Travels from Michigan, USA
Zonya Foco's speaking fee falls within range: $5,000 to $10,000
As an author, TV host, and national speaker, Zonya Foco is leading America in the fight against obesity, diabetes, cancer, and heart disease through smart nutrition and fitness. She is the champion of the diet-downtrodden, a coach to the nutritionally challenged, and a crusader with a common-sense approach to healthy eating.
The only Registered Dietitian (RD) and Certified Health and Fitness Instructor (CHFI) in the country to have earned the prestigious Certified Speaking Professional (CSP) designation, Zonya brings both style and substance to her presentations. Her diet-free methodology and focus on cultivating healthy habits have been featured on her national public television series, Zonya’s Healthy Bites, and “Oprah and Bob’s Best Life Challenge.” Her healthy and easy recipes and habit-forming guidelines have been published in her books Lickety-Split Meals for Health Conscious People on the Go, The Power of One Good Habit, and Water With Lemon.
Influenced by her own struggles and failures to lose weight as a teenager, Zonya became fascinated by nutrition, majoring in it at Eastern University in Michigan. Through years of research and trial-and-error, she compiled her “Eight Healthy Eating Habits for Life” which have helped ordinary people all around the country reach and maintain a higher quality of life through making a few simple changes.
America’s Nutrition Leader
As America’s Nutrition Leader, Zonya is a master of inspiration, motivation and visual humor, providing hard-facts information and simple solutions that help everyday people improve health, create balance and maximize energy. She is the only Registered Dietitian (RD) and Certified Health and Fitness Instructor (CHFI) in the country to have earned the prestigious Certified Speaking Professional (CSP) designation.
If you’re expecting a lecture-style presentation from this “energizer health bunny” – DON’T! Zonya pulls out all the stops in her live presentations, video seminars and TV show—delivering equal parts entertainment and education all the way. Zonya helps people laugh at their bad habits and discover the joy in adopting new, healthier habits.
In fact, she has identified eight core habits that create the acronym DIET FREE, published in her co-authored DIET FREE novel, Water with Lemon. In 2010, Zonya launched her complete DIET FREE video seminar lifestyle program for individuals and leader-facilitated programs, and produced the two-hour DIET FREE with Zonya Foco, RD TV program aired on national public television. Zonya has also hosted a weekly television series, Zonya’s Health Bites, on national public television.
She has partnered with Health Alliance Plan (HAP) of Michigan since 2004 to develop and present its award-winning Weight Wise member programs based on her DIET FREE habits. Zonya has also worked with Bob Greene as a guest presenter for “Oprah & Bob’s Best Life Challenge,” providing entertaining and educational cooking presentations.
Zonya received her bachelor’s degree from Eastern Michigan University in 1987 and then worked for eight years as a clinical nutritionist for the Michigan Heart and Vascular Institute at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital in Ann Arbor. It is from these clients that she discovered the need for a “countertop coach” cookbook and in 1998 wrote Lickety Split Meals for Health Conscious People on the Go, filled with easy recipes and healthy tips for everyday families. In 2008, Zonya reworked the recipes and tips and created Lickety-Split Diabetic Meals (published by American Diabetes Association) to help those with diabetes in their quest for a healthier, happier life.
In addition to spreading the word through speaking platform, books and TV show, Zonya has appeared on local newscasts across the country, nationally syndicated daytime talk shows and QVC. She has been published in the popular magazines Prevention, Today’s Dietitian, Total Health, and Fast and Healthy Cooking.
Nutritionist Zonya Foco reveals how she handles one of the biggest challenges any family faces: getting their children to eat healthy. She shares an anecdote from a supermarket trip with her young son, who wanted her to buy a sugary cereal, because an image of Spiderman was on the box.
She responded with a routine she had developed for such instances; she began to read the ingredients of the cereal one-by-one prompting her son to interject “laboratory” or “farm” after each one. “Mom, can’t I just say ‘good’ or ‘bad?’” her son complained. “No,” she answered. “There are no ‘good foods’ or ‘bad foods.’ It’s ‘laboratory’ or ‘farm.’”
Not only does Zonya Foco teach the hard facts of good nutrition, she shows audiences across the country how to transform their lifestyles by mastering one core habit at a time. Her boundless energy, visual humor, and down-to-earth approach to lifelong health resonate with people from all walks of life from healthcare professionals to corporate executives. Throughout all her presentations Zonya inspires, entertains, and drives home that anyone can see exponential positive change in their lives through incorporating one good habit at a time.
Speaking Topics
Full Day or Half Day Seminars:
For Health Professionals:
Don't See What You Want? If you don't see exactly what you're looking for, Zonya can work with you to accommodate a specific title, theme or topic that will have particular appeal to your audience.
SPEAKING.COM: What do you want people to learn / take away from your presentations?
