To say that we're all busy these days is somewhat of an understatement. Whether it's thumbing the BlackBerry well into the night, shuttling the kids to soccer and piano practice or trying to keep up with the housework, we all have our unique time sucks that eat away at the day. AOL Health knows how busy you are and how important it is for you to stay fit, which is why this 15-minute workout is worth a look.

You don't have to spend hours upon hours at the gym to create a sculpted body. Just 15 minutes a day, three times a week is enough to ramp up calorie burn and start getting those muscles toned . These seven simple moves can be done in your own home and allow you to get your body in shape without sacrificing your daily routine.

As the day progresses, you lose time (and motivation) to work out. Find out how to get a morning jumpstart on a healthy routine.

Jonny Bowden, author, nutritionist and weight loss coach cuts through all the misconceptions about diet and fitness to help you transform your body, your health and your life.

I can't help but watch with a combination of amusement and sadness when I read about the billions of dollars spent each year on useless weight-loss products, programs that don't work and high-priced gimmicks that promise to effortlessly relieve the pain of being overweight -- especially when some of the best weight-loss tools in the world are both virtually free and right under our noses.

Which brings me to the subject of today's post: The apple.

Yup, the lowly, all-to-common apple, of which there are literally hundreds of varieties. They're available 12 months a year (but in season right now!), are cheap as dirt, can be had anywhere -- and they happen to be one of the best kept weight-management tools on the planet.

Liz Neporent is a diet and fitness expert and co-author of "The Fat-Free Truth."She regularly appears on national TV programs and is the president of Wellness 360, a New-York based wellness provider. You can also follow her on Twitter @lizzyfit.

Can't I just get on a treadmill and start running? Is having a goal for my workout program really important? Yvette Carpenter, New York City

Normally, goal setting is a topic I tackle during New Year's resolution season, but since I just got a question about whether or not goals are really that important if you want to lose weight or do something meaningful with your fitness program, I figured this is as good a time as any to remind you how important it is to have real, tangible goals for your fitness program. As Edwin Locke, the father of modern goal-setting theory once pointed out, "Telling someone to 'Try hard' or 'Do your best' is less effective than telling them to 'Try to get more than 80 percent correct.'"

If you are serious about getting results from your workouts, diet or any other aspect of your fitness plan, go through my 10-step goal-setting guide. Is it too much to ask when you're trying to squeeze the most out of your efforts? Me thinks not.

Photo: jupiterimages

Having a glass half-full attitude may be hampering your weight loss. Optimism is generally regarded as a good thing, but when it comes to dieting, research shows that having an overly happy-go-lucky outlook on life can negatively affect weight loss success.

A Japanese study published in the journal BioPsychoSocial Medicine found that people who are happy are less likely to successfully lose weight compared to those who have a slightly negative and cautious outlook. Researchers conducted psychological profiles of 101 obese men and women who participated in a six-month weight loss program. Those who started out the program with a slightly negative outlook showed more weight loss success than those who were more optimistic.

While the study didn't find that being happy means you're doomed to see the scale remain stagnant, it does point out that being too optimistic can have its downfall. Essentially, having a sanguine attitude can help control negative emotion, but it can also cause people to give in to temptation because they believe everything will work out.

Photo: jupiterimages

Whether it's working out, getting enough sleep or keeping our diet on track, most of us try to do our due diligence during the week. Once the weekend hits, though, all bets are off. Whether it's diving headfirst into a box of wine (or Twinkies), it's okay if your habits loosen up once the clock strikes 5 p.m. on Friday.

Even if you don't chronically indulge on Saturday and Sunday, there's always the long weekend away or wedding celebration where you throw the rules out the window. No matter what your vice, or how often it creeps up, you may find yourself on Monday with a less-than-ideal number on the scale. Don't fret! We've got a few tricks up our sleeve to help you get back on track.

Click here for post-weekend diet damage control.

