People lose their results after stopping a GLP-1 because they haven't updated their lifestyle and mindset to maintain a smaller body.
➤ Stress patterns that send us to the kitchen at 10 p.m.—still there.
➤ All-or-nothing thinking—still there.
➤ Daily and weekly routines before and after work, and weekends—the same.
➤ The gravitational pull of addictive sweet or salty snacks at the store...
➤ Those moments when a flavor is a source of quick comfort...
➤ Restaurants, birthdays, holidays, vacations, social events....
➤ The break room at work...
All still there—just manageable because of the medication.
Whether you want to stay on medication or taper off, you need a system that makes healthy choices automatic and enjoyable.
That's what this program exists to do.
No generic plans. A tailored system built with you, for your actual life and what you know about your body—and that's done with you for as long as you need support.
Your doctor manages your prescription. We give you the skills, structure, and support to renovate your lifestyle from the inside out.
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You feel like you're in survival mode most of the time.
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Healthy choices when you're stressed were nearly impossible.
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You often believe you aren't trying hard enough.
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You frequently say yes to everyone but yourself.
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You're stuck in the I have to do this on my own mental trap.
Doing new actions consistently—day in and day out, even on hard days—is what everyone struggles with the most.
With GLP-1 suppressing hunger, one of the biggest challenges is removed. You have a golden opportunity.
➤ A 6-month, high-touch healthy lifestyle incubator.
➤ Adults currently on a GLP-1 who want an exit strategy.
➤ Those don't come in a bottle.
➤ They can't be patented or replaced by AI.
➤ Nobody can limit how much you can have.
➤ No generic plans—yours is tailored to your likes and dislikes and your life.
The Groundwork • Education
First 12 weeks
🙋 Connect (~60 min/2 wks)
Twice monthly live group coaching with your 8-person cohort plus four private 1:1 sessions with your coach to refine and troubleshoot your personal plan.👨🏻🏫 Learn (30–60 min/wk)
Understand root causes, choose what to do differently, and create your GLP-1 exit strategy as you go. Each week includes physician-backed guidelines, a baseline check-in tool, and goal-setting exercises.👩🏻🔬 Execute (up to you)
In the first 12 weeks, you'll set SMART goals and choose relevant Tiny Habits®. You're encouraged to test-drive one new tiny habit a week—but every other week, or even waiting until The Momentum Group to start practicing—is 100% okay.The Core • Daily Routine
23 weeks of practicing your chosen Tiny Habits®
🌞 Morning Map Check (5 min)
Think about your day and look for today's hurdles. Briefly name today's top concern in your 4-person accountability pod chat.🤝 Daily Accountability (up to you)
Post how you're doing in the chat. (Feel free to send your podmates encouragement!) If and when you post (before, during, or after) is your call—but not posting at all will hinder your mental rewiring process.🌜 Nightly Wins & Recap (5 min)
A quick templated update to track your wins and clear your mental slate.Seamless ongoing support after the first 12 weeks
🤝 Continuing Daily Accountability (up to you)
Stay anchored to your goals and your pod. Morning check-ins, daytime posts, and nightly recaps all continue to reinforce your chosen new habits—especially on hard days.🙋 Twice Monthly Group Coaching (60 min)
Join your coach and alumni peers twice a month to troubleshoot plateaus, adapt your habits to new situations in your life, and celebrate your wins together.👩🏻🏭 Quarterly 1:1 Check-In (60 min)
Dedicate an hour every quarter to problem-solving ongoing challenges and refining your maintenance strategy with your coach in a private 1:1 session.Our 12-week online course teaches you how to:
➤ Understand how and why diabetes and excess body fat happen and what to do instead.
➤ Maintain muscle with enough movement while the medication does its job.
➤ Design new habits and edit your environment to support your new body size.
➤ Tailor your lifestyle plan for how to maintain your new body size.
➤ Create a custom failure protocol so that slips don't become falls.
➤ Replace stress eating with nervous-system calming techniques.
➤ Stop food noise from returning with meal design guidelines.
