It is predicted that, over the course of the present decade, Americans will be looking to spend less money on exercise options and a lot less time to it due to tighter budgets and hectic schedules. Combine that with a mostly unregulated commercial food industry that still relies heavily on inexpensive and low quality resources high in fat, salt and processed additives. Not enough time to move and poor food choices at the ready. This is our nation’s crisis with obesity, which is expected to climb as high as 85%, up from an already disheartening 60%. Prevention is possible, through awareness and a little creativity. While nutrition accounts largely for body fat content, exercise raises metabolism and muscle can fill up space previously occupied by fat cells. It’s a package deal. Making wholesome food choices (yes, it really is that easy—just do it) will give you energy to work burning fat.

FREDERICK, Md. (AP) — During a visit to Greece in 2009, Michael Cambetes discovered a beautiful two-story, Victorian-style home, noting that most of the houses he saw were only one story. It had been left abandoned, rusty lock and all, and Cambetes, when asking around, soon learned the owner had died of AIDS — the first AIDS-related death on the island, he was told.

"It's sad," he said. "They shun it because they think it's the next plague."

While maybe not as extreme, people in the U.S. are still fairly ignorant about the disease, Cambetes said. "HIV is still one of those hush-hush things."

He set a goal to create a project to raise HIV/AIDS awareness. "A Touch of Red" combines his love of photography — something he's done as a hobby since he was 13 (he was given a camera because he was a hyperactive kid) — with his mission to raise HIV/AIDS awareness.

Year-end holiday stress on top of double-digit unemployment and an economy that threatens to relapse into recession has left many Americans feeling utterly helpless and hopeless.  This makes winter 2010 a perfect season for personal growth. 

We all experience key moments in both our personal and professional lives.  I define a ‘key moment’ as a triggering event or situation which presents a challenge and elicits (or demands) a response.  The important thing is not so much the moment itself, but how we respond to it.  

Because when a key moment occurs, we make an important choice to make.  Consciously or unconsciously, we will choose how we will respond.  In large measure, the quality of our lives, our happiness, and our personal effectiveness are determined by that response and how we handle the challenge of a key moment.