Field Notes:
Performance Medicine Physician Coach’s notes on the evidence of human optimization.
Field Notes is the clinical record of what actually works in human performance optimization…And what the wellness industry gets wrong about it.
Every post here is written by Will King-Lewis MD FAAFP, a board-certified Family Medicine Physician, Fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians, and US Navy Senior Medical Officer responsible for the health and performance of 3,500 sailors.
I am a Sustainable Performance Coach creating a new fiduciary standard in personal performance coaching to ensure that your performance is grounded in evidence and designed to help you for the life. The standard applied to every recommendation here is the same one applied in his clinical practice, the Fiduciary Standard.
I read the study, check the sample size, find the conflict of interest, and ask who funded it. If the evidence is strong, you will hear that. If it is limited, you will hear that too. If something is overhyped, you will hear exactly why. Even if that means going against the grain and not recommending the newest hotness, or other popular, profitable, and aggressively marketed wellness junk.
That is what the MD means. That is what Field Notes is.
I Saw the Pan and Made a Flash
I am tired from three deployments in four years. But I learned something the hard way that you can learn the easy way.
Why A Sustainable Performance Physician Holds Coaching to a Fiduciary Standard, and Not a Research Standard
Demanding a perfect study for every coaching intervention sounds rigorous. It is not. A physician explains why best interest, not maximum evidence, is the real standard. and why he holds coaching to a fiduciary standard, not a publishable research or peer review standard.
The Clinical Threshold: When a Performance Problem Is Actually a Health Problem
Performance and health are not separate conversations. The line between them moves, and most coaches are not trained to see it.
Spent: The Performance DRAINS That Makes Refills Longer and Longer
Spent is the performance DRAINS that makes refills take longer and longer. The tank empties. You recover. It empties again faster. That is not tired. That is spent.
Auto-Denials Are Medical Decisions. Last I Looked, Health Insurance Companies Do Not Have Medical Licenses.
Dark navy square graphic with large white bold text reading "Auto-Denials Are Medical Decisions. Last I Looked, Health Insurance Companies Do Not Have Medical Licenses." Blue subtext reads "The physician who signs a denial is accountable, and so is the system that generated it." SPMD circular logo and text reading "SustainablePerformanceMD.com, Will King-Lewis, MD, FAAFP" in the lower left corner.
DENIED! The Insurance Industry Already Bet You Won’t Appeal their Auto-Denial
Dark navy square graphic with a large red distressed DENIED stamp overlaid diagonally across the center. White bold text reads "The Insurance Industry Already Bet You Won't Appeal their Auto-Denial." Blue subtext reads "Not medically necessary. Four days after his second suicide attempt." SPMD circular logo and text reading "SustainablePerformanceMD.com, Will King-Lewis, MD, FAAFP" in the lower left corner.
Identity Lock: The Performance DRAIN That Does Not Respond to Productivity Systems
Header image for SPMD Field Notes post on Identity Lock. Dark navy background with bold white text reading Identity Lock: The Performance DRAINS That Does Not Respond to Productivity Systems. Center image shows a broken painted mirror with a faint smiley face visible through the cracks. Subheading reads: The role has grown. The identity has not. No protocol fixes that. Footer credits Field Notes at SustainablePerformanceMD.com and Will King-Lewis MD FAAFP.
Avalanche: The Performance DRAIN That Buries You in Your Own Backlog
Field Notes header image for the Avalanche post by Will King-Lewis MD FAAFP. White bold title text on deep navy background reads: Avalanche: The Performance DRAIN That Buries You in Your Own Backlog. Subheadline reads: This is not one hard thing. This is everything, compounded past the point your system can manage it. Field Notes, SustainablePerformanceMD.com.
The Hawthorne Effect
A Field Notes, the SPMD Blog, post title slide on a blog post about The Hawthorne Effect which is how anything measured is aleady subject to change by the act of measuring it. A physician explains why this matters for every fitness tracker, sleep score, and performance metric you are using.
What Wellness Accounts Won't Tell You Coffee…
image for field notes (SPMD Blog) post titled Coffee, Wine, and Polyphenols: What a New Aging Study Actually Proves
Why I Built Sustainable Performance MD
Blog post title slide Why I Built SustainablePerformanceMD on Field Notes the SustainablePerformanceMD Blog made by Will King-Lewis MD FAAFP