I’m Ella, I started writing my blog nearly two years ago as a way to teach myself about healthy, plant-based food and heal myself of a rare illness, Postural Tachycardia Syndrome, which I was diagnosed with in 2011. The illness left me bed-bound and I suffered with heart issues, stomach problems, constant pain, crazy fatigue and a whole host of other symptoms.
I tried conventional medicine for about six months, but sadly I didn’t have much luck with it so I turned to diet, deciding to cut out all gluten, dairy, sugar and meat from my life as well as anything processed or refined. I hit a huge hurdle pretty quickly though – I couldn’t cook, not even a little bit! So I started a blog to encourage me to experiment in the kitchen and make something that seemed so restrictive into something so fun!
Eighteen months after starting my healthy eating journey I was able to come off all my medication and now feel incredible! I’ve just released a best-selling healthy food app and am currently writing a cookbook, teaching cooking classes and studying as a nutritionist.
Day 1
I started my day with an amazingly energizing yoga class, I was running too short on time to go to a studio so did it online with yogaglo.com, which I love. I find Activity is the best way for me to wake up and feel awesome. I followed my yoga with my morning smoothie, which I can’t live without – I’m a total smoothie addict. Today it was the juice of a cucumber and a couple of sticks of celery, blended with a banana, some oats, chia seeds, bee pollen, medjool dates and spirulina.
Then it’s on to emails, replying to blog comments and instagram. I try to reply to all messages and comments so it’s always part of my morning routine! The rest of the day was then all about meetings. I had a wonderful lunch meeting at a delicious new restaurant with my publisher and agent to celebrate my book deal, followed by a meeting with my app designer to see the final product, which was so exciting!
Finally I raced home to make dinner for my girlfriends, who are acting as the best taste-testers ever. I was a little behind on the recipe development for my book so I went a little mad and made a serious feast with a wild rice salad, broccoli with tahini and cashew nuts, easy roast veggies, spicy roasted chickpeas, a sun-dried tomato dip and then a strawberry cheesecake!
Day 2
Every Tuesday I go to class at the School of Naturopathic Medicine, where I’m training to be a naturopathic nutritionist. It’s an amazing school, but each class is an eight-hour lecture! I did a speedy online yoga class before class to wake myself up and made an amazing bowl of buckwheat porridge with banana slices and coconut milk, topped with raw cacao nibs, almond butter and raw honey to fuel myself for the long day!
I have to admit that to keep myself awake I plan my Tuesdays around my snacks, as luckily my favourite food shop, Planet Organic is right around the corner. The highlights of today were a delicious raw chocolate bar with goji berries, spicy kale chips and an awesome green smoothie with kale, banana, cucumber, spirulina, broccoli and hemp. I’d then planned to have dinner with my mum, which I love. We were feeling lazy so threw together a five minute dinner with a marinated kale salad, mashed avocado with black pepper and olive oil and sautéed black beans with garlic, left-over brown rice and tomatoes – simple deliciousness! The day ended on an amazing note when my app was released, I had no idea it would be approved so soon, so was very overexcited!
Day 3
I started today with some time at the gym and some gentle stretching, followed by my email and smoothie routine! Today was all about mixed frozen berries blended with banana, half an avocado, some coconut water, maca powder, spirulina and spinach. I love spinach in smoothies as it changes the color but doesn’t change the taste!
I was then looking for recipe inspiration so took a trip to Borough Market, an am
azing farmers market in London, to pick out some amazing local fruits and veggies, collect the ingredients I needed for my cooking class at the end of the week and buy some of the world’s best hummus for the middle eastern stall.
I experimented with some new aubergine recipes for lunch and then spent the rest of the afternoon working on the introduction for my book.
I took the evening to skype with my best friend who is living in New York and my boyfriend who is working in Taiwan, before having an amazing Epsom salt and essential oil bath and getting into bed. Epsom salt baths are my favorite way to relax and send myself to sleep!
Check out Ella’s recipes at her blog, and stay in touch with her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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