# 18 - Family Support

Do you think it's easy to change your lifestyle?

NO.

Do you think it's easy to give up some of the food you love in exchange for the food you don't?

NO.

Do you think it's easy to go to sleep early when your work is piling up higher and higher?

NO.

Do you think it's easy to go exercise at the end of the day when you're exhausted?

NO.

Do you think it's easy to get on the scale when you think you didn't lose any weight?
NO. NO. No, none of the above are easy.

That's why Dr. Tsipi Morris of the Efrat Women's Health Center and social worker Alizah Shapiro think that everyone trying to change her lifestyle should have support.

Well, I get together as a group every week with the other women in the Center. We talk about our obstacles and our achievements and we cheer each other on. But we don't see one another on a daily basis, and unless we're going to start calling each other during the day to say, "Yay, for me, I walked to the store instead of taking the car," then we also need a supporter that's close by.

Alizah said I should get some family support. I told her that I'm totally not interested in sharing my Quest for Better Health with my family, because they'd probably think, "Yeah, Ema, good for you. How long is this going to last?" I didn't want to include them because if I become a Women's Health Center failure, I didn't want them to hug me sympathetically while thinking, "Well, we knew it couldn't last."

Alizah disagreed, but she just said, "You might fail at this program, but you won't be a failure."

Then she told me that Dr. Seuss failed at submitting his manuscripts 27 times, but on the 28th attempt to be published, he was accepted, and look at the library full of Dr. Seuss books in every home. She said that Abraham Lincoln started many businesses that failed, and tried for every position possible without being elected, and he ended up president of the United States. RH Macy, Franklin Roosevelt, Marilyn Monroe, Mahatma Ghandi, Steven Spielberg, Thomas Edison, the list goes on and on.

Okay, I got it. I may fail (which I hope I won't) at beginning a healthier life (which I really want), but I'll never be a failure.

And when I thought about it, I realized that I had a supporter in my family all along. Her name is Shir Tehilla. She is eight year old. She supports everything I do. She wants me to eat healthy food. She's happy when I have long nice nails. She's proud of me when I go to sleep early. So, I do have a supporter. And every day I see her, I even show her my pedometer, and she absolutely cheers when the number is high. Yesterday it was 5,895, my highest amount of steps yet. I can't wait to show Shiri. She's going to give me a big hug.