The Wellness Scoop - Why We Care

Episode Date: January 2, 2019

Kicking off season 2 of Deliciously Ella The Podcast with our new year’s resolutions, finding ways to be more present in 2019, running a marathon, why we care about what we do, why plant-based living matters for our future, and our plans for the year ahead See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Visit BetterHelp.com today to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P.com. Hi, everyone, and welcome to Season 2 of the Delicious Yellow podcast with me, Matthew Mills, and my wife and business partner, Ella Mills. Happy New Year, everyone. We are very happy to be back with season two. We have missed you. Honestly, I've like really, really missed

doing the podcast. It's such a highlight of my week, getting to meet such cool people and hopefully share interesting information with you. And season two is going to be literally jam packed with stuff. We've got really cool stuff coming up next week. We're on with someone

who's going to be telling you all about how to avoid the kind of crazy pitfalls and diets of january and the crash diets and the things that make you unhappy and how to build a really healthy plate instead and feel good in yourself and make positive changes and why that is so much more important we're then going to move to someone else the next week who's going to tell you all about how to eat a healthy plant-based diet the kind of myths around protein and iron and calcium and all those things. We're going to be then looking at stress, which is really exciting and the kind of epidemic that is stress and how we stay away from that. That's part of my newest resolution as well. And then we're going to be moving on to all kinds of different things. We're going to be talking to the World Wildlife Fund

about the issue we're having the environment and wildlife extinction at the moment. We're going to be looking at skin health and hormones and how that's impacted by the way we eat so honestly the season is literally like bursting to the brim so I'm super excited to get started with it. It is indeed and hi everyone happy new year we hope you had a really really lovely break. Yeah we had the most heavenly time off we closed the office on the Friday before Christmas we had like 10 days just at home us and and Austin spent Christmas with Matt's dad and then went down to see my mum and just had such a nice time we love Christmas it really is the one time of year where it seems like everyone is genuinely off and

so you just don't get emails and it is the proper one week a year where I think we actually really really really do switch off even when we're on holiday you know even if it's in August and other people away you're still getting uh work stuff that we have to do so just to really be able to shut it down for a little while was amazing get some space and thinking time and reading time and we've come back super refreshed and super excited for 2019 um and took a digital break as well I'm like a big fan of digital um turning off and actually um we're going to be moving on in a sec to kind of, I guess, aims and resolutions for 2018. But something I started, sorry, 2019. But something I started in 2018, which I really want to continue, is Saturday switch off where I turn off my phone,

my computer, social media on a Saturday and have a full 24 hours kind of screen free. And it's taught me to be so much more present. And that's just's just yeah what I'm really focusing on this year yeah it was it was honestly it was the nicest nicest break we were actually supposed to be away but we had to cancel our plans at the last minute it was the first Christmas I've had without my mum and so we really wanted to make this like a non-Christmas because Christmas was such a big thing in it for my mum in the Mills household. But we just had such a nice time. We ate loads. We really switched off, really tried to get away from it. And, you know, it's a sad time because I think all of these first landmarks you have

when someone so close to you isn't there anymore. But it was just perfect, perfect family time. Yeah, no, it really, really was. Feeling kind of really recharged, ready ready for a new year so talking of new year do you have any resolutions I know we always say between us at home like oh new year's resolutions like they can feel so kind of binary and and cliche yeah cliche but also kind of slightly insurmountable and it's like I will never do this again I will never do that again a it's actually but I still do them anyway yeah I love them but I think also there's that thing that sometimes New Year's resolutions be a bit negative. You

know, if you say I'm never going to do this again, I'm never going to do that again. So I guess it's also just about trying to have a positive New Year's resolution. And I think the ones that we've been kind of working on in terms of goals really are like, I think, as I just mentioned, for me, it's really about the idea of being present so that kind of one day a week completely off um sort of technology but then as well as that I've also and I started this last year but really committing to charging my phone um not in the bedroom so I don't sleep with my phone worse comes the worse it sneaks into the bathroom but it doesn't come into the bedroom and that is amazing amazing makes a massive difference and I get up in the morning I make my celery juice more on that next week um and my matcha and I make Matt his coconut coffee and then I go to yoga and

