGood, simply press done.
Social Media Integration
Facebook and Twitter integration allows you to easily tell your friends about each day’s DoGood. You can leave a story on each DoGood, or read the stories of others.
Tracking Social Change
DoGood collects statistics from the group anonymously, and presents them on a graphical dashboard allowing you to easily track each day’s activity. Moreover, you can view past DoGoods and their respective stories.
Today (June 3rd) is National Running Day! To celebrate, I went out for a 4 mile run this morning before work.
Those who know me may laugh; I am an ardent runner, so running before work isn’t really anything out of the ordinary. But because of the organized event, I made sure to do it today.
We all know that it is important to live an healthy, active lifestyle, but too often our daily obligations get in the way. Events like National Running Day, Bike to Work Week, and even the Wii 30 Day Fitness Challenge help give individuals a specific goal, as well as motivation and support, knowing there are others involved in the same activity.
So take some time today to celebrate National Running Day! Perhaps it will be another 364 days until you lace up those shoes again, but it’s a step in the right direction!
On June 19th, Tonya Peters and I will be presenting at the Social Marketing in Public Health conference in Florida. We will be combining our areas of expertise (behavior change, social media) to discuss How Social Networking Sites Impact Behavior.
Abstract
Influence. Persuade. Convince. Countless words have been written about the art of deliberately and directly influencing people to change their behavior, but what are we overlooking that can help us get our job done? Social networks are not new to those seeking to mobilize resources and impact change but in an evolving era of online interaction, social networking sites also have significant implications for social marketers and how they can inadvertently impact the way people act.
Learner objectives
At the conclusion of this session, the learner will be able to:
Describe how social networking sites serve as a tool for social marketers and can enhance social marketing campaigns.
Understand how behaviors are influenced by social norms within a social networking site.
Identify and leverage the right social networking site elements to help meet behavior change and programmatic objectives.
Significance and Implications for Social Marketing
Social networking by its very nature segments audiences into groups with similar preferences and interests. Social marketers can leverage these networks to position and promote their message, engage dialogue and model behavior change in both implicit and explicit means. Trust and reputation are strong influencers in an individual’s decision-making process and are key factors in reducing the perceived or real costs to a specific behavior. By participating in a social networking site, individuals may find themselves unwittingly modifying their behavior to both model and adhere to the societal norms established within their social circle.
We are limited to a half-hour time slot, which will obviously not be sufficient to share all our insights on this topic. We will continue to elaborate on this topic on this blog as time goes on.
You must be the change you wish to see in the world.
Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.
The concept of change arises in daily conversation. We wonder if this rain will let up for Saturday’s game or if the neighbors will ever teach their dog to stop barking when the mailman comes. Yet ‘change’ is not always an observable switch from one state to another.
Today’s fast-paced society encourages us to seek out fast, demonstrable results without consideration of the long-term implications or sustainability. But is that real change, or the equivalent of a dime tossed in a cup?
Is the change we wish to observe really what we can see with our eyes? Certainly we can point to external changes as evidence that something is happening, but ultimately we need to determine what we really want to accomplish.
In the case of behavior change, we can’t pinpoint the single moment at which we’ve reached our goal. When we’re adopting healthy behaviors and avoiding unhealthy ones, every moment is evidence of change.
And while this means that we may not see a miracle overnight, one day the time will come when we look around and notice that all is different. Not through a single transformational moment but through a series of incremental yet significant shifts.
Which is more likely to impact Behavior Change?According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, NHTSA, 37,313 people died in motor vehicle traffic crashes last year. This is the lowest number of traffic deaths since 1961 (36,285 deaths).Between 1961 and 2008, we watched the death rate from motor vehicle crashes rise dramatically and then slowly begin to fall, but what is the motivator that moved the decline?Was it strategic messaging and incentives alone or was it the enforcement of primary and secondary safety belt laws paired with strategic social marketing that helped people make better choices about their safety?It has everything to do with the people and the places to help create healthy communities.I would love to learn more from those of you that have some practical examples of social marketers using “enforcement” as a part of your campaign approach.I guess, I’ll always ask the question “Why don’t people just do what they know is good for them without enforcement or incentive?”Well, that’s a whole different post! Don’t forget to buckle up! (NOTE:This picture was taken at a hotel in Chicago – seems a bit extreme, doesn’t it?)
No more will I wait until I have the time to write the journal article about the marriage between the public and the private sector.In this new era of communicating through sound bites, I will stand with one foot in each camp and tell all of my colleagues to listen up!
For those of you in public health – we eat, sleep and breathe theories of behavior change, yet we are definitely the laggards when it comes to making change happen within our own system.In public health, we are slow to adopt new practices to stay ahead; we give away our intellectual property at the risk of minimizing our worth; and trip over each committee member’s feet to finally make a decision.
In marketing, we often fail to take the time to really find out what is important as an end outcome; we stink at expanding the distance that a dollar can go; and we often forget to step off the stage.
BUT, there is hope!We each have valuable attributes that add to success.I take the side of this unique marriage – blending the best of our attributes, doing all that we can to learn from each other and creating what I call a more “efficient” social change system.
Oregon Governor Theodore Kulongoski has officially proclaimed that today is Teach Your Children to Save Day.Considering the financial crisis that the country finds itself in, this is a noble endeavor. There was a time when saving for a rainy day was always a sign of responsible living. When families made budgets they always had a line item that was for savings.The phrase “pay yourself first” always meant deposit into your savings account – not buy something.There was a time when we didn’t buy things until we had the money to pay for them. Now is the time to return to that principle. It is a great time to teach kids the difference between need and want – waiting and saving for what you want will encourage patience.
Below is a great YouTube video where kids learn about want versus need. If you have children in your life teach them about savings and take the side of their future.
This blog is the work of the passionate folks at Worldways Social Marketing. Worldways Social Marketing is a full-service agency with global reach. We work for progressive, socially-responsible organizations with life-transforming ideas. Who's writing? View our bios.
Today (June 3rd) is National Running Day! To celebrate, I went out for a 4 mile run this morning before work.
Which is more likely to impact Behavior Change?