Transform Your Health and Start Your Wellness Journey Today Using a Physician's 5-Pillar Framework

Prior to last week’s post, it had been a minute. Actually, more than a minute—and I need to acknowledge that.

I took some time away. Not because I wanted to ghost you (I promise), but because I needed to heal. To clear my busy mind. To create the space and energy required to pour into the community I was building here, without running on fumes.

And honestly? I needed to clarify where this was all going.

So here we are. A re-inaugural issue. A rebrand of sorts. A homecoming.

What's Changing (& What's Not)

If you've been here since the brand's inception, you know I've always woven lifestyle shifts, mindset work, and personal growth into everything I teach in wellness. However, until now, the primary focus has been women's health—a topic that remains incredibly close to my heart and is foundational to why I stepped outside the clinical walls in the first place.

Here's what's shifting:

I'm expanding the lens. This platform is evolving to focus more intentionally on mindset and personal development in health and wellness. My expertise in women's health and sexual medicine? That's moving to a collaborative platform I'll be announcing soon. (Stay tuned—it's going to be good.)

All my women's health content will remain here for you to explore, reference, and share. And I still want to hear from you—if there's a topic you need addressed, reach out. I'll feature it on the new collaborative platform.

Here's what's staying:

Me. My voice. My approach. There will be more of my personality coming through the content tone as I recognize that I may have tried to make the tone a bit neutral previously.  But, my quick wit and charm are more natural to how I communicate generally, especially on topics that I am passionate about. With the rebrand, I am comfortably unapologetic with the underlying entertaining way that I am able to convey serious topics that may make them easier to digest.

If you've worked with me one-on-one or know me personally, you've experienced this side of me. I don't mute it in real life, and I'm done muting it here. No more sterile. No more overly buttoned-up. Just real talk about health, wellness, and transformation—delivered the way I actually speak.

This newsletter will continue weekly, as I deliver topics to help you reach optimal wellness through personal growth, mindset shifts, limiting belief transformation, and lifestyle planning that feels nourishing, but never overwhelming.

I promise not to make it too science-y and disconnected from how you can actually implement what resonates with you in your own life.  And as a way to clear out my busy mind, I will deliver it in a way that the overly technical bits are broken down and filtered into a “Here’s What I Think” segment of the publication as it relates to improving a life of wellness practiced and not prescribed.

If you have gotten this far into this issue, let's wrap up the “where I’ve been part of the conversation” and assume you and I are back together strong and move forward in this relationship of wellness education bliss 😍

Before The Medicine

If I was a betting woman, I would bet that you were interested in a better framework to consider living in wellness. Something that was actually doable, before the medicine. A place where wellness begins with practice and not prescription. I am sure of this because I live and experience daily in my clinical practice, people wanting wanting the optimal lifestyle practice that was never offered to them in their health and wellness care. So let’s talk about actually achieving this.

Here’s What I Think:

In order to consider the ways you can transform your health before the medicine, here’s what I think about a 5-pillar framework for mindset transformation and lifestyle planning for wellness that I use in my own life and clinical practice. Its practical, sustainable, and a proven design that I have created for wherever you are in your real life journey—no perfection required. 

1. Practice Over Prescription

Wellness is something you do, not something you take.

I'm not here to complicate your life or add another task to your already overwhelming to-do list.

I'm here to help you shift how you see your health—from a checkbox item to a daily experience you actually live in. Something you look forward to. Something you wouldn't think to miss because it feels good, not because you're forcing it.

Wellness isn't about pills, potions, or products (though those may have their place). It's about the practices you weave into your day. The choices you make. The habits you build.

What if your health wasn't something you had to "do" but something you got to be?

2. Nourishing, Not Overwhelming

This pillar is about aligning with ease and sustainability over intensity.

Be honest with me & [yourself]: Do you cringe at the thought of your next check-up? There was a point that I did!

Do you currently hear messages about your body or health status as proof you've failed? As evidence you need to "do better"? That probably doesn't feel very supportive or compassionate. 

If wellness feels like something you are trying to figure out outside separate from you, it likely feels like a thing that you have to conquer—something that only pills, procedures, or punishing routines can fix. I want to help you shift that mindset.

Wellness should be nourishing. Restorative. Something that feels like coming home to yourself, not another battle to fight. This is YOU we are talking about. A relationship that should be supportive and approachable, not a constant reminder of a standard out of reach.

We can start by trading intensity for ease. Overwhelm for sustainability. Shame for compassion. Simply by taking your place as a supportive leading role with yourself.

What if taking care of yourself actually felt... good? How would you show up for yourself differently? Comment below.

3. Mindset Transformation

Have you heard that beliefs shape your actions→actions shape results. Well they do :) 

Lets complete a short exercise that may help you start shifting your awareness and action today (written is preferred, but a mental note can work momentarily).