I come back and by the time I've come back I've had quiet time like time to really wake up reframe my mind it's only 7 30 or so but I've like really woken up in the best way and then I'll turn on my phone and that is life-changing so I'm really committed to that for 2019 like just trying to be way more present and not just sitting in a restaurant or something on our phones which I know we can all be guilty of but it's yeah that's my number one habit I want to change and then how about you what's number one so for me it's it's exercise I only started exercising again I used to exercise a lot and I was a pro golfer yeah well so and I've played sport my whole life and I've just I've always loved exercising,

and I got completely out of the habit. And I started exercising kind of towards the end of last year and then signed up to the marathon to raise money for the Brain Tumor Charity, which is something that sits really close to my heart. And I hate running with a passion. I've actually really enjoyed exercising, but I hate running. But I absolutely love the cause I'm running for. hate running with a passion i've actually really enjoyed exercising but i hate running but i'm absolutely love the uh cause i'm running for and so but my new year's resolution is i've got this

hard stop after the london marathon um which is really my the point that i'm i'm purposely exercising for to get in shape for but i really want to keep going past that i've really noticed since i started exercising just how much better I feel, how much clearer I think. It's just a great escape from any work or stress or anything else. And so keeping that part of my daily routine is definitely my resolution for the year. Nice. My other one is, which hopefully if I can keep sharing it with you will inspire you actually on exactly that, is actually also just trying to make a little bit more effort during the day to like make a bit more time to make a good breakfast to make a good lunch to make a good dinner rather than kind of rushing rushing I guess me generally isn't it probably

my aim is just to be a bit more present and a tiny bit slower so I don't think slower is necessarily always the worst thing but like recently I've just been making loads of dips, for example, like I'll blend artichokes, avocado, chickpeas, lemon, rocket, tahini, a bit of cumin, and it makes the most amazing dip. And it's obviously got loads and loads of fiber, loads and loads of portions of veggies in it. And it's like a three minute lunch. I just spread that on raitos and put some salt, pepper, some hemp seeds, maybe, and some rocket on the top. And it's just super delicious super delicious but it's literally two minutes and then obviously I keep the rest in the fridge for a snack for breakfast the next day or something so just trying to be a bit better at like not saying I don't have time, I don't have time and just remembering actually like how those sorts of things are actually just super super easy like I've got back into making loads of noodle stir

fries for dinner and my favourite one at the moment is an almond butter stir fry so I'll just blanch some broccoli so just boil the kettle chop up some broccoli put it in a pan and pour the kettle water over the broccoli just for like two minutes or so to let it soften drain that and then just saute the broccoli with some sesame oil let that and while that cooks I'll just make some like three minute brown rice noodles add some peas to the noodle pan so that those cook alongside it chuck some spinach into the broccoli and then I'll just stir a dressing together I'll do lots of almond butter so good a tiny bit of almond milk salt pepper sesame oil tamari and miso squeeze of lemon and it's amazing mix it all up together and it's but it's literally like less than 10 minutes like it's so so easy it's amazing. Mix it all up together. And it's, but it's literally like less than 10 minutes. Like it's so, so easy.

It's just literally broccoli, peas, spinach, noodles, almond butter, and a few kind of condiments. But it's so yum and I feel so much better for it. So I'm kind of really committing to just taking those few things and just kind of, yeah, I guess slowing down. And then also reading before bed. I love reading before bed. So this January, we're actually doing something that we've never done before, which is exciting and a little bit

nerve wracking, actually. And we're going to be launching it today. So this is the first moment. Across 2018, I kept a little note on the notes on my phone called why we care. And I would note down everything I learned, whether it was from our brilliant guests on the notes on my phone called why we care. And I would note down everything I learned, whether it was from our brilliant guests on the podcast, interesting articles I read, people I met, documentaries, and all the facts, figures, stats that really intrigued me or astonished me about the power of a plant based diet, both on the health of our planet, but also on human health as well. And as this list started to grow, and I honestly started to share it with everyone I knew and anyone that would listen, I thought, well, maybe that we should do something with this.

And I've often been a tiny bit nervous about kind of standing up and being really honest about what we believe as a company at Delicious Yellow and me personally as well, because I know, you know, you're never going to get everyone to like you. And, you know, obviously kind of really sticking your hand up for something does often get a little bit of criticism. And I sometimes would kind of shy away from it on a personal note of just being scared of being that little bit vulnerable. But we talked about it a lot and we really felt like you know what we've got to a point where actually we've got to say who cares I mean ultimately these things and these changes that we need to make are so much more important than what kind of I personally

