All Eyes on Optamiz

A locally grown app for plant-based living emerges

Pursuing a plant-based lifestyle is often easier said than done—or, at least, it used to be. Now there’s an app for that.

“Many Americans are open to being plant-based, or they watch a documentary and want to try it, but they don’t know where to start or what to do,” say Optamiz app founders Heather Hackett-Kaufman and Dr. Ken Kaufman. “That’s where we come in.”

They are husband-and-wife partners of Optamiz Health, Inc., and Sarasota Sports Medicine in Sarasota. Their free app (available on Google Play and the Apple store) is a one-stop source for plant-based research, local restaurants, recipes, and even a social media platform and a jump start manual.

“In short, we’re the hub. We help the plant-based community thrive and ‘optamiz’ their health,” say the founders, who spent three years working on the app. “We’d like to be a catapult of the plant-based movement, and we’d like people to succeed in this lifestyle, as we know the health benefits it provides.”

The couple has certainly done the legwork.

“There’s literally nothing like the plant-based diet. When we switched to it, we initially wanted the science, so we had to seek it out. We then had to find the proper resources, so we had to seek them out,” the founders say. “We also had to seek out new restaurants, new grocery lists, products, services (such as organic co-ops) and recipes, and find business affiliates that aligned with plant-based values. It was exhausting, but it led us to create Optamiz, so it was all worth it.”

Hackett-Kaufman and Dr. Kaufman stand fully behind their products, services, and content, as they put the time and resources into vetting everything they recommend.

“A healthy lifestyle is the foundation for life,” they say. “We all want to make an impact, but we can’t make an impact if we don’t have our health, and we definitely can’t achieve good health without a healthy diet.”

Optamiz is a way for the couple to continually combine their health-centric passions.

“Individually, we built careers and a stellar reputation for helping others live healthy lives,” Hackett-Kaufman says.

Dr. Kaufman is a chiropractor and the founder of Sarasota Sports Medicine, and Hackett-Kaufman has taught nutrition and fitness through I Train Your Kids, Be Me Books Inc., and Girls Inc.

“Personally, we built our relationship with the foundation and love of knowing we were creating something to make a massive impact,” the founders say. “We know we’re better together. Optamiz is proof of that.”

>Optamiz Health: 1400 Cattlemen Road, Suite 103, Sarasota, 941-927-0546, contact@optamiz.com, optamiz.com.