By Maya Zhou
The phrase “food as fuel” is not a novel concept, but I didn’t fully appreciate the truth in this phrase until I started my surgery rotations in medical school.
Studying nutrition in college, I experimented in my own kitchen to come up with convenient and simple recipes that I could rely on when on a time crunch. I tried cooking with new vegetables (like collard greens and artichoke) and proteins (like tempeh) that I hadn’t tried before, and I found ways to incorporate them into recipes that I cooked regularly. In medical school, during my surgery rotations, time became a precious resource, and cooking everyday was no longer realistic. It became more challenging to consume a balanced diet every day. Through trial and error, I developed a reliable and realistic method to optimize nutritional intake every day, and wanted to share this in case it would be helpful for other surgical trainees or women in surgery:
- Set aside just five minutes to pack some sort of lunch for the next day. This saved me more than just five minutes the next day and gave me peace of mind knowing that I had food ready whenever I had a quick break to eat. I found the most efficient way to pack lunch is to bring any kind of leftovers along with 1 fruit that stores well like an apple or banana.
- Optimize protein intake, whatever type of protein you prefer. I found that I perform at my best when I eat enough protein daily; it sounds self-explanatory, but I think this is especially important for surgeons, as our physical endurance is essential and we spend long hours standing in the OR. It’s important to provide sufficient building blocks for muscles to repair and rebuild.
- Try to ensure that 1 meal every day is well-balanced. Even if all other meals are unplanned, on-the-go, or only snacks and “random” foods, just making sure you have 1 complete meal a day can have a noticeable impact on strength, digestive function, and energy.
I hope this blog can be a gentle reminder to take care of ourselves amidst our busy and hectic lives as surgical trainees and surgeons. Especially when sleep and exercise are limited, it is necessary to pause and remember that it is okay to fuel and take care of ourselves, in order to be the best surgeons that we can be, and to take the best care of our patients.
Maya Zhou is a fourth year medical student at Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, currently applying into urology. She is from Upstate NY and graduated from Cornell with a BS in Nutrition. In her free time, she enjoys playing tennis, skiing, cooking, and painting. She is grateful to be a part of the AWS community and the Blog Subcommittee!