Renovation

I know spring is the time for renewal and renovation but since it is technically still spring for a few more days, I am going to take advantage of that.  It just seems that all of a sudden, there is a lot of renovating taking place in my life.  It’s been so busy that I didn’t even have a chance to write last week and boy do I have a lot to tell you.

For starters, I am renovating my apartment and basically wake up every day covered in dust- the other day I almost couldn’t find Remington – it’s that bad.  I really meant to only make some minor alterations to my two bathrooms and to repaint the apartment – fast forward to one month later and I am living like Murphy Brown.  There I go aging myself again.  This was a show that starred Candice Bergen that ran for ten seasons.  In it was a character named Eldin Bernecky who played a house painter who essentially was in her home for six years.  That is what is happening to me.

But, it’s not my contractor’s fault, but my own.  I bought the apartment 6 years ago to renovate it and never got around to it so when I finally got someone in there, I got possessed – exorcist style.  I am having walls removed, all new fixtures and replacing most of the furniture – and that’s just the front of the apartment – the rest is going to have to wait.

But, while you’re renovating a home, obstacles come up that must be dealt with that weren’t in the original plan.  So what do you do – usually, open your checkbook – but you go with the flow, make adjustments and move on with the plan and continue towards your goal.  So, when I decided to knock down four more walls, it occurred to me that the same can be said for health endeavors.

Or, at least it should!  Whether you are after losing weight, building bigger muscles, gaining a stronger core, lowering your cholesterol, or whatever your goal happens to be – why let any obstacle get in your way?  You should always have time, always pass up the desserts and all things white and starchy – always! Not tomorrow, not just this once but the commitment must be absolute.  You LIVE in and with your body.  Why do you want to feel bad?

Speaking of feeling bad, I am getting a little overwhelmed with the summer tv season – it is starting to rock and just when I thought my DVR was going to get a break.  There is The Glee Project, Teen Wolf (yes I remember the original), Nine Lives of Chloe King (written, developed and created by a very good friend of mine – I do recommend it highly, not just because of that but because it is turning out to be a modern day Buffy and you know how much I loved that show), True Blood is about to start again.  I am excited but just don’t know where I am going to find the time – I will – but I do fret about it sometime – nothing will get in my way; no obstacles; no excuses – I will get it done.

It’s ok to worry and to feel as if you are going to fail, because we all do; but, how come we allow the failure to occur in the health part of our lives when we would never allow it to occur anywhere else.  Would you jeopardize your job? Would you leave your baby on the bus? Of course not, but its okay to eat ice cream because it’s summer.  It’s ok to stop exercising because _________.  These behaviors really have to stop – along with such things as National Donut Day – if you didn’t hear my rants about that day, you are not a faithful follower of mine – and Lindsay Lohan getting sent back to rehab – you can take the girl out of five towns but you can’t take the five towns out of the girl.

Speaking of train wrecks, how delicious was the supersized (there’s that word again – everything in America is supersized) episode of The Real Housewives of New York? I love the episode each season when Alex gets blotchy and when Kelly becomes zen: “Sometimes its better to observe and not participate; but, you f***ed up my tattoo – that’s just stupid.” I kind of merged two scenes, but you get my point.  And why, in the name of Bravo, did the RHONY go to the same places in Morrocco – all of the same places that America’s Next Top Model did – I kept expecting to see Mr and Miss Jay at every turn and quite frankly it would have been hysterical to have seen Ramona (big ball of crazy) and company do the belly dance challenge that the ANTM girls did.

Did I tell you that Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen are stalking me? It’s true or it could just be in my imagination, but its my truth.  If you read my blogs, you know that I ran into Mary Kate on the street walking Remington the other day and she didn’t speak to me, just to my dog.  So, I am on my way to LA this past weekend and I walk into the Admiral’s Club at JFK and the only other people in there – that’s right, Mary Kate and Ashley – eyeing me.  Call me crazy but……

So, I can’t really tell you everything about what happened as nothing is final yet but I had an uber Hollywood day on Monday.  I had a power breakfast meeting with the President of CBS/Paramount at the Mondrian Hotel overlooking all of LA, followed by a lunch meeting on the Paramount Lot – check out the photo on facebook where I am holding a Glee traffic cone – if I lived in LA, that baby would have been in my trunk so fast; However, if you look at the picture closely enough, you can see the blue sky background and a sunken parking lot painted blue. This is where they filmed Jaws and The Truman Show – they flood the parking lot with water and shoot water scenes.  Immediately behind that is the New York street scene of lifelike buildings.

Anyway, after lunch, I had a meeting with my team (yes, that’s right, my team) of agents in Beverly Hills, followed by a training session and then a drive up Beechwood Canyon with the sun at my back and the Hollywood sign directly in front of me with the light at the perfect angle for a meeting with a producer at his home in the Hollywood Hills and by Hollywood Hills, I mean directly under the Hollywood sign and immediately next door to where her Madgejesty (AKA Madonna) used to live with breathtaking views – they would have been if there wasn’t so much smog.

Yes, I am going to be on television with ideas first thought of ten years ago and modified now with a new writing team – so although I wasn’t ready for prime time then, I am now. Oz, schmoz!

One last thing before I wrap (tv talk) I was offered the opportunity to write a national health newsletter.  I have been wanting to do this for a very long time and almost had one eight years ago; but as usual, I was ahead of my time.  It launches in September or October so keep an eye out for the announcements.  Of course, if you followed me on twitter @drpescatore and became a fan on Facebook(DrFredPescatore), I wouldn’t have to tell you all of this over and over

The time to renovate is here; there is no season for renovating and there is always room for more improvement.  Sometimes it takes time like in the case of my newsletter and television career but if you just keep moving forward – even inching along – you can achieve your goals.  I had a patient who tried to lose weight for years but always gained and lost the same few pounds.  Finally, she came in and was down twenty, then thirty and then finally sixty pounds – her target weight.  I asked her what changed for her – she said that she got sick of hearing other peoples stories of large weight losses per week and decided that ½ pound or ¼ pound per week was good enough for her; and guess what, it added up.

When our unhealthy lifestyles contribute to four of the top ten leading causes of death in this country, it is time to really assess your behavior.  I wish that people would pay more attention to the obesity epidemic than the green movement.  Not that I am bashing the greenies, but there won’t be anyone left alive to breathe in the carbon emissions or suffer the effects of global warming if we don’t stop eating ourselves literally to death.

Stick to your goals, let things get in the way but always continue on your pathway to health and healthy behaviors – after all, practice makes perfect – even in this respect.  Especially in this respect!  I can guarantee you that you are not going to wake up one day and eat and exercise perfectly –even I err on occasions (was I not supposed to say that?)  And it took me years to get it right and I am still renovating – it took me until a year ago to finally embrace exercise and I couldn’t be happier or healthier – keep going; assess and move forward.

Since I haven’t had much time to watch anything lately, and I always like to end on an up note, I just watched the Tony awards last night and all I can say was Wow! Give the good old Broadway a chance this season – lots of rich characters and the musicals and dramas all looked fantastic.  Let me know what you think because I will be in front of my DVR.

Until next time…