A balanced lifestyle

Here’s something to help make things a little easier to handle

People can be great multitaskers and usually manage the stress of multiple tasks well. However, everyone needs to remember to care for their health when working. Neglecting your health and diet can severely affect your health, especially when balancing work, home, and sometimes school. To address this problem, many dietitians and nutritionists recommend taking periodic breaks and eating healthy meals.  

But as many know, this is not always so simple. Gabi Abreu, the author of the Working Woman’s Health Collection, is a health coach and aspiring dietitian with a Bachelor of Science in Nutrition and Dietetics. The Working Woman’s Health Collection is a website comprising recipes and lifestyle tips designed to bring together the importance of preparing tasty, healthy food and the busy schedules of working women and university students.  

“What’s helpful is to […] focus on maybe like what you can add in little-by-little. […] Focus on adding in one or two servings of vegetables a week, adding in maybe a 20-minute walk once a week. Little things like that can definitely add up,” said Abreu.  

Abreu said it’s “unrealistic” to expect yourself to get “a 60-minute workout every single day when you’re also working.” She said that her biggest tip is to find ways to incorporate nutritional value into your day. “I think it can make it feel a little bit less overwhelming.”  

Abreu has come a long way since university, and in her interview, she mentioned how managing full-time studies and work along with maintaining a good lifestyle was challenging. “I was first starting university, […] sometimes nutrition or making time for workout seemed like the least important thing to do when you have exams, work, meetings, [and] things like that.”  

Life can be hectic, leading to the negligence of a person’s physical needs. Those with packed schedules tend to ignore what they eat, when, and how much, and can ignore their body’s need for exercise. This can lead to stress, as well as other undesirable side effects. To combat this, Abreu suggested, “If you’re studying for hours, [make] time for a 20-minute break to go for a walk or like do something with a friend.” 

When you can find the time to take care of yourself, the results speak for themselves. “I noticed a really big difference when I actually made time for myself, and I know that it can seem impossible at the time as well when you have so much going on. But I think you function better when you make time for enjoyment in school, too,” Abreu said.  

Maintaining that balance of work and life is essential. Balance can help you think better and perform better in every aspect of life. “I think sometimes if you’re overworking, […] that’s more of a chore, and you’re not like pouring into yourself. It is easy to kind of feel burnt out or overwhelmed, and you’re likely not to perform as well, too, in your exams,” Abreu said.  

Finding a balance between work and life can help you better understand yourself. As you find a balance, your mood improves and you can step back and look at your life through the lens of an outsider. If, and when, you can do that, that is when you can take meaningful steps to make your life better. This can be done by adopting healthy habits to create a balanced, healthy, and sustainable lifestyle.  

Abreu’s venture, the Working Woman’s Health Collection, embodies this by providing lifestyle tips and easy-to-make recipes. Abreu also offers consultation services to help people determine a healthy diet and lifestyle that works for them, and is working on a cookbook that is due to be released soon.  

Abreu’s venture brings together all the people who have been struggling to find a go-to place for lifestyle, beauty and a balanced lifestyle. As Abreu said, “The Working Woman’s Health Collection is a collection of recipes and lifestyle tips that embodies just that. You’ll find a variety of quick and easy meals, that I, myself, reach for as an everyday working woman. And, of course, some recipes for when you do have a little more time on your hands.” 

Abreu’s mantra is, “Focus on progress, not perfection. The key to building sustainable habits is to start small and make them easy to do.” She believes in lifelong growth, an open mindset, and never giving up when things get tough.   

Starting the Working Woman’s Health Collection was her way of using her education to impact others’ lives. She wanted to share her gathered knowledge and skills in a way that could best impact others. “As time went on, I was able to adjust and translate the information I was learning in class into my everyday life”.  

Abreu consistently updates the information on her website, believing that knowledge changes with time. Abreu has seen many trends in diets and nutrition, and she writes about many of these in the blog on her website.   

She has also broken different myths around nutrition on how people find it necessary to shop and purchase from expensive places to prepare healthy food. “I think sometimes there is this misconception that you need to shop at [special kinds] of places to be healthy. […] I see that a lot,” continued Abreu. “I create educational posts to kind of break down those barriers.” Abreu’s blog has many posts dedicated to providing easily-made recipes with easy-to-find ingredients. 

Balancing a healthy lifestyle with the stress of today’s work can be a real challenge, but it is one that has plenty of resources to make it easier. Dietitians, nutritionists, and health coaches like Abreu have made resources like the Working Woman’s Health Collection to help. Resources like these make the best of where people are already at, making them a great resource when you do not know where to begin in the journey to balance.