Welcome to LiveWell Week!
Wellness has been a buzzword for the past few years, and this burgeoning industry valued at over $3.7 trillion globally, has spawned several brands home and abroad committed to helping us, in millenial speak – live our very best lives. This juggernaut industry covers not only the typical areas like fitness, nutrition and beauty, it’s evolving more and more to include mindfulness, mental health and well-being in our careers and at home.
In this series, we explore wellness on the continent, not only tapping into this trend but speaking to various individuals and brands about what wellness and self-care means to them and spanning different aspects of the industry from wellness tourism , alternative medicine, workplace wellness, beauty and anti ageing as well as the reactive and proactive elements in wellness and self-care.
Enter nutrition and lifestyle brand OmNutri – familiar to those in the know, founder Mena Imasekha is a raw food loyalist and champion. She has spoken extensively on healthy living and the effect on raw foods on beauty, anti ageing and general wellness. She is also a certified wellness coach aiding countless people achieve their dream goals in terms of health and wellness including less highlighted areas of wellness like stress management. We admire her dedication to serving others, and helping people become the healthiest and happiest version of themselves.
The Imperial College grad originally wanted to be a science writer or work in public health(She studied Biology) but changed her mind prior to graduation. She worked in corporate social responsibility and did a stint working for a crowd funding platform that helped raise money for charities. Fast forward a few years, and she started OmNutri because of her abiding love for food and passion for the multi-faceted wellness industry.
Meet Mena Imasekha and learn about OmNutri.
The biggest challenge for me has been the will to continually plug in. I love what I do, but the day in and day out reality of running a business in Nigeria can kind of be demotivating at times.
Why did you start?
A whole bunch of things, but mainly the desire to help people live a healthier lifestyle.
On the Challenges & Rewards of Running OmNutri
The biggest challenge for me has been the will to continually plug in. I love what I do, but the day in and day out reality of running a business in Nigeria can kind of be demotivating at times. The biggest reward I think has been our customers and clients, when they give us positive feedback about our products/services it makes it feel like it’s worth it.
Founder Responsibilities ?
Everything!
We don’t have thousands of followers, but what we do have is through organic growth so mainly word of mouth.
On Criticism & Focus
Criticism is really hard to deal with for me personally, but I try to arrive at the point of why is this person saying this and is there anything I can learn from what they are saying.
On Social Media & Organic Growth
We don’t have thousands of followers, but what we do have is through organic growth so mainly word of mouth. We also have run cool campaigns and partnerships with organisations like Lagos Fashion & Design Week. We are still growing steadily.
A Day At OmNutri
A typical workday results in firstly a lot of admin, we are still a small team, so I do most of that which is basically scheduling orders and deliveries and attending to inquiries etc. I’m also a nutritionist so occasionally I have client calls or house visits, which is my favourite part of what I do because I get to directly help people be healthier whether its through weight loss, stress management or teaching clients how to eat better for themselves.
What is one thing that you wish you had known when you were starting out?
Honestly, I just kind of started without giving much thought to where I was going with this. I think if I could do things over I would take a different route and take my time.
Self-care to me means taking care of every aspect of my being…
The OmNutri mission
Helping as many people as possible live a healthier lifestyle by providing healthy but yummy tasting snacks, nutritional counseling and hopefully healthy meal deliveries in the future.
What does self care mean to you?
Self-care to me means taking care of every aspect of my being. I eat well to nourish my body, because it is where the entire of my being is housed, so if my body is not at optimum I am not at optimum. I also take care of my emotional and mental health through diet, exercise, introspection, meditation and doing things that make me happy.
What daily, weekly or monthly rituals do you have to make sure you are taking care of yourself in an intentional way?
I meditate regularly and do yoga once a week. When I can, I have a completely ritualized Sunday, which might involve going for a walk and swim, burning incense, reading my favourite websites/blogs, deep conditioning my hair and slapping on a facemask.
What does wellness and self-care mean to you? Do you think it’s important ? We’d love to hear from you! Let us know your thoughts in the comments
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