Latest / The Hidden Load: For the educators and leaders in medicine who hold everyone up. / Burnout or Under-Resourced? Why High-Achievers Lose Their Edge with Kim Heintz
Transcript
- Santina Wheat: welcome back to The Hidden Load. I am your host, Dr. Santina or Tina Wheat. We talk a lot on the show about the mental and emotional weight of leading a residency program, running a clinic, ⁓ mentoring the next generation of healthcare professionals. But there is a silent partner in your leadership journey, and that's your biology. As leaders, we are trained to prioritize the mission over our own maintenance. We think that brain fog is just a side effect of a long call shift or that our afternoon energy crash is just the price of being a high achiever. But what if that burnout isn't really a lack of resilience, but a lack of resources for our body? And so today I am thrilled to welcome Kim Heinz to our show. Welcome to the hidden load for the educators and leaders in medicine who hold everyone up. Thank you for listening to The Hidden Load. If today's conversation spoke to you, I would love for you to share it with a colleague who might need to hear it too. It's one of the simplest ways we can start shifting the culture of medicine together. We will tackle the hard topics and help you conquer your chaos and get to calm all by starting to acknowledge and remove that hidden load. And remember, your time spent reflecting here matters. You can earn free CME or CE credits for listening to today's episode through the Pinnacle app. You'll find that link in the show notes. Kim is a functional health strategist who specializes in helping high performers identify the root causes of fatigue and brain fog using functional lab testing. Kim, you've said that constantly pushing through isn't really discipline, it's a sign of being under-resourced. Welcome to the show. This podcast is a space for us to name the things that are common, but not normal. Each week, we'll look at the invisible weight you're carrying and explore practical coaching-based tools to help you find more calm, better boundaries, and a sense of purpose that doesn't require you to run on empty. I'm so glad that you've carved time out for yourself today. Let's get into the episode. If you are looking for one-on-one coaching support or want to dive deeper into the resources we discussed today, let's connect. Kim: Thank you, good to be here. Santina Wheat: I'm so glad you're here. So in the notes that you shared, you mentioned that your own hidden load involves being the operator and constantly making decisions. ⁓ I like to call that decision fatigue. ⁓ And I feel like many of the people that are listening are sometimes the emotional thermostats for their team and feel like they have to be the calmest person in the room, whether it's a code, ⁓ clinical emergency, a difficult meeting. From your perspective, what does that constant state of composed high alert actually do to our stores? You can find information on how to reach me in the show notes. don't forget to hit subscribe so that never miss an episode ⁓ and leave me a rating so that others can find too. Kim: Yeah, when we are trying to modulate ourselves and not allow our emotions to take over, especially because we need to be the calmest person in the room and we're kind of stifling things, we can still have a lot of internal stressors build up inside of us. And we start to feel that weight over time. Doing it once or twice is no big deal, but if this is like a constant pattern, of course, it's going to build up internally. And when we internalize these things, Santina Wheat: and take care of yourself because you deserve to be held up too. And I'll see you next time. Kim: you know, obviously there's an emotional component, a physiologic physiological component too, is like our stress levels go up. And when our stress levels go up and we're carrying these things, we can really deplete ourselves of nutrients because a lot of our nutrients help us manage stress. And so like you've heard of magnesium, very common one is magnesium that were, you know, It's our calm mineral and it helps us calm things down. Well, when we are constantly internalizing stress and doing it as a way to be a leader in the room and ⁓ also just being that source of strength for others, like we end up feeling that and over time we can really deplete our magnesium stores, but also potassium stores and We can actually feel ourselves like being more and more depleted over time. And we can actually feel ourselves almost like not being able to manage stress as well over time. it's less of a, of like a willpower thing. And it's more so like you can feel like your body doesn't have those raw materials to be able to help you manage those situations as easily. Santina Wheat: That's so interesting because I feel like so many of us feel like if I just push through, if