Women In Wellness: Sabrina Ovadya-Lenson and Evren Celik Duru of URWell On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Move well: That would be the first adjustment that we would recommend becoming happy and healthy in life. Nowadays, almost everyone has their smartphones, and we have all gotten so used to having these devices that are almost like our other limbs. So, for once, use the benefit of having them and keep track of your daily movement on these devices. Tracking is a powerful tool for increasing how much you move each day. People who track their progress are far more likely to reach their goals because just measuring your activity can push you to move more and help you measure your improvement.

As a part of my series about the women in wellness, I had the pleasure of interviewing Sabrina Ovadya-Lenson and Evren Celik Duru.

Sabrina Ovadya-Lenson is a mother of two and as a former banker in New York and London, Sabrina has always worked out religiously. She later fell in love with Pilates; so much that in 2011 she ended up quitting her banking career to follow her dream to become a Pilates teacher which was then later followed by personal training and Barre qualifications. Her experience in upscale studios such as Pilates Squared, Workshop Gymnasium at the Bulgari Hotel and Core Collective led to Sabrina being a trainer to celebrities and high net worth individuals.

Evren Celick is a highly experienced and passionate ex-corporate mother, who worked as an executive at the multinational companies for 13 years and gained excellent management and communication skills. After giving birth to her twins in 2014, she quit her corporate career and became a Yoga Alliance certified yoga instructor in 2016. Evren spent a relentless 500 Hours to become not only a yoga instructor but a trainer for Yoga instructors.

In 2020 they founded URWell — www.urwell.co.uk/ — a virtual wellbeing and fitness concierge platform, integrating physical and mental wellbeing.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Our readers would love to “get to know you” better. Can you share your “backstory” with us?

It all started right after the first Covid-19 lockdown in London, UK at a coffee shop in the beautiful village of Hampstead. Evren is a yoga teacher, I’m a Pilates teacher and personal trainer. We were discussing how the fitness industry needed to adjust to the new environment in regard to the lockdown and a majority preference for working out remotely. We also noted the sudden and exponential emphasis on fitness and wellness. Our complaint about the lack of individualized wellness services suddenly lit a light bulb in our heads. Recognizing this gap, we said “why don’t we do something?” It started with a simple idea, but it required a substantial amount of planning and market research to bring the idea to life. That was the seed of URWell and a few lockdowns later here we are with our evolving and exciting wellbeing and fitness concierge service.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career? What were the main lessons or takeaways from that story?

We will mention an incident that was not just interesting but also shocking for both of us. During the software development process, once we deleted the whole system by clicking a button. It was a nightmare since we lost everything with just one click. Luckily, the website was not active yet and it was just the demo page. We had to recreate every single page in the front end, but that experience taught us something: Always have a back-up. The software team got a takeaway from this experience too. They developed a better version of the system that confirms your requests with a red alert notice so that you never delete anything with just one click.

Can you share a story about the biggest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

We wouldn’t call it the biggest mistake but definitely something we haven’t even realized when the idea was conceptualizing, was that starting a new business not only involves multiple aspects from marketing, and branding to financials and planning but also that plans may need to be fluid. We had to change the “product” a few times throughout according to feedback and feasibility, whether it was guided by branding or numbers or market research. The learning curve has been very steep and definitely has kept us on our toes!

We are also very aware that the “product” may still keep on adapting and adjusting as needed so this is something you have to be open to — it’s crucial to stay nimble and flexible whilst keeping the essence of the product or the service. The initial form of the business may need to be tweaked to something more meaningful but also to something more feasible as a business. We definitely have learned and are still learning significantly by taking feedback on board and ensuring that we are flexible within our business framework.

Let’s jump to our main focus. When it comes to health and wellness, how is the work you are doing helping to make a bigger impact in the world?

We wanted to help people to have access to our wellbeing services wherever they are — that’s why we created a virtual service. URWell offers services that are not only holistic but also highly individualized.

We view wellness as a compilation of physical fitness, nutrition and importantly mental wellness. This is what we mean by ‘holistic’, we tackle all areas of wellbeing. We strongly believe that someone who moves their body, who eats healthy and takes time to breathe and meditate will be a person who feels “well” in general.

URWell’s other crucial difference from a lot of online platforms is that our services are highly individualized. We don’t provide cookie-cutter exercises to our clients. We provide them exactly what they need and what they demand within their time constraint and physical ability. Our services start with a detailed questionnaire and is followed by an online consultation to address our clients’ goals, concerns and needs. We then draw up a detailed plan for the duration of the package that addresses all relevant aspects. Our services include online 1:1 and group sessions as well as pre-recorded videos that are tailored for our individual clients. Say that a client has a time restriction that week or a shoulder injury, their plan will be adjusted accordingly. We have the ability to do this on a weekly basis.

Long story short our aim is to provide our clients with highly individualized services for them to improve their wellbeing.

Can you share your top five “lifestyle tweaks” that you believe will help support people’s journey towards better wellbeing? Please give an example or story for each.

