Photo: Courtesy of Polly Letofsky/ Newcastle Productions

At age 37, Polly Letofsky broke up with her boyfriend, rented out her condo and sold nearly all of her worldly possessions -- all so she could walk the globe and raise breast cancer awareness.

In total, she trekked 14,124 miles across 22 countries in North America, Australia, Asia and Europe, at an average of 15 miles per day for 1,825 consecutive days, or five years. As she raised more than $250,000 for 13 breast cancer organizations, she burned through 29 pairs of shoes.

Find out the lessons Letofsky learned on the road and how she prepared mentally and physically for her journey.

The phrase "peak oil" is one that has been tossed around quite a bit lately, which comes at no surprise considering oil is hovering around $100 a barrel. But is oil the only resource that is at risk of considerable shortage?

While the earth's surface is covered by water, 97.5 percent of it is salt water. Of the remaining 2.5 percent that is fresh water, about 69 percent is frozen in ice caps and glaciers. If you then factor in the amount of contaminated and polluted fresh water, we are left with a dearth of safe, drinkable water.

This is a global problem, one that may continue to worsen in years to come. That's why it's incumbent upon all of us to do whatever we can to help, even if it comes at our own inconvenience. To that end, here are just a few ways that you can cut down on your water usage and do your part to help protect our most precious natural resource.

• Turn the faucet off when shaving or brushing your teeth
• When washing dishes by hand, fill the sink with water instead of allowing the water to run the entire time
• Take shorter showers
• Recycle and reuse water for watering plants or your cleaning needs
• Retrofit all wasteful faucets by installing aerators with flow restrictors
• Don't over-water your lawn, and do so in the morning, when less evaporation occurs
• Check for water leaks and repair dripping faucets
• Avoid over-fertilizing your lawn, as it will lead to an increase in water demand
• Plant drought-tolerant shrubs, trees, and grasses, which require far less water

Recently, in one of the largest efforts we've seen, over 150 health experts from 50 countries got together to discuss what in the world we're all going to do about the growing health problems around the world. They came up with an action plan that includes 20 global health priorities, which fall into categories like government policies, business and community involvement, and re-orienting health systems.

The experts hope that by coordinating efforts on a global scale they can prevent as many as 36 million deaths (from diseases like obesity, diabetes, and many cancers) by 2015. That's incredible! I hope they can keep it together and actually make that happen.

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Famine and starvation in developing countries is one of the mos devastating global issues of the last few decades. But there's an even bigger crisis looming -- obesity in developing countries. Dubbed globesity, Diet Blog has an interesting article on the increasing phenomenon.

Here are some interesting stats:

• Worldwide, 1.3 billion people are obese. The number of people that are starving? 800 million.
  
• Even the poorest nations in the world are facing alarming obesity rates
• Poor nations also have access to more technology than one would think -- and it's halting the amount of exercise people are getting.
  

Ideally, the majority of people would be a healthy weight across the board, in all countries. Instead, we have some sort of bizarre dichotomy going on here -- obese vs. starving, with obesity slowing winning the race. It's disturbing, if you ask me. What do you think?

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Allergies were fierce in my area this summer, and continue to be even into October. It may become worse in the year ahead though, and researchers are now predicting that half the world's population will have some kind of allergy by 2015.

Yikes -- that's billions (with a 'b') of new allergies in the coming eight years or so. What is causing such a surge? We're not talking about just natural allergies like to ragweed, but to chemicals like perfumes, laundry detergent and cleaning fluid.

Indoor pollution (dust mites, pets, etc.) and outside pollution (smog, ozone, nitrogen dioxide) will both contribute to the rise in the coming year. Get our your gas mask now.

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The environment, global warming, and going green are all things that are becoming more and more embedded in our every day lives, which is of course a good thing. We can all be a little more conscious in our global efforts, and even if it's just making the smallest change the great part is that it multiplies across the population and can end up really making a difference. I thought for today's Jumpstart I'd take the idea that sometimes all your stalled workout needs is something new in the way of clothes or equipment to help make it interesting again, and going eco-friendly is the perfect excuse to help soothe that pang of guilt that's been holding you back.

Of course there are countless products out there to choose from in the green fitness world, and thankfully the options are only increasing. So what is it that would make the biggest difference for you and your workout right now? Maybe it's a new top, new shoes, or something else? Here's a few things I found online to help get the wheels of inspiration turning!

There are loads of people out there who do not believe in Global Warming. Or, to be more specific, there are plenty of people out there who do not believe that human beings and all of our nasty, wasteful habits are the cause of the accelerated warming trend that is currently occurring on the planet (after all Earth has heated up and cooled down throughout its existence). Plenty of folks also don't think that this warming will cause the sort of catastrophic events illustrated in Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth".

Whether or not you're a believer, it's a fact that our global home is a fragile place that exists in a delicate balance, and we need to take better care of it. When I say "we" I mean everybody, including kids. As Tanya Ryno at DIY Life mentions, Gore has made his handbook on the subject kid-friendly, offering tips on how your children can help look after the planet. Remember that educated, Earth-conscious kids will become educated, Earth-conscious adults, so now is as good a time as any to help teach your kids healthy, planet-friendly habits.

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It's no secret that one of the biggest health problems facing humanity right now is the health of the planet on which we live. Whether or not you believe in global warming (and there are plenty of folks who don't), it is hard to ignore that the Earth is not receiving the kind of treatment from its inhabitants that it rightly deserves.

Many are slow to begin making even small changes like the three R's - reducing, reusing and recycling for those not in the know. Mother Earth has got some pretty big guns on her side though, as loads of incredibly famous celebrities are making sure to do their part and also making sure that people know about it.

While the efforts of a few, or even a few hundred, celebs may not be enough to turn things around, they can certainly generate a bunch of publicity and awareness. And as we all know, what's popular among the beautiful and famous tends to become trendy across the globe pretty quick. So check out this list of stars who are doing their part to save the planet and think of what changes you can make to do yours.

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Whether you subscribe to the global warming thing or not, it's hard to argue with the fact that we're still chopping down trees and emitting a lot of CO2. What this activity is doing to the atmosphere is still up in the air for a lot of people, but keep in mind that more individuals are starting to get allergies and the "warming up" of earth just may have something to do with it.

Either way, a new company called Zerofootprint aims to change this trend. One of their goals is to help make people aware of carbon emissions. The other goal is to basically reduce the damage we've done by selling "offsets" which do exactly that: offset our own carbon footprint! How in the world do you accomplish that? Well, this company employs three activities to help lessen climate change.

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Sometimes I get personality quizzes sent to me by a friend through a website, urging me to try it as I'm guaranteed to learn so much about myself. I usually delete them, but recently a friend sent me this quiz. It's a visual quiz, one that tests for what the creators call your Visual DNA -- in other words, how you react to images and what your image choices say about you.

Try out the Visual DNA test and see what you think. As a photographer, I thought it was inspiring and helped me understand my personality better. It helped me realize the many faces to art, love and everything in between. It also conjured images of things I love: laughter, music, indulgences, holidays and landscapes.

Am I way off base here, or did it inspire you as well?

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