I just try a little bit harder, if I'm just a little bit more disciplined, then I should be able to do this. But that's not the case. Our body won't actually let us do that, right? Kim: Yeah. And the more we try the more body pushes back. I know from personal experience, because I'm in a business owner, I'm an athlete personally. And, you know, for a long time, I would, you know, before I knew what I know now, I would, would push through and push through and push through. And eventually I just didn't feel like I could push anymore. And that's where we start to like hit that, that burnout ceiling where we're like, Oh, And it's again, it's not anything you're doing. It's just your body is not allowing you to push because it just, needs you to pull back a little bit to be able to recharge. Santina Wheat: Do you mind sharing a little bit? How did you find that? How did you manage when you experienced it yourself? Kim: So I, sometimes that stuff creeps up on you pretty slowly. Like you don't realize it, especially because you're with yourself 24 sevens. So, you know, sometimes you can look back and say, yeah, okay. I see where I see where this pattern started. And, ⁓ you know, when I finally realized that I was, I was pretty close, I was in a state of burnout. There's different levels of burnout. I was definitely like kind of hanging out in the middle stage, if you will. ⁓ I did, I, ⁓ first of all, I stepped back a little bit. said, what can I, what can I say no to right now so I can create some space for myself? And I did, I created some extra space in my life to be able to allow myself to rest. But then I also made sure that I was giving myself proper nutrients. I was making sure that my diet was really dialed. I was giving myself a lot of nutrient rich foods, ⁓ getting a little bit more sleep at night. And just allowing my body to recharge. ⁓ I also run a hair tissue mineral analysis on clients and I ran that on myself. I had something I run on myself all the time as well and saw how depleted I really was. And so based on that testing, I gave myself the right nutrients that my body was really craving. And I think it allowed me to get out of that burnout state a little bit faster, just because I had that extra data to be able to, implement and you know, give my body what it needed. Santina Wheat: It's so impressive that you were able to take that step back, that you were able to say no. So many people aren't great at doing that, especially when they're high achieving. We think that we can do it all. ⁓ Which sort of brings me to my question of why do you think competence potentially actually makes us more susceptible to hiding that depletion until we hit that total wall? Kim: Yeah. I mean, I think, I think part of it is just that, you know, high achievers in general, I think we've just always seen that as like a a sign of strength. And if we do pull back or we feel like we're showing a weakness of some kind that it's, it's, it says something about our own identity. And so I think there's, you know, part of it, we don't even realize we're in that state until we've been there for. ⁓ And then the other part of it too is just, think there's so much of our identity tied up in that. And, you know, I make it like my story that I just shared for the two minutes of my story. definitely took me a lot longer to be able to come to terms with it and be able to realize that it wasn't a weakness or a failure on my part, but like, this was actually allowing me to, grow. And, ⁓ it ended up being a big sign of strength for myself after I. came to terms with that and recognized that. Santina Wheat: That is amazing. So as an educator myself, ⁓ I have sometimes had to tell my learners that they've had to power through. And when I was a learner, I absolutely thought that that was the right thing that I had to power through because that's what was modeled for me. ⁓ But What you're also seeing is that the very things that we need in our body to have clarity, to be cognitively clear, the things that make us good at teaching, the things that make us good at showing up for other people or doing our jobs are actually the things that we are losing when we're in that high stress buffering mode. Is that right? And so what do we do about that? If we're worried that this is what's happening, ⁓ how do people figure that out? What do they do when they come and talk to you? Kim: Yeah, you know, there's some, if anything is, is we do go through seasons where sometimes we do have to power through, right? Like there's, there's going to be seasons where we push and there's going to be seasons where we pull back a little bit or create a little bit of extra space. And when we are in a season of push, you know, setting yourself up for success and what I share with my clients when they come to me is, of the utmost importance. So we have to think about things from like