Robyn Berkley
I love the way Sakara thinks.
Since we first launched Live The Process, a lot of amazing brands have emerged in the authentic healing and wellness space. It’s been incredible to be part of all this growth. Every once in a while, I come across a company that is so aligned with my own philosophies that I just have to collaborate with them.
Sakara is one of those brands.
Since the beginning, founders Danielle Duboise and Whitney Tingle have been creating and delivering clean, plant-based, organic, super delicious meals and cleanses. They’re on a mission to heal everything from body image to microbiomes through food.
They’re amazingly supportive of others; so, we wanted to support them. We all decided that our clothes would be the perfect addition to a recent weekend retreat they threw for their super dedicated staff—simply to make them feel beautiful and relaxed. It was a total success.
Afterward, I sat down with Danielle and Whitney to talk about their process:
Robyn Berkley: Tell our readers about you. How was your interest in wellness sparked?
Whitney Tingle: Danielle and I both grew up in Sedona, Arizona. It’s this spiritual Mecca in the middle of the desert, and people from all over the world travel there for healing. Our friends, neighbors, and teachers were shamans, medicine men, doulas—people who found wisdom from the Earth. It was a special way to grow up, and it helped instill a strong sense of mind-body-food connection within us from a very early age. For us, wellness hasn’t been a trend, but an important movement and shift in consciousness—one that we’ve been a part of from the start.
RB: Why were you inspired to found Sakara?
Danielle Duboise: Sakara did not start out as a business. We were both at our lowest points in the city: Whitney was on Wall Street, working unsustainable hours, eating poorly and battling chronic cystic acne. I was struggling with my body image to the point where I landed in the hospital after a 21-day water and raw food fast. We both recognized we were so far from honoring and loving our bodies and were consumed with not feeling well and being out of sync.
We turned our mess into our mission and decided to heal each other. We voraciously read and spoke to healers, functional medicine doctors, herbalists, rabbis, gastroenterologists—and created the Sakara nutrition protocol. We didn't just want to hand people a manual; we wanted to provide them the tools to transform their lives through food as medicine. We began to make meals that encapsulated our pillars of nutrition and delivered to friends on bicycles. As we’ve grown exponentially, we’ve created a nutritionally-designed program to heal clients’ microbiomes, adrenals, hormones, their relationship to food and their bodies—and hold space for a more fulfilling life. By gifting yourself the best nutrition on the planet, every other building block of your life gets better. We’re examples of that.
RB: Why was it important to you to take care of and give back to the people who work for you?
WT: Running a startup means we are a lean, mighty team. We each have a hand in so many parts of the business. We put our heart and soul into every step of the process so that our clients feel the love and experience the transformation that is Sakara Life. That takes a lot of energy, and we preach balance and self-care—so, we need to walk that talk. If we don’t take time to reflect on from where we’ve come, we can’t hold space for creativity and innovation. It's also a time to come together, without the noise of the city, and manifest what we want the business to look like in the next year, the next 5 years, the next 20 years. Plus, we go upstate to the Catskills and stay in the most stunning lodge—Deer Mountain Inn (you must go if you haven’t!)—which sets the tone for a magical retreat.
RB: Why was Live The Process the right partner for this experience and for your Sakara people?
DD: Live The Process is guided by consciousness and infusing thoughtfulness into every aspect of your life—something that resonates wholeheartedly with Sakara. There’s opportunity to add flavor, creativity, beauty, and soul into everything we do; honoring our team with LTP was another opportunity to put that into practice. We’re a team of movers and seekers, and these clothes reflect that energy.
RB: What does it mean to you to “Live The Process”?
DD: “Live The Process,” to me, means letting go of stories that don’t serve you and surrendering to your own journey without rules or judgment. Having the courage and grace to allow what you need, when you need it.
WT: “Live The Process” means including more of what you love in your every day and going outside of your comfort zone to live in your full expression. Lately, for me, that means going to Muay Thai classes and traveling the world.
RB: How has your process changed in the last almost four years since we last checked in? How do you approach the world today?
DD: Becoming a mother this year has totally rocked my world and cracked my heart open, tenfold. I’m approaching the world with more love than I ever thought possible.
WT: Our team has grown by leaps and bounds, but my process has stayed constant. I’m always thinking about Sakara on a global scale and figuring out how to share the movement, educate and inspire people to heal their microbiomes and change as many lives as possible.