Have you ever wondered how hormones affect your health and contribute to weight gain, obesity and a host of health conditions? Are you ready to break free from the isolation of obesity and tap into the power of community? Want to feel hopeful, inspired, and empowered on your bariatric journey? Today, we’re joined by Dr. Priya Jaisinghani, a triple-board-certified specialist in internal medicine, endocrinology, and obesity medicine at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, trained at NewYork-Presbyterian Weill Cornell. Dr. Jaisinghani discusses obesity from a holistic perspective, exploring hormonal changes, weight management, and the importance of individualized lifestyle prescriptions to empower your health journey.

Tune in, and don’t forget to join the BariNation Community to attend community meetups, watch exclusive bonus content and support the podcast for as little as $5 per month!  You can also contribute to BariNation and become a Drive To Thrive Supporter with a one-time donation.

IN THIS EPISODE:

• (04:51) Dr. Jaisinghani explains her triple board certification in internal medicine, endocrinology, and obesity medicine
• (12:30) Weight bias, seeking weight management and the importance of choosing providers with obesity medicine expertise
• (24:29) Hormones and how other life changes are interrelated, impacting emotional, physical, and mental health
• (30:39) Setting small, achievable lifestyle goals to aid in your bariatric journey
• (43:15) The body is constantly aging and changing, impacting weight management strategies
• (48:15) The basic tenets of health and advice that Dr. Jaisinghani gives patients in the BariNation Community

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• Obesity often thrives in isolation and shame. Weight management support groups, such as the BariNation Community and shared experiences reduce stigma, foster empowerment, and make recovery more achievable through community.
• Hormonal changes, such as menopause, can impact weight loss. Understanding these shifts as natural, rather than personal failure, allows for strategic and guided adjustments to support long-term health.
• Broad advice can feel overwhelming, but small, personalized goals—like simple exercises or gradual changes—build confidence and create sustainable habits worth celebrating.

RESOURCES:

• BariNation Website 
• Tune in, and don’t forget to join the BariNation community to attend community meetups, watch exclusive bonus content and support the podcast for as low as $5 per month!  You can also contribute to BariNation and become a Drive To Thrive Supporter with a one time donation.
• BariNation - Email

GUEST RESOURCES:

Priya Jaisinghani, MD, DABOM (@priya_jaisinghani)

Dr. Priya Jaisinghani - LinkedIn

BIOGRAPHY: 

Dr. Priya Jaisinghani is an endocrinologist and obesity medicine specialist, as well as a Clinical Assistant Professor at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, where she brings expertise shaped by her training at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell. She plays an active role in the Tristate Obesity Society and Obesity Action Coalition. Her work has been featured in major outlets including ABC News, the Today Show, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal.

ABOUT:

If the BariNation podcast helps power your bariatric journey, become a monthly podcast supporter and help us produce the show! Visit www.barinationpodcast.com and help us support people treating the disease of obesity with humor, humility, and honesty.

We need your help to keep the BariNation Podcast in production. Your one-time or recurring donations help us ensure this free support remains open to everyone. Click Drive To Thrive - Donation to learn more and give. THANK YOU for your support!  

April Williams: You've just tuned into a podcast that welcomes you into a community, a resource center, and a safe place that powers your [00:00:15] journey towards personal wellness.

Natalie Tierney: Our goal is you leave us today feeling hopeful, inspired, and ready to live your best bariatric life.

It wants you to stay isolated. It wants you to stay disconnected because that's where it gets its power from. As soon as you tap [00:01:00] into a community, you start attending support groups or classes or meetups, you start talking with other people. You start sharing your story. You start leaning into curiosity and wondering what is possible for you.

In variation. We offer supports for you if you are thinking about having surgery, if you are in the pre-op stages, or if you are post-op. We have the support, the tools, the education, and the resources that you [00:01:45] have been looking for. All you have to do is join. Join Berry Nation, attend any one of our live events and power into community.

She's an amazing triple board certified internal medicine endocrinologist and obesity medicine specialist. She really looks at the, the disease from [00:02:30] a extremely holistic perspective. One of the most important takeaways from this conversation, what you're gonna hear is that our hormones change throughout our life, and it can feel like nothing is [00:02:45] changing, that everything is just status quo, and then all of a sudden one day boom.