a diet and lifestyle standpoint, like, you know, making sure that we're nourishing ourselves with nutrient dense foods, because if we're, know, and this sometimes this is a trap we can fall into pretty easily when we are pushing, because we're so busy. It's like the convenience foods. Well, I'm going to door dash this or ⁓ you know, I'm just going to stop and grab food on my way home. Cause it's just, it's just, I don't have time to be in the kitchen or what have you. And so that steals our energy as well. And so it kind of ended up being a double whammy. And so like finding ways to be able to like create, you know, some extra nutrients into your diet is huge so that you're not having your diet also steal your energy. ⁓ from like a lifestyle standpoint, can be. really beneficial to, you know, get out for walks, even if you get out for like a 10 minute walk to just let your body decompress a little bit. Walking is such an underutilized power tool in my opinion. And so it helps your blood sugar, it helps your digestion. And so, and those things can be stressors on the body too. And sometimes you just need a bit of a mental break anyways. So if you can just, you know, maybe you're you've, you've hit, you know, the end of a session of some deep work or whatever. you know, and you have a break between meetings or what have you. If you can get out for like a 10 minute walk or make your lunch a little shorter and get out for a walk, that can be a really big game changer as well. And then simple things like, you know, even doing like Epsom salt baths a couple of times a week to get that extra dose of magnesium to help your body. ⁓ magnesium is 10 times more absorbable in on topically than it would be if you're taking like a capsule. And so it can. give you just that extra bit and you sleep a little bit better that night too. It's just going to help you restore and recharge and head back into the next busy day. Santina Wheat: I love that. I love that there are sometimes simple things that we can do that really make our lives different, that can make us that we're living happier, healthier lives along the way and allow us to be a little bit more sustainable. Kim: the simple things can really add up in your favor. They seem, seem, seem so basic, but honestly they are power tools that can like, like you said, sustain. Santina Wheat: feel like they're not all health related, but some of the biggest changes that I've made for myself since going through burnout have been the biggest ones. Like the one that I talk about all of the time is ⁓ do not disturb setting on my phone that once I started doing that at nighttime, ⁓ just meant that I wasn't waking up to every buzz that came through. ⁓ ⁓ meant I slept ⁓ ⁓ Kim: Mm. Santina Wheat: seven to eight hours in a row when I was waking up multiple times a night for something that wasn't important. And so it was something that was so simple that was super meaningful. ⁓ Kim: Yeah, that uninterrupted sleep too was just so much better for you. Santina Wheat: Right, right. You mentioned a little bit ⁓ that you do hair tissue mineral analysis. ⁓ What are the specific markers that you see ⁓ in somebody that's high achieving that maybe comes to you and says, I'm just not focusing like I used to? ⁓ That maybe we're mistaking for just simple stress. Kim: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Sure. Yeah, there's two common patterns that I see on the hair tissue mineral analysis or HTMA is how we shorten it up. We're always looking at the four core electrolytes. So magnesium, sodium, potassium, and calcium. And electrolytes, if you think of the word electrolyte, it's like electrical. So that's like our body's electrical current. And so if you're feeling depleted, if you're feeling like you're in burnout, you're, you're probably either depleted in all four because in your, the body's raw materials, you just don't have enough to create that electrical current. so you feel like you're pushing harder and harder and sometimes not able to even like, you're like, what's wrong with me? Like, I just, can't do what I used to do. The other pattern would be where you have very high calcium. and it shows elevated magnesium and very, very low sodium and potassium. And what that is, if you think about calcium, it's a hard substance, right? It's supposed to be in our bones, makes your bones strong. And if that is elevated in your tissues, because you think your hair is your tissues, then that means calcium is building up in the tissues and not getting into the bone. And that can slow everything down. And so it can basically... prevent nutrients and hormones and in glucose from getting inside your cells. And again, your cells start to feel hungry. And again, you're just like, again, in that feeling of very depleted state. So those are, and then you're depleted in the other minerals where even though magnesium