Find Help for Healthy Eating and Exercise Habits at CareATC

By Jean Yeager

The New Year is a great time to jumpstart your healthy lifestyle goals as part of improving your wellbeing, managing stress and safeguarding your overall quality of life.

But making changes with an eye toward slimming down is easier said than done. That’s why providers at CareATC want to help Cook Children’s employees achieve and maintain a healthy lifestyle and body mass index through potential behavioral changes and health maintenance strategies.

Cook Children’s partners with CareATC to offer enhanced primary care services at multiple locations with quick accessibility. Shital Chavda, M.D., and Cassandra Muff, FNP-BC, provide care at the CareATC Health & Wellness Center at 500 S. Henderson St., less than a mile from Cook Children’s Medical Center- Fort Worth.

Patients can come to CareATC for advice about good nutrition, water consumption, avoiding processed foods, exercise and other lifestyle habits that affect the weight we carry.

“It’s not new information. We all know what we’re supposed to be doing,” Cassandra said. “But people get frustrated when they’re trying to do it and the results are not working as well as they would like.”

Stress eating, convenience foods and lack of time/energy to exercise can all play a role in weight gain. Sweet treats, fast food and overeating can be temptations when people work long shifts, night shifts and stressful jobs. Thyroid problems, hormone imbalance and some medications also affect appetite and weight. But your health care providers can team up with you to help set goals for improving your diet and exercise habits.  

“People feel good when they’re able to set aside some time for a walk or to go to the gym,” Dr. Chavda said. “When they’re just too busy and stressed to make that time a priority, in combination with other habits, it can lead to unwanted side effects like weight gain.”

CareATC provides enhanced access to primary care services for no charge or a reduced cost. Dr. Chavda and Cassandra are accepting new patients, and they specialize in seeing Cook Children’s employees and their covered family members ages 18 and older. Members also have access to four other CareATC locations across the DFW Metroplex.

Visits are 100% covered by Cook Children’s when enrolled in the HRA or EPO plans. For people enrolled in the HSA1 and HSA2 plans, the cost for a diagnostic visit is only $10. Employees not enrolled in a Cook Children’s medical plan have access to acute medical care for $10 per visit.

You can make an appointments on the CareATC mobile app, the Patient Portal at www.careatc.com/patients, or by calling 1-800-993-8244. 

Go to CookNet to learn more about the Cook Children’s HealthyMe wellness initiative, which includes:

·         Discounts for joining Weight Watchers or other recognized weight loss programs 

·         Wondr Health online behavioral counseling program that includes lessons for weight loss and eating tips for preventing heart disease and diabetes

·         Free access to the Wellness Zone workout facility

·         Screening of weight, BMI and other biometrics through Quest Diagnostics