With January officially underway, many might be determined to make this the year to look fabulous by getting fit and losing weight. But instead of doing the same old thing, signing up for another gym membership or trying the latest fad diet, why not try a new strategy?  

I get almost as many spam emails about weight loss as I do about erectile dysfunction. Since I don’t have a penis, the Viagra ones get an automatic delete. But I do have a bit of a tummy. Should I read about how to melt belly fat in just 15 days?   

Back in 1999 Deborah Ooten found herself filling her gas tank at the Shell station in Clifton Heights when something spoke to her: The universe told her that she was going to start the Conscious Living Center.    

Little girls can frequently be found playing with Barbie dolls (if you were like me, you’d frequently be found giving them Crayola marker makeovers and cutting their hair off), but Jennifer Young of Chaos Contained, a Cincinnati-based organizing and design service, didn’t play with her Barbies — she organized them.    

Change your lifestyle! Get outdoors. Bike to work. Hit the gym! Find a new way to get well. Try pilates or yoga. Find help and support. Get your life right in 2011!
  

With the new year quickly unfolding, it's time to examine all those behaviors, both good and bad habits, that we choose to break or embrace. Perhaps if we better understand the science behind those habits, we have a better chance of changing them. Besides the do-it-yourself option, therapists, counselors, organizations and programs can help us succeed in our resolutions for change.  

Sometimes your enemy is so terrible that you have to hire a hitman to take care of the problem. Richard Tyree is a mercenary who handles some of the nastiest and smallest characters you'll encounter: Tyree kills bed bugs with heat.  

You know that new paint smell you get when you roll out the latex on your living room walls? It's not good for you. In fact, these volatile organic compounds (VOCs) might irritate your sinuses and lungs. This is where Mythic Paint enters the picture. Mythic Paint is the green alternative and has more than 1,200 colors available to beautify your walls.  

The Earth Shares CSA (Community Supported Agriculture program) at Grailville in Loveland is a simple idea that makes a big impact. Participants, or shareholders, buy and work for a share of a farm and then take home part of the vegetables yielded by that farm every week during the growing season. Membership Coordinator Jennifer Russell says members typically have fresh, local produce every week from late May through October and sometimes even November.  

Personal trainer Charlie Levine says his classes are all about moving objects (like dumb bells) through space or moving yourself through space. Many times fitness programs are too targeted, working only abdominals for example, and yield disappointing results. "I teach people how to move and, through that, to get results," Levine says.  

The experience of getting fit is too often an anonymous one, Rachel Roberts says. She owns and operates one of Cincinnati's newest places to sweat, The Yoga Bar, and runs it on the principle that fitness should be a collective endeavor.  

Being a vegetarian in Porkopolis can be a real challenge. It's a meat eater's world. But there's a new resource that can help: CincyVeg.com is a collaborative labor of love assembled by area vegetarians to be a hub for local vegetarian, animal welfare and green living communities.