When we started Sakara in 2012, we wore all the hats...chefs, delivery people, lawyers, accountants, web designers, and customer service team. Even though we’ve grown up a LOT since those days, we miss talking to each and every one of you.
So we created this space—Love + Light…it’s our way to connect with each of you again. (We miss you!) What will you find here? Musings, FYI’s, some essays on what we’re currently thinking about and maybe a few general updates. Always from us and always from the heart.
Thank you for being on this journey with us.
What are we thinking about now? “The Happiest of New Years, Ever.”
We make it a practice to set intentions all year round, but we can’t help but get caught up in the wave of New Year mentality. The New Year feels so….NEW! A way to start fresh, a time of reflection…
Am I leading the life I want to? Do I feel good? What do I need to fix? Should I drink less? Am I working out enough? Am I spending enough time with my family? Would my life be better if I just (fill-in-the-blank)?
This year, we decided to think about it differently. We want 2019 to be the year that’s free of judgment. The Year of Happiness, not of fixing. To take away the judgment and to bring more joy into our lives. 2019 will be the year dedicated to dissecting and understanding what happiness truly means (probably not what you think) and using it as our North Star to guide us through the year.
Instead of thinking that we need to diet, workout more, meditate more all so we can “be happy”, we’re starting with the happiness first. This New Year, we’re inspired by the idea that all of this “wellness stuff” we’re doing isn’t just something to check off a list of to-dos but could and SHOULD be making us happier, not just healthier. The term “wellness” could very easily be a code word for the new “diet” but we’re here to make sure that doesn’t happen. We want more…for all of us.
Diets inherently conjure up thoughts of restriction, eating tasteless foods, and sacrificing the thing we love to eat or do, typically with one goal in mind—to shrink our waistlines. They don’t necessarily take into account our short-term or long-term health, longevity, or happiness. Though, what modern science, especially around the gut-brain connection, is now illuminating, is that what we eat has a direct effect on all of the above, and so much more.
90 percent of serotonin is made in the gut, not the brain. It starts with what you eat and the health of your gut bacteria (which LOVE plant-based fiber). But what’s less discussed and less explored in the traditional diet or even in new microbiome-focused diets (like the Sakara Life), is how the emotional information we feed ourselves is equally important to our overall health. We have to eat well but we also have to THINK well. And those two things go hand in hand. The better we eat, the better we think and the better we think, the better we eat.
This may sound a bit far out there, but your thoughts and feelings have an effect on your digestive system and how food interacts with your body. How well you digest food, if you get bloated, your metabolism and how many calories you absorb from your food, if the calories will be used as fuel or stored as fat, and more. If you are anxious and under stress, if your adrenals are pumping and you are at the brink of burn out, your body will send a signal to slow everything down, including your digestive system and metabolism. To hold onto everything it’s got (including unwanted belly fat) to avoid running out of energy.
So by increasing your happiness, you are at the same time, allowing your body to release what it does not need.
So how do we create true happiness? We have put together our findings and learnings into what we are calling our Total Body Transformation: 4 weeks. Ultimate happiness. No sacrifices.
It’s a four-week program that focuses on changing our habits as a way to maximize joy and change our bodies at the same time. Week one starts with what’s in our gut…literally. We explore how food can affect different joy-inducing hormones. The second week is about mindfulness and the mind. It’s a roadmap for getting your brain hooked on happiness via rituals, meditation, and more.
In week three, we focus on experience, not things. How eating well and feeling good opens you up to experiences and how pushing your boundaries can reap big rewards. The final week of transformation is about giving back. The end goal of health is not simply about feeling healthy, it’s feeling empowered to share your light—to share the gifts that only you have, with the world. Which brings an incredible amount of joy. You can learn more detail about this special, limited-time program here.
We promise it will deliver not only your best body but your best life. We’d love for you to join us and make this the happiest year yet. Because now, healthy truly means happy.
With love + light,
Danielle & Whitney
