About Johnny
Johnny Cordova grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, just north of the UC Berkeley college campus. He’s spent much of his adult life in the high desert mountains of North Central Arizona and has lived in Southeast Asia (Bangkok and Singapore) since 2011. He and his wife, Dominique, are currently planning a return to the United States in July 2021 — back to the high desert.
My Paleo/Ancestral Journey
I started eating a paleo diet in 2013 and experienced immediate improvements to my overall health. As a former vegetarian, it was an eye-opening experience. Wanting to understand more, I set about gathering as much information as I could from books, podcasts, and health-related blogs.
Over the past seven years I’ve lost 25 pounds of belly fat, gained lean muscle, and reversed what I now realize was an advancing case of insulin resistance.
As a longtime student of the spiritual path, I’ve had to do some soul searching to reconcile a meat-inclusive diet with the religious vegetarianism that I’d been steeped in. That process itself is a long story and perhaps the subject of a future blog post.
The short version is that I’ve found a diet based on ethically-sourced animal products to actually be more aligned with my core values. And the improvements to my mood and energy levels much more conducive to a life of deep practice than vegetarianism ever was.
A thriving body is a much better vehicle for transformation than an undernourished one.
ADAPT Functional Health Coaching
My study of ancestral health principles has inspired me to make a career of helping others along their own path to well being. So I enrolled in Chris Kresser’s ADAPT functional health coaching program, which began in mid-June, 2019.
Chris Kresser has long been one of my most-trusted sources of information in the ancestral health field. I appreciate his nuanced positions on controversial issues as well as the thoroughness of his research. After going through his ADAPT program, I am convinced that it is the gold standard training in the health coach industry.
Over a 14-month period, I dedicated over 600 hours to studying functional health and coaching principles, and conducted 120 sessions with real-life practice clients. On July 28th, 2020, I officially became an ADAPT Certified Functional Health Coach.
As a certified coach, I am prepared to work in collaboration with your healthcare provider, as well as independently, to help you reach your wellness goals.
To learn more about how I can help you, please see my Coaching Services page.
Yoga and Meditation
My approach to health and wellness is very much informed by a background in yoga and sitting meditation.
I started practicing Bikram Yoga (the original hot yoga) in 1999 and taught full-time from 2007 to 2014. I managed studios for five of those seven years, specializing in teacher development, then made a tough decision (which you can read about here) to step back from a career that brought me much fulfillment because I no longer wanted to be associated with the man, Bikram Choudhury.
While I still maintain a home yoga practice and will teach classes upon invitation, my real passion, my lifeline, has long been sitting meditation, which I learned 32 years ago from the late spiritual teacher Lee Lozowick (1943 – 2010). Though Lee was not Buddhist, the style of meditation he taught most resembles a combination of the Zen practice of Shikantaza (the art of just sitting) and the Tibetan Vajrayana practice of Pure Awareness. Lee started me off, an absolute beginner, with a rather advanced approach to meditation. What I can say about that is that it’s taught me plenty.
I believe that I bring a unique and seasoned understanding of the mind-body continuum to my coaching practice.
Ancestral Health for the Spiritual Path
One of my coaching aims is to bring ancestral health principles to the world-wide community of spiritual practitioners, as well as to demystify sitting practice for the ancestral health community.
As a longtime meditator and former vegetarian, I’m sensitive to your need to eat in a way that’s aligned to your spiritual values – and at the same time allows you to thrive in your practice life.
I believe that an ancestral diet does exactly that.
Way of Earth
The name is inspired by a scene from the 1992 film Thunderheart in which American Indian poet John Trudell, playing the character Jimmy Looks Twice, says, “There’s a way to live with Earth. And a way not to live with Earth. We choose the way of Earth.”
I choose the way of Earth.