➤ Update all-or-nothing diet thinking with a flexible, health-forward mindset.
➤ Slowly increase your metabolism in preparation for tapering off.
➤ Come off medication when you and your doctor decide you're ready.
Founder & Program Director
Hi! I’m Zena. I live in South Jordan, Utah. My passion is holistic health and my credential is Functional Medicine Certified Health Coach (FMCHC).
What I'm Not Supposed to Say
Like me, you know what you 'should' do to take care of your health. But when your body grabs the wheel, you're completely powerless.
I’ve spent decades learning the essentials of how the human body works and practicing lifestyle medicine, and yet in 2024 I wasn't prepared when perimenopause and a depressive episode hit at the same time. My metabolism was slowing and I couldn't stop eating sweets, so of course my body fat increased to the highest point in my life.
My Breaking Point
Being honest here: antidepressants and everything I knew and did weren't moving the needle. After more than two years of trying, I decided to ask my doctor if I could microdose semaglutide as a bridge while I modified my lifestyle (again) for this new stage of life. I was grateful for her support and truly amazed at how much it helped.
What I Realized
The relationship between mental, emotional and physical wellbeing is unbreakable. (Spiritual and relational health are equally as important in my view.)
Medication doesn't mean we're weak. It means we can ask for help—humble ourselves—and we're willing to try new solutions. That's both wise and hopeful.
Many of my students think like me: symptom management isn't enough. At our core, we want to be healthy independent of medication if at all possible.
Read about my professional approach and background
My Approach
To me, 'holistic health' means the whole picture—not just what you eat, but also your sleep, movement, relationships, sources of stress, mindset and more—anything that impacts your quality of life.
'Functional medicine' means resolving root causes of chronic illnesses by adding or increasing what supports your health and decreasing or removing what hurts it.
And lastly, my domain as a certified health coach is behavior change. I do not treat illnesses or give psychiatric or medical advice; many of my students bring their licensed provider's advice to coaching sessions.
Who I Work Best With
Like me, you likely have years of talk therapy, online research, doctor visits and medication under your belt. You know in general how to take care of your body—that food, hydration, movement, sleep, stress and relationships are all fundamental factors.
You probably understand your childhood trauma. You lean into evidence and scientific research and you accept that (a) science can't explain the full human experience and (b) a rich spiritual life that includes service and human connection are pillars of health.
What I Provide
Personalized support to figure out the specific when, where, how and why that turn good intentions into actions.
I use a blend of evidence-based coaching techniques including:
Cognitive-Behavioral Coaching (CBC)
Motivational Interviewing (MI)
Character strengths, Maslow’s Hierarchy, and other proven frameworks for human flourishing.
My Professional Background
Before founding Holistic Wellness School, my background in university leadership, small-business operations, and early childhood education equipped me with a unique set of skills I now use to support you, such as:
Distilling complex info into simple, actionable steps.
Managing long-term goals without losing the details.
Listening deeply to find clarity in emotionally charged situations.
Modeling essential Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) skills like regulating stress, practicing empathy, collaborating in teams, resolving conflicts, and identifying emotions.
My lifelong drive to understand relationships and communication led me to graduate summa cum laude from Montana State University–Bozeman with a bachelor’s degree in English and a minor in psychology. I earned my FMCHC credential in 2023.
I’d be honored to help you renovate the foundation for your 'inner home'—your body, mind and spirit—one day at a time.
Practicing holistic wellness
"Zena is knowledgeable and a great listener. She was able to help me with a plan that works for me. No unrealistic expectations, just positive coaching all the way."
"With Zena's coaching, I've been able to improve my life by adopting new tiny habits that have added up to big successes in the areas of nutrition, physical fitness, and stress reduction."
"I found Zena to be a great health coach. She's collaborative, conscientious, detail-oriented, thorough, focused, and upbeat, with excellent follow-through."
Please note, enrollment is capped at 8 students per cohort.
Walk away with: A customized Living Wellness Plan and metabolic tools to maintain your new body size and step down your medication safely if and when you and your doctor decide you're ready.
