How Living with Colitis Inspired Sarah Kay Hoffman To Create A Loving Spoon

 a loving spoon

What happens when you have a digestive issue and an entrepreneurial mindset? You create a gut friendly product! That’s exactly what CEO of A Loving Spoon, Sarah Kay Hoffman, did. 

Suffering from colitis, Sarah started using nut butters to help her heal and soon realized that she could turn her passion for making her own nut butters into a profit. 

Sarah now spreads her passion and knowledge of healing to others through her brand and her blog, making it a mission to put love into everything she does. Read on to find out more about Sarah’s story, her advice for wellness-preneurs, and how she lives the Balanced Babe lifestyle. 

a loving spoon

BB: After health issues and Colitis, you turned to nut butters to satisfy your sweet tooth. Why did you choose nut butters as a substitution?

I chose nut butters because in the beginning of my healing journey, I religiously followed the GAPS Diet (Gut and Psychology Syndrome). And on the GAPS Diet, you are allowed nuts and nut butters (some of them, anyways). I quickly learned that a spoonful or two would satisfy ANY craving I was having. All the while, I was healing!

sarah kay hoffman

BB: What challenges did you face when starting A Loving Spoon?

The same challenges I face today – capital and making my way in the natural food industry + nut butter category that is already quite plentiful.

BB: How do you keep up with the food business industry?

You just never stop learning and trying new things.

BB: What advice do you have for fellow and aspiring food entrepreneurs?

Know that it is not going to be easy. I always thought I could “just sell my nut butters that people loved it.”It is way more intense than that, and there are a million details that people don’t expect will go into it. That said, I tell everyone to go for it. Like my husband always tells me, “you never want to have to look back someday and say ‘what if.”

a loving spoon

BB: You started experimenting making your own nut butters. Were you always savvy in the kitchen?

No! I was definitely never savvy in the kitchen. In fact, up until the point when I was diagnosed with Colits, I don’t think I could make anything beyond boxed meals and packaged goods.

 a loving spoon

BB: Your peanut butters are all natural and made with ‘bare ingredients’. What made you choose to have only 5 ingredients in them?

Well for the record, some don’t even have 5 ingredients:) I wanted to prove that there could still be a dessert and snack nut butter that would not only taste delicious, but also be free of all the extra additives, chemicals and preservatives most other snack and dessert nut butters have.

a loving spoon

BB: For every jar, 10 cents go to benefiting orphans. Why did you decide to include this partnership with your products?

We adopted our daughter from the foster care system in San Joaquin County, California. Shortly before we got her was when I started my business, and shortly after we got her I thought, “No way am I going to be able to launch this plus be a new mom.” Immediately, though, my heart burst for love for this child who was now going to have a life that she deserved and I knew that I wanted to do my very best to help as many children like her as possible. Because the company was already named ‘A Loving Spoon’ nut butters, it made perfect sense that love would be the underlying mission for the entire company. Right from the beginning we began allocating 10c of every single jar purchased to orphans in Haiti. Today, this money goes to foster children in San Joaquin county through an organization called Case for Kids 

BB: Your mission is for more loving life, others, and yourself. How do you subscribe to this?

Loving: ourselves more, life daily, each other always. I subscribe to this because (in the beginning) I learned to love myself more by treating me better – eating better foods, and healing my body in the way it craved to heal with food and lifestyle vs. drugs and medications. Life daily means that we are given just one shot to do it right, embrace all that we have and love it. I live with (no less) than 110% passion each and every single day in everything I do, say and write. And I love others in countless ways, but mostly by way of giving everything I can to children – my own (we are about to adopt more through the state) and the ones who desperately need to be shown love.

a loving spoon

BB: Being a certified health coach, do you have any tips for women looking to become more health conscious or where to start?

Start where you are with what you have and do whatever you can. I am passionate about being a health coach because I have traveled a road that has gone from the most unhealthy ways possible to a life filled with health, wellness, love and passion. Don’t ever buy into what society tells you you need to be or do. You do you, and do it in the best way possible.

sarah kay hoffman

BB: How do you follow a Balanced Babe lifestyle?

I follow a Balanced Babe lifestyle by constantly checking myself into balance. Last year I got diagnosed with severe adrenal fatigue, so I took a step back and started prioritizing myself again without doing anything obsessively. I workout, but not too much. I eat as I please with the only rules being around the food(s) I medically cannot eat. I sleep – a lot. I shut off the extra noise and clutter in my head to just be with myself, my family and God. It’s been life changing.

 

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