Years later, I carried that same discipline into my plastic surgery practice. As a solo practitioner, I pushed through days and months of fatigue to keep the important balls of patients, surgeries, and family life all dancing merrily in the air, relying on caffeine, sugar, and sheer willpower. As you might imagine, I gained weight—a lot of it.

While I knew the fried chicken and biscuits I was now eating (having moved to the South and no longer having to fit into a tutu!) was a big part of the new weight I was carrying, I didn’t realize the impact that living in a state of constant stress was having on my metabolism and my health.

So I gritted my teeth, stopped looking in the mirror, and kept working. Until, one day, it all came crashing down…for the first time.

I was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit with a large blood clot in my leg that had traveled to my lungs, a pulmonary embolism (PE).

I was lucky, because it was a PE that had prematurely taken my father’s life years earlier.

You would think that would be enough for me to change my lifestyle. But it wasn’t….

It wasn’t until the third clot and ICU stay in less than a year that I finally made the connection.

Because this time, it became a literal "do or die" situation.

Each hospital stay had taken a lot out of me and each time it took longer to recover.

The third time, I almost didn’t make it back home. But I did, and I vowed to get my health under control.

At first, all I could manage was to change how I ate. So I did, eating simple, nourishing foods that my body liked.

And I started having a little more energy.

Then I chose movement that I enjoyed and I gained strength.

I got additional training in Lifestyle Medicine and began experimenting with healthy and effective ways of reducing stress and sleeping better. I practiced mindfulness and mindset strategies….

These trials and ah-ha moments led me to a wonderful discovery: First, I realized that my body responded best to certain foods, movements, sleep patterns, and mindset.

And when I listened and applied these, I began to feel better than I had in years. I lost the excess weight without dieting.

People began asking what I was doing, how I managed to look younger each year (and, of course, many assumed that it was because I was still a plastic surgeon at the time!).

At first, I just talked with a few close friends.

Then I realized how important it was to share this knowledge with other busy professionals who didn't realize how simple it could be to feel and look their best…holistically.