How I Lost my Covid-15 pounds

People much wiser than myself recommend picking a word for each year. After the dumpster fire of 2020, I decided the word I needed for 2021 was HEALTH. I even wrote it across the top of our wall sized, yearly planner in big, block letters.

At the start of COVID, I stress-lost weight, then immediately gained back more than double. Going into 2021, I was determined to fit back into my clothes again (it’s frightening how living in one pair of yoga pants (or scrubs) lends itself to not realizing you can’t fit into the rest of your wardrobe!).

Here’s the list of things that helped me finally lose weight by the end of 2021. I hope you can find some helpful tips in case, like me, you’d prefer to start using the rest of your wardrobe again:

Continue reading “How I Lost my Covid-15 pounds”

How COVID Made Me Not Go Gently into My FIRE Goodnight

Part One:

Difficult Decisions at the Start of a Global Pandemic:

I want to share with the physician FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early/Recreational Employment) community what my thinking was to leave FIRE and return to work.

In 2019, I resigned from the VA when we moved to Medellín, Colombia, for the summer. After we got somewhat settled in Gainesville in August of 2019, I half-heartedly applied for a part-time position at a local hospice.

But after exploring it, I sensed it was a chaotic work environment and knew my heart wouldn’t be in the job. For that reason, I ended up turning the position as a Hospice and Palliative Care physician down.

I intended to let my medical license lapse while I walked away from medicine completely. One thing made me renew my license, though. Now, this next bit sounds a little woo-woo, but in the interest of authenticity, I’m going to tell you.

Continue reading “How COVID Made Me Not Go Gently into My FIRE Goodnight”

How to Make Yourself Happier by Stopping Yourself from Checking Your Portfolio too Often

Here’s another blog from DH on how to make yourself infinitely happier in life. In response to Crispy Doc asking, “What’s the nicotine gum equivalent for portfolio OCD?” DH wrote an entire blog on habit change to answer this question as a follow-up to his blog from last week about why you should only be checking your portfolio every six months: Continue reading “How to Make Yourself Happier by Stopping Yourself from Checking Your Portfolio too Often”

How a Physician slashed her spending

 

We had an 85% savings rate in 2017, which beat our 63% savings rate in 2016! It wasn’t easy. At all.

I know—you’re asking how this was possible and how did we calculate this? And lastly, why would anyone want to save so much money in the first place? (#YOLO crowd, here’s looking at you!) 😉 Continue reading “How a Physician slashed her spending”

Why Do Doctors Write?

He died mid-sentence. Eight years old and talking to me.

“My belly hurt, so I took some pepto from mom and-”

Eyes rolled up before they closed, his head lolled to the side, neck pulseless. Dead before we could hit the code button. An hour later, still dead. Continue reading “Why Do Doctors Write?”