Everything is so correlated when it comes to health and wellness, as they all tie in with each other. Our five ‘lifestyle tweaks’ are:

∙ Move well: That would be the first adjustment that we would recommend becoming happy and healthy in life. Nowadays, almost everyone has their smartphones, and we have all gotten so used to having these devices that are almost like our other limbs. So, for once, use the benefit of having them and keep track of your daily movement on these devices. Tracking is a powerful tool for increasing how much you move each day. People who track their progress are far more likely to reach their goals because just measuring your activity can push you to move more and help you measure your improvement.

∙ Sleep well: Sleep is as important as eating, drinking and breathing to our health. Our bodies repair themselves and our brains consolidate our memories and process information in sleep. Sleep disorder is linked to physical problems such as a weakened immune system and mental health problems such as anxiety and depression. Without enough sleep, the brain cannot function properly. Therefore, having a restful sleep every night is crucial for our wellbeing.

∙ Eat and hydrate well: Eating healthily and staying hydrated are key to our wellbeing but we also know that it’s not always easy to maintain a healthy diet. At URWell, we strongly believe that wellness is very individualized — one plan does not fit all especially with regards to nutrition. However, there are certain rules that apply for everyone. Eating local and seasonal food, eating the rainbow which is eating fruits and vegetables of different colors every day, making your own meal and drinking enough water.

∙ Live well: Being surrounded by loved ones, feeling loved and compassion have huge effects on our wellbeing. It has been found that touch calms our nervous center and slows down our heartbeat. Human touch also lowers blood pressure as well as cortisol, our stress hormone. It also triggers the release of oxytocin, a hormone known for promoting emotional bonding to others. So, spend quality time with people and laugh. When you start to laugh, it doesn’t just lighten your load mentally, it actually induces physical changes in your body. Laughter enhances your intake of oxygen-rich air, stimulates your heart, lungs and muscles, and increases the endorphins that are released by your brain.

We also recommend cultivating positive and productive thoughts and staying mindful and present to enjoy life fully as it is.

∙ Breath Well: As we all know, most living things need oxygen to survive. Oxygen helps organisms grow, reproduce, and turn food into energy. There is nothing more essential to our health and wellbeing than breathing since humans get the oxygen, they need by breathing yet, as species, we have lost the ability to breathe correctly. There are different breathing techniques to bring health & relaxation. When we incorporate such breathing techniques in our daily routine and make slight adjustments to the way we inhale and exhale we can prevent and overcome many illnesses and yet become more content in life.

If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of wellness to the most amount of people, what would that be?

We think it would be bringing wellness to people with the most financial constraints and also to those with time constraints.

We would love to offer community classes on a frequent basis for those who would love to work out, meditate or breathe or learn about healthy eating. This is one of our goals as we grow as a business. We would love to give back to the community by providing some accessible wellness services to those who can’t afford it. We believe everyone has a right to their wellness!

For the second aspect, we both come from very competitive corporate backgrounds and we know how lack of time can add serious stress on the body and the mind adversely impacting our wellbeing. We offer our services to corporations and would love to make them aware that it is important for employees to get up and move, to breathe, to take a few minutes just to be, as well as to eat healthy and natural foods. Humans are certainly not designed for the constant sitting on a desk and looking at the computer. Bodies need to move. And everyone should be able to create time to do so without feeling guilty.

What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why?

Starting a new business has not been easy as we thought it would be at the beginning so this must be the first thing that we should know. Every business has their own challenges but a starting up during Covid-19 with financial constraints was a bit more challenging for both of us.

Good things come to those who wait and work for it. We experienced the waiting part quite well in the beginning. Even opening a bank account took ten times longer than usual. We were naive to think that the third parties you work with comply with the timelines. We understood that you just wait and stop pushing when your hands are tied.

Letting go of control is an integral part of acceptance. It all starts by simply accepting reality and taking appropriate action from there. Resisting and fighting what only hurts, always. When we started our business, our project was interrupted by many lockdowns, delays and financial crises. In the beginning, it consumed so much of our energy to fight with the circumstances. If somebody told us, no matter what you do the reality does not change; just accept things and let go, then we would not be worn out then.

Failing is part of the success. We made mistakes and decisions that cost us financially. In the process, we changed our products and brand identity which looked like the consequences of our poor judgement back then. Now, I understand that it is just part of the process. Some things evolve to new things and all you need to do is to adjust yourself accordingly.

Time management is the most difficult part of our jobs right now. We have a wonderful team of people with great reputation, hence there is so much demand for them. Since most of our services are on a 1:1 basis, scheduling everyone’s agenda and finding a time slot that suits everyone is sometimes challenging. We have not seen this coming as well. As we face such challenges, we improve and enrich our software system and team to find better solutions and ease it for everyone.

Sustainability, veganism, mental health and environmental changes are big topics at the moment. Which one of these causes is dearest to you, and why?

They are all big topics that we support as URWell. However, I would choose mental health over the others since only a mentally healthy person can defend and fight for the others.

The WHO constitution states: “Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” An important implication of this definition is that mental health is more than just the absence of mental disorders or disabilities. Mental health is a state of well-being in which an individual realizes his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and is able to make a contribution to his or her community. Mental health is fundamental to our collective and individual ability as humans to think, emote, interact with each other, earn a living and enjoy life. On this basis, the promotion, protection and restoration of mental health can be regarded as a vital concern of individuals, communities and societies throughout the world.

What is the best way our readers can follow you online?

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/URWell-100335715748561

Thank you for these fantastic insights!