Photo: Cassandra Hubbart, AOL

Wherever you stand on artificially-sweetened foods and drinks, a new study published in the International Journal of Obesity found that there may be a place for them if you adhere to a low-calorie diet to keep weight off.

Researchers followed the eating habits of 303 men and women. One group had previously been either overweight or obese before losing weight and keeping it off for at least five years. The second group had no history of being overweight or obese.

Both groups' eating habits were then recorded on three random days to assess dietary intake. While both groups consumed a low-calorie, low-fat diet, those who had been overweight or obese drank more artificially sweetened beverages, which reduced their calorie intake.

Jonny Bowden, author, nutritionist and weight loss coach cuts through all the misconceptions about diet and fitness to help you transform your body, your health and your life.

Photo: sxc.hu

I've been touting the benefits of omega-3 fats for a long time. They lower triglycerides, improve circulation and cell health, boost mood and decrease inflammation. But can they help with weight loss?

Maybe so. New findings reported in the British Journal of Nutrition found that overweight and obese people have lower levels of omega-3 fatty acids than people with a healthy weight.

"Our findings suggest that (omega-3) fatty acids may play an important role in weight status and abdominal (obesity)," wrote the researchers, led by Professor Monohar Garg from the University of Newcastle, and president elect of the Nutrition Society of Australia.

Other research has shown that omega-3s have a protective role in preventing obesity. "Previous studies involving children and adolescents have shown a negative correlation between adiposity (fatness) and [blood levels] of omega-3s," explained the researchers.

Keep track of the latest in diet and fitness Twitter trends and opinions with this weekly post. Not only will AOL Health's Twitter alias Healthpop and That's_Fit ask fitness-related questions and share the best reponses with you, we'll scour the Twittersphere for the latest buzz on everything from good eats to exercise routines gone bad.

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What are the top gym bag must-haves -- or if you work out at home, what do you just gotta have? Here's what these Twitters were talking about this week:

trysensa.com

Can a spoonful of powder sprinkled over your meals help you lose weight? Absolutely, according to the founder of Sensa Tastants. Dr. Alan Hirsch, a neurologist from the Smell and Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago, is pretty sure he's found the answer to help the world lose weight, and it can be yours too for a mere $60 a month. So what's the deal with this magic potion, and can it work for you?

Sensa promotes itself as a diet-free, exercise-free, totally natural way to lose weight in a hurry. OK, so then how does it work? Apparently, Sensa builds upon findings that show that people who had lost their sense of smell and taste tend to gain weight. Given that information, it would make sense, then, that heightening the taste and smell of food might help people lose weight. And he's got it right, if his figures are to be believed. According to Dr. Hirsch's findings, nearly 1,500 participants in a six-month trial lost an average 30.5 pounds, around 5 pounds a month.

Photo: Getty Images

It can be hard enough to look in the mirror and admit to yourself that you need to lose weight. When it comes to a friend, loved one or partner, it's an even stickier situation. We went to the mental health experts to get some ground rules to gently nudge your lover in the direction of the gym -- or at least away from the vending machine, without coming across as the food police, or heaven forbid, letting the "F-bomb" (fat) fly out of your mouth. Learn the best ways to help your partner lose weight at AOL Health.

Jonny Bowden, author, nutritionist and weight loss coach cuts through all the misconceptions about diet and fitness to help you transform your body, your health and your life.

Photo: Hachimaki, Flickr

Over the last few years, a great deal of information has been uncovered about how the tobacco companies knowingly engineered their cigarettes to become more addictive, usually by adding chemicals to cigarettes that increase the addictiveness of nicotine and keep smokers hooked. What if the food industry was doing the same thing?

According to Dr. David Kessler, that's exactly what food manufacturers have been doing for years, and that's at least partially responsible for the epidemic of overeating and obesity we're now witnessing.

