I want to tell you about someone who makes a real difference in the lives of our patients every single week.
Carla Baccio is our Director of Health Coaching, and she is a good way into explaining something I get asked constantly: what the medication actually does, and why we pair it with coaching at all.
What makes a good health coach?
Listening, more than credentials. Carla carries over twenty years in personal and group training, a master’s in Exercise Science, Nutrition and Wellness, and more than fifteen certifications in wellness and behavior change. But what matters most is something you cannot put on a résumé.
She listens. Really listens.
She is curious about who you are, not just what you weigh or how often you move. She understands that the way we deal with food and exercise is shaped by stress, by history, by habit, by how we feel about ourselves at the end of a hard day.
She does not hand you a meal plan and send you on your way. She explores with you.
What do the weight-loss medications actually do?
They quiet the noise. These medications are not a shortcut. What they do is address something most people struggling with their weight have dealt with for years: a body working against them, with dysregulated hunger signals and stress responses that drive overeating.
Poor sleep that elevates cravings. A relationship with food shaped by years of biology, not just choice.
The medications help your body receive fullness signals the way it was designed to. They make choosing what and how much to eat less of a battle and more of a calm decision.
They reduce stress-driven eating, support better sleep, and make physical activity feel more accessible.
Why do I need coaching if the medication is working?
Because the medication creates the opening and the coaching is how you walk through it. The medication makes healthy choices easier to make. What you build on top of that opening is what determines whether anything holds once the opening is there.
That building happens across the five things that shape your health most: how much you eat, what you eat, your sleep, your stress, and your movement.
We started Mindful Wellness because people struggling with their weight deserve compassion and real science, not shame and generic advice. Carla embodies that every single day.
