At just 27 years old, she’s already written several cookbooks, launched an app, released a range of healthy snacks all while running a deli with her husband and business partner, and overseeing her social media empire.
But ‘Deliciously Ella’ Mills, who has 1.3 million Instagram followers, has somehow still had time to enroll herself onto a yoga teacher training course.
It has meant that instead of sharing snaps of luscious salad bowls from her deli in Weighhouse Street, London, the plant-based food blogger has started posting pictures of her enviably nutritious lunch boxes that she takes with her as she learns new poses.
They are going down a storm with her followers who are urging her to create a new Instagram photo series dedicated to her vegetable-packed on-the-go meals, which seem to be the perfect fuel for yoga practice.
‘Deliciously’ Ella Mills (left) is packing lunches for herself as she embarks on a new course to train as a yoga teacher on top of running her social media and business empire, proving that you can eat very healthily even when you’re busy and on the go. This box is a salad of spinach leaves, crunchy baked chickepeas, sauteed mushrooms and avocado dressed in lemon juice, tamari and sesame oil
The social media star says she has been making a packed lunch everyday, and most take her just 20 minutes to put together.
Her first box was a crunchy chickpea salad containing sauteed mushrooms mixed with chunks of avocado, with fresh spinach leaves on the side.
Her second was a similarly nutritious mix of brown rice, with half an avocado, half a cucumber, sun-dried tomatoes, artichokes and a small handful of spinach and rocket leaves.
She dresses her salads simply, often using just salt, pepper, lemon juice and a drizzle of sesame oil.
Deliciously Ella said she loves getting stronger by practising yoga as she suffered from years of chronic illness which left her weak. But after clean eating and yoga practise she’s now able to do a handstand
Deliciously Ella makes a packed lunch for her yoga teacher training classes everyday. This one contains (clockwise from top left): artichokes, rocket and spinach leaves, half an avocado, brown rice, and sun-dried tomatoes and diced cucumber
Deliciously Ella often fills her lunchboxes with a grain such as quinoa or brown rice, vegetables such as butternut squash and artichokes, and salad leaves, often rocket or spinach (pictured)
Ella said she will be packing herself lunches for one month while she is enrolled on an intensive 200-hour course at Yoga London in Bermondsey.
The social media star said it was a ‘test’ to let go of her business for five weeks, but said she was confident that her husband Matt Mills, who now runs Deliciously Ella with his wife full-time, would be able to run her empire without her for five weeks.
Explaining why she wants to become a yoga teacher on top of running her successful plant-based business, she explained to her followers: ‘I’ve wanted to do this for a while now but the fear of not being good enough and finding a way to balance it with work always held me back.’
She added: ‘Matt and @mraustinmills [their dog] are in charge of the office and I’m hoping to learn more about a practice that has changed my life completely.
Ella said she is as passionate about yoga as she is about plant-based cooking, and said it has helped her to become happier
Deliciously Ella often meal preps and roasts vegetables and makes grains in advance so she can build lunchboxes quickly. These containers contain (left to right, top to bottom): olives, onion and cauliflower, aubergine, broccoli and courgette, salad leaves, roasted peppers, tomatoes and butternut squash, beetroot, quinoa, avocado, wild rice, and rocket leaves
‘I credit so much of my growth as a person and happiness to my yoga practice and the peace that it’s created in me and I can’t wait to share more of that with you soon.’
Ella said that after a week of teacher training between 9am and 6pm, her muscles were ‘sore’ but that she felt ‘happier’.
Explaining how her love of plant-based cooking and yoga are linked, she wrote on Instagram: ‘As I fell in love with plant based cooking and started to see the positive effects it had on my life, I became passionate about sharing what I was learning in the hope that it could have a positive impact on other people’s lives too.
‘The same thing seems to be happening with yoga now. I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to do the teacher training to deepen my own practice or to share it, I wasn’t sure whether teaching something physical would come naturally to me or if I’d feel comfortable doing it, but within a day or two I felt so connected to it and I can’t tell you how much I want to share it.’