Dr. Dunbar’s Life Journey
The single most important thing I’ve learned is that life will be HARD but the beauty and reward comes from how you respond to the HARD!
It’s April, 1980 - I’m 8 years old. There was a military coup in Liberia, Monrovia, my birthplace - my father was jailed by the rebels and my family was forced to flee the country. I vividly remember sneaking through houses and neighborhoods during the night to get to a safe place. My next memory, is boarding a flight with my mother, grandmother, brother and cousins - flying to the United States where we were given safe haven with friends.
My mother had to start over - working to provide a safe and stable home for my grandmother, brother, my cousins and I. At this young age I could not fully understand the magnitude of this experience and the long term effect it would have on my life. As I look back, this was HARD, for everyone in my family but especially my mother, but I saw her exhibit resilience in spite of unspeakable loss. Hard work, community, grit and the focus on education ran deep in my family.
My mother emphasized education as paramount! I pursued an Architectural degree from the University of Virginia and spent the first 10 years of my working and professional life as a project manager supervising the construction of office and retail buildings. I thrived on the collaboration, teamwork and learning. However, there were pivotal experiences over these 10 years that shifted the course of my life dramatically!
On August 3, 1997, my sister died of metastatic breast cancer. Hearing her say she had breast cancer, going through chemotherapy treatments with her, holding her hand and lying with her through hospice was HARD! There was a very long period of tearful, sleepless nights. Although I hoped the dawn would bring comfort - it never seemed to lift the heaviness that I carried.
Life is HARD, being open to change is HARD, trusting something new is HARD - but the beauty and reward that comes from choosing to do the HARD things is so incredibly life altering!
My mental, emotional and physical health was not a priority - I made decisions in the moment and out of convenience - which I know now were disease promoting. However, the blessing that came out of this awful loss was my volunteering for my local Fire & Rescue Squad. This was my first introduction into anything medical and I continued until life showed that it had other plans for me.
This came on June 3rd 2001 when my mother died of cardiac arrest. Getting the tearful phone call from her husband, the day after she retired, that the ambulance was there and taking her to the hospital. Meeting her at the hospital, watching the doctors and nursing staff trying to revive my mother and telling them to stop efforts knowing she wasn’t coming back was HARD! The darkness that seemed to swallow me was suffocating. There are months, to this day, I have no memory or recollection of what occurred. I was gaining more weight, drinking alcohol and making exceptionally poor food choices. I wasn’t sleeping and certainty not exercising. I was barely surviving and struggling to find a reason and purpose for my life - something that would honor both their lives. It took a few years to find the resilience and grit that is in my bones and is the legacy that my sister and mother have left for me. That legacy helped me find the courage to walk away from the familiar, working in construction and although destructive, the routines I had become comfortable with.
I left that life to start the unknown process of becoming a physician. I felt called to help save others the heartbreaking losses I had to endure. I wanted to learn the science and the art of prevention and healing. Unfortunately what I learned was that traditional healthcare is more about “sick care” and “managing” disease and less about health. After spending 14 years in traditional healthcare I came to the heartbreaking and HARD realization that honoring my sister and mother would not happen through this avenue.
Being open to change, being open to learning and being open to conversation led me to Lifestyle Medicine! What is Lifestyle Medicine? It taught me how to critically evaluate sleep, exercise, stress, nutrition and use of risky substances to prevent, treat and reverse disease. My grit and resilience had paid off - I had found what would allow me to honor my sister and mother! But first - I had to save myself.
I applied these principles to my own life, with the help of a coach, and it has had the most profound impact on my health. I lost 25 pounds but what I gained is more important - ownership of my choices and outcome! I learned how to practice gratitude and how to prioritize my sleep. All of which has resulted in mental clarity, bountiful amounts of energy and a level of physical fitness that allowed me to run my first marathon at age 50. I use my experience and expertise to work upstream - wrapping clients with education, guidance and support so they acquire health and prevent disease. Even more exciting, lifestyle medicine can also reverse the same diseases I had previously “managed” with prescriptions with no end in sight. Now I write lifestyle medicine prescriptions and provide coaching that allows YOU to create the life and health you desire and deserve.
