I took advantage of it today and was very happy with the service at smilemakersdentistry.com. 310-358-1200.

I had not seen a dentist in 15 months but at that price, I had no excuse.

I do have a problem with grinding my teeth at night and it is wearing away the enamel.

Alexander Technique has something to say here:

Alexander Directions
Let my jaw, lips, tongue, eyes and forehead melt
To let my neck be free
To let my head balance forward and up
To let my back lengthen and widen
To let my knees direct forward from the hips and ankles and away from each other
To let my shoulders widen to the sides
Note: Directions are a sequential set of instructions that help to lengthen the spine, free up the breath, and create mental and physical ease. Directing is the process of thinking, wishing, ordering, projecting or seeing the above series of movements. Although directing may cause physical change, it is important to try not to “do” the directions. Directing is a mental process. Physical changes may occur as a result of directing, but the main focus is the thought. Finally, the sequence of directions is important, since the optimal physical pattern can only occur with the initial freedom of the neck and head.

If you have a problem with clenching and grinding, see if you can catch yourself starting to clench as you begin to unwind during constructive rest or as you drift into sleep. This is a very important moment and takes quite a lot of practice to notice. Alexander Lessons can dramatically heighten your awareness of your body, and can help you to prevent clenching in the daytime and grinding at night. Once you are able to notice the beginning stages of clenching and grinding as you slip into sleep, you have the opportunity to retrain the habit. This approach has worked for both myself and for my students.

Learning the same methods and military techniques used in the Israeli Defense Forces, Counter-Terrorism Special Forces, and accompanied with a high energy workout is guaranteed to leave you feeling strong and fit. An added benefit is getting personal attention from instructor Roy Elghanayan, certified by the Israeli Army with a two time National Champion Krav Maga title. Krav Maga LA’s programs are uniquely distinguished to help it’s students benefit from tailored-fit coaching, and superior training with a fun and challenging experience at Krav Maga LA has kept it’s fellow students continuing to come back for more, as it will you!

Go to pricewave.com right now and save up to 60% on 2 weeks of unlimited Krav Maga classes. And remember, the more you share, the more everyone saves.

I'm going to hunker down at the hovel so I don't get anything before LimmudLA this weekend.

I offered one friend to bring her soup but she knew I was only kidding. I'm way too selfish.

Here in Pico-Robertson, most of us have, I'm not kidding you, about 125 Thanksgiving-level meals a year. Do the math: Just the two Shabbat meals a week account for 104, and when you throw in all the annual holiday meals — which include, by the way, not one or two but eight elaborate meals for a holiday like Sukkot (four meals in the first two days and four more in the last two days) — well, that's a lot of Zantac.

This injection of many millions of guest-honoring calories is one reason why people walk very slowly around here during the holidays.

But one observant Jew who never walks slowly is the trim and perky Deborah Rude (pronounced Ruday), one of the culinary rebels of the neighborhood. Rude, a mother of two, bills herself not as a dietician, but as a "livitician" ("Don't diet, live it!" said the slogan on her business card).

I checked out her office the other day, and, as I pondered the display of flax seed oils, pumpkin seeds and other organic goodies, I couldn't resist asking her if she remembered a specific moment when she snapped — when she knew that her future would be devoid of starch and protein overload.

It turns out that moment was six years ago, at a Shabbat lunch she was invited to in the Hancock Park area. As she recalls it now, all the food platters on the table had a variation of one color: brown. The overcooked potatoes, the kugel, the cholent, the chicken, even the green beans, she said, were "brownish."

She promised herself that day that in the future, all her Shabbat meals would have lots of color, freshness and variety — and, most of all, be served in small portions. In fact, when she hosts her Shabbat guests today, she actually serves the portions herself and never leaves any tempting platters on the table.

"The less we eat," she said, "the more energy we'll devote to singing and speaking words of Torah."

