Courtney Coleman
The first time I connected what I was eating with how I was feeling, was when I was eighteen and busier than ever with school and work. I had low energy, no stamina, a face full of acne, constipation, 30 extra pounds on my body, candida yeast overgrowth, mood swings, and an inability to focus.
I was living on foods like canned chile-con-carni, white bread with margarine, instant ramen noodles, and dollar burgers from fast food restaurants. Oh! And let me not forget the frozen yogurt sugar bombs I was eating several times a week, as well as entire packages of sour gummy candy right before bed!
I felt as if I was weighed down from inside, and I remember telling a friend how horrible I was feeling. He asked, “Are you eating anything green?” I’d never known it was really that important! So, I began buying fresh spinach to make a big spinach salad every evening. And suddenly my energy level shot through the roof, just from that one change!
I began shopping for fresh vegetables at farmer’s markets every week, and I learned to make colorful stir frys. When I started drinking enough re-mineralized water daily, I felt the next level of ‘way-better-than-I-ever-knew-I-could-feel’!
I was hooked on learning more and more, so I started venturing into natural foods stores and talking with clerks and people shopping. I read books on Macrobiotics and Ayurvedic cooking. I started soaking & simmering whole grains and beans of all kinds, and fresh grinding and culturing whole grains into super healthy and nutrient-dense quick breads and low-glycemic desserts…I was feeling better and better with each new cooking skill. Whole food diet, cooking, and lifestyle toward true vitality is definitely a slippery slope!
After a several years of independent study and practice, my friends would tell me 3 things consistently:
“I didn’t know whole food dishes could taste so great.”
“I feel so much more energy for such a long time after we eat together.”
And, “I learn so much when we cook together, you should be teaching people what you know.”
And so, in 2006 CookWell was born! I earned my Nutritional Therapy degree from The Health Sciences Academy, and my latest passion is studying the cutting-edge, groundbreaking science of how to improve metabolism with diet and lifestyle, as foundational to health and healing.
This path continues to be a deeply fulfilling way to serve humanity; to be teaching people how to take their wellness into their own hands, deliciously, right in their own kitchens!
I hope you enjoy exploring my site for more info on the ancient healing philosophies behind the food, articles I’ve written to help busy people navigate dense info, and all of my services to see outlines of Nutritional Therapy sessions, CookWell classes, personal cheffing and catering services, and of course, FANTASTIC recipes to get you started in Cooking Well!
Feel Free to contact me anytime, to schedule your FREE, 15 minute discovery session, so we can discover together, how I might best serve your needs…
(805) 547-9073 email: Courtney@CookWell.org
I DO offer phone consults and video chat consults…I totally look forward to meeting you, and to empowering your wellness!
MY STUDY, EXPERIENCE, and CREDENTIALS
Since 2006, I’ve served SLO County with my CookWell business, which is centered around whole food cooking. I cook for busy families, I teach whole food cooking classes and offer Nutritional Therapy coaching privately throughout SLO County, and of course, I cater events on-site.
In catering since 2006, I’ve scheduled, organized, planned, shopped, prepped for days before events, cooked, served, cleaned up, and worked closely with clients to ensure successful events. This work is a total joy for me.
I personally know many of our local farmers (AND their best products!) from the SLO, Arroyo Grande, Los Osos, and Morro Bay Farmer’s Markets, and I regularly procure bulk amounts of vegetables from them for both catering and personal cheffing work, in which I bring the ingredients to my client’s kitchens and fill their fridge and freezer with tasty dishes they can easily reheat.
These are my credentials & experiences, retrospectively:
1995, Redlands High School Diploma
1999, Associate of Arts degree in 2D Art from Cuesta College
Since 2000, I’ve attended many whole food nutrition workshops, done LOTS of cooking, and read books such as: Healing with Whole Foods, The Body Ecology Diet, Ayurvedic Cooking for Westerners, The Detox Solution, Nourishing Traditions, Wild Fermentation, The Metabolic Typing Diet, Fat For Fuel, Good Energy, and The Self-Healing Cookbook.
In 2002, I took a series of Solar Nutrition classes in which I learned tons of whole food wisdom including how to eat specific combinations of foods to enhance vitamin and mineral absorption, and how to cleanse and strengthen major organs using various whole foods.