That's actually normal. That's just aging. That is human progression. It's [00:03:15] how we address those things that are going on in our life that can have a positive impact on how we treat our disease. It's not necessarily always the disease that's getting in our way. It's these other things going on in our life.[00:03:30]

Taking time to be proud of just us for making the conscious [00:04:00] decision to treat this disease as a disease. Is how we can lift the shame and the stigma and maybe the burden that the disease has been playing in our life. It's an amazing conversation. I can't wait for you to meet her. [00:04:15] Uh, and just know being proud is actually a tool that we can use.

Dr. Priya Jaisinghani: I am triple boarded in internal medicine, endocrinology and obesity medicine, and that means that after med school I went to internal ME [00:05:00] medicine residency, and after I completed my residency, I decided I wanted to specialize and go into fellowship for endocrinology and post that. I also took my obesity medicine boards.

So I got a lot of education about. Obesity medicine. So I was able to also board certify in that. So currently I have all three board certifications active and [00:05:45] I practice endocrinology and obesity medicine at.

April Williams: Insane. I mean, absolutely amazing. I have a few pieces of paper hanging on my wall, but I cannot imagine the amount of education that that you've gone through.

Dr. Priya Jaisinghani: Absolutely April. So, you know, I learned even [00:06:15] prior to entering my career as a doctor, the repercussions and ramifications of living with a disease like obesity and weight related comorbidities like diabetes.

There's so many other factors. Right. Your ethnicity, where you live, what you have access to, hormonal changes. Other disease processes. Right. And I lived through [00:07:00] that experience. My grandmother ended up passing away, um, after that massive heart attack that she had and complications of it. And it really, you know, got me thinking from a young age, um, what I can do in society to help.[00:07:15]

April Williams: Mm-hmm.

So that's why it was very important for me to go to a program where I could get that training and come out triple boarded.

So it really does take getting to know you as an individual and then [00:08:00] understanding how the disease is impacting your life and then treating it that way instead of just applying like a one size fits all model to people.

Mm-hmm. In the medical community. It was only established about 10 years ago that obesity is a disease.

April Williams: Yep.

So I think we've had a journey, right? I think obesity was often misunderstood, I think still is, uh, you know, mm-hmm. Today, and we're working on [00:08:45] that. It's a work in progress. Um, but it's definitely underdiagnosed and undertreated. And we've made progress there as well. We do have new pharmacotherapies. We do have more doctors boarding in [00:09:00] obesity medicine.

When I boarded, it was probably half the number of doctors that are boarded right now, so there's probably a. Over 9,000 obesity medicine boarded doctors across the US and Canada. When I boarded, it was closer to probably 5,000. Wow.

Dr. Priya Jaisinghani: So we also have many, uh, doctors that are now interested in treating this disease process, which is really important because there's a huge need.

April Williams: Yes. So maybe let's take a, a step back. When you say that you are obesity board certified, how does that set you apart from the internal medicine part of, of your expertise?

Okay. So there's a couple of pathways that you can take to become obesity board certified. You can go through a program that has a [00:10:00] fellowship in obesity medicine. So certain centers have that and certain institutions have that. Or you can take the board examination for obesity medicine if you've studied on your own through courses.

Grasp the material [00:10:30] and be able to treat a person as a person, right? Mm-hmm. We can learn all the guidelines, all the screening and everything, but um, not everybody is a textbook case, right? Yeah. Yes. So you need to be able to navigate that because like you [00:10:45] mentioned, actually obesity is not one size fits all, right?

What have your challenges been? What have your wins been? You know, what is your, um. Goal, right? Mm-hmm. [00:11:15] What, uh, have you tried? What have you not tried? What would you like to try? Right? Where can I help? Yeah. What are your other medical conditions, right? So, so many things that are involved that don't come from just guidelines that we read about, right?[00:11:30]

And then how do you see me maybe offering to, to help? That's a very different conversation, and I think that speaks to that, that obesity medicine [00:12:00] specialization that you have. Doctors are going to approach it differently. And I think that's, that's what's so important for us to know as patients, seeing a doctor, that is something we have to do.