Kessler, the former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, has written a terrific and compelling book called "The End of Overeating." The book makes several arguments:

1. Food has been "engineered" to contain various combinations of fat and sugar and salt that have never before been found in the human diet.
2. These combinations -- particularly fat and sugar together -- are designed to stimulate brain chemistry in a way that makes it virtually impossible to resist these foods (Remember "betcha can't eat just one"?).
3. These foods "amp up" the neurons in the brain, getting them to fire more. "The message to eat becomes stronger, motivating the eater to act more vigorously in pursuit of the stimulus," he writes.
4. The most important goal of food "design" is not nutrition but to create a feeling of anticipation and desire by activating the pleasure centers of the brain.
5. Once the pleasure centers of the brain have been "hijacked" by these foods, our desire for them no longer has anything to do with hunger and more resembles addictive behavior than anything else.

Now there's a lot more to the book than that, and I strongly recommend that you read it. But a few points that Kessler makes are worth mentioning here.

When you're battling to lose weight (and let's not kid ourselves -- it is a battle), it's often the subterfuge that keeps you from winning. You feel like you're doing everything right, but it's those sneaky ol' bad habits that make the last five (or 10, or 20) pounds so dang hard to drop. Often, you don't even realize you're doing anything detrimental to your diet!

For example, eating a really light breakfast or skipping it entirely might actually sabotage your weight loss efforts. Oh, and those sexy heels you've been wearing? Yep, those aren't doing you any favors.

The video above gives some helpful tips for changing those deceptively bad habits, but if you have suggestions of your own, be sure to leave a comment!

And, because you can never have too many weapons in your arsenal when fighting those cravings, check out these new diet tools.

Photo: Mitch Haaseth

With a personal history of weight issues, and a brother who died as a result of undiagnosed diabetes, Mara Hall, 32, saw dancing as a way to get her own diabetes and weight in check. Weighing in at over 290 pounds, she began taking dance classes. By the time she tried out for "Dance Your Ass Off," she'd dropped down to 261. During her last performance on the show, which ended this week, she had dropped an additional 26 pounds. In an interview with That's Fit, she gives the inside scoop on how the show helps its participants achieve weight-loss success and what her fitness goals are for the future.

That's Fit: You struggled with weight issues all your life, and when your brother's diabetes-related death was followed by your diagnosis, you knew you needed to achieve a healthier weight. Why did you choose to try out for "Dance Your Ass Off"?

Mara Hall: I was in denial [for a long time]. Diabetes is a silent killer. It's not like other disease where you automatically get sick. You don't really know the magnitude of the disease until it hits you. I didn't exercise. I didn't lose weight. I continued to overeat. Even after my brother died, I didn't think that it couldn't happen to me. But I grew up and matured and I said, "Look, Mara, you really have to get this under control and you have to get this together, because if you don't, you're not going to make it to the age of 40." So I started working out. As an adult with early onset diabetes, I began taking dance classes in 2003. I thought it was a great way to lose weight. And "Dance Your Ass Off" [appeared in my life] right on time.

Initially, I thought that "Dance Your Ass Off" was just a dance show. I love dancing. I've been dancing -- tap, jazz, all kinds of dance -- ever since I was a little girl in Detroit, MI. Once I did some research, I found out that it was a weight-loss show as well. I thought, How great is that to be able to do what I love and lose weight as well?

Photo: Frazer Harrison, Getty Images

Usually, actresses are encouraged to watch their figures while filming a movie. However, that was far from being the case on the set of "Julie & Julia." The film shows the way food impacted the lives of two extraordinary women, Julia Child, who wrote "Mastering The Art of French Cooking," and Julie Powell, a writer who made every recipe in Child's book and blogged about it.

Nora Ephron, director/writer/producer of the film, insisted her cast not only eat the food prepared on set, but enjoy it. And enjoy it they did. In an interview with Ladies Home Journal, Streep admitted, "I gained 15 pounds. I'm still trying to lose it. It was worth it."

Adams' weight gain wasn't as drastic, but she said to Access Hollywood, "Eating, eating, eating and eating. As long as the costumes fit, I could eat as much as I wanted, which was great. There was some weight gain but I didn't weigh myself so I really don't know."