Liz Smithers | Founder of LAKA
Liz Smithers
@lakaliving
LAKA was born in 2015 on the island of Kauai by Liz Smithers in an effort to bring simplicity to complex, ancestral ingredients that bring about body strength, system clarity, and consciousness. After witnessing the profound effects optimum nutrition did for one's mental, physical, and spiritual health, Liz became infatuated with the power of plant-based nutrition for continued evolution of body and mind. The LAKA assortment is an elevated food pantry line designed to serve as medicine for movement, restoration, and stress relief.
Now, LAKA is owned and operated by sisters Liz and Kate Smithers. Sisters in business, LAKA remains dedicated to maintaining integrity through sustainable sourcing, packaging, production, and promotion to benefit collective consciousness one pantry at a time.
We'd love to know your story! How did you get started,? How did you get to where you are today? What are you most proud of?
Radical wellness truly found me. I struggled with disordered eating and mis-connection to food as medicine at a young age and it kind of led me thankfully to a personal rock bottom. Long story short, I intuitively came to and realized....desired optimum health. I turned my dedication to being thin, wild, and invincible to being the healthiest version of myself possible. It was a lot of work, and amidst that work....through immersion into Ashtanga Yoga and the complexities of this healing system....did I naturally decide it was my duty to share the truth with others. I wasn't aware of the power that pure nutrients, micro and macro, could do for my happiness, my body, my mind, my confidence. And that was what I set off to reveal to others. That was 6 years ago....now here I am trying to latch as many individuals as possible in the simplest means possible -- delicious, healthy pantry staples that are familiar but superior.
What advice would you give someone wanting to pursue a career similar to yours?
Analyze your rock bottoms, what do they mean? Listen to yourself and no one else for 2-5 years, see what happens. Sweat a lot. Cleanse regularly. Practice solitude, it builds strength and confidence. Self-discover before you try and help others. Unfollow your competitors or rivals. And lastly, but most importantly, don't read/study/take in too much. Keep it simple. Read/research/take in very little, but practice it with discipline, responsibility, and dedication. Information overload confuses many, stagnates potential, and sets you behind those that will find the flow quicker and eventually leave you and your sacred!!!! originality in the dust. Ashtanga Yoga taught me this....become a master of repetition, and don't get distracted or bored with what you know...there's always a way to shift your perspective and make old information new, shiny, and full of potential again. Its a slippery slope after all, taking in too much. You think that the MORE you take in, the better you get. But it's the opposite, you just end up getting confused as to why you started. Long story short (I use this phrase a lot, but in reality I am always long-winded and making short stories long!), simplify and master what you know and do it over and over and over again so that you irrigate your system with the possibility of flow.
What are the best resources that have helped you along the way?
For me, it will always be solitude and regular movement practice.
Our sweat gets rid of so many emotions that stagnate us. And, if you're into it, deep contorting yoga practice will rid the organs of it all.
Go deep. The resource is your inside self. And that includes both the chatter that appears positive, and the chatter that appears negative.
Root your routine.Rinse your life through it. Repeat.