#2 - Meet the Doctor

In my quest for A Healthier Me, I went to see Dr. Tzippy Morris, founder of the Efrat Women's Health Center. She's friendly, smart and someone that everyone probably wants to be friends with.
But she thinks letting her kids have cereal with vanilla rice milk is a big treat – major eye roll here.

Before our appointment, Tzippy (I hope I don't have to call her Dr. Tzippy – that would just be too Steven Martin-esque for me) sent me a zillion page questionnaire that she asked me to fill in. It covered the most detailed issues of my health and lifestyle – from how many hours I sleep at night to what kinds of foods I eat, what illnesses I've had to whether I use a smoke alarm.

I surprised myself by answering everything truthfully. I thought… why not.

After our talk, Tzippy (Dr. Morris to you!) suggested I needed some reprogramming (that sounded familiar) to put some better habits into my schedule, or more likely, to actually create a schedule for me that would include good habits.

I have stubbornly lived my life shtupping in as much (work, action, good deeds, family, fun) as I can, expanding my daily envelope on all the edges. Therefore, it will be very interesting to me to find out if this woman (Moi!) can be reprogrammed to live a healthier life filled with healthier choices.

Starting Easy

Tzippy began our observations with easy non-threatening advice. Get the flu shot. Buy a fire alarm. Make sure your family knows CPR. Keep up to date on your mammograms and don't forget self-examinations. Wear hats, sleeves, sunglasses and sunscreen in the summer. Visit your gynecologist every year.

So far, so good.

Then she told me that I eat too much meat and dairy. (Nutritionist Judy Kizer had told me that too, but I just had to close my ears to such information.) You see, I'm from America – meat/chicken almost every night. Now what? And I won't know what I'd have for lunch without my cottage and yogurt or CC and cantaloupe (even if there is a cottage cheese revolution in Israel – I'm "Switzerland" when it comes to cottage cheese).

I'll really need to be hypnotized or given electric shock therapy if you want me to give up my cottage cheese. And puh-lease, don't tell me that soy is yummy.

Now, while I don't nosh (Judy Kizer got me to give up chocolate long ago), I sin on Lite Ice Coffee (maybe it's not so Lite). Tzippy wants me to cut down to once a week. Today's Sunday and I've already had my one. What's there to look forward to now?

Tzippy must have been talking to Judy, or maybe she just figured out, that Shabbat is my hardest time for healthy eating, and she wants me to change my Shabbat menu. This might be very impossible, and so this blog will be short lived. But because Tzippy and Judy know that I want to be long lived, IY"H, I've got to try. And that because my family loves me, they'll want me to try. (I think I'll have to remind them of that next time they come and there's no barbecued roast beef on the table.)

Move It

A big part of the program in Efrat's Women's Health Center is exercise. I don't really like exercise, so I don't know how that will work out. But I love to dance! For the past four years, I've been taking tap dancing with the fabulastic Judy Kizer and I'm addicted to it. During that time I've also been dancing 60s with fun and funny Cheryl Mandel every winter and I've danced through whatever else I could get my feet into. (Read more about my life in dance, here.) So if exercise has anything to do with dance, I'm in. I'm going to try to get to Zumba somehow, someday, somewhere.

Meanwhile to encourage my movement :), Tzippy gave me a little pedometer that I'm supposed to wear all the time and record my steps. I can count my steps – ten to the computer, ten back. But she said every day to try to increase those steps. Okay, 11.

Tzippy wrote down home many steps a couch potato takes every day (something like 1500-2500 - in point of fact, it sounded like a lot to me), how many steps a regular person takes (something like 3500), and then someone who's trying to get healthy (It was thousands, but you won't believe there are so many steps in the world.)

Actually the first day's pedometer said I walked 3041 steps. I think it must have meant 41, but I'm not telling anyone about the mistake.

Today's said 2467, which probably meant 67, but at least theoretically that's up 26 steps (and I still have to walk to my bed for the night).

I'll keep you posted.

BMI OVM

BMI stands for Oy Veyz Mir. A person's BMI is supposed to be something like 18.5–24.9. Mine was 38.1. Humongously bad – putting me at risk, chas v'shalom, for diabetes, heart disease, stroke and cancer – all the things I do NOT want to get. So even hearing that scared the bejeebers out of me, and it made this experiment sound more important than just about any other, because we're talking about my life here!!

And to All a Good Night

I have a reputation among all who know me for going to sleep when the milk man is getting up for his deliveries. That can be 2 AM or even 3. No good! I started long ago with spotty results to try to readjust, and Judy Kizer was even proud when I made it to bed by 1 AM. Still midnight is my personal goal. They say that sleep is important for a zillion reasons (guess we'll have to discuss them in a another blog). Mainly Dr. Tzippy Morris noted, "It is very important to get six to eight hours sleep in order to lose weight. Sleep deprivation leads to increased cortisol, which slows your metabolism and makes you gain weight." Just what I need – NOT.

Anyway, Tzippy wrote me a note, "A huge part of your identity is to be a caretaker for everyone you love. It’s now time to take care of yourself."

That's true. I guess that will be my goal now, and IY"H, I'm going to try to Aim WELL.
This is starting to feel like a very interesting adventure.