Unusual home working jobs – nutritional therapist

Running a nutrition consultancy from home may not be that unusual, but Clare Millar’s angle on it certainly is!

Here she explains how her love of the 1940s led to Eat for Victory:

Hi Clare, tell us about Eat For Victory.
Eat for Victory is a nutrition consultancy run by myself, a vintage loving Nutritional Therapist with a penchant for the 1940’s era. It’s about inspiring people to cook, shop and eat more healthily and sustainably using some of the diet and lifestyle approaches of the 1940’s.

Where does your fascination with the 1940’s stem from?
I’ve always been a bit different in terms of fashion and values and love anything old and original that has a story to tell. When I graduated with a diploma in Nutritional Therapy three years ago, I decided that it was the perfect opportunity to create my dream job.

It was clearly going to involve sharing my passion for healthy food, as well as the opportunity to wear one of my many vintage outfits. Well what’s the point in having a wardrobe of 1940’s clothes, if all they do is gather dust?!

How is the 1940’s relevant to our lives now?
I believe the solutions for today’s diet and lifestyle problems lie not so much in forward thinking but in looking back at what has gone before us, during a time of austerity, when when we were known to have been at our healthiest.

I am interested in this period because I believe many of the problems we encounter today can be solved with a bit of old fashioned ‘make do and mend’. I saw the need for simple, accessible, practical, information about diet and lifestyle, not to mention the need for fun in the kitchen!

We as a nation are lost when it comes to what to eat now. We believe everything we are told by newspapers, the TV, food packaging and advertisements and we’re baffled when it comes to accessing our inherent skills.

Many people have lost access to the kind of information that was traditionally passed down through generations; good, simple, accessible, wholesome cooking skills. The wartime diet and lifestyle approaches can help to combat some of the modern dilemmas I frequently hear of, such as “I don’t have time to cook” and “I can’t afford to eat healthily”.

They also provide a set of comprehensive guidelines to live a happy, healthy, sustainable life by. I think there is nothing more relevant or useful now than this kind of old fashioned wisdom.

I hear you tried out a month on rations, tell us more about that.
A year ago, with the aim of practicing what I preach as a nutritional therapist, I spent one month ‘living on rations’. I based my eating around the foods that were rationed during WW2. I ate only local, seasonal, organic produce and I didn’t set foot in a supermarket once. I used absolutely every part of my food, be it vegetable or animal.

I restricted my luxury goods such as chocolate, coffee and wine, by giving myself what I called ‘a black market spend’ of £5 per week. I made use of my leftovers and didn’t buy more of anything, until I had used it all.

My expenditure on food cost me £5.04 per day in total, for all 3 meals, all of which were organic. It was an invaluable experience and really inspired me to be more mindful and considered about what I eat, throw away and spend.

What format does your work take?
I deliver workshops for businesses on how to overcome some nutrition challenges we face today, such as time and budget constraints. I’ve worked with university students and care homes, and I also deliver talks and lectures. I have appeared on the Radio 4 Food Programme (August 2014) and write articles for blogs, newsletters and magazines.

What’s your home working routine?
Personally I find it easier to work to a routine when I have deadlines such as workshops to create or articles to submit. It can be a challenge but I try to structure my day as much like a standard employed one as possible, otherwise I end up procrastinating and doing lots of laundry!

Learn more about Clare on her website Eat For Victory, where you can access her ration blog, hear her interview on Radio 4 and sign up to her newsletter.