Dr. Priya Jaisinghani: So the medical community is also, um, we're all humans, right?

Using first person language for this disease process, learning that obesity is a disease, how to treat it right, and so it's a multitude of factors that physicians may be facing. [00:13:00] One may be, yes. There may be inherent weight bias and weight stigma, and the medical community is also subject to that. Mm-hmm.

Take an exam and you're boarded in it. There are some fundamentals and [00:13:30] foundations which you are taught, such as using first person language, being sensitive to the disease process itself, and the person who's sitting in front of you, right? I think we forget that many individuals who [00:13:45] come into your office seeking your health for weight management.

They have probably tried to lose weight several times before they have stepped into your office

April Williams: doors. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

April Williams: Yeah.

Dr. Priya Jaisinghani: Right. And we need to realize that we can be quite, quite traumatic for some people.

April Williams: Mm-hmm.

Um, that they used to use food as a coping mechanism when they were growing up, or that they think they potentially have an eating disorder. Mm-hmm. And I've had patients cry in front of me. Yeah. [00:14:45] Probably multiple times during my clinic days. I see people who really, um, you know, have an emotional reaction when they talk about this because it is emotional and mental and physical.

So the fact that your patients are feeling like they can share those things with you is monumental. [00:15:30] And it's a release as a patient to finally be able to say these things, these scary things out loud, to just get them out and into the open. But man, it, it takes a lot, it takes a lot of courage, uh, to, to get there.

Mm-hmm. When somebody comes to my office and I've realized to really respect that. Right. Because yeah. So many of us think that it's a failure.

April Williams: Mm-hmm.

Yes, we would. Yes. So everyone is taught, you know, if medical training, like if we don't know what to do and [00:16:30] there's something wrong with a patient crashing in the hospital saying you hit that button on the wall for a rapid response, right? Yeah. And I think that's very similar in real life when you need help.

April Williams: Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. The first question you should sit down and ask is, how can I help you? Because they're there for help.

He wants to learn, right? He, he wants to, to just understand the world around him, and he is [00:17:30] never afraid to ask for help. But as we grow older, we just grow out of that and. Yeah. All of a sudden it becomes a bad thing to, to need to, want to ask for help. It's like this, you know, individual nature of, of, I don't know, our culture, our [00:17:45] country, uh, I don't know what it is, but man, it absolutely takes hold and.

That's not a bad thing. That's actually a good thing because now you finally have a pathway forward instead of just sitting back and saying, oh my gosh, this, I have no control over this and I'm gonna live like this forever. No, there are plenty of things that are within our control as patients that we really [00:18:30] can focus on, levers that we can pull and we should ask for help.

We've never treated it as a disease before. Everything's new.

April Williams: Yeah.

Mm-hmm. [00:19:15] Nobody's asking for a disease. Yeah. So it's not someone's fault. This is physiology and pathophysiology and biology, right? Yeah. In, in reality, this is not fault. So I think we need to shift from that, um, and really focus on, uh, [00:19:30] more of a solution based approach. Right? So. And that solution based approach has to be very personalized to the individual.

Mm-hmm. It has to be specific to the person who's

But again, that's not going to serve you because how the disease manifests in my life is gonna be different than your life because we are very, very, very different people. So this [00:20:15] individualized approach to treatment is, I wanna say, the future of medicine, but it's available for you today, and there's no reason to feel.

Dr. Priya Jaisinghani: Yeah, absolutely. And I think part of that is also like we were talking about, you know, going to a provider who's equipped with that training. Yes, right. Equipped with that knowledge, you know.

What [00:21:00] board certifications do they have, right?

April Williams: Yeah.

April Williams: Mm-hmm. Absolutely.

Dr. Priya Jaisinghani: Think really important.

You know, board certifications also. Yeah. You know, people still may not have that real hands-on training that they might [00:21:45] need, you know? Yeah. Even if they're not board CER certified and some may, even if they're not board certified. So it's really about also having that dialogue with your physician. Do you feel comfortable with, you know, treating obesity as a disease?

April Williams: Mm-hmm.

Take care of this. Let me start the process and maybe then send you there, or let me, let me start the process and continue treatment with you, you know?

April Williams: Yeah.

