​Wholefood Hero Edel Owens is energising the Northern Ireland workforce and helping slash absenteeism

Wholefood Hero, Edel Owens, delivers wellbeing workshops combining nutrition and mindset training that improves motivation and focus, and reduces absenteeism.

She said: “The Office of National statistics estimates that 185.6 million working days were lost through absenteeism in the UK last year - a new record high and equating to 5.7 days per worker. Yet, this can be mitigated with a wholesome diet which fuels the brain and body with nutrients to optimise function and improves productivity in the workplace.

“To maximise cognitive function the brain needs a cocktail of nutrients such as glucose, antioxidants, omega-3 fatty acids and B vitamins. This must be backed-up with macro-nutrients including carbohydrates, fats and proteins to spark and maintain energy levels.

“Good food improves mood and motivation which helps staff engage better with colleagues and customers, as well as proteins and healthy fats to enhance focus concentration and problem-solve!

“My evidence based methods make people more able to deal with pressure as well as reducing days taken off work due to mental health and physical ailments caused by stress! Complex carbohydrates which contain fibre stabilise blood sugar levels, and foods high in magnesium relax muscles and reduce stress.

“Consuming particular clean and nourishing food reduces incidents of conditions such as colds and flu by strengthening the immune system as well as chronic diseases including cancer, diabetes and heart disease.”

Edel, whose clients include blue chip companies such as Google and Meta harnesses multi-sensory learning experiences that typically feature a deep-dive into the mind-body connection. This narrows the ‘knowing-doing gap’ between the foods that we know we should eat and our capacity to turn it into sustainable healthy habits.

Programmes are fun, engaging and interactive using games such as the 'Health Hot Seat' and 'Health Hackathon', while colleagues enjoy tasty and healthy wholefood snack samples together.

A former primary school teacher, who lives in Castlewellan with her husband and four children, Edel, who is orginally from Co Donegal, describes what prompted her to leave a successful 15-year career in teaching to establish her own business.

“Whilst I loved my teaching job, I was constantly sick. I couldn't understand why I was always succumbing to chest infections, throat infections, colds and other nagging sicknesses. I didn't realise at the time that my immune system was taking the hit of a stressful job, a hectic study schedule, and a busy social life with very little balance or downtime between the two.

“When I began to reflect on year after year of persistent low level sickness, I realised this was not the path I wanted. I had to get myself healthy. I was tired of being tired, and I was done with taking sick days. I made it my mission to never have to take another antibiotic again. Well that was the plan at least but it didn’t happen overnight.”

Edel said she started out on a healthier path and cut down on her GP visits but every now and again would still get hit with a debilitating chest infection, which at one stage ended up in pleurisy.

“My first child was born in 2014 and after two further pregnancies and still wading through the mental fog and the mental load that often accompanies motherhood, I began to feel my energy slip away from me yet again.”

At this stage Edel started attending cookery courses and “swapped clothes shopping for book shopping”.

"I bought every health, lifestyle and cookery book I could get my hands on, reading with intent, highlighting and scribbling into the wee hours of the morning.

“With this new learning, I started marking ingredients ending in ‘ose’/sugar such as sucrose and lactose off my weekly shopping list and replacing with them with vibrant, fresh fruits and vegetables and minimally processed products.

"We were very fortunate to buy a house with apple trees and I added pear, plum and cherry over time. I also built a greenhouse with a dream of feeding my family as much whole, organic food as possible.”

In 2018 she trained to become a nutrition and health coach and in 2020 left her teaching job.

“I set out to help people just like myself overcome tiredness, feelings of stress/anxiety, parent-guilt, and the various other energy drains that often force people to feel that they have to choose between their own hopes and visions for the future, and their family obligations

“I personally believe that the mindset aspect is most often the missing link in the consistency and sustainability that people desperately desire with their health goals. And in my experience, overcoming deep rooted beliefs and progress blockers with mindset coaching paves the way for lifestyle change as opposed to a temporary white wash solution.

“Fundamentally, my programmes are centred on energy optimisation and lasting wellbeing solutions for employees in large businesses and organisations.

"As energy is a marker of overall wellness, I believe that we need to feel strong and energised to live a vibrant, successful and optimally healthy life.”

https://thewholefoodhero.com/