We really love Amanda Chantal Bacon. We love her partly because she has that immense energy and integrity of someone who has found his or her calling and is fully embracing it, manifesting the project to its fullest expression and making a positive change in the world… and partly, just because she is just an all around babe who is fun to hang out with. Amanda is best known as the owner, creator and chef of Moon Juice, the Los Angeles based cold-press juice shop and apothecary, which she is using to help revolutionize the way we understand and practice health, beauty and wellness. Though others may preach or obsess, Amanda teaches, shares and empowers others to practice higher standards of love for the self, for others and the earth in a way that we truly admire. And though she’s never been busier, we catch her for a little escape in the woods and a quick chat and a lovely picnic.
Story and Interview by Miwa Sakamoto
Where did you grow up?
NYC
When you were little what did you imagine your future would be like?
I would imagine the future with my heart’s eye in the form of feelings and colors and light.
Where do you now call home and what’s the story behind it?
Rustic canyon, I just moved from Venice how I got here and how quickly it happened was all a charmed miracle really.
Would you ever live anywhere other than LA?
Girl, are you kidding?! I usually fall in love with every place I go and fantasize about living there. I lived on the globe’s road for 7 years. Its still funny to me that I have a house and a kid and a business, without them roots I’d be blowing in the wind.
Life is full of so many twists and turns, but often the unexpected events are extraordinary and rewarding opportunities… What is one of the stranger twists or turns that has taught you a valuable lesson?
Becoming a single mom, and a sole business owner/entrepreneur at the same time was a twist, turn, and backhand flip. It has really made me who I am today, it forced me to just get it done, and then I learned how to just get it done everyday with joy.
What is your nutrition and health philosophy?
Your healthy doesn’t have to look like a media programed healthy. Healthy is when we are, happy, loving, high functioning and vital. That’s a different size and shape for each of us.
So did this mainstream image of “healthy and beautiful” help to sparked your entrepreneurial aspirations? What keeps them going?
I think I just came in on a mission, it took me a while to hone in on exactly what the universe wanted me to do, but I was born with this feeling inside of me. Because I’m running off of a force greater than all of us put together, I find a lot of inspiration and strength in just “working for the man” everyday… but I feel good about that, my “man” is the cosmic love creative force not some angry white man in a tie.
That was a really beautiful way to reclaim the phrase “working for the man.” It shifts the perspective from one that is selfish to one that is appreciative of the awesome and harmonious forces at work in the universe. This mission demands that you channel and focus this cosmic energy towards helping to revolutionize “healthy,” but you also a mother! Has work changed since having Rohan?
I’ve never known this work and Rohan without the other, they came at the same time, they are twins. In my past life when I was a fine dining chef I’d say the difference was work only stopped when my eyes could literally not stay open, but actually that’s the same as now… so maybe nothing has changed there?
It must be difficult to juggle so much. How have you learned to balance family and work?
Well I don’t, I just threw the whole notion of balance out the window, its was stressful. In both cases I’m driven by love, driven madly and madly in love. So life is busy, every day is a victory of love, it’s a crazy fast ride that others may see as out of balance but I love it and have figured out how to rock out on 3-4 hours of sleep most nights.
Love seems to be the key ingredient. What do you love most about your job?
All of the ways in which I now get to communicate a new consciousness for the planet.
If you had just one sentence to be remembered by what would it be?
I love you.
What is the place of ancient traditions in this modern world?
It is our powerful foundation to add our genius to.
What has led you to the beliefs you now practice?
Pain
What constitutes your understanding of self?
I focus on thinking way less about the self and way more about a reality of non self and more of a WE.
How are our current ideas of health, wellness and beauty intertwined?
It should be one word and you could happiness to it as well.
What role does our societal perspective on health, wellness and beauty have in changing the course of our history?
Everything. Through collective wellness (that includes the earth, we are the earth, its not going to work if we feel good and our mother is sick, we are all one) we can enter this golden era, and all experience freedom.
What is the role of aesthetics in everyday life?
The beauty and success is always in the details of the day to day.
Do you have a certain beauty and health regimen that you practice?
Yeah, its called, my whole life! At this point every move I make is to push our well being forward , and that requires me to be healthy, energized, and ready to motivate educate and excite. It consists of a diet that includes a lot of raw plants and good fats, cultured foods, moon dusts, raw chocolate, meditation, and a commitment to keeping an open loving heart.
What’s your favorite book?
I've been lost in a sea of medical texts and theory for some time, but I always have the poetry of Pablo Neruta close by.
What’s your favorite season and why?
Summer time is the best time. The flowers, the berries, the stone fruit, the long days, the saly ocean, the gatherings, the built in childlike feeling that were all off the hook.
Where is your favorite way to share?
With abandon
Sunlight or moonlight?
Sunlight and moonlight everyday, could there be anything more spectacular?