I’ve followed Dr Joseph Mercola since 2005 on how to take control of our health, and his articles and interviews have pointed me to many other natural health practitioners works, such as: Dr Zach Bush, Dr John Douillard, Dr Andrew Huberman, The Weston A. Price Foundation and Dr Sally Fallon Morell…and most recently on metabolic healing: Jay Feldman Wellness, Ashley Armstrong, and Dr Casey Means.
In 2006, I competed a Small Business Development Course through Mission Community Services Center in San Luis Obispo, and I hold a current Food Handler’s permit.
Since starting CookWell in 2006, I’ve worked directly with Craig Lane, master of Macrobiotic cooking (from the ancient Asian wellness system called Traditional Chinese Medicine), and I’ve learned to customize a Macrobiotic diet to best serve individual needs.
I’ve also learned Ayurvedic cooking techniques (from the ancient Indian wellness system called Ayurveda) to promote healing and balance from Bob and Melanie Sachs, authors of several books on Ayurvedic health practices.
So, I can help my clients determine their body type according to Macrobiotics and Ayurveda, to know which specific foods, spices, and lifestyle practices are most balancing for their unique body type.
Throughout 2015 I was hired by SLO Farmer’s Market Association to set up 8 booths each month at different markets to demonstrate cooking seasonal recipes, and to answer shopper’s questions.
In 2017, I earned my Nutritional Therapy degree from The Health Sciences Academy. I’m now “Courtney Coleman, N.T.”, and I am qualified to identify nutrient deficiency symptoms, to help my clients know which foods they can incorporate into their diets to help them heal the root cause of their symptoms and attain better health.
From 2017 to 2018 I led the weekly Nutrition Discussion Group at The Haven drug & alcohol recovery program in Arroyo Grande, and I’ve also taught at Aspire Counseling Services drug & alcohol counseling in Arroyo Grande. And, From 2017-2020, I taught weekly nutrition classes for the SLO-HIP program at San Luis Obispo County Mental Health clinics in Arroyo Grande, San Luis Obispo, and Atascadero. I also ran and lead the Celebrating Families program for SLO County Drug & Alcohol Services at the beginning of 2020, which is a curriculum to facilitate recovery toward a healthier, happier lifestyle practices from foods to languaging for parents and children impacted by drug and/or alcohol dependence.
In 2024, I enrolled in Rooted In Resilience, a course created by sisters Ashley and Sarah Armstrong on healing the metabolism with diet and lifestyle, based on the works and discoveries of Dr Ray Peat.
It’s a deeply fulfilling path for me to serve people in this way; to be teaching them how to take their wellness into their own hands, deliciously!
CookWell’s services are designed to give each client information to learn from to attain better health; they are not diagnostic or prescriptive. CookWell encourages everyone to listen to their body, and compliment the information given with the advice of qualified health professionals.
Philosophy
Whole, 
organic foods are unchanged from the way in which Mother Earth gives them to us; foods like whole adzuki beans and mung beans, fresh nuts and seeds of all kinds, fresh veggies like squash, yam, onion, broccoli, kale and green beans, all fruits like avocado and kiwi, whole grains such as quinoa, buckwheat, amaranth and millet, pasture-raised meats, eggs and dairy products.
Whole food has not been processed or refined, and thusly stripped of it’s fiber and vitamins and minerals. It also hasn’t oxidized by being ground up, extruded through machines, and then sit around in warehouses and grocery store shelves for months or years. Nor has whole food been preserved with hydrogenated oils and chemicals to change texture or extend shelf life, like so much of the convenience food in bags and boxes on grocery store’s middle aisles’ shelves (AND like the refined ingredients used in most restaurants).
Whole foods are full of revitalizing life force energy, and they work like foundational medicine for our bodies. Whole foods profoundly effect all systems of our bodies, including our minds, our emotions and our connection to Spirit. And, of course whole food affects us physically; it’s a grand yet simple tool we can use to increase our metabolism / energy production, and balance our blood sugar, our blood pH, AND our hormones!