April Williams: yes, we, we talk about this often we are allowed to try on our providers, like we try on a pair of Levi's.

They. That's how we do it.

Right? Yeah, [00:23:00] and I think that's okay. If someone wants to get a second opinion or change providers, they should because you should be happy with your care. Mm-hmm. You should absolutely be happy with your care. Yep. So, and it's so important. It's your health. Right? It's, and [00:23:15] that's the most important thing.

April Williams: Awesome. Awesome. Let's switch gears here a little bit. Sure. We had, uh, a question, [00:23:45] maybe a question is the right word. We. We have a member of our community, uh, and they're really struggling with their return of hunger. They're feeling like a failure. They're feeling that it is overwhelming their life again, [00:24:00] and they just don't know what to do.

Dr. Priya Jaisinghani: So the [00:24:30] body is a very regulated system and hormones play a big role in that, you know? Um, and they're constantly changing. And I think that's also something that we need to remember throughout our life. You know, our hormones may also [00:24:45] change, uh, for example, right? Um, I get females who are per menopausal and menopausal who are coming to the office and sometimes.

Uh, for your physical health, there's social transition points. You know, at that age and time in your [00:25:30] life, you might have other responsibilities, your family, maybe caretaking responsibilities, career changes, right? Mm-hmm.

April Williams: So

Dr. Priya Jaisinghani: this is a time for a lot of change. Your hormones may be changing, your life may have a lot of changes at that time.

Shifts, you may have some unraveling of or development of insulin resistance, what [00:26:00] we call dysglycemia, right? Abnormal sugar levels, whether that's pre-diabetes, diabetes. Weight changes, right? Metabolic conditions can really come up at this time. Mm-hmm. And it's really important to pay attention to your body [00:26:15] composition because you can start having lean muscle mass loss as early as after age 30, which can change your body composition as well.

And, um, you have some other [00:26:45] hormones too, like the thyroid. Um, you have cortisol. Uh, there are so many hormones that we have to. Look into when we're really treating weight as a disease.

And then we, we hit this wall, right, where it's just like things stop working as well as they should. And I'm putting [00:27:15] this in in air quotes. It's almost always coupled with something else going on in your life, right? It can be a job change, a death of a family member, the welcoming of of, of a new child or a pet, right?

But because we're so used to just blaming ourselves, I can't do this. I'm never gonna figure this out, right, that just feels more comfortable. But really it could be these [00:28:00] other things that are throwing it off and that can impact our hormones, and then that impacts our weight loss and the things that we're experiencing on a metabolic level.

Dr. Priya Jaisinghani: Yeah, it's all

April Williams: interrelated.

Because you're having biological changes also. [00:28:30] Um, you're having. Other pivotal moments in your life at that time.

April Williams: Mm-hmm.

Dr. Priya Jaisinghani: Everything is interrelated. Your emotional, physical, mental health and life. Right? Yeah.

April Williams: Yes.

Right. I see some patients that are coming in and as a person who's a career woman myself, you know. I see younger females who are coming in who are also struggling with, for example, fertility, right? [00:29:00] Mm-hmm. They have met a crossroad in their career where their career has been taking a high, but they also wanna build their family, and oftentimes those are going against each other, right?

Yeah. Yes. You're most important. So when I, when I have patients coming in, I have literally sat down with some of my patients who are parents. You know, and I've sat down with them and I've said, okay, who is going to watch your child for five [00:29:45] minutes while they're showering? So you can go do five minutes of exercise?

April Williams: Mm-hmm.

April Williams: yeah.

So they're very specific. But again, everything should be tailored to someone individually.

April Williams: Yes. Right.

Mm-hmm. So then we go to their phone, we find the health app. Right. We open it up. Most of the time we're registering and, you know, seeing what's, except not decline. All of this. Mm-hmm. Stuff we [00:31:00] finally get there. Oh my gosh, Dr. JI didn't even know that this was on my phone. Right. Yeah. And, or oh my gosh, I didn't know I could go back and see my weekly staff average.

Yeah.

April Williams: Yeah.

April Williams: Yeah, that's a,

Dr. Priya Jaisinghani: that's a big leap. That's a big leap, right? Yeah. But sometimes that happens where people may just be told you have to be doing 150 minutes of exercise.

