Donna Sonkin

Donna Sonkin is a Holistic Health Coach and Chef. She grew up a chubby girl on long island. She learned to cook from her grandmother at 9 years old. Each weekend they would have lessons that she looked forward to all week long. Eventually Donna lost weight when she discovered boys at around 12. This lead to 7 years at fat camp and a tumultuous relationship with food. Her passion for cooking kept on as she learned from 3 chef boyfriends. Around 2000 while acting , modeling and background singing she started waitressing at Jean Georges flagship restaurant in the Trump International. During double shifts when her colleagues were on break Donna would dip down into the kitchen and the pastry to learn from and pick the brains of Chef jean Georges himself and pastry phenomenon Jonny Iuzzini among other very talented chefs at the restaurant. After her training at The Institute for Integrative Nutrition she apprenticed Top Chef season 1 contestant and natural food chef Andrea Beaman for 4 years and learned even more about food and how it effects the body, she notes this as her favorite time of learning.

Donna is a holistic health counselor accredited with the American Association of Drugless Practitioners. Her Get Thin for the Camera program helps actors, models, authors, performers of all types get thin and healthy in an enjoyable way. Over the past 5 years her business has expanded to work with everyone else from busy moms to high power executives. Sonkin teaches her clients how to cook , shop and eat healthfully and how to make great exercise choices. She is a strong believer in the concept of listening to your own bodys special needs in order to live a happy, healthy life.

Sonkin attended the Institute for Integrative Nutrition in New York, where she studied with leading wellness educators including Drs. Andrew Weil, Elisabeth Lipski, Deepak Chopra, Barry Sears, Walter C. Willett, and Joseph Mercola; and leaders in personal growth such as Julia Butterfly Hill, Geneen Roth, Debbie Ford, and Iyanla Vanzant, among others. Sonkin has also completed an advanced accreditation in Integrative Nutrition and Health Counseling at Teachers College at Columbia University.

Sonkin has lectured to undergraduate students in New York Universitys Atlantic Theater Company program and SUNY Purchase, to first-year associates at Credit Suisse, to doctors at Cornell affiliate Wyckoff Hospital, middle school students at The School at Columbia University, executives at Johnson & Johnson, Satchi& Satchi, Physique 57 and to the Girl Scouts of America. She has offered her six-week intensive Get Fit for the Camera program at acting studios including One On One Productions and Stella Adler in New York City and has taught nutrition classes at the Monologue Audition Intensive, led by director Karen Kohlhaas. She has worked with new, young models at Elite Model Managements Model Camp.and teaches private cooking classes. She has appeared as quick weight loss expert on WCBS channel 2 news. Donna is a recognized expert in Oprah.com, CNN.com, the NYPost and the Huffington Post.