That noble sentiment is shared by another health rebel of our neighborhood: Susan Fink, a mother of four and a member of B'nai David-Judea Congregation.

Fink is hip to the dangers of caloric overload under the cover of religious celebration, but her big thing is the spiritual and physical value of exercise. She's a personal trainer whose goal is "to promote a healthy lifestyle for mind, body and spirit."

Many of her clients, she said, are fellow observant Jews who see exercise as a way to enable their continued indulgence of those neverending festive meals.

Fink tries to set them straight — "two bites of kreplach can be the equivalent of 30 minutes on the treadmill," she warns them — but it's not easy.

Rabbi Myra Soifer had just been ordained one of the first 10 female rabbis in the country and moved to New Orleans to begin her career in 1978 when she was diagnosed with cancer.

In an essay written in a recently published book, "Life, Faith, and Cancer: Jewish Journeys Through Diagnosis, Treatment, and Recovery," Soifer says she is "one of the very lucky ones."

Doctors were able to remove the malignant tumor in the fatty tissue of her left cheek, and she has had a long career since as head of Temple Sinai in Reno.

"They don't get much luckier than I do when it comes to having had cancer," she said.

The book captures how Jewish clergy use their faith to confront cancer. In her essay, Soifer shares the pastoral insight she received in the 48 hours after her surgery and the personal surrender that took her three decades.

When editor Douglas Kohn asked Soifer to contribute an essay to the book, she said she told him there was little to say about her decades-old brush with a disease that could have left her mute.

Kohn, who also is rabbi of Congregation Emanu El in San Bernardino, Calif., knew otherwise.

"Myra has got a richness that's known within the rabbinic community," Kohn said. "I was keenly aware that, although her humble protestations, she would be a wonderful contributor and that just being in Myra's presence, seeing indeed her scar and seeing her management of herself that she had something to teach us all. I'm glad I asked her to reconsider."

The weekend after her surgery, Soifer said she was alone in her apartment and felt as if in a fog, attempting to protect herself in a corner in the fetal position. "That weekend was just the most amazingly terrifying thing that I ever lived through," she said.

It also would become a significant stage when she realized she had escaped death and had been given the opportunity to live an enriched life.

Check out her website SaddlerMD.com.

Pico-Robertson resident Leah Hill was grateful when Chai Lifeline services became available in Los Angeles. Her daughter Tali, now 18, suffers a variety of health problems including seizures, mild cerebral palsy and hearing loss.

Hill said that whenever her daughter is hospitalized, someone from Chai Lifeline visits the hospital each day, bearing kosher meals for the whole family. Even when Tali is back home, a Chai Lifeline teen volunteer visits her each week.

Tali has also attended Chai Lifeline's Camp Simcha Special in Glen Spey, N.Y., where children with intensive medical needs can enjoy a summer camp experience. (Camp Simcha provides a similar experience for children with cancer.) Tali's two sisters have participated in a retreat for siblings.

Hill shared her thoughts while at the Exhale Spa in Santa Monica, where she was one of about 40 women taking a rare break from responsibilities to participate in Chai Lifeline's Seasons of Respite program. The quarterly series provides one-day retreats for mothers with ill children.

"These women have so many demands," said Randi Grossman, the West Coast center's director. "Seasons of Respite programs allow them to get some stress relief and meet with other women who are facing similar challenges."

Marilyn Sohacheski, whose family endowed Chai Lifeline's West Coast office and the Seasons of Respite program, watched with satisfaction as women chatted animatedly over lunch. "Support is so important. Friends mean well but can't provide the same kind of support [as a peer]," she said.

Yorba Linda resident Stella Eliezre said she wouldn't miss the spa day. "It's nice that someone worries about our emotional and physical well-being," she said.

In 2005, Eliezre's son was diagnosed, at the age of 19, with acute myeloid leukemia. When he was hospitalized for an extended period of time, Eliezre called Chai Lifeline for advice on how to enhance his hospital stay.