In today’s world, many of us don’t get good quality sleep, and we run around all day in stress-mode, eating packaged snacks, fast food, and either frozen lunches popped in the microwave at work, or the refined flour and chemically preserved lunch meats of “healthy” wraps and sandwiches. Our bodies usually react with fatigue, moodiness, and an acidic blood Ph, all of which render us susceptible to illness and disease.
A consistent diet of whole, organic food does SO many healing things…and we’re not even talking lifestyle hacks yet! A whole food diet, traditionally prepared, replenishes our bodies with the nutrients we need to build strength, keep our immune system strong AND our digestive system performing well by nourishing our microbiome, keep our blood pH alkaline, and maintain overall wellness and feelings of contentment and inner peace….Wow! There are MANY-levels to this…Just you wait as you start understanding the WHY of all these claims, and feel the inspiration and motivation to put some ancestral principles into play, change up some of your daily habits, and finally begin to feel well and happy. They say, for those of us first embarking on this journey of natural diet and lifestyle; “You don’t know how good you can feel, until you finally feel it.”
Some examples of my favorite whole food dishes are simple and simple to prepare; whole grain brown rice topped with lemon-tahini sauce and avocado, mineral-rich soups with sea vegetables, colorful stir steamed vegetables and dark leafy greens with grass fed meats, big bowls of beans with avocado and lime juice, and cultured vegetables like kimchee which are full of rejuvenating probiotics and enzymes. I love to prepare these foods on the weekend, so that I can easily take them with me when I leave the house. Eating these types of whole foods about 80% of the time, builds my strength, stamina, illness-resilience, and focus…I no longer get sick or always need caffeine to get through my afternoon! When we are feeling well and in-balance, we can then let the other 20% of our diet be closer to a treat , so that we can sometimes enjoy food at restaurants with our loved ones, as food is so central to socializing, which is one of our most important needs.
ANCIENT SYSTEMS OF DIET & LIFESTYLE WISDOM
The ancient wisdom of Macrobiotics and Ayurveda, which are the Asian and East Indian traditions of eating and living in harmony with nature, say that our bodies can heal themselves. Our bodies are naturally designed to be self-regulating and self-renewing, even though we’re told that we must depend on a doctor’s guesswork and prescribed drugs to superficially quiet symptoms of disease. Both Macrobiotic and Ayurvedic diets can positively affect: allergies, digestive disorders, candida infections, heart disease, PMS, anemia, diabetes, hyperactivity in children, and many types of cancer. Proven.
YOUR UNIQUE BODY TYPE
Both healing systems of Ayurveda and Macrobiotics take into account individuality. Each of us is biochemically different, with a different physical constitution, ancestry, blood type, and metabolism. It would be ridiculous to believe that the same foods and combinations of foods benefit everyone. For instance, if you tend to feel cold with cold extremities, then you’re recommended to eat more warming foods such as soaked and simmered oats, grass fed butter and meats, and baked root veggies like yam, parsnip and burdock. You see, foods that grow in the colder months tend to have a warming thermal effect on our bodies. Mother Nature is pure genius! If we were to eat as our ancestors did, our bodies would be naturally balanced by the seasonal foods of our particular region year round. Also, the way in which we cook and prepare food imparts either a warming or a cooling thermal effect on our bodies. There are infinite natural tools and strategies for wellness!
Another aspect of individuality, is our individual digestive strength. One person may be able to eat everything offered at a buffet, but another person may need to carefully apply the principals of proper food combining to have smooth, comfortable, efficient digestion. Also, a 100% raw diet year-round is particularly cooling, contractive, and difficult for most people to digest.
Ayurveda and Macrobiotics incorporate sprouted and then simmered (or fresh ground and cultured) low-glycemic, nutrient-dense, whole grains like millet, amaranth and brown rice. These types of grains, prepared in traditional ways (soaking or culturing), provide the body with a long-lasting source of energy that’s gentle on the digestive system, supplies us with bio-available minerals, and helps us maintain balanced blood sugar, hormones and body chemistry.
WHY CHOOSE WHOLE FOOD?
When our immunity and energy are high, we are much more inclined to think and act from a place of peace and contentment. Eating the best kinds of whole foods for our unique body type, regular exercise, time outdoors, deep sleep, and plenty of re-mineralized water, all work to balance us in mind, body and spirit so that we may go forward in the world and make it a better place.