is high, it actually means low. And then sodium and potassium are both low. So you're depleted in everything else and you have that buildup. so both those patterns are super common with high achievers who are really feeling like they're It's like they've lost their edge and rebuilding those, getting those back into balance makes a big difference. Santina Wheat: Mm-hmm. And so you already mentioned that the Epsom salt bath is something that you can do to reabsorb the magnesium. ⁓ Are there other easy things that you recommend that people do when they are out of balance? Kim: you Yeah. So with magnesium, also can get like lotions and sprays to put on before bed. A lot of clients, I had a client, he got away from it and he got a, he ended up adding it back in and he messaged me. He's like, my sleep score went up 20 points after adding the magnesium back in. So, uh, it really can help a lot with getting you, giving you a little bit more restful sleep. Uh, I, big, like with sodium, people are a lot more depleted in sodium. We've, you know, salts always gotten a bad rap. but sodium nourishes your adrenals and gives your adrenals, your adrenals give you energy. And so I always have clients and I would say like eight or nine out of 10 clients have some depleted sodium. And so I have clients like put a pinch of sea salt in water, not table salt, but actually sea salt and. know, add that to water first thing in the morning before you drink or eat anything. And that can really like turn the system on and nourish your adrenals kind of rev you like wake you up for the day. And then you can do that for like every 32 ounces of water you drink to just giving yourself a little bit of, of that good natural sea salt that is also rich in minerals. ⁓ I would say that those are, know, obviously, without having a ton of data, you know, to like, without like knowing specifics, but like, Those are some pretty general things that I'll recommend to folks ⁓ that are feeling depleted because people are needing those particular things. Santina Wheat: Sure. I'm thinking of my own bad habits sometimes when I'm really in the midst of a busy time. I try not to do this, but there are sometimes that 3 PM cup of coffee, that's like the third cup of coffee of the day, or that snack that I'm having that's probably pretty sugary or high carb to get through that slump. We usually know that that's not necessarily the best idea, but can you talk a little bit more about how that's actually hurting our minerals, ⁓ for somebody that's already on their way to burnout? Kim: Yeah. So caffeine in general, ⁓ can, you know, deplete your nutrients. ⁓ it's so like one thing that I recommend with folks, and this is another recommendation that I'll get into a little bit more of this is to, is to delay your caffeine by an hour in the morning, which is really hard when you're really tired. ⁓ but you're, allows your body's natural cortisol to peak. And then on the backside of it, you can have that cup of coffee and you will actually feel more awake. later in the day than you would if you had that thing, that coffee first thing. It takes some time to train your body to do that, but it ⁓ doesn't a lot of times, like if we're just having a cup of coffee first thing, puts us on a blood sugar roller coaster and it, it causes us to get that afternoon crash or have those extra cravings and things like that. And so that's when we find ourselves reaching for that coffee or that snack in the middle of the afternoon, because like, A lot of times that that whole thing starts when we wake up and I have personally experienced this. So I know, I know firsthand. so like, you know, when we are spiking our cortisol, it's breaking the body down. And again, it's depleting our nutrients naturally. And so, ⁓ and I'm not against coffee. I'm not against caffeine. have, I have like caffeine every day, but timing it properly. won't put your body in such a stress state. ⁓ Having it with food instead of on its own can also not put you in that stress state. And so just doing a couple minor tweaks and strategically, know, placing things can make a really big difference. And then again, you're not depleting your nutrient stores with that because the cortisol is not peaked like spiking as high as it would. Santina Wheat: So do you ever see ⁓ in a slightly different fashion that as people are becoming depleted that they're losing their passion or their joy for doing things as they're starting to show those symptoms of burnout? I'm thinking of people I work often with people that are leaders or educators as my coaching clients and sometimes they're feeling like they've lost the joy of doing that. ⁓ Kim: Mm-hmm. Santina Wheat: Is this something that you're seeing that maybe they don't have the fuel to just be curious or to be creative anymore? Kim: Yeah, because if you think about it, like people will be very