✓ 6 months (90 days of education & support plus 90 days of support only)
✓ Small 8-person cohorts
✓ All-day accountabilty
✓ Personalized Living Wellness Plan
✓ 4 private 1:1 coaching sessions (60 min)
✓ Twice monthly live goal-setting labs (recorded)
✓ Twice monthly live skills workshops (recorded)
✓ Coach spot support (limits apply)
✓ Private community
✓ 24/7 custom AI support
Walk away with: A post-program safety net that lasts until you feel like your new habits are fully formed—or come back for a tune-up.
✓ 3 months per block (90 days)
✓ Accountabilty pods (max 4 students each; same-sex only)
✓ Twice monthly group coaching sessions
✓ Coach spot support (limits apply)
✓ Private community
✓ 24/7 custom AI support
Walk away with: Lifelong access to an understanding, supportive community so you never have to navigate maintenance alone. Any student who completes the 6-month program is eligible.
✓ Semiannual group coaching sessions (up to 90 min)
✓ Accountability pods (max 4 students each; same-sex only)
✓ Private community
✓ 24/7 custom AI support
01
Small changes and measured progress in ~2.5 hrs/wk
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Your plan is built for your real life—your symptoms and health goals
03
Learn and implement research-backed health and relationship skills
04
Implementing advice from your doctor, therapist or dietician is always okay
What is health coaching?
What isn't health coaching?
Coaching is not:
A substitute for medical advice, therapy, or treatment.
A source of diagnoses, prescriptions, advice, or treatment for health conditions.
Able to deliver instant results or 'band-aids' for symptoms.
Coaching focuses on problem-solving and relevant actions—not diagnosis, treatment or advice.
Who would I be coached by?
You’ll have a human coach. Always.
Zena Bardonnay is the founder of Holistic Wellness School and a Functional Medicine Certified Health Coach (FMCHC).
She developed The GLP-1 Lifestyle Renovation Program and, as lead coach, she conducts all 1:1 and live group-coaching sessions.
Zena believes that improving how we care for ourselves and how we relate to others are both root causes of physical and emotional health.
You’ll get real coaching, from a real person, who actually cares about your health almost as much as you do.
When do cohorts start?
To ensure highly personalized attention, we limit our intake to two 8-person cohorts per year.
Open Enrollment: Dec 1 to Dec 31 & Jul 1 to Jul 31
Slow Start: Jan 1 to Jan 31 & Aug 1 to Aug 31
Spring Cohort:
Modules drop weekly Feb 1 to Apr 30
Integration period runs May 1 to Jul 31
Fall Cohort:
Modules drop weekly Sep 1 to Nov 30
Integration period runs Dec 1 to Feb 28
Once your application is approved and tuition is processed, you unlock immediate access to Slow Start—one full month to complete your baseline assessments, request specific lab work, and get comfortable with Google Classroom and other Google tools before the course officially begins.
What technology do you use?
Google's suite of tools are updated regularly and built to keep sensitive personal information secure. Holistic Wellness School programs use:
Google Classroom
Google Calendar
Google Forms
Google Docs
Google Chat
Google Meet
Google Gemini
All are available as desktop or phone apps.
How are therapy and coaching different?
In a nutshell, a therapist is highly trained and licensed to diagnose and treat mental and behavioral health conditions.
The right therapist and approach for your diagnosis can be life-changing.
A health coach helps clients achieve their general wellness goals and implement guidance from their medical providers through awareness, education, personalized planning, and accountability.
Health coaches often work in tandem with providers to help clients rebuild a solid foundation for brain health, including enough sleep, movement, nutritious food, stress-reducing tools, and relationship skills.
Functional medicine certified health coaches are trained to support individualized, measurable, realistic lifestyle plans.
Not all health coaches are certified.
How do you support medical providers?
Certified health coaches increase patient follow-through and decrease workloads for licensed care providers and skilled support staff.
