Welcome to the first episode of our annual Thriving in the New Year interview series! Every January, I sit down with physician coaches to hear how they're approaching the year ahead—and I always learn something that shifts my own thinking. This year is no different.

I'm joined by three brilliant physician coaches: Dr. Jessie Mahoney (pediatrician and mindfulness coach), Dr. Allison Anderson (cardiothoracic anesthesiologist and relationship mentor), and Dr. Wendy Schofer (pediatrician specializing in eating disorder prevention). We got into words of the year, what it means to feel whole, why satisfaction is so hard for physicians, and how to approach goals in a way that actually feels good.

Jessie shared her words for the year—strategic and focused, wealthy and healthy, brave and bold—and her decision to filter everything through one question: is it fun? Wendy opened up about surviving the hardest year of her life and landing on "whole" as her compass for saying no. And Allison gave us a completely different approach to New Year's intentions: focusing on experiences you want to have and setting monthly themes instead of rigid goals.

We also talked about why working harder backfires in certain areas of life, how we were literally trained not to feel satisfied, and what it means to stop just "plugging holes" and start bringing your whole self to your life.

Featured Guests:

Dr. Jessie Mahoney – Pediatrician and full-time physician coach offering mindful coaching and retreats through Pause and Presence. Find her at jessiemahoneymd.com

Dr. Allison Anderson – Cardiothoracic anesthesiologist and dating/relationship mentor for women physicians. Find her on Instagram @AllisonAndersonCoaching (two L's in Allison)

Dr. Wendy Schofer – Pediatrician specializing in eating disorder prevention through her Family in Focus program for parents. Find her at wendyschofermd.com

You've made it through another year. Maybe the holidays went well. Maybe you've eaten more cookies than planned and you're already dreading January.

Either way, here's what I want you to know: Nothing is wrong with you.

In this episode, I share my year-end love letter to you—a physician who's probably being too hard on herself. We'll talk about why your experience around food isn't a given (even with years of "evidence"), how to stop the internal tug-of-war with food, and why acknowledging your own needs matters more than any diet plan.

This is for any woman physician ready to head into the new year without the shame spiral.

In medical school, we learned to push feelings down, distance ourselves from them, and keep working no matter what. That is an essential skill as a doctor - we have to be able to keep a clear head in intensely emotional times.

But it's also the reason why food feels so hard to control as doctors.

In this episode, I'm breaking down: why emotions drive so much of our eating (even when it doesn't feel like "stress eating"), how to actually notice what you're feeling before you're elbow-deep in the chip bag, and simple techniques you can use between patients to process emotions without anyone knowing.

I'll share my own story of how frustration with getting my kids out the door was ruining my entire day and driving my eating—and how working on that one emotion had ripple effects I didn't expect.

This episode is for you if you're tired of feeling out of control around food and ready to understand what's really going on underneath.