I just love the the entire staff!!! Gina is always so helpful! And of course Dr Praderio is just the best!!! I’m so glad to be a patient here!

First Of all, I absolutely love Dr. Carolina Praderio! In 2019 I went in to see her about my problems a with menopause and I started the hormone therapy. Last year, 2020 I mentioned to her that I was having so many problems losing weight. She introduced me to Natalia who has been a constant inspiration for me to learn to eat right and not give up when I did not have a good week. This whole office , from staff to Dr P. are so supportive. I highly recommend visiting this office, I guarantee you will keep going back!

“Dr. Praderio is…the best OB-GYN MD I have ever seen. Some of you may think this is an exaggeration, but please allow me to give you some background. I have gone through hundreds of exams with pursuing fertility when I finally had to face the reality that at 34, my ovaries completely failed me and I literally had no eggs left. In the subsequent 8 years, I have been on HRT and seen numerous OB-GYNS as we have moved annually due to my husband’s work. Dr. Praderio stands out for her compassion, empathy, warmth, and collaborative approach. You can tell she is passionate about the oath she took to help and serve. I should also mention that I am a provider myself, so the bar is set pretty high! Her office staff matched her warmth and professionalism. I highly recommend Dr. Praderio for anyone, and I think younger women nervous about having well woman exams or seeing an OB-GYN for the first time will feel at ease immediately. Thank you, Dr. Praderio!”

Hello, I hope everyone is doing well and is striving positively towards continuous weight loss. Remember that this is a life change. For me it was seeing my reflection on glass doors to notice how much weight I had gained. That was when I decided to make a change in my eating habits. I put myself in this situation so it was up to me to get myself out of this situation. Has it been easy? Of course not. But here I am killing it. Back in March of 2018 I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. I didn’t take the doctor too serious because he just gave me a piece of paper with a list of foods to avoid eating. My eyes almost popped out of my head when I read potatoes. Potatoes! But I love potatoes! What am I going to do? I received no education on diabetes. He didn’t even recommend a registered dietician, nothing. So I went on about my life. Trying to eat healthy. Taking my metformin which made me sick to my stomach. I tried to take it daily but holy guacamole the side effects didn’t agree with me. So I reflected back on my dad. He was a diabetic. He got to a point where he had to inject himself with insulin daily. Fortunately he didn’t have any amputations. He also had heart disease.  That’s when I decided I have to make some changes and now. Not tomorrow not next week not next month. There was no starting on the first of the month. It was now, for me it was do or die. I can live with the fact that I am a diabetic but Diabetes will not control me! I will control my diabetes. Diabetes is a serious disease. Not to be taken lightly at all. It affects your eye sight, your liver, your kidneys, your dental health, your heart. I refuse to suffer later on in life because I chose to eat foods not good for my body. So here I am today. I had my A1C checked in August 2019,  it was a 10.9 and my doctor re-checked it at my request December 2019. I was happily shocked to see that my A1C was now at a 5.9 and I did it. When I first started the program I had to give up my Big Reds! What! I though that’s gonna be hard but I did it. Willpower, willpower will be your best friend. There are so many things we can do to lose weight. But first of all we have to want it and I mean want it 100%. They say we eat with our eyes first. That is so true.
1. Make your meals pretty. Sounds funny right? If your meal looks pretty appealing your going to want to eat it.

2. Spice up your meals. Yeah, who doesn’t like flavors? I’m always looking for ways to add flavor to boring chicken breasts. Every time I go to the grocery store I’m looking at ways to add flavor to my proteins. While at Wal-Mart I found some spices called Delicioso. They run about 3.50 or so. They come in flavors of: mango, cilantro lime, chorizo, asada and al pastor. I bought all but the mango. And let me tell you it is great. Well worth the price because a little goes a long way. I have also used McCormick’s chicken fajita seasoning put that in a plastic zip lock bag with olive oil and the juice of 1 lime slice up 2 to 3 chicken breasts in half length-wise then I slice them in thin strips and place them in the bag with the marinade refrigerate for 30 min or overnight. Then I place a little olive oil on my grill pan( bought mine at Wal-Mart for about $30) when I grill all the chicken I place them in zip lock snack bags 2 oz or 4oz and label the bag by the flavor and the ounce. I bought my scale at Wal-Mart $5.00. When ready to eat I just pull it out of the freezer and defrost. I have also use chipotle peppers and marinated chicken in the adobo sauce and a couple of peppers with olive oil and lime juice. I use that
Chicken in a salad: lettuce, grape tomatoes, chopped red onion chopped green and red peppers and 1/2 of a pear sliced. The pear is cool and balances the spiciness of the chicken. You can also substitute the pear for avocado slices. I would suggest making your own vinegarette. Salad dressings have alot of calories and let’s face it, no one wants to eat dry lettuce. If you don’t like vinegarette you can still use dressings just water them down a bit. Read your labels. Ranch dressing, for example has a whopping 130 calories per 2 tbsp. Wow. I would probably put 1.5 tbsp in a small container with .5 tbsp cover with a lid and shake it up real good. We gotta start somewhere right.  You maybe thinking this is too hard,  I’m never going to lose weight, it’s too much work, blah, blah, blah. Trust me you will get used to this sooner than you think. We are here for each other we have to support each other. I started off in August 2019 weighing in at 205. Today I weight 173. I’m still a work in progress. I will not give up. I will continue to eat smarter. Because I want this,  I will. Giving up is not on my list. Don’t let it be on yours. If you don’t see the weight coming off, pay attention to how your clothes is fitting you. Plenty of times I didn’t lose weight but I lost inches. I’ll take it. My goal is 150. I will reach it because I want it so bad.

