EAP 189: Prescribing Purpose - How Dr. Rasheeda Found Joy in Medicine Again

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[00:00:24] Kimmy Walker here and welcome back to the next episode of the Early Accountability Podcast. So happy to start this episode with you all. I have Dr. Rashida and this is the perfect time of the year. We are talking about new beginnings and refreshing and resolutions, and Dr. Rashida's gonna talk to us today and tell us a little bit about herself, who she is, what she does, and things that she is doing in the world of wellness, and just empowerment for individuals.

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[00:01:03] All right. Well, my name is Dr. Rashida Hall. I am a board certified family medicine and weight management physician.

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[00:01:34] So more time, more accessibility with the patient, and less time doing paperwork.

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[00:01:57] Yes. Talk to us about this and what this is [00:02:00] like because you are everything early accountability right now. Right. This is huge. This is the early stages of a new endeavor for you.

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[00:02:22] I, along with many other physicians. Was unhappy with the lack of understanding and alignment from administration and these healthcare organizations, and knew that there had to be a better way to meet the needs of the patient, as well as my own personal needs for the sake of myself and my family and the direct primary care model.

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[00:03:15] If we cross our fingers, pay for the things that they should be paying for. So I'm excited to be on this journey of creating the environment. I would want myself and those to come after me, and those are that currently in the healthcare arena, I'm excited to create that environment that I would wanna work in and would want for my children.

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[00:03:58] Rates of suicide. Right, [00:04:00] absolutely. So expand on that because some of the misconceptions are there of just because it's prestige and it took a long time or whatever. What does it mean to you when it comes to the purposefulness, when it comes to some of the work that you do?

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[00:04:26] You want that time away from your home and the people you cherish the most to be purposeful and joyful. Majority of people when they go into medicine, majority of us know that it's not a get rich quick scheme, like Right. You know, there's a lot, there's a lot of time and sacrifices that go into getting that degree and even after the degree, the on the job training that comes.

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[00:05:12] answered it.

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[00:05:28] better than this, right? Signs of burnout, which we see often is the lack of joy in what you do the need for.

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[00:06:02] Mm. And so covid for a lot of people. Oh yeah. It heightened that. Now I'm an introvert, so I didn't mind not having to be anywhere else. Right. But I realized that it kind of amplified. The lack of joy that I had, that I started with in going to the job and in helping people improve their health and the quality of life.

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[00:06:50] Mm. And I diagnosed it and sent him to the hospital. Not that I do my job for thanks and gratitude, but I don't know if he knew the [00:07:00] magnitude of what had happened. Mm-hmm. He was elderly and had no previous medical problems. Wow. He's in his seventies and so he's like, okay, well I don't have any issues, so it's gotta be covid.

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[00:07:35] And then that was great. It took on a life of its own and it's still doing well. But what I found after my second child and having difficulties losing weight because I had some health issues that didn't allow me to be as active as I would've liked to be. I was on my own weight loss journey. So I leaned into helping more patients with their weight loss journey and that joy and fulfillment that I found in [00:08:00] baking, I was able to recapture it in medicine.

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[00:08:30] Find a thing that reignites your joy and your passion. And the state of healthcare doesn't allow many physicians to do that. Yeah. 'cause they're just being piled on patients every 10, 15 minutes, you barely have time to think. Patient doesn't feel heard. Nobody's happy. Right? Right. And for those of us who go against the grain and don't care what we're told, we're gonna do things the way we wanna do things, we're able to kind of buck the system a little bit [00:09:00] and say like, well, I'm here as long as you need me to be here.

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[00:09:20] Instead of 10, 15 minute visits, it's 30 to 60 minute visit by appointment only, and so there's nobody dropping in that's gonna take time away from someone who had had an appointment scheduled previously. And so we're able to kind of get down to the bottom of what's going on.

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[00:09:42] Mm-hmm. So I have my own weight loss journey. I definitely understand, and I am so big on wellness and I love cake, right? Mm-hmm. And cookies. Mm-hmm. And pizza. Yes. Right? So yes, you can have it all. Yes, yes. And somebody who has yes, definitely work through obesity and continues to, is always gonna be [00:10:00] something, something always, I'm always, always, always gonna have to deal with.

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[00:10:04] And that's a big misconception, right? People think that, oh, if you just eat right and exercise mm-hmm you should be at a healthy weight. But obesity is a medical condition, just like hypertension, just like, like diabetes. There are medications for those things. And you approach it the same way.

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[00:10:39] That's not always the case. For some reason, society just thinks that it's just back up from the table and run a few extra miles and you should be fine. But that's definitely a misconception that a lot of us physicians in the weight management world are trying to correct.

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[00:11:02] So now too, I think even more so. You touched on a great point about people just think. Eat less. I mean, which it is the core, you know, we're, it's creating a negative caloric deficit in some kind of way, shape, form, or fashion. But also too, when it comes to, you see people now who lost weight. People say, oh, well it must be ozempic or what have you, et cetera.

