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I'm a Doctor. Here's Why I Put Health Coaching First · Doctor Turned Health Coach

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  Today, I thought I would explain my medical practice to those of you who are
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  interested, who have asked questions.
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  This is a great podcast to come back to from time to time. Or if you have a
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  loved one that is ready to transform their health, you can share this episode with them.
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  I'm a board-certified family medicine physician, and I decided to switch my
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  practice from a purely Western medical clinic,
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  to a completely virtual online health coaching experience where I put the health coaching first.
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  And if somebody still needs any kind of medical treatment, and as long as they're
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  in the state of California where I'm licensed, I will offer them medical treatments as well.
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  The reason I did this is because more people are suffering from chronic diseases,
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  than acute medical problems. What Western medicine is very good at is treating an acute issue.
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  You're having a heart attack. You're having a sudden infection of the bloodstream.
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  You fell down and you broke your hip. We're great at that in Western medicine.
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  But the majority of people in their 30s, 40s, and 50s start by feeling low energy.
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  Their sleep is disrupted. They start noticing their bellies getting bigger.
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  They're losing hair. They can't think straight. They have brain fog.
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  Maybe they were told they have fatty liver disease. Maybe they were told their
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  blood pressure or their blood sugar is creeping up.
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  That's where I want to intervene. I want to start here.
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  In order for anyone to be part of my medical practice, they must first agree to health coaching.
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  I usually will meet with people either monthly, so my monthly plan, my monthly membership,
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  has a live one-hour session every month where we meet, we discuss our plan and our strategy together,
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  and And you get to implement those ideas, those thoughts, those tips and tricks throughout the week.
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  We don't do a lot of in-between text messaging or communication.
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  This is supposed to be a more cost-effective health coaching plan for people,
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  who are also capable of doing a lot of things on their own without much direction.
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  The second plan is a lot more intense, and I think it's great for somebody who
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  really is struggling with their health, maybe with the way they feel,
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  or they got a recent undesirable diagnosis.
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  And they're like, I don't want fatty liver disease. I'm not ready to have diabetes
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  or have a heart attack. I really need to do something quickly.
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  This is the intensive health coaching. We meet once a week for one hour live.
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  It's a phone call, always a phone call, same with a monthly plan.
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  And in between, we're texting a lot. I'm getting photos and videos of your food,
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  of your exercises. We're sharing and discussing your labs, your tests.
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  Now, in no way during any of these am I trying to pretend to be your doctor.
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  To be part of my health coaching practice, I expect everyone to have their own
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  medical team who they trust, who can take the information that we're sharing
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  with each other and help them implement it from the medical side.
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  However, for those who are in the state of California, because I'm a family
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  medicine doctor, I may offer them the option to also be part of my medical practice.
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  They can then become my patient.
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  I would be their primary care doctor.
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  The common questions I get is, well, how does this work with the payments?
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  Well, the payments are simple. It's month to month, and you can cancel at any time.
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  There is no obligation to continue with me. Once you've met your health goals,
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  of course, you may choose to move on.
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  Second question I get, what about health insurance? Is this covered through health insurance?
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  Unfortunately, it's not. A lot of these advanced preventive strategies are often
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  not very cost-effective for
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  health insurance companies, and so that's why it is a cash-based option.
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  As of this recording in October 2026, I've priced my weekly rate at $1,200 a
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  month and the monthly coaching at $400 a month.
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  And people wonder whether their lab tests, their imaging studies or other tests
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  are at least covered by their insurance.
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  The good news is that yes, most insurance companies, if you have health insurance,
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  will let you pay with your health insurance card for any kind of MRI or CT scan
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  or further testing and blood tests that I may suggest.
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  However, of course, this is only if you and I enter a patient-doctor relationship.
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  So people ask, wait, so are you my doctor or you're not my doctor?
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  The best answer I have is I am a doctor, but in order for me to be your doctor,
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  it's something we both have to agree on.
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  Oftentimes, a lot of people just choose to have health coaching.
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  That's probably 90% of my practice.
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  And they have their own medical team to do anything that we talk about.
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  If they need any tests, I can always give them some information about what tests
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  I usually run for my own patients and they can take that to their doctor to get it done.
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  Another question that comes up is, well, how soon can I expect results?
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  I answer this question usually by trying to understand how committed they are,
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  how willing they are to make big changes quickly.
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  The reality is that most of us can't or won't, or it's too frustrating to make
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  so many changes rapidly.
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  Oftentimes, the changes that are lasting for a long time are the ones we've done slowly.
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  We take our time and over a few weeks, over a few months, we start becoming
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  comfortable with these habits. So I would never expect any overnight changes.
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  But usually within two or three months of working together, you often will see results.
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  How do we track results? I have a framework called the trend method.
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  TREND stands for a World Health Organization-approved concept of achieving health.
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  T is for testing. So we test whether we ask you about your symptoms or we track your blood pressure,
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  whether we track your wearable devices, such as your Apple Watch or your Oura
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  Ring. That's the T. That's the testing.
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  R is relationships. so we test so that we can then decide what changes we need
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  to prioritize and focus on in your lifestyle in your habits,
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  to help you improve your health to help you achieve your ideal health goals,
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  are the relationship that we have with ourselves with our loved ones with our
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  pets with the environment with our work is at the heart of how we function and
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  make it throughout our lives.
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  So the relationship part is incredibly important and something that we talk about a lot.
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  E is for exercise. It's movement, it's stability, mobility, strength,
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  aerobic exercise, anything that you need for you to feel your best.
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  N is nutrition. It's not diet. I call it nutrition because it's what we have
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  to feed our body for it to function the way we want it to.
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  A diet is often something that we can do for two months, three months,
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  but it's not something we can stick to.
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  In the end, we have to eat in a way that's sustainable for each of us.
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  And for some, that means maybe they can't give up their steak.
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  They can't give up their alcohol. That's okay.
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  You can still eat well. You can still achieve your health goals while eating those things.
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  We've all heard of the great stories of the 100-year-old woman who was,
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  you know, having their hamburger every day. Of course, it's achievable because health is complex.
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  D, the last letter for trend, is downtime.
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  Downtime is sleep and it's recovery.
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  It's the time we give ourselves after a stressful day. It's the time we give
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  ourselves after a bad cold, after an injury, to recover, to let our body naturally heal.
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  We know that the time the body heals the best is during sleep.
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  Oftentimes during that deep sleep we tend to recover we tend to improve tissue
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  oxygenation we help the brain heal we apparently clear toxins out of the body,
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  and then when we rest after a hard workout when we rest after a hard conversation
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  with our team with our loved ones,
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  that's healing That's what we need to recover, especially in this world that's so busy and hectic.
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  Now, somebody might ask, okay, what is the science behind all this?
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  The science is backed purely by evidence-based medicine.
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  I always go forward with evidence-based medicine,
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  and I back it up with solid strategies in alternative health,
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  in Eastern medicine, in Ayurvedic medicine, from integrative to functional medicine.
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  While I am very set on looking at your lab results in detail,
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  looking at your Oura Ring, your Galaxy Watch, your Apple Watch, all of that data,
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  I also understand the importance of your basic daily habits.
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  If you're having negative self-talk throughout the day, it's going to be very
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  hard for you to get good sleep at night.
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  But if you're anxious from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. and then you try to go to sleep,
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  it's unlikely that that sleep is going to be restful sleep.
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  So these are the strategies that I use in my health coaching to take someone
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  from where they are to help them achieve their ideal health goals.