Following the Clues: Passion, Resilience, and the Medicine We’re Being Asked to Build
Eight years ago, I started a business with a simple intention:
to help women doctors take better care of their health.
At the time, I thought I was building a program.
What I was actually building was a practice—one that would grow into something much bigger than me.
Like many meaningful paths, it didn’t unfold in a straight line.
It followed clues.
From Health Program to Lifestyle Practice
What began as support for women physicians slowly morphed into a comprehensive lifestyle coaching practice—one that now aligns seamlessly with what modern medicine teaches us about optimal health, resilience, and longevity.
The business grew.
The programs expanded.
The outcomes deepened.
And along the way, I realized something important:
When you follow what works—what truly helps people—you inevitably end up ahead of the curve.
My Roots: Medicine, Reform, and Meaning
This work didn’t come out of nowhere.
My father, Dr. Bernard Leo Remakus, is an internal medicine physician who ran a solo practice, largely serving Medicare patients. Long before burnout became a headline, he was writing articles and books on medicine reform—questioning systems that exhausted physicians and failed patients.
He inspired all three of his children—me and my two brothers—to go into medicine.
And at 77 years old, he is still practicing.
Not because he has to.
Because he believes in medicine as service.
I didn’t fully understand it then.
I understand it deeply now.
We are losing doctors.
Burnout is heavy, complex, and layered.
And while I know firsthand that mental, emotional, and physical support can dramatically lighten that load, I also know something else to be true:
Burnout is higher when finances are a struggle.
You cannot separate physician well-being from physician sustainability.
A Clue I Didn’t Expect: COVID
During COVID, everything intensified.
Women physicians were exhausted, isolated, and carrying more than they ever had before. In response, I began offering free strength training classes for women doctors—simply because it felt like the right thing to do.
Before that, I would write out workouts for them.
But something changed when we started moving together.
That’s when Dr. Erica Howe noticed something important.
She saw how powerful it was that I could integrate mindset themes and behavioral change concepts while we were strength training together—not as a lecture afterward, but in the moment, in the body.
She loved it so much that she brought it into her work—wellness conferences for women physicians.
Soon, she was flying me all over the world to lead morning CME workouts, because I could deliver a meaningful educational message while we were moving.
We weren’t just exercising.
We were learning, regulating, and reconnecting.
That was another clue.
Two Missing Pieces in Modern Practice
As my work expanded and I became board certified in obesity medicine, a clear pattern emerged across practices.
Two of the biggest unmet needs were:
Sustainable behavioral change
Accessible, effective strength training
Not someday.
Not theoretically.
Now.
The good news? I had already built the solutions—without fully realizing where they were heading.
Everything we created was grounded in minimum effective dose:
10 minutes
3 days per week
No fluff, no overwhelm
And the results were undeniable.
92% of our members maintained muscle—in a calorie deficit, through aging, and across perimenopause and menopause.
This wasn’t just fitness.
This was protective, preventative wellness support.
Another Clue: Being Seen by Leadership
Along the way, another moment quietly mattered more than I realized at the time.
Dr. Brooke Buckley—a general surgeon, lifestyle physician, and Chief Medical Officer—saw my work.
She looked at what I was building and said something simple, but profound:
“You are changing medicine.”
Coming from someone in her position—someone who understands both the clinical reality and the systems-level challenges—those words landed differently.
They gave me confidence to keep going.
To trust that this wasn’t just helpful—it was necessary.
That recognition became another clue.
When Belief Meets Opportunity
Then something pivotal happened.
Dr. Diana Pallin believed in the work enough to bring my programming into her obesity medicine office as an optional wellness offering available to patients.
Together, we did something quietly revolutionary.
We made structured, guided strength training accessible inside a medical setting—without burdening physicians or patients, and without replacing or influencing medical care.
Because I personally lead every workout in the app, patients felt like they had a personal trainer embedded into their experience.
Scalable.
Human.
Effective.
And when members of my community experienced these results for themselves, they started asking a different question:
Could I bring this into my own practice?
The Shift: From Personal Impact to Systemic Change
That’s when I saw it.
Not just a program.
Not just outcomes.
But massive impact—for doctors, patients, and the future of care.
Many physicians initially counted themselves out:
“I’m W-2.”
“There’s no way this would be allowed.”
“The regulations would shut this down.”
So we educated.
We taught what anti-kickback actually means.
How to stay compliant with CPOM.
How physicians could bring their own LLC into their own practice to offer an optional, non-insurance, wellness-based service—clearly separate from medical decision-making.
And then something remarkable happened.
They started getting approved.
What Hope Feels Like
Every approval lifted something—not just financially, but emotionally.
Because this was never about creating a revenue stream for its own sake.
It was about:
Giving physicians autonomy
Restoring pride in practice
Deepening the doctor–patient relationship
Offering patients something they desperately need and actually use
This is how medicine changes—from the inside out.
What Courage Looks Like in Real Time
Earlier this year, I met Dr. Heather Ludwig, a family medicine physician.
She was thoughtful. Discerning. Honest.
She wasn’t sure my program, Transform®, was the right fit for her.
And instead of convincing, we talked.
We held space.
She joined—not with complete certainty, but with curiosity.
She started doing the workouts.
She felt the difference in her own body.
And something shifted.
She began talking to her patients about strength training—not as an add-on, but as an essential pillar of long-term health.
Then another opportunity arose—a small group experience called IMPACT.
Again, she wasn’t sure.
Again, there was no full certainty.
And again, she listened to herself.
She joined.
What happened next matters deeply to me.
Dr. Ludwig became the first W-2 family medicine physician in our community to approach her health system and ask if her own LLC could offer optional, in-house strength training—clearly separated from medical care, fully compliant, and grounded in patient benefit.
That was our first yes.
Not from a corporation.
From a physician who trusted her instincts.
From a system willing to listen.
From medicine, saying maybe there’s another way.
The No That Changed Everything
Years ago, I approached a large health system with this very idea.
They smiled politely and said,
“Well, you seem really nice. Thanks for coming.”
I am deeply grateful they said no.
Because that no kept this work in the hands of:
Lower-paid specialties
Independent practices
Physicians who practice from heart, not hierarchy
It allowed us to build something with doctors, not around them.
The Future I Can’t Unsee
I can’t unsee this future.
A future where:
Strength training is normalized as essential to healthspan
Behavioral change is supported, not shamed
Physicians are well, solvent, and empowered
Patients feel cared for in body and relationship
This is what happens when you follow the clues—
when passion meets persistence,
and resilience meets timing.
I didn’t set out to change medicine.
But sometimes, when you stay true to what works,
you end up doing exactly that.
IMPACT
I can trace a straight line from my father’s internal medicine practice, to the women I first served, to the physicians now bringing this work into their own clinics. I can’t unsee it anymore. And once you see it too, you may realize—you were never meant to practice medicine the old way either.