Instead of it being a medication prescription, this is a lifestyle prescription. Let's talk about your water intake. Right? Let's talk about how many steps you're walking. Let's talk about where you are with exercise, right? What is considered exercise for [00:32:00] you? Mm-hmm.

April Williams: Right?

Dr. Priya Jaisinghani: So I might tell somebody, okay, we're gonna go from 2,500 steps to 3,500 steps.

April Williams: Yeah.

April Williams: [00:32:45] Yes. I think often as patients, especially patients who've chosen to onboard surgery, we are looking for a solution that is based in medicine as we traditionally think of it, right As [00:33:00] as a pill or these new anti-obesity medica, right? Like there should be something that my doctor can give me that will help me with this.

But if you're telling yourself up here, well, I can never [00:33:30] do that, or That's just too much, or I'm already overwhelmed. Correct? You're not going to do it then, but you're going to continue to just spin your wheels because what will be most helpful is actually right here, accessible to you in this moment.

Dr. Priya Jaisinghani: Right. You can make a goal for every week. Yeah. Every two weeks. And it can be fun and it doesn't have to be so stressful, right?

April Williams: Yeah. Yeah. It

Mm-hmm. For fun, right? Yes. Most of the time it's, uh, going out for drinks, going out for dinner Right. Or something like that. [00:34:15] Um, but you know, how often are we gonna take a boxing class together or, you know, yes. Instead doing, uh, paint and sip, you know? Yeah. Do something else, right? Yes. That's canoeing or rock climbing or whatever it is, right?

April Williams: Somebody I, this, this is like music to my ears. Somebody the other day in Berry Nation posted, uh, in, [00:34:45] in our social feed, they had said, Hey, kids are out of the house.

And it's not to say that this isn't gonna be part of it at all, but it's us taking a step back and going, well, what else [00:35:15] could we do? Or, you know, how could we swap this? And the ideas from the community were just. And inspiring and that's part of the work of weight loss surgery is learning to kind of reprogram what we do up here for for fun and how we socialize with [00:35:30] people because there's so much more to life than just getting together for dinner and drinks.

It's almost endless. Yeah.

Yes. Right. Just have fun. Right? Yes. Sometimes. We just need a little bit of a break, and [00:36:00] that's okay. Yes. Right. There's so many ways to integrate small little breaks into things. Like I tell people, you know, we often we're sitting down when we're on the phone and talking. So when I started doing personally, I would go on kind of wellness walks, right?

April Williams: [00:36:30] That's awesome.

So I would pick somewhere I wanted to walk to. Yeah. And obviously the city was shut down, nobody was out, really. Mm-hmm. And, um, you know, while maintaining safety and distance and everything, I would call a friend, pop [00:37:00] on my headphones and walk. Right. And, and it becomes quite a, uh, once you are comfortable with some of those things, it becomes something that's part of your routine, right?

April Williams: Mm-hmm.

Dr. Priya Jaisinghani: On the weekend. Yeah. Whatever, right? Yeah. And things change, right. You may tell us like, Hey, let's go on a walk.

I lead some things in variation, and then I also attend the support groups as a patient, and nine times out of 10, I'm doing so from my treadmill or from my. For my bike because it's an opportunity for me to get some extra [00:37:45] movement in, still do the things that I wanna do, but also it just keeps me connected to my goal of becoming a person who moves more often than not.

Uh, logging into to a Berry Nation Zoom session a, a support group, and just listening, I. Is connecting. You're hearing other people, you're hearing their stories. Your brain is firing and making [00:38:30] these comparisons between what they're saying and what your life is. That's the beginning of forming these connections that are so critically important.

As we continue to treat this disease of obesity, it's isolating, and we have to fight back against that isolation.

I had my [00:39:00] family members' wedding and I was not Any photos. Yeah. Breaks my heart, you know, I. I'm gonna help you do whatever you would like to with your health, and I hope that we get to a 0.1 day [00:39:15] where you're taking those photos, right? Yes. Yes. Putting them. I would love for someone to feel confident about themselves.

