Hind El-Aoufi and Jacqui Manoukian are the Co-Founders of youforher, a social enterprise established in 2019 that produces 100% pure, organic argan oil for culinary and beauty purposes. The two were inspired to establish a business that would bring authentic argan oil to the market that also empowered the Moroccan women who source it by providing them an income and an opportunity to further their education. Believing in creating profit for purpose, youforher give back more than half of the profits to the co-operatives of Berber women, as well as to other young girls and women in similar rural Moroccan communities.
Hind El-Aoufi and Jacqui Manoukian are the Co-Founders of youforher, a social enterprise established in 2019 that produces 100% pure, organic argan oil for culinary and beauty purposes. The two were inspired to establish a business that would bring authentic argan oil to the market that also empowered the Moroccan women who source it by providing them an income and an opportunity to further their education. Believing in creating profit for purpose, youforher give back more than half of the profits to the co-operatives of Berber women, as well as to other young girls and women in similar rural Moroccan communities.
Find inspiration as we talk to Jacqui and Hind in this special double feature #StrongHealthyWomen interview.
Hi Jacqui and Hind! Thank you for being part of the Health and Fitness Travel, Strong, Healthy Women Interview Series, where we are shining a light on the importance of self-care, not as an indulgence but a necessity to reduce stress and general health issues.
Is there such a thing as a typical day for you and what does that look like?
Jacqui – On the whole, yes! I live a pretty routine life. I work remotely, living in Annecy France. I wake up early and start the day going for a walk or run with our dog, Nala. Normally the run would be around the beautiful lake or mountains nearby, but with covid lockdown in place, it’s currently shortened to a few laps around my area.
I aim to always have time to sit and enjoy my breakfast (usually eggs, avocado and toast) and catch up on the news, social media and the latest messages from my youforher partner, Hind. Despite working for myself and remotely, I aim to still work within the typical working hours to keep a good routine. Work-wise I don’t have such a typical day. Wearing the hat of CEO, CFO, CMO, CTO, COO (and everything else, shared with Hind), the jobs of the day always vary! One day I might be working on Facebook Ads, the next working on supply chain and orders, invoicing and forecasting, photography and content creation, or many other tasks.
Now being accustomed to French culture (my husband is French), I always stop and give myself a solid lunch break. I usually make something quick like a salad or throw together some veggies on the pan with tofu or some delicious French cheese on the side. After work, I’ll usually take Nala for another walk and on the non-running days, I’ll do some indoor fitness like HIIT training or yoga. Dinners are usually healthy home-cooked, veggie-packed meals with my husband. We’ll usually wind down with some Netflix, a game or just playing with Nala together. We’ve recently started the routine of a 10-minute meditation right before bed, which I’m loving!
Weekends are usually spent catching up with friends or family, keeping up with life admin, and doing some sort of mountain/outdoor activity with my husband and dog ☺. However, with current lockdowns, we’re getting creative with other indoor activities we can do until we are free again to be in the mountains! We’re also now spending a lot more time video-chatting with friends and family to stay connected.
Hind – I would tend to say no, as I have an 11-month-old baby (called Lyla) and every day can be so different. If I think back even a couple of months ago, my routine was different as her own schedule changes so much and I am more flexible around that too. I am baby-led now that I think about it! I usually wake up early with her, and we play a bit, then we have brekkie as a family. We go to the park and lake as we live near a very green area. Before covid we would be playing with other babies, and now we have a big walk instead. Then it’s nap time and I catch up with some work, talk to Jacqui and try to do as much as I can.
We cook a healthy meal with lots of veggies, often exploring with Moroccan cuisine and using argan oil a lot at the moment 🙂 Lyla now eats what we eat so it’s much easier than a few months back when we had different food.
In the afternoon, Lyla would play with the nanny and play in the playground with other babies and I will focus on getting more work done.
We have dinner as a family quite early, and at 7pm it’s bath time then sleep. And I usually have an hour to myself to catch up with friends on the phone, read a book, or watch half a movie before falling asleep!
Can you share a time when you felt your well-being was challenged in the past and what did you do to overcome it?
Jacqui – For me, if I’ve ever had a few days in a row without eating many vegetables and exercising, I turn into a terrible human! I feel sluggish in the gut, at the same time both low in mental energy as well as feeling like a fireball filled with too much physical energy needing to be released, and I feel a build-up of frustration. These moments are quite rare these days as I know myself, and know that if I start to get ‘that feeling’, I can usually manage to find some healthier meal options wherever I am and squeeze in some sort of exercise (even if it’s high-knee jumping and burpees in a tiny Paris hotel room at 5am).
Especially now working from home, I also have learnt about myself that if I don’t get a decent weekly dose of social connection, especially time with friends that give high, bubbly energy, I really notice a decrease in my overall happiness and energy levels. Once I came to that realisation, it was so easy to overcome! I now just make sure I’ve spoken to enough loved ones each week (phone calls can be enough)!
Hind – After the birth of Lyla, like I think a lot of mum’s, your sense of well-being is redefined. Having a newborn is a magical time full of love, cuddles, and connection. Your well-being centers around the well-being of your baby and your sense of self-sacrifice emerges strongly. At the same time, there is a lot less time for yourself. The first three months are tough in that sense as you can’t exercise as you used to, sleep is challenging too and you eat whenever you remember to! After the first months adapting, I started going for big walks around Centennial park in Sydney, doing some Pilates at home, or joining some mum’s and bubs sessions. I enjoy healthy food and cooking, so I started making a nice meal every day and would have a smoothie or soup for lunch to make it easier. I just learnt to surrender to my new ‘self’ and be more flexible about defining well-being. Cuddles and quality time as a family becoming more important than a ‘scheduled’ gym session. But since having a nanny now for a few months, I managed to have more time for self-care, finally going back to Pilates, swimming, and having proper family meals.
