We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ella Magers a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Ella thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Do you think your parents have had a meaningful impact on you and your journey?
I discovered my life’s purpose when I was just 7 years old, and if it weren’t for my parents being extraordinarily honest with me, and valuing the human being that I was, there’s no telling how different my path would have looked!
The story goes like this…
My mom picked me up after school to take me to gymnastics practice (I’ve been into sports and fitness since I was five), and asked how my day was. I told her we learned about Daniel Boone (one of our first American folk heroes who infamously carried around a shotgun and wore a raccoon hat).
I was confused and told my mom that I couldn’t understand why they called Daniel Boone a hero because he killed and ate animals.
My mom was honest with me and said, “Well Ella, we are just fortunate because these days, we can go to the grocery store to buy our meat to eat.”
It was at that moment that I connected the food on my plate with the animals I loved and told my mom that I would never eat meat again!
By the time I turned 15, I had learned about the cruelty of the dairy and egg industries and went fully vegan and became an activist before I could drive a car.
My parents, who initially thought my choice to avoid meat would be a phase (they were meat-eaters at the time), soon realized that my passion for animal protection was embedded deep within my being, and they chose to fully support my efforts to spread my message of compassion for all.
I know lots of parents who, like mine, drove their kids around to all their activities (I was a competitive swimmer, gymnast, and volleyball player), but I don’t know many parents who would drive their kid around to events like protests and demonstrations (I would sit in a cage on the sidewalk to demonstrate how little space a lab or farm animal is given), or to give their blessing for their child to travel four states away to attend a pigeon shoot where she would be doing her best to save injured birds. Yet my parents did all of those and more.
The unconditional love, and expression of pride my parents (who were both inspired enough by me to go vegan themselves) have always so generously given me is something I am eternally grateful for!
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I created my brand, Sexy Fit Vegan in 2013 when veganism was just beginning to come into the limelight. I was a self-employed personal trainer at the time and had no idea how to monetize my new brand. I knew in my heart, however, that creating Sexy Fit Vegan was the move I needed to make, and because it was in line with my life’s purpose, I was motivated to simply start creating content and finding ways to let my voice and message be heard.
I created a website and started blogging. I was soon receiving welcomed publicity, including being named among Shape Magazine’s 50 top trainers in America and Trainer of the Month on the world’s leading bodybuilding and fitness website (bodybuilding.com). I was asked to speak at conferences, on podcasts, hosted workshops, and landed a book deal.
In my work, I champion:
Plant-based living as a path to holistic health
The importance of ethical + compassion-based living for spiritual well being
Animals rights + advocacy
Embracing movement (as opposed to “exercise”) for functional strength and mobility, longevity, and a higher quality of life
Normalizing a plant-based diet + making vegan options more accessible
Healing the planet through wise, sustainable choices
I next began creating and launching online coaching programs designed to take people through the process of adopting a fit and healthy plant-based lifestyle and become energized from the inside out (physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual). I specialize in helping people who struggle with disordered eating tendencies.
It’s been incredibly rewarding to see our clients through the program’s powerful process. People come to us feeling exhausted, overwhelmed, frustrated, and out of balance, and they graduate feeling empowered, healthy, confident, and free. I can’t count the number of people who have gone on to courageously take on a new career that inspires them, or launch a passion project that’s in line with their life’s purpose. It’s a snowball effect. They start the program seeking inspiration, and finish the program BEING inspiration!
From there, Vegan Life Coach Academy, and The Vegan Life Coach Podcast were born with the purpose of delivering the most valuable tools, trainings, and resources for people who are ready to embrace veganism for their own health, for the wellbeing of countless animals, and for the future of our planet. In fact, podcast co-host & Master Mindset Coach Stephanie Hamilton Aguilar and I are about to publish our celebratory 100th episode!
In addition to offering online coaching programs, I now work closely with select one-on-one coaching clients to holistically reset their health, and drop both physical and emotional weight that’s holding them back from becoming the best version of themselves.
I also love collaborating and partnering with highly innovative and values-driven vegan-friendly companies that are working towards a better planet for both animals and humans.
Most recently, I’ve partnered with Jennifer Tourkin, humane educator, to spread awareness and spark individual and systemic change through solutionary thinking. A solutionary is someone who identifies inhumane, unsustainable, and unjust systems and then develops solutions that are healthy and equitable for people, animals, and the environment. In our new podcast, Solutionary Vegan LEVEL-UP Podcast, we challenge vegans and aspiring vegans to level up, move beyond plant-based eating, and take meaningful action to protect animal lives. The podcast launches on April 20, 2022!
Podcast guests include animal, environmental, social, and food justice leaders • food scientists • policy makers • researchers • vegan influencers • humane educators • vegan entrepreneurs. The goal is to help people engage in changemaking actions designed to transform systems, for the benefit of all of Earth’s inhabitants.
The last thing I’ll mention is how overjoyed I am to be Vice President on the board for Hogs & Kisses Farm Sanctuary. Helping to build this incredible sanctuary from the ground up with founder Anne Molina, has been one of the most extraordinary experiences of my life. Our mission at Hogs and Kisses is to create the best possible life for farm animals while inspiring compassion for all living beings.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
Seeing the world through such a different lens than most people, and caring so deeply about the plight of animals at such a young age was tough. I felt deeply connected to the suffering of sentient beings and could not make sense of the unjust systems that proliferated the unnecessary pain and death of farmed and lab animals.
