One of the positive things to come out of us all being at home more this year, is that we’ve had more time to spend on things like cooking. That said, and now that we’re in winter, we could all do with more inspiration when it comes to healthy recipes. Enter Healthy Luxe.
Founded in 2014 by mother-daughter duo, Jennifer Murrant and Hannah Singleton, the platform was born out of a shared passion for health, food and travel. During this time, Healthy Luxe has gained a large and loyal following and have been awarded a badge for the top 50 influencers in Australia.
We caught up with Hannah Singleton about everything from how Healthy Luxe got started, what winter recipes we need to be trying out and what she loves about Boody.
Tell us how Healthy Luxe came to be.
Healthy Luxe (as it is now) kind of started by accident. I (Hannah) created the Instagram page and a website in 2014 as an outlet to share my mum's recipes and some nutrition information/articles that she was often sending personally to her clients. I saw this as a good opportunity to share the content online so it could be more widely available, as well as an opportunity for me to put into practice the web/digital marketing skills I was learning in my Media and Communications degree.
As we started to attract more of a following, we became more prolific with content creation and began to think more seriously about whether we could turn this shared passion into a career. Over the years we have worked as ambassadors for leading brands in the health and wellness space and we have also developed a recipe app, published eBooks and are currently working on an online course.
As a mother-daughter company, how do both your backgrounds and expertise come together to benefit Healthy Luxe?
Jen, my mum, has worked as a naturopath and nutritionist for over 20 years. She also more recently completed her masters in coaching psychology. My background is in media, specialising in social media and digital marketing. I have also trained as a photographer which organically evolved to specialise in food photography.
Healthy Luxe allows us to combine our diverse skill sets and has made it possible for my mum’s immense nutritional knowledge and delicious recipes to reach a huge audience through the power of social media.
Your website is filled to the brim with mouth-watering recipes. What are some of your favourites?
For breakfast, our favourite recipe is our signature Peanut Butter Açai Bowl. It’s loaded with antioxidants and contains good fats to keep you feeling satisfied throughout the morning. In terms of savoury recipes, a few go-tos are our Vegan Mac N Cheese, Grilled Peanut Butter Eggplant and Creamy Pumpkin Soup. We now have over 400 recipes on our app so it’s difficult to choose just one!
Now winter has arrived, what recipes would you recommend to staying both warm and healthy during the colder months?
We love making big batches of soup in winter to make sure we have a nourishing and warming meal on hand. Soups are also a great way to ensure you reach your daily veg quota. Some of our favourites aside from the pumpkin soup already mentioned, are our Carrot and Sweet Corn Soup as well as our Red Spice Soup. There are a few recipes on our website or you can see the full selection on our app, Healthy Luxe.
Outside of a healthy diet, what are your top tips to living a healthy lifestyle?
Number one is making sure you drink enough water. It’s absolutely essential to our wellbeing yet we are so often dehydrated. To make it a little easier to reach your daily recommended water intake we recommend adding natural flavours like mint, lime, lemon or berries. Other essentials for us to live a healthy lifestyle include daily movement, meditation or some form of self care and laughter.
We hear you're big fans of Boody. What is it you love about our comfy everyday essentials?
We love how Boody clothes look and feel (they are seriously comfortable!). Aside from that we love that the Boody range is entirely eco-friendly. It is so encouraging to see brands making positive changes and hopefully carving the way to more sustainable production across all industries.
What are your top picks from our range and why?
I’m obsessed with my Boody Downtime Lounge Pants. I’m worried I may never wear anything else! I also have my eyes on the Chunky Bed Socks to get me through winter. My mum is loving the Full Length Active Tights for walks and wearing around the house.
Here at Boody, living a sustainable life is extremely important to us. In what ways do you try to live an eco-friendly lifestyle?
We try hard to minimise our impact on the environment by avoiding single use plastic, using KeepCups (well, back when that was legal) and eating organic and locally-sourced produce as much as we can. Reducing food waste is another big one for us which we do by shopping at bulk food stores that allow you to buy the ingredients you want in the quantities you need. This also reduces plastic.
What impact has COVID-19 had on Healthy Luxe? Have you had to change any of the ways you do business?
We have been quite fortunate – being an online business we are amongst the lucky few who have been able to carry on almost as normal. We have actually seen an increase in the number of people downloading and subscribing to our app as people have more time to cook and try out bookmarked recipes. The biggest shift has been for my mum who is now doing all nutrition consultations online.
What's next on the horizon for Healthy Luxe?
The next big project for us is an online wellness course. We have been working on this for the past few months and are getting close to launch! It is a comprehensive course encompassing physical and emotional wellbeing – the intention is to provide knowledge and support to those wanting to take charge of their heath.
