How High Achievers Need to Learn to Trust Themselves for Wellness

In this week’s episode, Dr. Priyanka Venugopal shares how she went from being stressed out and overweight to getting her health back. She shares some actionable tips anyone can use to learn to trust themselves again and why this is so important in your health journey. For the resources from Dr. Venugopal mentioned in the episode, please visit her website. Watch the episode on YouTube Automated Transcript, please forgive errors. Cheryl McColgan:<br />Hey everyone, welcome back to the Heal Nourish Grow podcast. Today I am joined by Dr. Priyanka. We had this little discussion before we started today. I could pronounce her last name, but I didn’t want to risk messing it up. And she is a board-certified OB-GYN turned health wellness coach. I’m excited for her to share her background with you because a lot of people that listen to this podcast are interested in. Obviously health and wellness, but sometimes specifically weight loss. And she definitely has a great short story to share with us about that. So Dr. Priyanka welcome. And I’m excited for people to hear about your background. Priyanka Venugopal:<br />I’m so excited to be here, Cheryl. Thank you so much for having me. And yeah, you can call me Priyanka. Priyanka just on its own is just fine. Dr. Priyanka or Dr. Priyanka Venugopal. Either way, I will respond to all of those names. Cheryl McColgan:<br />Great. So, if you could just tell people about how you had some struggles, I think even going back to when you were a child with your weight, and I’m guessing that, you know, maybe family background had some things to do with this. So if you could just share with people all about that and then kind of how you, how that followed you into adulthood. Priyanka Venugopal:<br />Yeah, absolutely. So my story, I kind of want to almost start backwards. Right now I am a mind and body health coach for high achieving professional working moms who want to hit their dream body goals while living their real life in a way that feels simple and sustainable. And the reason I’m so incredibly passionate about that for high achieving women is because of my own story. I have been that high achiever again as a physician and as a working mom, really that human that wanted just to do more, be more, like create like. basically want more achievements in my life. And I would say that probably from a really, really young age, that was a lot of my story. I was just the high achiever, the girl in the front of the classroom, like raised her hand and won every single eight plus in gold star. And it really served me well for many years of my life. Obviously it got me into medical school and through residency. But also what happened along the way is a lot of my own. self-concept, the way that I thought about myself, my worth and value was really attached to accomplishment. And, you know, where this over many, many years led to was having a very good on paper life as a physician. I had a very supportive partner and two like very cute and loving kids who drive me crazy half the time. And I also weighed a little over 200 pounds. And this was as this was back in 2018, 2019. And, you know, between you and me, if you have tried to lose weight, you have probably a long history of trying to lose weight, and that was me as well. I have been on that roller coaster for many, many years where I tried every single thing. If you name it, I have probably tried it in some capacity, and it would work until it stopped working. Calorie counting and points and macros and exercising at the gym, I did it all. I w