Yeah. Whatever that is, that may be a trigger, [00:39:45] right? Sometimes buying new clothes, right? Mm-hmm. Trying the car. Mm-hmm. Um, it can be a simple thing. You going out to a dinner with somebody and you bought a new outfit, or you're struggling to buy that new outfit or, you know, it can trigger, it can be so triggering for so many people.

April Williams: Mm-hmm.

Incredible journeys on their own that I've got to witness, you know? Yes. Help along the way and, um, not only empowered themselves, but empowered [00:41:00] others. Mm-hmm. Which is so powerful.

And it's living, living their life out loud, living their life authentically is the, the path forward, I think for other people, because when you realize that person used to look like me and I know what it feels like to, to live [00:41:30] like me in this moment, but if somebody who looked like me and I know what they're thinking can live a life like that, then there's hope and possibility for me too.

They're going to see that. That's how, that's how we change.

April Williams: Yes. And

Dr. Priya Jaisinghani: they're like, I also want to improve some things that are going in my life or in my house.

I'm also gonna go and seek some help.

April Williams: Mm-hmm. I

Mm-hmm. Losing this much weight this quickly. Right. And I was like, wait, wait, we [00:42:45] have to talk about this. Right. You are different than that person. Mm-hmm. In maybe many different arenas. Mm-hmm. So we have to focus on you, right? Mm-hmm. And your improvements and your challenges, and your struggles and your barriers.

April Williams: [00:43:15] Reminds me well of what we were really just talking about your, your hormones, your body, you're always aging. So while we can go through this periods of our life where we feel like everything is staying the same, I think it's a really important check for [00:43:30] us to just acknowledge everything is not staying the same.

That could be a moment to really step back and go. I was always changing. I was always getting to this point, but now it's kind of crossed this threshold at this point where I need [00:44:00] to do something different because the change has been great enough to not keep working with the things that I was doing.

We, we all think we're invincible, [00:44:30] right? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. We're in, we're in our twenties, right. But I often have people coming in their thirties and they don't realize, right. That that lean muscle mass. Loss started. Yeah. Nobody's talked to them in their mid twenties about doing [00:44:45] the strength and resistance training to help prep for that.

That at 30, so many changes start happening.

It's not, it's not a you thing, it's a, your, your hormones in your body are, are aging and things [00:45:30] are changing. So focus on what you can focus and control on and then work with a, a medical professional, hopefully somebody that's obesity board certified right, to help you through these normal life changes.

These are things that may not, um. Be Maybe for example, I've had patients lose 70 pounds of weight and their [00:46:15] cholesterol hasn't budged. Right? Oh

April Williams: yeah. '

Dr. Priya Jaisinghani: cause they have a genetic predisposition, right? Yeah. And you do need medication therapy for that, and that's okay. Right? Sometimes you need to adjust to the cards that you're dealt right.

April Williams: Mm-hmm.

We start with the basic tenets, the basic foundations of health, right? Which I think are often not talked about enough, right? Because they're actually really challenging.

Dr. Priya Jaisinghani: Yeah. So you know these lifestyle prescriptions that I was talking about, right?

How much protein are you getting? How much fiber are you getting? How's your stress reduction? Right? So it's so easy to say, oh, don't stress. Right. Yeah, but what, what does that really mean, right? Mm-hmm. So [00:47:30] sometimes I see, you know, it's also struggle because. There are stigmas in other arenas too, right? So if I tell someone anxiety, depression, and eating habits, right?

If I had a perfect situation, right, where I had, let's say, my own facilities, my own practice, I would have a exercise physiologist, a [00:48:15] nutritionist or a dietician, a weight management specialist, probably other specialist, right? Cardiac specialist, GI specialist. Right. Everyone in one arena, um, and clinical psychologists and psychiatrists, so important.

April Williams: Mm-hmm.

Dr. Priya Jaisinghani: Right. Where is that stemming from and why is it stemming that way?

Mm-hmm. Everyone goes through stress during the day. Mm-hmm. [00:49:15] So what's a better outlet? Mm-hmm. Right? Mm-hmm. So we need to sometimes build these mechanisms of what we should do sometimes in these situations.

