Woodward - Deliciously Ella

Thank you for downloading this Scribner eBook.

Join our mailing list and get updates on new releases, deals, bonus content and other great books from Scribner and Simon & Schuster.

C LICK H ERE T O S IGN U P

or visit us online to sign up at
eBookNews.SimonandSchuster.com

This book is dedicated to everyone who has shared this journey with me on my blog. I couldnt have done it without your love, support and enthusiasm. I hope I can give back as much inspiration as youve given me. Thank you for sharing all of this with me; it means more than I could ever explain.

Until just over four years ago I was a sugar monster, and I mean a total addict. Id always had a serious sweet tooth and as a child my favorite foods were sprinkle sandwiches and what we liked to call chocolate mess. Chocolate mess was pretty amazing, and just as sticky as it sounds. To make it, my sisters and I would raid our kitchen cupboards for anything sweet and throw whatever we could find into a bowlusually a mix of milk chocolate, marshmallows, gummy sweets, caramel, golden syrup and Rice Krispieswhich wed melt in a saucepan until it formed a gooey pile of chocolate deliciousness. The three of us would then sit with our teaspoons and demolish the whole bowl! My love of sugar grew from there, peaking during my first year of university in St. Andrews when my friends and I basically lived off a delicious mixture of Ben & Jerrys Cookie Dough ice cream, mountains of chocolate (preferably filled with gooey caramel) and lots of fizzy pick n mix candy. We were all totally hooked on sugar-laden convenience foods, and nutrition was low on the priority list.

It seems crazy that my diet has transformed so dramatically in such a relatively short amount of time, and Im sure that as you flip through this book youll have a hard time believing that I used to eat this way. It will probably seem even crazier still when I tell you that I actually didnt like any fruits or vegetables, but I promise you I really didnt! Other than bananas and corn on the cob, I steered clear of anything fruit or veg related.

Things all changed really quickly, though, and very unexpectedly. In the summer of 2011, just after Id finished my second year of university, I was diagnosed with a relatively rare illness called Postural Tachycardia Syndrome, or POTS. Its a very strange illness and even now my closest family and friends cant quite get their heads around it. The syndrome effectively breaks down your autonomic nervous system: the system that controls everything that is meant to happen automatically in the bodyyour heartbeat, digestion, circulation, immune system, etc. As you can imagine this had a pretty devastating effect on my lifeI literally couldnt walk down the street, I slept for sixteen hours a day, was in chronic pain, had blackouts, never-ending heart palpitations, unbearable stomach issues, constant headaches and the list goes on. It was anything but fun and I was bedridden 95 percent of the time. Life as I knew it was put on hold.

Being this ill was a bigger challenge than I could ever have imagined. Up until this point Id always been really healthy and so I really never saw it coming. At the time I was just nineteen and had been spending my summer in Paris, pursuing a career in modeling and having the best time. Going from that to a hospital bed within the space of just a few weeks really shook me, and as my hospital trips got longer and longer and doctor after doctor ran out of suggestions as to what was wrong with me, I really fell apart. It took four months of hospital visits and hundreds of tests to finally get a diagnosis, and I still remember that huge sense of relief when my wonderful doctor gave my illness a name. At the very least people could no longer tell me it was psychological!

The thing was that even though my illness now had a name, this didnt really make anything much better. I was put on a whole series of different drugs and steroids, some of which gave me new symptoms and none of which really helped. I was still essentially bed-bound, which created a huge sense of isolation, and my confidence and self-esteem vanished. It felt impossible to keep up with any friends. This was partly because of a lack of energy and a desire to sleep all the time, but it was also because I was too embarrassed to tell anyone what was really happening. I didnt want everyone to see me as a sick person and I felt like a total alien, so different from everyone else that I just couldnt really relate to them.

In January 2012 I decided to try to be a normal person and take a trip with my boyfriend. We went to Marrakesh, but the trip was in some ways a disaster and I ended up being brought home, semiconscious, in a wheelchair. Of course in lots of ways this wasnt ideal, but it was actually exactly what I needed as it woke me up to what was really happening to me. It became clear that it was my responsibility to change my situation. I could no longer rely on my doctors and I had to find a way to get my life back. So I spent the next week researching holistic, natural approaches to healing, which is what led me to change my diet.

After a lot of Googling I came across some incredibly inspirational people, in particular Kris Carr, who overnight changed my life. She had changed her diet to manage her cancer and had written a wonderful book all about it, so I ordered the book and immediately realized that if she could come back from that, I could absolutely come back from where I was. So, overnight I started a whole-foods, plant-based diet and gave up all meat, dairy, sugar, gluten, anything processed and all chemicals and additives. As you can imagine it was a really difficult change for someone who had never eaten fruit or vegetables before, let alone quinoa, buckwheat and chia seeds! Ill never forget the looks on my familys faces when I told them I was becoming a gluten-free veganI dont think Ive ever seen people so surprised and confused. Im not sure they believed Id last a day, but I was very determined to really give it a try. The only problem was I didnt have a clue what to eat!

I was all ready to go with my healthy-eating healing regime until it suddenly occurred to me that not only did I not know what to eat, but I also couldnt cook! I mean I could boil pasta and scramble a couple of eggs, but that was really about it. Nonetheless I really wanted to try this new way of life, so for the next three months or so I literally ate the same thing every day. Breakfast was banana and blueberry porridge, with the fruit added in right at the beginning to ensure it fully disintegrated (little did I know that this method actually gives more flavor). Lunch was buckwheat toast with mashed avocado and roasted tomatoes: totally delicious but a little repetitive every day! And dinner was brown rice pasta with some form of veggie sauce.

As you can imagine I was suffering from some serious food envy as everyone around me tucked into a fantastic array of different foods and I continued with the same meals day after day. Yet something amazing was happening: I was starting to feel better! My symptoms were diminishing and my energy was returningit was just the most incredible feeling. It was slow, but it was unbelievably exciting and so encouraging. It really inspired me to get more into what I was doing and thats where my blog, Deliciously Ella, came in. I thought that if I kept a blog and promised myself that Id try three new recipes a week, then I would start really loving this new way of cooking, which is exactly what happened.