This Content Creator Went from Sad Salads to Nutrient-Dense Whole Foods and Intuitive Eating

Ella Henry, creator of Glow with Ella, broke up with health as an obsession. Gone are the days of restrictive eating and fear-led dieting. After some trial and error in her wellness journey, Henry has adopted a healthier lifestyle, prioritizing whole foods, seasonal eating, farmer’s market hauls, and home-cooked meals. Henry has mastered the art of intuitive eating, and she recently sat down with Elizabeth Endres, host of The Wellness Process, to discuss how to build a better relationship with your own body.

Famous for her Instagrammable matcha lattes, Henry had a radical transformation with food. From a gluten-free, dairy-free, and sugar-free diet to now eating carbs, cheeses, meats, and a wide variety of foods, Henry is living proof that it is possible to heal your gut while building better habits around food. 

Shifting from fear-based eating to intuitive eating

Henry recalls experiencing digestive issues that began in high school, when everything she ate caused her stomach pain. “I got to the point that I went to so many doctors that I accepted that I was just going to live like this,” she explains. “Doctors told me to stop eating gluten and dairy and to go plant-based—but they created this loop in my mind that I should be afraid of all these things.”

Because of the doctors’ advice, Henry cut out gluten, dairy, and meat for more than seven years. “I stopped trusting my body, and I started acting out of fear,” she says. “I basically cut out everything.”

After years of digestive issues and restrictive eating, Henry was finally fed up and dove into her own research into holistic health and found a naturopathic doctor. “A big thing I learned is that these symptoms are my body trying to communicate with me,” she reveals. “It’s not my body fighting against me; it’s actually a good thing because it means my body is working and communicating with me.”

Building a better relationship with your body 

Henry believes there is a connection between stress, emotions, and obsessive personalities with gut issues. From a young age, Henry shares that she held a lot of her emotions close to her chest. “I really do believe the more emotions you hold in over time, the more they manifest as physical symptoms,” she says.

Since working with a naturopathic doctor, Henry has learned, as she says, that “health is no longer health if it’s become an obsession.” Now, instead of obsessive health habits, Henry has learned to go with the flow. She says stripping back to the basics of whole foods is crucial to building a better relationship with your body.

The biggest change Henry has ever made when it comes to food is making choices from a place of nourishment and abundance versus making choices out of restriction and scarcity. “I was cutting things out of fear and restricting versus cutting things out for nourishing my body,” she says. 

When it comes to building a better relationship with your body, Henry says cutting the negative self-talk and practicing gratitude are pivotal. “I’ve learned to show my body gratitude; once you start incorporating those little touchpoints of gratitude throughout the day, you want to nourish your body out of love,” she says. “You don’t want it to feel fear and stress, but instead, you want a positive mindset behind it.”

The ingredients of a satiating, healthy bowl

Besides her homemade matcha recipes, Henry is known for her satiating bowls. It’s not just a regular, sad salad bowl; instead, she encourages her followers to incorporate carbs, dairy, and protein. Add a little potato, rice, and sourdough bread because, according to Henry, it’s all about enjoying a wholesome meal. 

The components of Henry’s bowls are: 

• Protein: Salmon, ground beef, turkey, or steak
• Grains: Quinoa, buckwheat, or bone broth rice 
• Seasonal veggies: Any vegetable that is in season and available at the local farmer’s market; Henry makes them into a side salad, roasts them, or makes a stir fry
• Pickled veggies: Beets, sauerkraut, or onions 
• Toppings: Olive oil, vinegar, salt, or coconut aminos

If you ever feel like your bowl is lacking flavor, Henry suggests adding fresh herbs, fresh spices, lemon and vinegar, or just salt and pepper.

Simple practices to support everyday health

From matcha routines to seasonal eating to meal short cuts, Henry has ample advice for building a better relationship with yourself. Just check out her Instagram. Although she never imagined she’d become a full-time content creator, she started posting videos to help answer friends’ questions about health. “I honestly started it for my friends because they would ask for recipes and tips, and I think a lot of people related to what I was going through,” she recalls. “It created this beautiful community.”

One of Henry’s hacks is meal shortcuts—her solution to rigidity with health. So if she wants pasta with butter and parmesan one day or a grilled steak and veggie bowl the next day, that’s what she’ll make. “For me, full-on meal prepping doesn’t work,” she says. “I live to move intuitively and listen to my cravings.”

Meal shortcuts require you to mix and match different components ahead of time, allowing you to build the meal you’re craving later. For example, Henry might pickle onions or beets or pre-chop vegetables and freeze them. Other meal shortcuts include making bread and freezing it, preparing dressing, sauces, and dips, pre-juicing smoothies, and freezing cubes. 

“When you come to make a meal, it’s just shortcutted,” she explains. “You can make it a lot easier; everything is prepped for you and ready, and you can build the meal you want.”

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