April Williams: Yeah. And

Yeah. Right. What is your relationship with food? Sometimes it's about timing of eating. When do you eat? Right? Sometimes for some people, even food order may be important. Mm-hmm. Right. [00:49:45] How your body metabolizes that sugar. Right. So there are so many factors around, um, nutrition that I think can be discussed.

And then it's the all or nothing thinking, right? It's like, if I can't handle, if I can't do all of these things, then I'm not gonna do any of them. That again, keeps us stuck. Yeah. So what, what, what advice or what [00:50:30] recommendation would you pass along to a patient that is maybe feeling that overwhelmed?

Dr. Priya Jaisinghani: So there's a couple of things. One is in my practice, I see my patients every one to two months.

April Williams: Okay.

Two, what needs to be worked on. Three, to develop. Small treatment goals. Right? Yeah. And I think just focusing on one or two things at a time is okay. Mm-hmm.[00:51:30]

Overwhelmed that everything needs to be finished in one visit and everything's gonna be sorted.

April Williams: Yeah.

Dr. Priya Jaisinghani: You know, I'm gonna walk out and everything's gonna be fixed.

April Williams: Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. And that might require multiple meetings. [00:52:00] Mm-hmm. Multiple sessions to see somebody working on maybe. Multiple different comorbidities, different health problems, maybe really optimizing health from all different standpoints, right? So that may take time. So give [00:52:15] yourself grace. First thing, give yourself grace.

Board certified doctors or doctors who have a lot of experience in what you're looking for. Mm-hmm. So these are the few things that I would pay attention to. And then also be proud of yourself when you're [00:53:00] achieving your goals. Mm-hmm. I think we forget that, you know, I love to do something with my patients when they start hitting around the one year mark of meeting with me, I like to go back to their first visit.

Dr. Priya Jaisinghani: Oh, it's amazing. I go back to their first visit, you know, the notes that I wrote and where they were with all their parameters, their blood work and their vitals and everything. And we go through and I always tell 'em, do you remember when you came to me? We were here [00:53:30] and now we're here.

Mm-hmm. I tell my patients like the achievements that they have. Whether my patient has come to me and lost 10 pounds or a hundred pounds, I'm proud of all of them. [00:54:15] Yeah, right. It's, that's not the differentiating factor, but the fact that they're there, they're committed. Yeah. They're working on themselves and they're optimizing their health.

April Williams: Mm-hmm.

Dr. Priya Jaisinghani: Themselves.

Think back to one of your doctor's appointments that you've had in in the last [00:55:00] year. The, the fact that you are even listening or watching this podcast means that you have leaned into curiosity. You understand that you are fighting something that is a little bit outta your control and a disease, and you want [00:55:15] to be better.

Now I'm five and a half years post-op, and I almost feel like [00:55:45] I'm not scared of the disease anymore. I know it's a disease. I know it's there. I know it's always gonna be a part of my life, but I'm not scared of it because it's been brought out into the light. I can see it for what it is. I am an active part of the community.

And that's huge for, for me to be able to let go and just say, I don't know how I'm going to to deal with this, but I know where to [00:56:30] go to start.

Dr. Priya Jaisinghani: Yeah,

April Williams: that's massive.

Dr. Priya Jaisinghani: I, I wasn't a part of your care team, Martin, but I'm very proud of you, just as a fellow human for, for going through that. And I'm, I'm really proud to everyone who's listening as well.

You know. Partake in a lot of people's journeys and, uh, just touch their lives and be a part of, uh, helping them in a way that I can, yes.

Is space and grace. We have to give ourselves the space to know that this is going to [00:57:30] take time to figure out and the grace to understand that we are all human. And learning to, to take stock of where we have come and be proud of that is, is worth the practice because it's, it's how we really let go of [00:57:45] some of that shame and some of that blame.

So thank you for giving us that exercise that we can, that we can walk through. This conversation has been amazing. Thank you for your time. You welcome, welcome. If people want to connect with you, where can they do so?

For everyone else, you can find me on x on Instagram, um, on multiple social media platforms.

Again, thank you so much for your time. We appreciate you.

April Williams: We are proud. We're proud today. Bye friends.

Natalie Tierney: Join us@barination.mn.co.

Jason Smith: And just remember at the end of the day, you've got this. We've got you. And we'll see you next time. Bye [00:59:15] everybody.