The single most important thing I’ve learned is that life will be HARD but the beauty and reward comes from how you respond to the HARD!
It’s April, 1980 - I’m 8 years old. There was a military coup in Liberia, Monrovia, my birthplace - my father was jailed by the rebels and my family was forced to flee the country. I vividly remember sneaking through houses and neighborhoods during the night to get to a safe place. My next memory, is boarding a flight with my mother, grandmother, brother and cousins - flying to the United States where we were given safe haven with friends.
My mother had to start over - working to provide a safe and stable home for my grandmother, brother, my cousins and I. At this young age I could not fully understand the magnitude of this experience and the long term effect it would have on my life. As I look back, this was HARD, for everyone in my family but especially my mother, but I saw her exhibit resilience in spite of unspeakable loss. Hard work, community, grit and the focus on education ran deep in my family.
My mother emphasized education as paramount! I pursued an Architectural degree from the University of Virginia and spent the first 10 years of my working and professional life as a project manager supervising the construction of office and retail buildings. I thrived on the collaboration, teamwork and learning. However, there were pivotal experiences over these 10 years that shifted the course of my life dramatically!
On August 3, 1997, my sister died of metastatic breast cancer. Hearing her say she had breast cancer, going through chemotherapy treatments with her, holding her hand and lying with her through hospice was HARD! There was a very long period of tearful, sleepless nights. Although I hoped the dawn would bring comfort - it never seemed to lift the heaviness that I carried.
Life is HARD, being open to change is HARD, trusting something new is HARD - but the beauty and reward that comes from choosing to do the HARD things is so incredibly life altering!
My mental, emotional and physical health was not a priority - I made decisions in the moment and out of convenience - which I know now were disease promoting. However, the blessing that came out of this awful loss was my volunteering for my local Fire & Rescue Squad. This was my first introduction into anything medical and I continued until life showed that it had other plans for me.
This came on June 3rd 2001 when my mother died of cardiac arrest. Getting the tearful phone call from her husband, the day after she retired, that the ambulance was there and taking her to the hospital. Meeting her at the hospital, watching the doctors and nursing staff trying to revive my mother and telling them to stop efforts knowing she wasn’t coming back was HARD! The darkness that seemed to swallow me was suffocating. There are months, to this day, I have no memory or recollection of what occurred. I was gaining more weight, drinking alcohol and making exceptionally poor food choices. I wasn’t sleeping and certainty not exercising. I was barely surviving and struggling to find a reason and purpose for my life - something that would honor both their lives. It took a few years to find the resilience and grit that is in my bones and is the legacy that my sister and mother have left for me. That legacy helped me find the courage to walk away from the familiar, working in construction and although destructive, the routines I had become comfortable with.
I left that life to start the unknown process of becoming a physician. I felt called to help save others the heartbreaking losses I had to endure. I wanted to learn the science and the art of prevention and healing. Unfortunately what I learned was that traditional healthcare is more about “sick care” and “managing” disease and less about health. After spending 14 years in traditional healthcare I came to the heartbreaking and HARD realization that honoring my sister and mother would not happen through this avenue.
Being open to change, being open to learning and being open to conversation led me to Lifestyle Medicine! What is Lifestyle Medicine? It taught me how to critically evaluate sleep, exercise, stress, nutrition and use of risky substances to prevent, treat and reverse disease. My grit and resilience had paid off - I had found what would allow me to honor my sister and mother! But first - I had to save myself.
I applied these principles to my own life, with the help of a coach, and it has had the most profound impact on my health. I lost 25 pounds but what I gained is more important - ownership of my choices and outcome! I learned how to practice gratitude and how to prioritize my sleep. All of which has resulted in mental clarity, bountiful amounts of energy and a level of physical fitness that allowed me to run my first marathon at age 50. I use my experience and expertise to work upstream - wrapping clients with education, guidance and support so they acquire health and prevent disease. Even more exciting, lifestyle medicine can also reverse the same diseases I had previously “managed” with prescriptions with no end in sight. Now I write lifestyle medicine prescriptions and provide coaching that allows YOU to create the life and health you desire and deserve.
