Linda W.

I’m 56 years old and I’ve been a doctor for 18 years. I love taking care of people, but you can get burned out. I finally decided to make some time for self-care because my health was creeping in not very positive directions, with hypertension and prediabetes. I needed to lose some weight. I’d lost 20 pounds the year before, but it had starting sneaking back on.

The Kripalu Approach to Healthy Weight, (formerly called The Kripalu Approach to Diet: An Integrative Weight-Loss Program) helped me make real lifestyle changes. I’m cooking more, doing yoga twice a week, walking on the treadmill, and doing core training twice a week. I am also now able to leave work stress at work and enjoy myself when I’m home. It’s actually been relatively easy. And it all makes perfect sense from a medical perspective.

I was so impressed with everything that I learned at Kripalu that I came back for another program. I am especially interested in the dietary aspects of healing. Everyone has to eat, so let’s focus them on getting healthy through their food! What I’m learning at Kripalu is not only working for me, it’s making me a better doctor. Now when my patients leave, instead of a prescription, I often give them a card from the local health food store with some specific recommendations. One man had a particularly embarrassing syndrome and hadn’t spoken to anyone in the office during the years he’s been coming. He came in last week, and he was like a new person. He was chitchatting with everyone. He looked so much healthier and happier, and his symptoms are improving—all this mainly through dietary changes. We have to face the facts. Our health-care system is imploding. There’s an increase in medicines, paperwork, and insurance challenges, and still people are not healing. I want to find other ways to treat people, to empower them to help themselves. And to do that, I need to walk my talk.

—Linda W., medical doctor specializing in internal medicine, Marinette, Wisconsin