MIG Liaison, Genevieve Saliuk
Genevieve is about to complete her second year of medical school at University of Texas at Galveston. Her hope is to spread the message of Lifestyle Medicine to her peers and help to integrate it into medical education. She began an LMIG chapter at her school, established a Walk with a Doc chapter in Galveston, and is currently creating a Lifestyle Medicine curriculum for a Dallas-based educational company. Her goal is to practice whole-person care in either Family or PM&R, allowing her to serve at both the individual and large-scale level.
Being born and partly raised in Uganda, Genevieve grew up on a largely plant-based diet as Uganda’s staples are binyebwa (peanut sauce), beans, rice, posho (cassava/corn flour), and matoke (green bananas). However, the longer her family stayed away from home and began adopting more of the Western diet, the more she noticed their health followed the Western health model. She didn’t come to this realization right away. Genevieve's journey to Lifestyle Medicine was first born out of her own health journey. She was overweight as a teenager and cycled through numerous diets before finding a LIFESTYLE that was sustainable and gentle for herself, her friends of the world, and the planet. After going plant-based, Genevieve felt the best she had ever felt in her life and wanted everyone to feel this joy: to know that life is so beautiful and that we need to nourish ourselves properly, both physically and mentally, in order to experience that joy. In her free time, she loves to hang out with her best friends (her hubby and 2 year old son), move her body daily (yoga, HIIT, running, animal flow, etc.), and embrace the peace and stillness that each day brings.