Photo: Deliciously Ella
You might think you’ve got a healthy food and fitness routine down pat, but just wait until you take a look at Ella Woodward‘s food and fitness diary. The London blogger-turned-author’s exercise routine and greener-than-thou recipes are so motivating, they’ve attracted her more than 563,000 Instagram followers.
Ella’s personal story is insanely inspiring: She was a self-confessed sugar junkie until 2011, when a rare illness (Postural Tachycardia Syndrome) had her bed-bound and sleeping for 16 hours each day with stomach issues, chronic pain, and heart palpitations. After giving traditional medicine a try for six months without much success, she turned to researching holistic, natural methods.
“Overnight I took up a whole foods, plant-based diet and gave up all meat, dairy, sugar, gluten, anything processed and all chemicals and additives,” she explains on her blog, Deliciously Ella, which receives more than 2.5 million views each month.
She admits this was a radical change from her former lifestyle: “I literally never ate fruit or vegetables before, my diet instead revolved around Ben and Jerry’s ice cream, chocolate, peanut butter and jelly eaten with a spoon, pick-n-mix and lots of cereal and pasta—I was a sugar monster!”
Quickly, the symptoms of her illness disappeared, and Ella began documenting her self-taught transformation online with recipes, advice, and first person anecdotes about her journey—all the while accruing millions of fans.
Her recipe app has been downloaded more than 60,000 times (take a look at it and you’ll instantly understand why) and Ella’s also the author of a cookbook, which was released in January.
It’s all very inspiring stuff, which is why we asked the Instagram star and author to tear out a page from her food and fitness diary and share it with us—keep scrolling to see what she eats and how she works out.
Photo: Deliciously Ella
For breakfast I had:
A smoothie with almond milk, banana, frozen blueberries, dates, chia seeds, hemp and a little spinach. It was so good! I normally have a bowl of porridge, avocado toast, or a smoothie for breakfast.
For lunch I had:
I’m in Berlin at the moment for the launch of my German book so I was trying out an amazing place there called The Store. I had a mixed bowl of amazing salads.
For dinner I had:
I made a pea and courgette risotto using short grain brown rice and coconut milk, which was delicious.
Today I snacked on:
Dates with almond butter—my all time favorite snack.
My go-to healthy drink is:
A juice. I love cold pressed juice, as cliché as it is!
The one thing I would never eat is:
Personally I don’t like processed foods and things filled with refined ingredients. You wouldn’t ever find me eating gummy candy like Haribo.
My favorite workout is:
Yoga, there’s nothing better than a sweaty vinyasa class with an inspiring teacher. I love to spin as well, it’s always such a good release.
My guilty pleasure food is:
I don’t like to look at anything as guilt inducing—food should always be fun. I do have a habit of eating the entire tray of baked things though, when something tastes good my self-control goes right out the window!
Photo: Deliciously Ella
The next big health and fitness trend will be:
Right now I’m just so excited about how quickly healthy living is spreading and how many people are getting into it.
My favorite healthy restaurant is:
Café Gratitude in LA, it’s my all time favorite place.
My favorite healthy snack is:
Either hummus with good crackers, avocado toast with lots of lemon and chili, cacao energy bites, or dates with almond butter
On Instagram, I’m obsessed with following:
So many people! I love Green Kitchen Stories, all of their photos are beautiful and their food is incredible. I also love Yoga Girl, Hannah Bronfman, Pressed Juices, and so many others.
The three ingredients you’ll always find in my kitchen are:
Avocados, almond butter, and dates.
My biggest health tip for travelers is to:
Exercise to beat jet-lag, find some juice to hydrate and don’t stress too much if you’re not eating in exactly the way you’d like.
Photo: Deliciously Ella
My signature healthy dish is:
Sweet potato brownies, they’ve always been my most popular recipe and I just love them.
The health app I couldn’t live without is:
Can I say my own?! As sad as it is, I use it all the time when I’m shopping for food as I can never remember my exact recipes.
The top three songs on my workout playlist right now are:
Taylor Swift is on repeat!
The best part of my job is:
Everything, I truly love it. It’s amazing to share your passion with so many people. I feel incredibly lucky.
I start an average day by:
Exercising. I try to move at the start of each day, it always makes me feel great.
My favorite activewear brands are:
I love Lululemon, Aloyoga, a new UK brand called Varley, and Nike.
My fall health tip is:
Exfoliate with a mix of ground coffee, brown sugar and coconut oil—it will keep your skin so happy.
Want more food and fitness diaries? Step this way.
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