This business of changing medical insurance plans is rocking my world. The new HMO has the reputation of being aggressive, but I thought that just meant that it was in cahoots with the insurance company to keep me from wasting their money. And of course there’s some of that, because that’s the way these soulless entities work.

But no, the new HMO went out of its way to make me feel welcome. They insisted that I choose a personal physician, which I did (one Tammy has taken her kids to and liked). They have a wonderfully interactive website that practically begs you to diagnose yourself and prescribe your own treatment. Which, by the way, I find very helpful, not being one who goes out of my way to go out of my way to a doctor’s office.

Yesterday I found a package on my doorstep from the new HMO. They sent me a guide to their services, with phone numbers and helpful hints. And they sent me a handbook, about an inch thick, with everything you could ever possibly want to know about health and fitness and wellness (apparently these are not all the same thing).

Very cleverly, the HMO has peppered its handbook with information about exercise and nutrition. It almost seems as if they think that if you eat right and work out a bit, you’re going to have fewer problems that need treatment. Well, that hit me like a ton of brick cheese (which, I believe, weighs more than a ton of cheddar).

I immediately took all this information to heart. It’s obvious the HMO has my best interests at heart, and I don’t want to let them down. I haven’t exactly started the 30 minute-per-day exercise regime yet, but I plan to get going really, really soon. Seriously. In the very near future. I even weighed myself for the first time in about three years, and if that doesn’t shock me into heavy reps, nothing will.

As for the nutrition part, I looked at the food pyramid and liked what I saw. Lots of breads and cereals, plenty of fruits and vegetables, and just enough meat and dairy. The tiny triangle at the top for all the other good things in the world, like cookies and donuts and chips and butter and fats and oils – well, that’s going to be hard, trying to fit all my food weaknesses into such a tiny space on the pyramid.

But there is a loophole that I’m grateful to the HMO for including. It says that if you eat healthily (actually I think it says “make healthy eating choices”) 80 percent of the time, anything goes the other 20 (or at least that’s the way I read it). In just one day, I’m already at about 50/50, so I don’t have much further to go. Thank goodness!