might feel and so we've decided to launch the We Care campaign across January. Indeed we have so we've never wanted Delicious Yellow to be a protest movement. But as Ella said, we started keeping all of these notes about why we care. And in 2018, in particular, it seemed like there just started to be much more information, studies and information that was coming out about why of broadcasting a message that can, in some ways, you know, can polarize people. But it is something that we believe deeply about. It is something that drives us absolutely every day. And it is something that we want to communicate more and bring more people, hopefully, along in this journey with us. Yeah, and I think we had this watershed moment a little bit when, you know, I'm sure everyone saw, but I think it was around October time, scientists came forward saying that we've got 12 years to stop a climate breakdown that would become basically irreversible. And that is just absolutely petrifying. And when you start to look into how to stop that,

as lots of you might have heard on the on the episode we did last season on veganism you know and if you look at the UN reports for example and what we can do to stop that changing to a plant-based diet or including a lot more plant-based foods in your diet becomes so high on the list and we know it's not what everyone wants to hear but there was this moment where we just thought okay do you know what we've got a we've got to run with it so we've got a lot of facts and figures to share with you we're going to be posting a different stat covering all kinds of different things across our social media this month. We're going to have so much coming out on our newsletter as well, in terms of hacks, tips, tricks, recipes. So definitely sign up for that.

You could just go to www.deliciousyellow.com. But we want to start today with the 10 facts, with the things that really move the needle for us. And just to say as well, we want to start today with the 10 facts were the things that really moved the needle for us and just to say as well we want the point of this campaign to be something that's really really positive we don't just want to say oh my god look here all these problems here's everything we're doing wrong we want to provide really positive uh nice ways that we can that we can make the the difference and we can make the little small changes we can all make to our lives fun and enjoyable every day and i think it's also coming back to the fact that yes we're pretty passionate as you might be able to tell about the fact that we need to make some changes to our lives but that doesn't mean it's an all or nothing kind of change it doesn't mean anyone's expecting you to become a vegan tomorrow you know it's just

about including a little bit more of something and starting to make little changes that feel genuinely enjoyable and sustainable for you so this isn't about putting pressure on anyone. I think it's about trying to encourage. It's just about creating awareness and hopefully providing some great tools to help you make any small changes you can. Yeah. So the first fact that we have, which is that according to scientists behind the most comprehensive analysis to date of the damage farming does to the planet, avoiding meat and dairy products is the single biggest way to reduce your environmental impact on the planet as an individual. And that's more than electric cars, for example, or reducing your flight. So these things that get a lot more airtime and that

I think really, really, really shocked us. Yeah, it shows that the new research shows that without meat and dairy consumption, global farmland use could be reduced by more than 75 percent an area equivalent to the u.s china european union and australia combined and still feed the world which is pretty astonishing especially when you look about the fact that obviously our population is massively increasing and we need to feed more and more more people yeah meat and dairy produce 60 percent of agriculture's greenhouse gas emissions and agriculture is one of the three most polluting industries alongside the fashion and fossil fuel industry. So if you think about how much damage that's doing on a global scale, it's pretty powerful. But to lessen the damaging effect of that, we could hypothetically all move to a vegan diet. And in doing so, we could then

cut the entirety of global greenhouse gas emissions that is not just in agriculture by a kind of completely astonishing 23%. And half of that benefit comes from regrowing trees on the area that we wouldn't need to farm anymore. So that would take a substantial amount of carbon dioxide out of the air. Aside from the environmental reasons, there's also obviously the ethical angle, we kill something like 56 billion animals a year for food, which is quite a scary statistic. I think that's a statistic that actually really kind of powerfully impacted on the both of us when you start thinking about the scale in which these things are happening it's quite yeah purely for for taste preference. But then it's also looking at from a human health perspective for example you know barely 27% of the UK eat their five a day and we know that we

should be eating our 10 a day and we should be doing this for so many different reasons and one of the reasons are because plant foods are so important for keeping our immune system in good health. A staggering 70% of our immune cells live within our gut so looking after your gut with plenty of gut loving plant foods is an amazing way to support your immune system and we all know that's so important. One of our guests from lastgan rossi who's sharing more of this she says you should aim for 30 different plant-based foods a week um so i've been trying to take a note of that each week and keep my list and it's been really interesting actually to see that it can be quite challenging but fiber is our gut bacteria is literally it's their favorite food and because

plant foods are packed full of that fiber that is continuing to really support our gut health in total and we should be aiming for about 30 grams of fiber each in the UK as a sort of minimum but the UK average is about 19 grams a day so we are really really a long way off in case anyone wants an example of how you could get 30 grams for example one cup of cooked chickpeas is about 12.5 grams. One cup of oats is about eight grams. A cup of cooked quinoa is about five grams and three dates is about 4.8 grams. So all of that would total up to just over 30 grams. So it's actually quite easy to do. And then just the final fact, which is interesting, is that there's evidence to show that for every portion of fruit and vegetables eaten, there's a greater protection against heart disease and strokes by up to 30% and some cancers by up to 20%. So as well as

