You know the old saying about an ounce of prevention? Well, it’s true.

What got Dr. Hugelmeyer back into a regular exercise routine — and it wasn’t just the guy who asked when the baby was due.

I’ve been exercising for a little over a month now. This week I hit a major milestone. I finally stopped groaning as I dragged myself out of bed early each morning. I actually looked forward to the sweat and the burn. I started seeing my pants fit a little better, I started to decide that the extra calories and sugar in that glass of wine wasn’t worth the extra miles I’d have to ride to burn it off. I rediscovered the deliciousness of arugula.

It’s been over three years since I’ve been in decent shape. I used to blame my pregnancies, then my infants and their poor sleep schedules, then my work as a night hospitalist. There was always an excuse as to why I couldn’t fit exercise into my hectic lifestyle.

There are many reasons why I committed myself to getting back into a routine that included regular exercise (including the jerk who mistook me as pregnant). In my culture and my family, we love to cook and we love to eat. I was eating all the right stuff, but my metabolism wasn’t going to just jump into high gear unless I revved its engine. I wasn’t going to be able to eat a lot without exercising. I wasn’t sleeping well. I was stressed by work and became easily anxious. I’m going on a cruise this summer and haven’t been comfortable in a bathing suit since before my first pregnancy (even though I’m at the beach from April through October). My 6-year old daughter can do pull-ups and asks me why I can’t do pull-ups. My husband works out every morning and is reaping all the health benefits of his routine.

A 60-something-who-appeared-80-something male walked into my office a while back. He was blind in one eye, walked with a cane and complained of diffuse, chronic pain. He was overweight and pale. His medication list was two pages long. He had recently been hospitalized for non-healing wounds on his legs. He goes in and out of heart failure and can’t feel the bottoms of his feet because of diabetic nerve damage. He and his wife haven’t had sex in years because of poor cardiopulmonary function and erectile dysfunction. He sleeps on a recliner with a mask because he has sleep apnea. He can’t go see his grandson who plays basketball for a major college team because he can’t sit for the long drive to the Pennsylvania school. He can no longer do his favorite pastimes – gardening and swimming. He expressed to me that he was tired of feeling this way and just wanted his life back. He had no idea where to begin.

How was I going to help this man? We weren’t talking about just helping improve his blood pressure. We were talking about a major lifestyle makeover. The simple answer I gave him was – exercise. Strategic, therapeutic exercise was THE answer to help improve all of his problems – weight, pain, sleep apnea, blood pressure, diabetes, even erectile dysfunction. Exercise, as is turned out, was all I prescribed. I didn’t ask him to run a mile or even go up stairs. We start low and go slow. Eventually, after walking to the kitchen and back several times a day, he’ll be able to make it to the mailbox and back, and then around the block. Maybe then he’ll pick up to a jog instead of a walk and maybe he’ll add some ankle weights. By then the weight will have started to fall off and he’ll see tremendous improvement in his energy, pain and attitude. His numbers will improve as will the length of his medication list.

If it sounds simple, that’s because it is. The human body is a machine that needs the right fuel to run properly. Muscles, joints and organ systems need to move in the way they were intended to avoid stagnation and dysfunction.

If you consider that the most common causes of death and disability are preventable, it’s hard to understand why more people don’t practice preventive medicine. In Western medicine, we use a systems-based approach to treating illness instead of focusing on wellness. We go to the doctor when we are ill and we have specialists who focus on each and every part of the body. Here’s a concept: how about we go to the doctor when we are well to learn how to stay well and consider the body as a whole instead of multiple moving parts???

I’m realizing how little most people know about what to eat and how to exercise. Having been a dancer and cheerleader from elementary school through college, I used to train regularly. At Villanova, cheerleading is considered a Division I sport, so we had nutritionists, exercise trainers, coaches showing us the way for years. But as I speak to my patients, I am learning that most people are confused by the massive amounts of options and misinformation that’s out there. People come to me asking about cleanses and different types of diets – South Beach, Atkins, Nutrisystem. They know they should be dieting and exercising but have no idea how to start and which options to choose.

This past Tuesday I woke up early (without groaning), did 30 minutes on my new stationary bike and then squatted 135 pounds 30 times (pretty good for me). I ate my egg whites (packed with protein) and drank my coffee (rich in antioxidants) and drove to my brand, spanking new office on Roanoke Avenue. I saw 16 patients on my first day there and felt so good about the kind of work we are doing.

At The Suah Center for Natural Healthcare, we practice an integrative model of wellness. We utilize our training in traditional Western medicine and combine it with holistic practices that have been proven effective for thousands of years. We are teachers, first and foremost. We help our patients to understand their conditions and empower them to take control of their health. We preach about putting good fuel in your machine and exercising your machine in a meaningful way. We talk about getting enough sleep, maintaining healthy relationships, doing the things that make us happy and prophylaxing against illness.

Yes, we will encourage you to get your colonoscopy and your flu shot, but we will also be asking you to self-reflect and self-assess. How do you feel about your health? Are you happy with your weight? Your relationships? Your blood sugar? Your work? Are you able to do the things you love? The things you want to do? The things required of you by your work? We might ask you to visit with our nutritionist, acupuncturist, counselor or exercise trainer.

It’s the only model of healthcare that makes sense to me…a model that is going to revolutionize the way our patients feel about themselves and their health. It’s a model that I hope will help the community regain trust in the therapeutic relationship between doctor and patient. It’s a model I’ve used for my own health and wouldn’t believe that it works unless I experienced it myself. I’m down ten pounds, sleeping better, less stressed and looking forward to wearing that bikini in Bermuda this summer!

If you’d like to know more about Preventive and Integrative Medicine, please feel free to contact me at drhugelmeyer@thesuahcenter.com or ask your doctor for advice.

Alexis Hugelmeyer, D.O. is the wife of Michael, mother of Isabella, 5, and Lance, 3, and a family physician whose passion is hands-on manipulation for treatment and healing of any and every type of medical problem. She is the director of community outreach education at Peconic Bay Medical Center and also a private practitioner in Riverhead, where she has founded The Suah Center for Natural Healthcare. A graduate of Villanova University and New York College of Osteopathic Medicine, she lives in Baiting Hollow.

Look for Dr. Mom every Saturday on Riverheadlocal.com

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