By ANN BELSER, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

For most of us, the end of the weight-loss-resolution season nears as we turn our attention away from diets and to Valentine's Day chocolate.

And for those whose body is a temple -- to which they have added room for a larger congregation -- dieting at home where they can control what is in the house is much easier than trying to lose weight on a business trip.

Farming is a dangerous way to make a living.

Livestock can be unpredictable and injure caregivers; farmers use heavy machinery that can tip and crush them; silos that store grain can become death traps that suffocate workers.

Each year, according to the National Child Labor Coalition, 30 children are killed working on farms. Twelve of those are hired help.

To help bolster a faltering housing market that was dragging down the U.S. economy, the federal government in 2009 created a provision of the tax code that gave first-time homebuyers a credit for purchasing a home. But that credit came with strings that for some people today may feel more like chains.

We all know them: the people who are at work all the time.

They come in early and make up for it by leaving late.

Some love what they do; others are avoiding chores or strife at home; still others feel like more and more just needs to be done at the office.

You're looking for a job? So are 22.6 million other people who are unemployed or working part-time because full-time work is not available.

But, in the time you haven't been working, you have been volunteering to keep yourself busy and to give back to your community.

Good news: That unpaid work could help you get a paying job.

The beach was so relaxing, the mountains so calm, the back porch so lazy, but that was last week. But with vacation over; it's time to get back to work.

What can you do to minimize the jarring sense of being tossed back into the frying pan?

Do you feel like you are working on a treadmill?

Jay Buster does -- and he lost 16 pounds in the first four months because of it.

Buster, a trader in futures and derivatives, who works out of his garage in Boulder, Colo., installed a treadmill desk after reading about James Levine at the Mayo Clinic in Minneapolis who came up with the idea.

A strike called by The Newspaper Guild against a national website may have some unlikely people crossing the virtual picket line: leaders of the nation's labor organizations, including the United Steelworkers and the AFL-CIO.

The last time the White House took a good look at the status of women in the country, John F. Kennedy was president and Eleanor Roosevelt chaired a commission on the issue.

Now, 48 years later, the White House has come back for another look in the report titled "Women in America: Indicators of Social and Economic Well-being."

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WORK-PERKS (Belser, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) -- Perks such as workplace flexibility will motivate even poor performers, research on organizational psychology indicates. 550.