obviously tasting really good they're absolutely packed with essential vitamins and minerals, phytochemicals and fibre all of which we absolutely need. So I know our 10 facts have slightly kind of melted into one a little bit but hopefully that gives you a kind of nice overview of why we think it matters. So I know this is a little bit different to anything we've really ever done before at Delicious Yellow but we just felt you know we have this platform of people who are thank you very much listening to what we've got to say and it just felt like an important moment to actually share these stats because we feel like they're incredibly incredibly important and I think if we want to look after the world

of our kids and the future, that it's going to become increasingly important. So we hope that you're going to enjoy learning throughout this month and there's going to be a huge amount of information coming your way. And so alongside the We Care campaign, what have we got planned for this year? So I think we approached 2019 with a huge amount of excitement. I think of any year, and I amount of excitement, I think, of any year.

And I guess this is typical of any growing company. But I think we approach it with a much clearer idea of exactly who we are, what we're focused on and what we're trying to and what we're trying to do. So, yes, at Delicious Yellow, we really have three parts to what we do. We have the original part of Delicious Yellow, which is our social media, our books, any partnerships we do and our app. And in 2019, we're really, really excited. Actually, in the next month, we're going to be launching our completely new app, which we're really, really excited about. It's been a long project, but it's finally in its final stages. And the new app, it's going to launch with over 350 plant-based recipes. It's going to have about 40 yoga videos that you'll be able to use every day.

And about 50 recipe videos as well. Yeah, and each week, whereas the old app, it took a really long time to update. It was really, really expensive to do the recipe updates um every few months whereas this one um we can update it ourselves and so every single week there's going to be new content um coming on to it and it's going to be translatable around the world you're going to be able to use both metric and imperial uh measurements and the translations will hopefully

come a little bit later though those won't come immediately yeah but they'll be coming in the first half of the year and we are we're just really really excited about it we knew um that lots of people had downloaded our app but we just didn't think that the user experience on it was that great and we thought we could do something much better so it's been a big project for us and and we're really really excited about it but then obviously as well as the app if anyone needs any inspiration to get going now we've obviously got the plant-based cookbook which came out last year which um has been so well reviewed and we're so so honored by that and it's got over 100 plant-based recipes with all our favorite tried and tested things from the deli pop-ups supper clubs everything we've done really in the last couple of years so if you're looking for any inspiration, maybe for Veganuary

or just for healthy eating in January and you want to get a little bit more fruit and veg in, then hopefully you'll love that. It's on Amazon, but then also in bookstores as well. And then I'm going to start work on our next book this year. So we've got a few planning sessions in the works over the next few weeks, our publishers, just brainstorming ideas, different things that we really, really want to do. And then we'll start to get to work on that. So hopefully that will come out maybe springtime 2020, which is super exciting. But if anyone has any thoughts or ideas or anything they are dying for us to do, then as always, please let us know. Ella at DeliciousCielo.com.

The second part of our company is our delis and our plans for 2019 is to keep it at one deli. We've had, as you know, we used to have three and we had plans to get to about 10. But as our food products, which the third part of our business really started to grow, we decided that we only just needed one as our brand home. And so we'll keep our one deli, we'll do lots of events and supper clubs and ways to bring people together there. We've got some really exciting stuff coming up beginning of the year. We've got some yoga supper clubs in January. We've got some kimchi and sauerkraut making workshops, which I'm particularly excited about. We've got a really, really exciting Indian supper club collaboration with one of my favourite chefs ever. And then we've got an really really exciting um indian supper club collaboration with one of my

favorite chefs ever and then we've also got this amazing pizza truck where we're going to do um pizza uh vegan pizza nights in the deli so definitely keep an eye out we'll put everything up on our social media but loads and loads of cool stuff coming up and then in our in our food products the the third part of our of our company we really excited to start selling in different parts of Europe, and we're talking to lots of different people on that at the moment. We've done a couple of trips to the U.S. where we've been looking at some opportunities there, so we're really, really excited to start to bring delicious yellow products

to people outside of the U.K., and we're launching our first treat line. So we're launching some really, really yummy. They've been definitely the most fun tasting and tasting sessions we've had where we're doing some of these almonds that have this really, really thin coating of yummy, yummy vegan chocolate and then a light dusting on the outside

that are absolutely out of this world. Oh my gosh, we're literally obsessed. There are raspberry ones, coffee ones, and then a light dusting on the outside that are absolutely out of this world. Oh my gosh, we're literally obsessed. There are raspberry ones, coffee ones and then chocolate ones. And they're like crunchy with that like rich chocolate on them. And I feel like they're going to be a big thing in our life. Yeah. So we're hoping those are going to launch February time. They sure are.