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[00:11:45] What are some things that fall out of that or signs or things like patterns that you've seen in people who have struggled, especially with obesity?

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[00:12:08] This is not everyone that is at an unhealthy weight, but some people have issues with overeating or binge eating that stems from trauma unresolved, unresolved trauma, correct? Sometimes it's just a matter of environment. Everyone else did it this way. They've habitually over eaten. And so now it's a huge barrier to overcome, to find the tools to not do the thing that they've been doing.

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[00:13:08] Then this came, I can show myself. And so then when she realized that that wasn't healthy and she was trying to lose weight and she saw a number on the scale, she immediately was afraid that the person she was when she was that weight previously would be the person she would become this time. And so we had to spend time discussing that she had a choice.

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[00:13:46] Okay. Correct. And I know there are things you're looking to start and implement and you have started and looking to grow when it comes to holistic wellness.

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[00:14:10] I definitely want the patient to be educated and empowered and knowing that all roads shouldn't lead to medication, but medications are there for those who need it, and so I would have my practice to include all the things that would help with their wellness journey.

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[00:15:01] But yeah, if I can see it contributing to the health and wellbeing of my patient. I would love to be able to offer this service or the information to my patient.

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[00:15:26] Mm-hmm. Showing how you stay healthy. Mm-hmm. Like I think you're. And vacations are hard too. 'cause there's so many like tempting things. Yes. You wanna have fun. You like, oh, I'm just on vacation, I'm gonna eat everything. Mm-hmm. You know, I wanna try everything. Right. But still how you could keep balance. Yes.

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[00:15:53] I envision incorporating some level of coaching into my patient membership, [00:16:00] as well as offering the coaching as a separate entity for those that fall outside of my area of covered medical practice, and so that they are able to access the information that I've found to be most helpful.

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[00:16:42] But me being able to help you sort through what would actually be helpful, as well as packaging things as far as meal plans or fitness routines, to make it easy because yet there's no lack of information. I think for a lot of people [00:17:00] that level of accountability and being able to just have it prepackaged, take some of the barriers.

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[00:17:10] I think it's great too. You really take and say like you are offering and bringing things to the forefront. With so many, like you said, it's really great to hear some of these things too, but if you could like bounce these things off of a doctor as a medical professional, you also have that expertise.

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[00:17:35] the whole picture. Yes. I love to make it personalized. And practical because there's a lot of things out there.

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[00:17:52] going on?

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[00:18:03] You really have to dig deeper than that. That absolutely. Um, and see what. Works for you and what individual pain points, like do you have an issue with hunger? Do you have issue with appetite or cravings, or none of the above, right? You might think that you're doing everything right and there's just, do you have a

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[00:18:22] Mm-hmm. Or,

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[00:18:39] and then how to go forward mm-hmm. With the modifications that you need with that too.

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[00:18:57] You have a wealth of knowledge, so much [00:19:00] going, so much that you have that you're teaching and know, and it's just so useful. Where can the audience find out more about you, like kind of follow you as you're kicking off all these new things? Mm-hmm. And just kind of involving with your practice, your medical practice, and the other services that you're looking to give in the future.

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[00:19:31] Alright, awesome. And Dr. Rashida also too, she's gonna come on YouTube. We're gonna show some pictures. We're going to dig even deeper.

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[00:19:56] Might contribute to unhealthy habits. Mm-hmm. Even though someone [00:20:00] might not be overweight or obese doesn't mean necessarily that they don't have habits that may be harmful to us medically. Right, right. Absolutely. Right. Yes. So people see that. They say, oh, they're big, they're unhealthy. I love, but you just saw this skinny.

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[00:20:18] And they may not feel bad, you know, they call like hypertension, the silent killer. A lot of times you don't feel bad and there's other things that can be going on in your body that you don't feel until it's already done.

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[00:20:54] So there's plenty of things that we need to do just to maintain our health. We may be in [00:21:00] a healthy weight range, but we may not necessarily be healthy. Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah.

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[00:21:20] Mm-hmm. Or just how we live holistically as far as our obligations, as far as being our family, our friends. Mm-hmm. Our work, our career, everything. Yes. So I think, like you said, finances. Completely all intertwines and inter tangles. Mm-hmm. And it makes us who we are. So it's important, like you said, too, to have that like reflection to look at how these different areas may kind of tweak each other, right?

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[00:21:46] I'll share a couple things, at least I know one of the biggest things I tell my patients, for one, because our mindset controls everything, but you can't pour from empty cup. You know how [00:22:00] the flight attendants say, put your own mask on first.

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[00:22:23] I would say that small steps can in fact lead to a big impact.

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[00:22:44] This was already really, really, really good. We're gonna go. Even deeper into it and just get all of this and be able to apply this to ourselves. Yes. I think whether it's weight management or not, I think this is great, great, great information, and it's important for people to know because sometimes, like you said, we don't know.

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[00:23:17] Until next time, it

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