flat, like they'll they just they feel like they're they're flat, they see the thing that they were excited about before. And they're just like, I don't know how I was so excited about that. Like, I can barely like, I'm just, I'm just trying to get through the day. And the thing is, is like, nutrients are the gasoline that fuels the engine of the body. And so if you're depleted, and you don't have a full tank of gas, So your body needs to leverage the nutrients first in order to fuel you to get through the day, to function, have the core functions in the body. And there's not much leftover at that point. If you are already in a really depleted state and so you can, can feel burned, like you can feel like flat, there's just no, there's just no joy in finding, you you're not finding joy in doing anything anymore. And it's not necessarily. something that you did wrong, it's just your body is just lacking some core things that it needs to get there. And I personally experienced that too when I was in burnout. So ⁓ I know how that can feel. It's really painful to feel flat and not experiencing the joy of the things that you once did. ⁓ But it's definitely something you can get back to. Santina Wheat: And so you have shared with me that you believe that reclaiming your health is a performance strategy. ⁓ So for someone who feels like they don't have all of this time for self-care, how do you feel like they can start by rebuilding their strong foundation? And again, I'm thinking of the person that feels like they're running their department or teaching all these other people and so are so focused on everything around them. Kim: Yeah. I don't think health or self care really has to be like a part-time job or anything. think there's a lot of people online that make you feel like that, you know, it has to be a part-time job that you do. like, if you implement some of the basics, like some of the things that we've talked about today, I mean, none of those, I mean, maybe an Epsom salt bath takes time, but like nothing of none of those other strategies that we talked about, like, you know, choosing healthier food or delaying your cup of coffee by an hour or ⁓ putting lotion on before you go to bed. Just have it on your bedside table and as you're popping, jumping into bed, take 10 seconds to put that on. know, it really, going for a walk, I mean, sure that might take a little bit of time, but a lot of times... people do, I get told by a lot of my high performer clients that like they do a lot of their best thinking when they're out on a walk. And so sometimes they come back with like more energy and more creativity ideas. They problem solve that thing they were stuck on when they were just like trying to push through at their desk. And so ⁓ I think we really don't want to underestimate the power of the simple things, the easy things, the foundational things. Like really, if you just pick, handful of things that can easily slide into your day that really don't take any additional time. Like those things if you do them and consistently doesn't necessarily mean daily but like consistency ⁓ king and all those little things are going to add up in your favor over time. Santina Wheat: ⁓ And you mentioned the walk, if you are framing it as a, can get great thinking done during this, then it doesn't feel like you're taking away from that leadership strategy that you're doing, right? It's really adding to your leadership strategy as you're moving forward. That is great. Kim: Yeah. Mm hmm. Yeah. Santina Wheat: So ⁓ I talk a lot on this podcast about how the things that we talk about are not just important for the people who are listening, but for those who they are leading or educating. How might ⁓ this be the How does an educator who's prioritizing their nutrients and their restoration and their recovery, how do you feel like that can ripple out to either their teams or their learners? Kim: Yeah, I think it can ripple out in a couple of different ways. First of all, when you feel better, like you're going to be able to pour into your team a whole lot more, like you're going to be like more. We talked about that joy, that flat lining feeling, like if you're not feeling that flat line, you're actually finding joy in your work again. Then you're going to be excited to do your one-on-ones or, you know, lead your team, ⁓ talk about new initiatives, et cetera. Like it, it, so there's a lot of ⁓ benefit to. your teams by you just filling your own cup first and then on the other side of things like your team's looking up to you and so if they're noticing that you've changed your health then it's going to inspire them as well to Maybe take advantage of some of those things too. I can think of one of my clients he is He owns multiple businesses and when he started working with me he like he felt okay, but he knew something was off. And at an event a few weeks