And then the other product we've just launched is Ella used to sit around every single, so on Sundays, I love to watch football and particularly if Arsenal were playing and Ella would sit there with a jar of some different type of nut butter. I'm a nut butter addict. She is definitely a nut butter addict, dipping our energy balls into nut butter. And we started thinking, you know, is there any way that we could actually get like a squirt or a squeeze of nut butter into our energy balls? And so we... Matt thought it would be a bit less messy than me just dipping things and getting my fingers absolutely coated in almond butter and then smearing them. And so we are doing energy balls version two, which is uh to take um some of our best and most popular recipes and um we found a way of getting this really really creamy delicious nut butter um into the

center of the energy balls and they are really really good and they've just come out um in uh boots and we've got um whole foods um they're about to launch on a cardo and honda barrett as well exactly and hopefully some more retailers uh coming as well and we are really really really excited about those so that we've got two different flavors of them there's the because obviously our cacao and almond energy balls like our original recipe even from the blog the app the book and our first ever product and you guys seem to love it it's our best seller so we've taken that but we've made it into two balls and then in the middle of that is like the creamiest creamiest almond butter so you open it up bite into it and it honestly looks like a kind of cream egg in the middle like a healthier cream egg which is so cool and then the other one's

obviously everyone loves hazelnut so we've done a hazelnut outside and then in the middle of that is a hazelnut butter with a bit of almond butter in it actually because we felt the hazelnut so we've done a hazelnut outside and then in the middle of that is a hazelnut butter with a bit of almond butter in it actually because we felt the hazelnut butter on its own was actually a tiny bit too strong and that one is insane it's like a kind of more Ferrero Rocher kind of situation um so please please let us know what you think yeah stop us from eating them all by buying some they are really yummy and then um our frozen range which we launched towards the end of last year we've got some new customers coming on for that and some new recipes that we're working on and so we're really really excited about uh expanding our distribution on that and getting it to more parts of the country yeah because the whole aim really with that was trying to make

you know obviously we're all about plant-based eating and trying to make it easy for people and we know that we don't always have time you know yeah i'm sure you don't we definitely don't and so we wanted to make it for you when you don't have time to make it and so we're going to be launching that actually in sainsbury's which is a huge huge thing for us really exciting to see something like that goes so much the mainstream so we've just been working with a cardo and whole foods up until now who've been amazing such supportive partners so it's an amazing step but we're also working on some sweet things as well for the summer which i think going to be the end again i think they've been the favorites tasting in the office yeah honestly like having to taste test all different types of sweets and treats and cakes for work is about as

good as it gets i think um so those are the plans at the moment for 2019 as always with us they seem to change every other day though we've also got a couple of other treats in the work um that we will be able to share hopefully in the next couple of episodes so yeah loads and loads and loads of stuff happening the HQ feels super super busy and buzzing which is awesome um but as always everything we do um is really guided by you guys so if there's anything we're not doing that you're desperate for us to do then please do let us know. I think we've already said it, but it's Ella at DeliciousCielo.com and Matthew at DeliciousCielo.com. And then just one final thing for the episode. We have our favorite person, our dog, Austin Mills, in the studio

with us today. He's actually fast asleep and just really passed out and looks like he's enjoying life a lot but we had him in um at the end of last season and um i did a video on instagram stories because he actually sings he's quite a talkative little dog um we taught him to sing and um lots of people said what i was expecting to hear that on the podcast and austin would like to make his debut he he would indeed austin come on oh so that was austin telling you that he loves you and that he is very excited. He is working on a lot of stuff with Matt at the moment. I find them in our basement at home, just sitting there on the computer together,

working hard on Austin's plans. Yeah, indeed. He's keeping me very, very busy. And he is very excited for 2019. And so otherwise, I hope that you guys really enjoy this season. We've got so much coming your way if you are enjoying it then please do rate it review it leave a comment it honestly makes the biggest difference to the ranking of the podcast which hopefully allows other people to find the podcast maybe hopefully love the podcast and spread the message of plant-based happiness

with the world so if you have two sex, we'd really appreciate that. Otherwise, have a lovely, lovely, lovely day, everyone. And thank you again for tuning back in. We can't wait to be back. And happy new year, everyone. Bye. You're a podcast listener, and this is a podcast ad heard only in Canada.

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