Patient follow-through also reduces provider burnout. Physician burnout is physically and emotionally harmful to some of the most essential, deeply caring human beings in our society, and their families.
This negative modern trend reduces access to quality care for Americans.
Additionally, like most humans, even highly trained medical professionals sometimes struggle to achieve their own health goals due to juggling extensive responsibilities.
Can I use my health insurance?
No, but uploading a Letter of Medical Necessity (LMN) from your doctor to your HSA or FSA administrator may allow you to use funds from either of those accounts, if you have one.
Some HSA/FSA companies provide a form for your provider to fill out, or you can use our Google Docs template.
What is functional medicine?
It’s helpful to see functional medicine as one of two essential halves of a modern healthcare system.
Allopathic (Western) medicine excels at identifying and treating acute issues like infections, broken bones, and life-threatening medical emergencies—i.e., crucial, life-saving care.
Functional medicine excels at identifying and treating the root causes of chronic illnesses like diabetes, heart disease, cancers, and autoimmune disorders.
A licensed functional medicine practitioner looks "upstream" to find out why a disease is happening.
This approach is designed to complement primary (allopathic) medical care and reduce or eliminate the need for long-term medications that may come with harmful side effects.
Functional Medicine Certified Health Coaches receive additional training in root-cause and lifestyle medicine principles like nutrition and food plans, mind-body medicine, and the psychology of eating, from Institute for Functional Medicine–certified physicians. Coaches cannot diagnose or treat illnesses.
I'd prefer to do this on my own.
We completely encourage self-study!
Our students join our program because they’ve finally realized that knowledge alone isn't enough for transformation.
That’s why our programs offers three things you can't get from research alone:
Accountability with a coach who's invested in your success
A structured process that’s proven to build momentum for change.
A dedicated GLP-1–friendly community cheering each others' progress.
I can just ask an AI for help.
You absolutely can!
We love AI as a tool—in fact, students in our program have access to Phineas, our tuned AI coaching assistant, if they need help after hours or between sessions.
One other thing to remember is that most AI models only respond to user prompts—they're dependent on you knowing what to ask.
At Holistic Wellness School, you'll learn what to ask so that AI becomes an even more powerful 24/7 tool for you going forward.
Are there any discounts?
For a limited time, we're offering Founder's Cohort pricing:
Program: 50% off (regularly $7,000)
Momentum Group: 25% off (regularly $1,197)
Additionally:
If you're a business owner, you may be able to deduct tuition for employees. Confirm your situation with your tax advisor.
If your HSA/FSA administrator accepts a Letter of Medical Necessity (LMN) from your doctor, you can use funds from those accounts. Some HSA/FSA companies provide a form for doctors, or you can use our Google Docs template.
Is this too good to be true?
It's totally natural to have some doubts, especially if you've had a bad experience in the past. Zena has.
Back in 2020 she bought 'coaching' from an uncertified YouTuber. The person changed the terms of service after sign-up, and Zena lost her credit.
Here are a few things to know about Holistic Wellness School:
We're not in this for repeat business. We want you to be a lifelong success story.
That's why when you complete our program, you'll get lifetime access to our Alumni Maintenance Group for free.
A lot of people and programs promise instant results, but those don't exist. We help you focus on small, sustainable changes that support who you want to be. We personalize 100% of the what, when, why, how, and how much of your plan to you.
We help you address your Big Picture—we teach you research-backed tools and strategies like meditation, mindfulness, glycemic load, resting metabolic rate, character strengths, and more.
Willpower and motivation are emotional—they come and go, which is why we focus on changing your mindset from 'failure' to 'experimenting,' getting you clear on your Big Why, and updating your daily habits.
When you take that approach, chipping away at your personal plan gets easier and easier—because that's what happens when you stop relying on how you feel.
Are there other expenses?
None that are required, but additional tools may be helpful in the long run for your new lifestyle if you choose:
Books and audiobooks
Gym membership or home equipment
New shoes
Pantry cleanse
High-quality supplements
Bloodwork or scans
Food tracking or meditation apps
All the apps used in this program are free from Google.