What does ‘being healthy’ mean to you and how do you keep this at the forefront when life gets unavoidably busy?
Jacqui – Being healthy to me is having a balanced life, and not being too hard on yourself if you have some off days. As a general rule, I aim to balance the usual basics: sleeping enough, eating well, exercising well and doing things for my mental well-being.
In terms of eating, thankfully I grew up on a lot of home-cooked, healthy meals already. As I got older I made further small healthy changes over time, now it’s just my new normal to eat home-cooked meals most days, packed with veggies and nutritional, natural foods. I now only very occasionally eat meat and try to avoid processed foods. However, I don’t bother stressing over what I eat. If the odd day I eat a second serving of a delicious chocolate mousse (I do have a sweet tooth :)), or didn’t get many veggies in because I decided to order raclette at the local French restaurant, I don’t worry about it and know I’ll balance it out another day. 🙂
I’m also someone naturally driven to exercise so it’s always been a daily habit since I was at school, and I really love it. I’m generally active every day, with at least 4-5 higher intensity exercise sessions weekly like a run or HIIT. My more chilled days could be just going for a walk or doing yoga. But again, if I have an extremely busy day and don’t even manage to leave the house, I let it go and know tomorrow is a new day.
Mental well-being is just as important as the rest! It’s important to me to maintain strong social relationships, with my husband and my family and friends. Even more so as I work from home across the world from most of my loved ones. I also need to get a bit of ‘me’ time every day, whether it’s dancing (by myself) to music, meditation, playing with my dog, anything that brings me joy.
Hind – I think I evolved on the topic quite a lot! I probably put too much pressure on myself to ‘do it all’ and I learnt to be a lot more balanced. I used to have very healthy weeks and then unhealthy weekends partying. I am more balanced overall. Being healthy to me is having a sense of emotional, physical and spiritual happiness. I think I have better habits and more balance eating better, being more mindful about healthy eating every day. I am still breastfeeding so eating nutritious food is very important to me at every meal. Some level of exercise every day too, and even if it’s just a long walk (rather than thinking “I didn’t go to the gym”, I changed my mindset to get in smaller sessions of fitness every day).
Quality time with my husband while being busy as a working mum is important too, and creating time for ‘date time’ even if it’s watching a movie together. Social connection (even with physical distancing) is key to my emotional well-being, having my long conversations with my best friends and lots of cuddles. And letting go/ being ok of having days that are less balanced too.
Have you ever taken a holiday specifically for your well-being? Can you share what the experience was like?
Jacqui – Upon reflection, yes, I think I take them quite frequently! For my recent honeymoon holiday to Madeira, we specifically planned to have a good mix of beach-chill time, mountain hiking time and just rest time with each other, which are some of my favourite things and really made me happy. My husband and I often take weekends in the French Alps to run, hike and camp (in the warmer months), or ski (in the winter). I never really thought of it as ‘a holiday for our well-being’, as it’s now a part of our normal monthly routine, but it truly is. It’s for both our physical and mental well-being, being out in beautiful, calm nature and being very physically active. We are lucky to have such amazing nature near our home, it makes it easy!
Hind – I think every time I go home to Morocco I feel so energised. Now that I think about it, every time I need to reset or some extra well-being care, that’s where I go. I usually stay at my parents home and I love spending time with them. They have so much wisdom and we just take the time to be together. Moroccan food is divine – always full of veggies, beautiful fruit, and our fish is extremely fresh. My mum is an amazing cook and I always get so inspired and we cook together, and some of my dad’s recipes are the best. We also make healthy treats, nothing processed, often paleo-inspired cakes. I often go for swims at the beach, go for walks with my dad, and spend some quality time with my hubby or girlfriends while my parents take care of Lyla, having some Moroccan mint tea. My dad is full of wisdom and we spend a lot of time revisiting the world, how to solve the world inequality and injustice (very close to my dad’s heart and mine too) and philosophy. I feel re-energised and very happy there.
Every woman’s idea of self-care is different, please tell us what does self-care mean to you?
Jacqui – For me, caring for myself is keeping healthy, and really listening to my body and mind and noticing what it needs. Sometimes I need to take a rest, do nothing and just listen to music. Sometimes I feel like I need to pamper myself with a long hot bath, coffee body scrub, face mask, argan oil hair soak, the works. Sometimes I need to just go for a walk in nature or swim in the lake. Sometimes I need to be social and have a laugh with a friend. Sometimes I just feel like snuggling up in a blanket and cry on an emotional day. Not only are we all so different, but our own body and mind is constantly changing, we all have ups and downs and so many different moods. Just tune in, and try to find out what it is our body or mind is needing that day.
Hind – Since becoming a mum, I feel that I have a lot less time for myself. We are wired this way perhaps, babies need so much love and care that we tend to forget about self-care in the process. Self-care is ‘me time’ which could be very different depending on the day. Same as Jacqui, sometimes it’s pampering myself with an argan oil hair mask, while talking to my best friend and laughing. Sometimes it’s going for a swim in a beach on a sunny day, and sometimes it’s making a banana bread and enjoying making it. But overall, beyond ‘me time’, I think it’s being present in every moment of your life. Being fully present, your mind, body and soul, enjoying our precious life as it unfolds.
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