Think about what you have been told about your current health? Your ability to live and be well? What messaging have you received about your body's healing and functional potential?

After you think about those questions, take your piece of paper and create a list of two columns. Label one column as what you believe about your health is within your control and the second column how much of your health feels completely outside of your control. Then categorize any current disease state(s) or wellness struggles you currently have to the column you feel they belong under.

When evaluating the parts of your wellness that are out of your control, where did this belief come from?  Did it start from being reminded of your “bad genetics" or conversations limiting your body type/build to  “always end up a certain way".  Subsequently, those imprinted messages assume what can or can’t be accomplished in your health and wellness profile.  

And if we're being really honest here... this limiting programming may lead to areas where you hold mistrust in your own body and even in the medical system. There may have been limited conditions in which you were given the mindset tools to understand a possibility of a life where wellness feels natural.

Here's the truth: Your beliefs create your reality. The stories you were told and rehearse about your body, your capacity, your worthiness—they shape each every choice you make, think about that.

So what if we started with rewriting some of those stories? 

Take the list that you started and rewrite a limiting healing belief that you can become comfortable with shifting in the coming days-weeks-years. Ie: “Everyone in my family has diabetes, so I know that I am going to get it”--> "I have seen many family members suffer from diabetes, which makes me look at my own health and lifestyle choices in more detail to make and life choices that prevent this disease."

4. Lifestyle Planning

Practical, personalized, actionable.

You plan your career. Your finances. Your vacations. Your kids' schedules.

But have you ever actually planned your wellness lifestyle?

I don't mean "eating clean" or joining a gym or making a New Year's resolution that fizzles by February.

I mean individualized, actionable planning that creates transformational shifts you can actually maintain. A wellness map you understand. Practices that fit your real life. A health profile that evolves because you designed it to.

Most people are winging their wellness—reacting to symptoms, following trends, hoping something sticks.

What if you had a plan? One that was actually built for you?

No need to stay curious about how to create a personalized wellness plan that doesn't require overhauling your entire life. I break down the exact framework I use with clients in this detailed guide on the blog: Why 80% of Your Wellness Has Nothing to Do With Medical Care (And Everything to Do With This).

5. Meet You Where You Are

No judgment. No prerequisites. Inclusive.

Listen: You are not behind.

You are never behind if you're ready to be accountable today.

Waiting for the "right moment" doesn't work because there's no such thing as a guaranteed perfect time. We're 11 months into the year. January 1st isn't coming to save you—and it can't help you today.

But today can.

Starting where you are—even if it's just with a thought, a permission slip, an acknowledgment—that's still a start. That counts. That matters.

How can you do this? You give yourself the self-love and support you need right now, and you see yourself the rest of the way through.

Once you learn that as a skill—this compassionate, present-moment accountability—you instantly begin to thrive. In all aspects of your life. But especially your wellness.

There's both a lesson and a reward in seeing yourself exactly as and where you are right now.

On this journey to live your wellness, can you honor you current state of presence without judgment?

Your Invitation to Begin Before the Medicine

So tell me — what part of your wellness journey speaks to you most right now? Which of these five pillars resonates most with you right now? Where do you need the most support? Email me and share.

Your reflections help shape what we explore next — because Before the Medicine is a conversation, not a lecture.

Let’s heal, learn, and grow — together, one conscious choice at a time.

📝 Check out the blog for expanded guides, detailed frameworks, and actionable strategies.

🎙️ Subscribe to the podcast (first episode is live and can be heard here) for deeper conversations and weekly inspiration.

💬 Share this with someone who needs permission to start their wellness journey today

One More Thing

Thank you for sticking around. For giving me grace during the gap. For being here as I step more fully into this work.

I didn't take time away because I didn't care. I took time away so I could show up better. Clearer. More aligned.

And now I'm here. Fully. Ready to walk this path with you.

Before the Medicine is where wellness becomes practice, not prescription. Where mindset shifts create lifestyle transformation. Where you learn to meet yourself with compassion and build a life that actually feels good.

No perfection required. No overwhelm. Just you, me, and the work of becoming well.

Let's do this.

With love and gratitude for you, your time & your attention,

ALJ, MD

Your weekly refill of wisdom. Handpicked reads from our archives for a fresh look at past pieces that might land differently this time around.

Press play-because sometimes the prescription is just… listen

Who is Dr. Johnson? 👩🏿‍⚕️ I am physician by day & personal growth implementation junkie who’s unsubscribed from rigid rules, cheering you on with wellness lifestyle tips, social storytelling, & practical ways to start exactly where you are on your journey outside of my office hours.

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More about me:

When I am not doctoring, coaching, & building a transformational wellness brand, I’m just a brainy, cozy-living, self-loving dog mommy trying to balance pilates, imperfectly perfect cooking, quantum neuroscience, & scrolling home decor inspo 🍳🐶✨🧠🏡💖 

You can see more of me “behind the white coat” on IG.