Oxford Union with Deliciously Ella

So, yesterday I happened to spot on Instagram that the wonderful Ella Woodward of Deliciously Ella would be holding a talk for the Oxford Union that evening. I unfortunately am in Yorkshire at the present, so immediately texted my boyfriend Stuart who very kindly offered to go along on my behalf and take some notes for me. And did he deliver! I thought I would share a few tit bits of this insightful talk today.

Arguably the figurehead for healthy living, Deliciously Ella is now a very successful brand as well as a blog, with a book, app and exclusive merchandise. In the last few years, following a healthy lifestyle has started to become much more popular, and Ella has been one of many pushing this motion forward in the UK and beyond. Ella explained her journey into blogging and healthy eating, how we can follow her lifestyle and one of her own thoughts on other related matters.

Blogging
Ella initially started blogging for herself, as a means of motivation to eat healthily. Diagnosed with an illness that at times left Ella bed-bound, she started to explore holistic treatments to relieve symptoms. Blogging has helped to make cooking more accessible to all, with eight year olds wishing to write blogs thanks to Ella. A positive of blogging is that you don't cater to anyone else's needs, or feel like you are doing work whilst putting your ideas out into the internet.

Eating Healthily
With many health fads out their for exotic ingredients and expensive supplements, Ella advocates eating natural food, ideally seasonally and locally where possible. A recent post on Deliciously Ella showed how you can do a two-person weekly food shop for under £59, which is the average supermarket spend. I spend around £25 on myself per week, so this is pretty good!

By cooking for yourself from scratch, healthy food can be tasty and appealing; something that surprised even Ella. That being said, she recommends not mentioning ingredients when serving new dishes to a new crowd and let them be surprised afterwards! In addition, Ella mentions that her cravings for unhealthy food dissipated as she ate them less and less. It took around three months, so when making a lifestyle change do bear this in mind.

Living Healthily
Ella provided lots of advice for being healthy in a broader sense. My favourite is her travel tip of bringing along a travel-sized blender when on holiday! Back at home, she recommends a blender/food processor combo, which can be bought for £40 if Magimixes and Vitamixes are unattainable for your budget.

Encouraging the group to look beyond the aesthetic, Ella recommends avoiding associating healthy eating with physical appearance, as this can be damaging to your mental health. Since October, Ella has instead been filling her body with endorphins as she has taken to exercising in some form or another every day. This doesn't always mean a sweaty hour-long class; yoga and walks count too.

Being Deliciously Ella
Ella is most proud of changing people, and really enjoys receiving emails and social media items that highlight where she has inspired people. By tweaking recipes bit by bit, Ella avoids expensive cooking disasters, and she stocks up on ingredients from places such as Holland and Barrett's or Amazon.

Although I wasn't there myself, it was really great to read up on the topics covered yesterday. I also have a signed copy of the Deliciously Ella book coming my way, so I am super excited! I reviewed a friend's copy of the book here.