"Why don't you become a plumber?" is not the career advice I'd ever imagine giving to my children. Yet it's exactly what trend-watcher Arnold Brown, chairman of the trends consulting firm Weiner Edrich Brown, advised when I saw him recently.

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I don't usually make dramatic changes in my life, but after reading the cover article of the November 15, 2009 issue of Bottom Line/Personal "Don't Stand in Front of the Microwave: Radiation Dangers from Phones, Plasma TVs and Computers, Too!" -- I've done just that.

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I heard from psychologist Barry Lubetkin, Clinical Director and Founder, Institute for Behavior Therapy (www.ifbt.com), about a patient in the financial industry who was utterly crushed at the idea that he would now not be able to make a billion dollars. Let me clarify.

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I recently had a transforming demonstration by my friend and nutritionist Kathy Kraus, RD. We were talking about the surprisingly large amount of sugar in packaged foods -- even those that are supposedly healthy. When I stopped by, she had a few items on her desk, including a 20-ounce bottle of Coke, a Stonyfield Smoothie container (which I'd just bought the prior day for my kids), and a box of Raisin Bran. We did an experiment, and scooped out the number of teaspoons of sugar in each of these items.

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Nutritionist Jodi Greebel (www.citrition.com) recently shared with me the best advice she ever received about food, which came during a trip to Spain. She learned, from watching and speaking with the locals, that to enjoy food, you have to eat slowly and not on the go. We Americans are constantly gulping down our meals, rushing to work or out to an evening activity or eating mindlessly through a television program.

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