The LIVING INTENTIONS story
“You are what you eat.” – Joshua McHugh, founder
This message became more and more clear as I experimented with different foods and how they made me feel. I soon realized to be clear-headed, physically fit, and emotionally balanced, it was critical to eat clean, nutrient dense foods, that made me feel most alive!
At the time (1998-2003) there weren’t a lot of options for clean, nutrient dense foods right off the shelf. In order to maintain the lifestyle, I desired, I went right to work… Well, not literally… in fact, I actually really didn’t want to get a “real” job. Instead, I followed my heart and began experimenting with creating foods that I felt would really make a positive difference in the health of myself, my family and friends. I soon developed an almost obsessive passion for creating recipes. In those days, you could have found me in my home kitchen, sprouting in 5 gallon buckets, ingredients everywhere, with scattered dehydrators stacked up throughout the house, drying day and night. I was literally formulating and dehydrating with everything I could get my hands on, I am pretty sure my friends and family thought I was out of my mind!
I would spend endless hours reading recipe books with the intention of understanding how I could take standard comfort foods and turn them into nutritional powerhouses. I even hand-wrote 75+ pages of my favorite book, from cover to cover, because I really wanted to absorb all the concepts. My end goal was to share with people a better and tastier way to eat, without high-heat processing, consuming fillers or any of the weird, unpronounceable stuff that we all see on ingredient panels.
I soon decided that I needed to shake up my world, so I packed a backpack, jumped on a plane, and went to Hawaii. Being in a tropical environment, my goal was to primarily live off of my dehydrated snacks, freshly picked fruits and coconuts. This experience would change me forever…
At this time, I was very focused on practicing the art of intention. I am a believer that we all manifest our reality through the intentions we put out into our world. As I dove deeper into my meditation and yoga practice, it was proven to me time and time again, that in order to be clear-headed, and in a space to manifest what we really want, we must consume clean, nutritionally dense, vibrant foods… and within a short time… Living Intentions was born.
Living Intentions was built on a “wing and a prayer”. I had no experience with building a business, let alone a food company. I had a few hundred dollars in my bank account, a ton of ambition, and a lot of perseverance. I had a business partner at the time, who was really helpful in navigating the logistics and thinking outside the box. The company started out of my studio apartment. I had 5 dehydrators in the room… so I was literally eating, sleeping and breathing the process. Since everything was being made out of my home kitchen, our first handful of retail accounts kept us in quite a whirlwind… we were still hand sticking photo-copied labels onto clear cellophane bags! As the business grew, we found a small 800 sq ft commercial space in San Francisco, and with a $2500 family loan, we were ready for business!
Throughout the years Living Intentions continued to grow. I was always a big fan of the slow growth model, especially since I was learning the “how to’s” every step of the way. We started the business with our Gone Nuts! line of raw and sprouted nut blends. For 4+ years we plugged away, educating customers and retail stores why our products were better than the alternatives out there. At this time, there was VERY limited awareness around raw or sprouted foods. In an effort to really make a mark, we decided to hand deliver our items to the majority of retail stores within Northern California. Around 2008, I had the crazy idea to launch 14 new items at once. I always wanted a company that could span into multiple product categories, so I went for it! This ended up being a huge success. A few years later, we took these new items plus a handful more, and launched the first of its kind, Sprouted Bulk Program. We began supplying bulk bins locally, and within a year, the program went national! After growing out of multiple spaces within our San Francisco building, we moved to where we happily reside now, in Point Richmond, CA.
Today, Living Intentions moves from the same foundation from which it was built over a decade ago. Our successes have manifested through our belief in clean, vibrant foods to promote vibrant and healthy living. Our new Activated brand is a culmination of our intentions to provide the best tasting foods, made from clean, vibrant ingredients… Food at its highest potential!
Our intention is to live vibrantly! We believe that clean, activated foods are essential to feeling truly healthy. We encourage people to eat well, embrace their power, and reach for their highest potential.
Living Intentions is still founder owned.
