Farah Karipineni

At this stage of life, I give so much of myself to others-my patients, my kids, my community. I wouldn't have it any other way, but to give at high levels requires taking good care of myself. Fitness is not only where I train to keep up with life's demands, but where I come back to find myself again. It's also where I break barriers in my mind-every time I step into the gym, I ask myself what's possible today. The answer is always more than I believe I'm capable of.

By far my favorite way to train is to lift weights with progressive overload in mind. Increasing muscle mass has done wonders for my fitness, physique, and most importantly for my mindset. I also love to be outdoors with my kids, so hiking, jogging and biking are in heavy rotation-family will always come first for me, so anything we do together is a bonus, especially with our busy lives.

I plan to put it towards mutual aid projects. I live in a very underserved part of the country, with hundreds of thousands living in poverty. Some of these are my patients, some are unhoused, some are migrant workers. There is so much need. We are building networks of care outside the hospital. This involves aid for living necessities, ridesharing, basic health care and hygiene support. We have many hopes and plans in the works to expand in 2026 to meet growing needs in the Central Valley.