FOCO: In one sentence: “When we adopt one seemingly insignificant change into our everyday lives, the result, over time, can surpass all expectations.” (A quote from The DIET FREE Novel, Water with Lemon by Zonya Foco and Stephen Moss.)
SPEAKING.COM: What kind of special prep work do you do prior to an event? How do you prepare for your speaking engagements?
FOCO:
I ask for names of key attendees that I can call and interview ahead of time. This helps me understand and come up with custom solutions for the specific lifestyle challenges of the audience I will be addressing.
I also ask to interview any “success stories” among their group. Has anyone recently taken on a healthy lifestyle and dropped weight, or got off blood pressure or diabetes medicine? Highlighting their stories, including their photos in my PowerPoint, or even bringing them up on stage if appropriate, make that AUDIENCE and THEIR PEOPLE the stars, and that works better than any other success story I can possibly share!
Additionally, I am able to help promote the event by offering a custom-made video that I script and record with the final approval of the client. Meeting planners love how professional the videos turn out!
SPEAKING.COM: Have you had any particularly memorable speaking engagements?
FOCO: One health care association wanted their annual conference of 1,200 attendees to truly emulate health at every opportunity instead of just talking about it. So in addition to kicking off the conference with my “Conviction vs. Convenience: Staying Healthy in a Culture that’s anything But!” keynote, I returned to the stage mid-morning and mid-afternoon for 5-minute “get up and move” energy breaks. I also helped plan the menus so every meal and snack was 100% healthy – as opposed to the “half-healthy and half not healthy” meals that meeting planners often feel pressured into offering. Additionally, I led early morning fitness walks to start the day and they were well attended.
People were amazed at how good the food was, and how alert, focused, and overall great they felt. One woman commented that she usually gains weight at multi-day conferences, but felt like she had gone to a “spa” and was delighted to arrive home “lighter, inspired, and equipped to keep new habits going.” It was so successful, they booked me right away to return the following year, even though they had never had the same speaker back twice before. What an honor!
“Thank you! Thank you! Thank you for helping make our women’s conference such a huge success this year. You have a wonderful gift for motivating individuals to live a healthy life. We have received so many positive comments from the attendees and hope to have you back real soon.” Linda F. Rush, Director, Community Wellness/Women’s Center, The Medical Center, Bowling Green, KY
“The participants are still talking about your message eight months later. Having you here was an excellent investment for our managers.” Ted Serafini, Canadian Tire Acceptance Limited, Welland, Ontario
“What I like best about your presentation is that you “turn on light bulbs.” We get connected, we laugh, we learn, we understand, and lives are changed. Thank you!” Arlette Wright, Education Coordinator, The Women’s Center Reading Hospital and Medical Center, West Reading, PA
“Her presentation style is high-energy knowledge packed with lighthearted humor and simple, take home lifestyle change bites. Because Zonya made herself available for cookbook signing before the program she learned information about her audience. She was then able to quickly engage with the audience and personalize her presentation.” Monica Ritschke, RN, MSN, Director, Affinity Health System Oshkosh, WI
“Your presentation (in combination with your Lickety-Split Meals book as daily reinforcement) is making significant changes among our staff and their families. Senior administration was so impressed, they have requested you as our keynote speaker again next year!” Jill Boyd, Wellness Coordinator, Horizons Health Services, Presque Isle, ME
“Thank you! for a fantastic presentation at our ‘Women’s Night Out For the Health of It’, dinner-lecture program. The 240 people (including two men) thought you were great. We enjoyed hearing their excited exchanges on their way out and reading their comments on the evaluation sheets.” Janet Shubitowski, Chair, Women’s Health Council, Saline Community Hospital, Saline, MI
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Water with Lemon: An Inspiring Story of Diet-Free, Guilt-Free Weight Loss!
60 extra pounds. An unhappy marriage. Food for comfort. Karen’s life is falling apart. Then she meets an unlikely neighbor who reveals how a series of simple choices have the power to shape the life we have into the life we want.
Karen’s story of weight loss and personal transformation will touch your heart and open your eyes. It will reveal how eight powerful, core habits, when mastered one at a time, create an invisible force that will literally change your life.
What do you get when you cross a nutritionist with a novelist? A health novel! Where nutrition, health and weight-loss information are woven into the story. Every challenge the characters face not only teaches you what to do – it inspires you to actually do it.
Zonya Foco, America’s Nutrition Leader, and Stephen Moss, America’s Health Novelist, have joined forces to create this exciting new genre. Stephen’s compelling story will keep you turning the pages while you learn Zonya’s surprisingly simple approach to mastering weight control.
You’ll discover that this is not another fad diet book. In fact, it’s not a diet book at all. There is no diet mentality, nothing to calculate, and never a reason to feel guilty!
Water with Lemon is the first health novel in the “Power of One Good Habit” series.
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