ago that I was at with him, and he was there with a bunch of other business, so he was like, I have never felt this good in my entire life. And like, I didn't realize how bad I was feeling. And because of it, like multiple people like started asking him like, what have you been doing? Like they commented like he like, He looked happier, his eyes were brighter, he had more energy, and they wanted to know what his secret was because they wanted some of that too. And so your teams are going to want that as well because who doesn't want to feel good? Feeling good is fun. And so that's going to inspire them to make those changes as well. Santina Wheat: That's an amazing story. I feel like there's so many people that go through that when they look back and they're like, wow, I didn't know how bad I felt even when they get to that point of feeling good. So that is an amazing thing. Before wrap up, is there anything that we haven't talked about that you think is important for us to talk about today? Kim: I think just the big thing is like, anytime you're thinking about, like if you are feeling in that burnout stage and like just the thought of making any changes feels really overwhelming. like the big thing I can say is just like, pick one thing, like what is one simple thing that you can do and just do that for a week and don't, don't make it, you know, think we think about new year's resolutions in everybody comes out of the gate strong. They've got all these like ideas about how they're going to change their life. And they go really, really hard. you know, we think about the gym is a good example, right? Everyone's going to start working out at the gym. And like by the third week of January, the gyms are empty again. It's because people, they went too hard. And so like, and as high performers, we tend to want to take on all the things like, ⁓ we can, I can do this. Like I'm going to overhaul everything. But I have found that anytime we try to go too hard, too fast, try to make all the changes right out of the gate. Like it just piles up and it gets overwhelming and we stop. like the best sustainable change is to pick just one thing and something that's going to be easy. Pick one of the ones we talked about today or pick something else and, and, and do that for a week and don't do anything else and just watch what the changes. And then maybe you're like, okay, I did that for a week. that feels good. Now it's just habit. Maybe there's something else I can add in on week two and just like let it build rather than it be this like big thing that we have to do. Like we decide on you know, Sunday is the day we make all the changes and we fallen off by Wednesday. ⁓ You're going to get the most, the best results and the lasting results doing it that way. It's gonna be slow. Perhaps it might feel slow, but do if you do, if you make one change every week for 52 weeks, that's a lot of change in a year. And you'll look back and be like, Oh wow. Like a lot, a lot happened for me in this year. Santina Wheat: Absolutely. And sometimes you might be surprised by how one small change actually has a huge impact. One of my favorite quotes is small hinges swing big doors, because sometimes the little things that have the biggest meaning for us. Kim: Mm. Yeah, that the marketing doesn't always make us believe that the marketing makes us think that we need the big, the big fancy shiny things. But the small things are really this clients always tell me that I like, ⁓ it's all the small things that are like keeping me healthy and like making me feel good. like, I know it's, it's the secret behind secret secret sauce that I can't really like, no one's going to want to sign up. I'm like, ⁓ just do these simple, small lifestyle things. But they really, they do. Like you said, I love that quote that you said. It's so perfect. Santina Wheat: Of course not. So Kim, thank you so much for giving us a roadmap that's biological out of the hit and load. If our listeners want to dive into their own data with you, how do they reach you? Where should they go? Kim: Yeah. ⁓ you can email me, ⁓ Kim at Kim Heinz.com. My website is Kim Heinz.com. And I also hang out on Instagram. So feel free to message me there. And my handle is Kim.Heinz. Santina Wheat: Thank you so much to the leaders and educators who are listening. want to make sure that you know that you are not broken and that you are not less resilient than your peers. ⁓ might just be under-resourced. So take a breath, take a walk. I'm going to add take a bath with Epsom salts and absolutely come to the show notes so that you can get Kim's links. And don't forget that we have the opportunity for continuing education credit in the links as well. and take care of yourselves because you deserve to be held up too. Thank you so much for joining me today, Kim. Kim: Yeah, thank you so much for having me. It's been great.