ColourFull Nutrition

Grief-informed nutrition & health coaching · Vancouver, BC

Wellness beyond this moment.

Grief is not a disease — but it has physiological effects. We help people reconnect with and care for their body during death and loss, so there's a physical foundation to carry grief without losing yourself in the process.

Read the story · 15 minBook a discovery call

Not sure where to start? Twenty free minutes with Vera will find it.

Paper-cut illustration of a woman with her arms open to the sun, surrounded by kale, water, berries, running shoes and a full battery

"Energy to engage = living."

— from the Threads of Life workshop

Paper-cut body map showing where people say they feel grief: head 58%, neck or throat 54%, chest 90%, stomach 63%

Mind and body were never separate

Where do you feel grief?

Ask a room of grievers where they feel it, and the hands go to the same places. The body is bracing. It is not broken — it is working very hard. That is the whole premise of this practice.

  • 0%

    chest

    heaviness, tightness, the ache

  • 0%

    stomach

    appetite, nausea, the knot

  • 0%

    head

    fog, pressure, the what-ifs

  • 0%

    neck & throat

    the lump, the held breath

Self-reported locations from Vera's workshop audiences; illustrative, not a clinical measure.

The ColourFull Method

Think of your energy as a battery with five functions.

Nothing in health is a silo. Each pillar does a different job for the battery — and grief changes all five at once. Tap a badge.

PUTS ENERGY IN

Food & Nutrition

Your brain is about 2% of your body weight and uses 20–25% of your energy. Grief changes appetite in both directions; the work is steady fuel, small and often — fed is better than perfect.

Refill: Steady, small, and often.Read this chapter →
The five pillars, explainedHow coaching uses them
Paper-cut illustration titled The Waves of Grief: a messy, non-linear journey of a small figure riding rollercoaster waves

An illustrated story · about 15 minutes

The Grieving Body

Why is grief so exhausting — and how does colour come back?

A scrolling graphic novel in Vera's paper-cut style. Watch the colour drain when grief arrives, learn what the body cuts first, and follow one pillar at a time as the battery refills. Sound on, if you like.

Start readingSee the chapters

1:1 coaching

This isn't another nutrition program.

Every session is sequenced to your capacity, not a template. It starts with the First Score — a structured look at where your body is — and the program is allocated from there, pillar by pillar.

  • The Emotional Eater who feels like they're starting over on every healthy habit.
  • The Overwhelmed Go-Getter who wants to understand exactly what their body is going through.
  • The Unconnected Griever who feels like no one understands what they're going through.
How coaching worksBook a discovery call
  • Start here

    The First Score

    one 90-minute session

    $180 CAD

    You want to know where you actually are before committing to anything.

  • Most chosen

    Foundations

    six weekly sessions

    $780 CAD

    Early grief, low capacity, or 'I just need the basics to be easier.'

  • The full arc

    The ColourFull Method

    twelve sessions over ~3 months

    $1,560 CAD

    You want the whole system, not a tip here and there.

  • Walk alongside

    Companion

    twenty sessions, paced to your year

    $2,400 CAD

    Complex loads (caregiving, young kids, a business) or a first year you don't want to do alone.

ColourFull Kitchen

Fed is better than perfect.

A recipe field guide and cook planner for low-capacity days: search hundreds of recipes, pick a few, scale them, and get one consolidated shopping list, a nutrition estimate and a calm, backwards-from-dinner timeline. Past you, feeding future you.

The kitchen opens to coaching clients first. Ask about it on a discovery call.

Paper-cut plate divided into protein, fibre and fat with a glass of water — small and often counts
Paper-cut collage of Vera's work: food banks, community gardens, nutrition literacy, research, the women's shelter kitchen, farmers' markets and a photo of Vera in her kitchen

Speaking & workshops

The health-science talk your grief program is missing.

Bereavement support rarely talks about the body: what grief does to appetite, sleep, immunity and energy — and what to do about it. Vera brings the physiology, the lived experience, and a room that leaves with something to try tonight.

  • BC Bereavement Helpline
  • Threads of Life
  • UBC
  • University of the Fraser Valley
  • Grief Dreams Podcast
  • Hospice Peterborough
  • Filipino BC
  • Widowed Friends
Book Vera to speak
Vera Decena standing in front of her grief mood-board wall, arms crossed, smiling

Hi, I'm Vera.

Health-science nerd. Young widow. Your coach.

About

I get it, because I've been there.

I spent a decade in food and nutrition — governments, non-profits, community kitchens. Then my partner died, and all of that knowledge didn't make my body feel less unfamiliar. Reconnection came in small steps: a meal eaten with someone, a walk, a steady wake-up time. That's what ColourFull Nutrition is built on.

Read Vera's story

Let's be friends

Small notes for grieving bodies.

An occasional letter — one idea, one recipe, one thing to try. No streaks, no guilt.

Vera adds you by hand and never shares your address. Unsubscribe by replying.