"I was already practicing Clinical Endocrinology. I had completed my medical school, my internship, my residency, my fellowship and I was practicing as a clinician. Something was not right — it's not fun to start somebody on insulin and then you know they come back and their sugars are still not better because what's feeding the diabetes has not been fixed. It wasn't what I think my top performance. I was like, 'Is this the best I can do? I wasn't doing the best I could do and maybe that was burning me out.'"

"So I decided, 'I'm gonna have to go to a physician leaders conference in Harvard — this was only for women physician leaders.' I saw Dr Beth Frates there. She was hula hooping in a very small room with all these other women doctors and she was talking to them as she was hula hooping. She uttered two words that really changed my world. She said "Lifestyle Medicine". I've done medical school, residency, fellowship, I'm a practitioner for so many years! Never heard of "Lifestyle Medicine!" I felt, 'Have I been living under a rock? How come I don't know this? How am I supposed to treat diabetes patients and not have the science of Lifestyle Medicine?' She said, 'Oh! You can get board certified in this,' in that talk. That was it! That was when I found, 'Okay! I have to do this! That became my purpose, my ikigai.' I think that engagement, that learning, that Board review manual on the weekends really became the antidote to my burnout."

"If you don't feel optimal, the chances are you may not be able to help your patients as best as you can. You may not be able to give your best and so if you don't want to do it for yourself, do it for your patients because all of us want to do the best for our patients. Yeah so take that first step."