At the age of 16 I was diagnosed with clinical depression and struggled with severe anxiety. By the time I headed off to college I had established a pattern of self-destructive behavior, from drugs and alcohol, to abusive relationships, and was constantly putting myself in risky and dangerous situations… I lost boyfriends to both murder and imprisonment.
What saved me however, was that I still knew, in my heart and soul, that my purpose in this life was to save animals, but it was depressing and anxiety producing not knowing HOW to fulfill my purpose. Direct action animal activism was my “how” as a teen, and I had been met with such resistance, I knew I had to find another way.
Following college, even though I’d majored in social work, I went the fitness route for work, and what I quickly discovered was that the fitness industry cared little about true health.
Trainers collect those before and after pics to motivate others to hire them, because they know that most people are motivated primarily by their physical appearance.
But where are the after pictures of their clients 6 months after they follow a strict diet and insane, unsustainable workout regiment? What about a year later? 5 yrs? Did you know that over 80% of people who diet gain all of the weight back and then some?
Understanding all of that, I figured out my new “HOW” for motivating people to go vegan, and I became a walking billboard for the physique one can build on plants alone.
People started approaching ME, they WANTED to know what I was doing to get such a lean, strong physique… They came to me with an open mind because they saw that I had answers that they lacked. It gave me a platform, an opportunity to inspire people to at least consider the idea of veganism.
At the same time, I started putting a ton of pressure on myself to stay in fighting shape at all times, after all, the animals were depending on me. (I say fighting shape because I had found my love of Thai boxing by that point and was practicing daily. The physical pain of the sport was nothing compared to the emotional pain I was carrying.) Well the pressure I put on myself to stay in phenomenal shape took me down the road of disordered eating and a distorted body image.
I would restrict my food intake 90% of the time, being intentional about every calorie, and the other 10% of the time I gave in to binging. I could eat an entire jar of peanut butter in one night. No joke. This is a cycle of self-sabotage that I didn’t realize plagued countless people, at least to some degree.
I also developed body dysmorphia. I looked in the mirror and saw fat that wasn’t there. My body fat got so low at one point that the machine used to measure couldn’t register my percentage. I look back at pictures from that stage of my life and barely recognize myself.
I hid my struggles because I didn’t want people to blame my vegan lifestyle for my issues. I didn’t want to risk giving veganism a bad wrap. I was ashamed and my depression and anxiety remained as severe as the insomnia I had developed.
I also felt unfulfilled as a personal trainer. Sure I could get people physical results, but I knew I wasn’t helping them truly transform on a deeper level, I wasn’t helping them do what was needed to create permanent lifestyle changes.
I thought I should work toward creating an opportunity to pursue a career in mental health (out of an interest in finding answers for my own struggles), so I went back and got my master’s degree in Social Work. I started applying the skills I learned to my clients, redefining my work from fitness trainer to wellness coach
Fast forward to 2013, and once again, I realized that I needed a new “HOW.” I needed to get back to my roots, to fulfill my purpose in a more direct way. I needed veganism to be my main career focus, because my reason for getting up in the morning, every morning since I was a child, was to turn the world vegan.
Since getting my Masters degree, I had started down the path of intentional self-growth. I was working on my mindset, understanding and embracing the power of our thoughts, how to manage my thoughts and emotions in healthy ways. I studied the art and science of manifestation, and decided I needed to trust in the Universe and follow my passion.
It was at that point I felt driven to begin a new chapter in my life and career, and I took the leap and created the brand Sexy Fit Vegan.
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
I believe it’s my fierce compassion, deep sense of purpose, and willingness to be vulnerable and share my journey (not only the positive aspects, but also the tough stuff) that have helped build my reputation in the wellness industry.
I also think my unrelenting desire to meet people where they are, and empower them to break free from the subconscious thoughts and beliefs (programming) that keep them stuck in unhealthy patterns that are not truly aligned with their true values, that resonates with those who are ready.
As much as I’d love to see everyone ready to take action to make a positive impact on the world, it’s clear to me that healing the world starts with healing ourselves.
My work is rooted in helping people learn how to harness the power we have over our thoughts, becoming conscious of the subconscious beliefs that are keeping us from becoming the best versions of ourselves.
I believe that all life on this planet is interconnected. Quantum physics proves that we are all made up of energy, and that energy is not limited by time or space (call it what you’d like… God, Collective Consciousness, the Universe).
Where attention goes, energy flows. When we are caught up in conforming, people-pleasing, and feeling shameful about who we really are and what we look like, we are doing other people, animals, and the world a disservice. We are playing small, and denying the world the service we’re capable of due to our own insecurities and self-sabotage.
We’re all here, having been born into a contract with life… A contract that gives us the fortune of having the full human experience.
What’s extraordinary is that we have the superpower of writing the story of our lives. We have the opportunity to see life as a game of sorts, or even a puzzle, and with the right tools we can step into our divine power, access our conscious mind, and reprogram the old stories that aren’t serving us, and ultimately aren’t serving other people, animals, or the Planet.
From a place of inner peace and power, we can realize that we are all connected, human and non-human animals. We can understand that it is cooperation, not competition that will set us all free. We can embrace the fact that true inner peace and happiness can only be realized if we stop supporting and ingesting the suffering of other sentient beings. We can begin to move through the world with passion and purpose, LIVING the change we wish to see on Earth.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://sexyfitvegan.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sexyfitvegan/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sexyfitvegan
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ellamagers/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/sexyfitvegan/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/Sexyfitvegan
Image Credits
Yanni De Melo Anthony Golston