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 late 2020 — 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 six 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’ve enrolled in Chris Kresser’s ADAPT functional health coaching program, which began in mid-June, 2019.

Since early on in my journey, of all the experts I’ve turned to for information, Chris Kresser has stood out as the most knowledgable, the most nuanced in his positions, the person I trust the most. I’m convinced that the ADAPT program, which is entering only in its second year, will soon set the standard in the field.

As of January 2020, I am offering free “practice sessions” as part of the ADAPT practicum. For more information on becoming a practice client, please go to Coaching Services.

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 look forward to bringing a unique and seasoned understanding of the mind-body continuum to my coaching practice.

Way of Earth

The name is inspired by a scene from the 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.