”Yoga helped to create a sense of mental calm that I’d never had before”
First she changed the way we think about vegetables, now she wants to get us all on our yoga mats. Ella Mills, founder of Deliciously Ella, talks the power of exercise and plant-based eating
WORDS ANNA BERRILL PHOTOGRAPHS RACHELL SMITH
”THE ULTIMATE MOTIVATION IS TO FIND SOMETHING YOU LOVE DOING, BECAUSE YOUR TIME IS PRECIOUS”
”EXERCISE SHOWED ME HOW MOVING THE BODY IMPACTS THE MIND”
‘I was never good at sport, so I stopped as soon as I could,’ says Ella Mills with a wry laugh.
‘Growing up, I didn’t have that connection between what you do and how that impacts your body. It wasn’t until I started to reassess the way I was living that I realised I wasn’t doing everything I could to support it.’
While Mills has become a persuasive advertisement for living a plant-based, balanced lifestyle – her Instagram feed is a cornucopia of vibrant Thai curries, chia puddings and yoga headstands – it’s easy to forget how far she’s come. After all, Deliciously Ella – the burgeoning brand which incorporates the successful website, three cookbooks (her first, published in 2015, was one of the fastestselling cookbooks in UK history), a deli, snack range, frozen meals, podcast, and app – began with an illness.