3. Portion control is something that will help as well. I will make supper. Let’s say I make spaghetti. I will only eat 1 cup no more than that. I will serve green beans on the side. My green beans are saluted in a tbsp of butter and minced garlic a slice of bacon chopped.  So I will eat 1 cup of spaghetti and 1 cup of green beans and that’s it. I’m full if I can’t eat the cup of spaghetti I will put the fork down and call it quits. I have made carne guisada for dinner and have left overs. I pack the left overs in snack sized zip lock bags .5 cup and put in the freezer. If I have rice and beans left over pack it also in separate bags at 1/4 cup. There’s my lunch for a later day.

4. Snacks: boiled eggs, beef jerky, perhaps 1/2 a sandwich loaded with veggies, nuts, cheese sticks, fruits- 10 grapes, 1/2 or small apple, banana, orange. Or even a small salad. Try to avoid canned fruits. I found sugar free Jello 4pack for $1 and only 5 calories also sugar free chocolate pudding $1 only 70 calories. I used to keep a crystal bowl on my nightstand with dove dark chocolate. But now when I get a chocolate craving I go for my sugar free pudding as opposed to 170 calories for 4 dove pieces. My go to snacks used to be Lightly salted pringles or cheese nips. So the day I started my 1200 calorie diet I came home and read the labels the pringles were 16 at 150 calorie the cheese nips were 29 or 30 at150 calories. So yup, here I go again with my zip lock bags, 30 cheese nips and 16 pringles. We had a staff appreciation at work one day and we served sloppy Joes and chips. One of my coworkers said to me, ” wow you’re really taking this diet thing serious I saw you count 12 lays potatoe chips”. Yes I am very serious.

5. Exercise, keep motivated. Try getting those extra steps in whenever possible. Anyway you can. I used to go walking with my son,(15 years old), but when the time changed it was too dark to go walk at 6pm. So right now I am looking into core exercises. Pinterest will be your best friend. Exercise ideas, salad ideas, any foods you can think of.

6. If you find yourself getting hungry keep extra had boiled eggs in your fridge, drink plenty of water.
Keep yourself hydrated. Make infused water. Drink unsweetened tea instead of sweet tea.
I watch a channel on YouTube called views on the road. Stephanie is the name of the girl that makes aguas fresca, (like infused water) I have made the watermelon star, cucumber water, strawberry kiwi water and apple, celery and carrot water. If you drink water before during and after your meals you will not be hungry. Also add lemon or lime juice to your water infused or not that helps with weight loss too.

7. I have recently discovered ground turkey. It is so good and so much better for you than ground beef because it is very lean, meaning it has very little fat. So when your cooking it add a little olive oil because it can burn easily. If it does its easy to peel off the burn layer when say for instance your making a turkey burger.. I season mine with salt pepper and minced onion red green and yellow dices peppers and it is yummy. I ve even made turkey meat balls.

8. If you have to eat potatoes I recommend red or Yukon gold potatoes. The skin is very thin and have the least amount of starch in them. As apposed to a russet potatoe which has a thicker skin therefore is best as a baked potatoe it holds up better. When I make mashed potatoes I peel the potatoes and dice them. I place my colander in a large bowl and rinse the potatoes in cold water 2-3 times to rinse out any starch. My sugars are always normal when I do this.

9. Remember when searching for recipes and you come across one that sounds yummy but it calls for shrimp and you’re not much of a fish person, you can substitute the shrimp for chicken or vice versa.

10. This is not going to be easy. But you can do it. Remember to read how many calories per serving size on your packages. Once you get the hang of it it’ll be as easy as breathing.

11. Now when you for you’re weekly weigh in and you lose sight you know you can have a cheat meal not day. How about this instead. I have opted to take a pamper day. I take a bubble bath, then do a home made facial, home made mani pedi, lotion my body, watch a movie or read a book. My husband and kids know not to bother me during this time because I’ve earned it. Think it over.

12. Remember one meal at a time.

You guys are the BEST

Loved the facial.

“I loooooove Dr. Praderio and her awesome nurses. They are all so sweet and make every visit warm and relaxing for me!! I seriously reccomend Dr. Praderio to all my friends. I really wish I could find a family doctor who is as great!”

This is the BEST place for women’s health.

Love how the staff and Dr P. make you feel special.

Both Ashley and Richard were awesome!! Very nice and accommodating. Dr. Praderio would be so proud of me!!!