Focusing on Physical Health to Prevent Physician Burnout? Really?

Nov 19

By now, we have all heard that coaching is one of the gold standards for treating physician burnout. It is an amazing tool that is helping our profession to regain empowerment, self-compassion, and autonomy.

One of the areas of physician health that I love to focus on is the optimization of our physical health. Now, there are many reasons for this beyond the fact that our profession is physically demanding. In fact, improving physical health is crucial in preventing physician burnout.

Here’s why:

Engaging in regular physical activity and maintaining a balanced diet not only fosters physical well-being, but also significantly reduces stress. Additionally, a healthy diet fuels the body, heightening energy levels and overall vitality.
Regular exercise releases endorphins, the body's natural mood-boosters, which can help combat the worry and anxiety often associated with demanding professional environments.
Increased stamina from optimal physical health strategies can better equip us to manage the high-stress situations that we encounter daily.
Prioritizing physical health can also lead to improved sleep, which is essential for recovery and endurance.
Through a physical health focus, we as physicians can foster resilience, thus preventing burnout, and enabling us to continue providing exceptional care to our patients while also caring for ourselves.
When we prioritize our own health, we are taking back the power of how we choose to show up for ourselves and those who depend on us.

And there is more:

The strategies to achieve optimal physical health are simple. In fact, I am going to share my top strategies right here today. Now, knowledge is one thing. The implementation is another. It is important that we start small and set realistic goals, plus enlist a support system to help keep you accountable.

Here are my top physical health strategies I want to share with you:

Meet Yourself Where You Are NOW. If you can find love, acceptance, and compassion for where you are now, you will be willing to invest in yourself for the long haul.

Set Realistic Goals And Ask For Help in planning a sustainable program that is specific to you. In other words, get to know yourself and what you need so you can have a program designed for your unique needs.

Engage in a Strength Training Program. The goal is 3 days per week, and 30 minutes per session is plenty. If you aren’t familiar with safe programming, find a source that you trust to program your routines.

Get Your Steps. Long hours of cardio is not going to be sustainable. So unless you are training for a race, start to think of how you are engaging in cardio. Now, if you love it - great, keep doing it. However, if you are doing it because you think you should, it is time to rethink.
Getting 5k or more steps per day will improve your cardiovascular health and longevity. So take the stairs and avoid the hospital shuttle (if you can), even park further away. Steps save lives!

Eat Your Protein! Most of us just don’t eat enough protein consistently. This will prevent us from optimizing body composition, which is so important if we are going to age into a functionally fit older adult. Don’t know how much? Get advice from a trusted source; you will be so glad you did.

Get Snobby with Your Extras. Eat the cake. Drink the bourbon. Just make it the best. That means no more stale cupcakes from the doctor’s lounge.

Get Into Your Life. Often, when we are so emotionally dysregulated, we avoid our life. We want you in the life you have worked so hard to create. Learn some emotional processing techniques and understand the blocks you are facing so you can release them… all of them.

Your Health is Non-negotiable. Investing in our vessel is the greatest gift we can give ourselves. And, I am so passionate about it that I have created a company just for physician health. And, you can earn CME Credit all while you are taking care of yourself. Sounds like a Win-Win to me.

Join me this January as we embark on season 7 of Transform®. I will be with you every step of the way as you experience physician coaching in a whole new way.

You can learn more about Transform® 7.0 HERE. Please note, we are offering $1,000 off until November 30th, 2023 as a fast action bonus!! We would love to see you in our amazing group.

Learn more HERE.

I also hosted a live info session this past week, where I answered the questions we get about the program. It was so much fun! Check it out below...

xo-
Ali