Category: how to

Victoria Banana-Sponge with Choco-nana Ermine Icing

During this period of Lockdown, there has been a huge uptick in BBB, or “banana based baking”. Apparently banana bread has been the most searched for recipe on the BBC Food website – we’ve certainly been shoving ‘nana loaf down our throats at an alarming rate.

Yesterday we were donated 25 squidgy nearly-gone-off bananas. After an inevitable, huge banana smoothie, I was still left with fifteen waiting for me this morning. So I decided to invent a new type of Victoria sponge, entirely using bananas instead of butter. That’s right, totally dairy free!

Half Marathon Chris

I’ve been steadily getting more interested in fitness, running, and healthy living. Over the last couple of years, I’ve lost a decent chunk of weight, and started running and cycling a lot more. I still sweat like a geriatric horse, unfortunately.

In the last 18 months I’ve completed my first Triathlon, my first 10K road race, and this weekend, my first Half Marathon…

A trip to the Postbox: an All Outta Bubblegum experience…

I’ve recently become interested in RPG games. This is a genre of gaming where you use your imagination to build a world, generally with some rules to help provide a framework to make this easier.

Given my relative inexperience, I’ve asked my friends Alan and Ace to play a game of “All Outta Bubblegum” with me via email. Its a particularly silly game, designed for a short play through with ridiculous effects. The rules, such as they are, are below:

Drunks and Dragons: A prediction

Since Autumn, I have listened to 67 episodes of the Drunks and Dragons podcast. I’ve never really had any experience with Dungeons and Dragons, and found myself listening to this rather silly and pretty enjoyable podcast on the topic.

Given that I’ve now racked up around 94 hours of listening – nearly 4 full days of my life – I’ve become pretty attached to the characters, and their stories. There are currently about 150 episodes recorded, so I’m nearly halfway through. I thought it would be fun to make a few guesses about what happens in the next 70 chapters…

What next? How we save the NHS.

The Government, and Jeremy Hunt, have imposed the new Junior Doctor contract.

In so doing, they continue to demonstrate their terrifying lack of respect for the commitment and intelligence of the 53,000 junior doctors who work for the NHS, not to mention the 377,000 nurses, 97,000 senior doctors and 74% of of the general public who seem to understand that if we lose significant numbers of juniors, the whole system will collapse…

So, what’s next? I’m not in charge of the BMA, but here’s my proposal…

Six kilos in six weeks: The end

Read the first post in this series here – Six kilos in six weeks: finishing what I started. Just a warning, I’m going to be talking about weight loss, dieting and body image. If you struggle with your relationship with food, or have any self image difficulties, you may find it hard to read. And the grand result is…

I lost 4.1kg. I feel pretty good about myself. This whole series was never really about weight loss “numbers”; it was about getting healthier. My achievements include: Losing lots of body fat, especially unhealthy central abdominal fat. Building up to managing at least 5 hours of cardio exercise each week and two days with strength training  (The government recommends a minimum of 2.5 hours + two days with muscle strength training) Beating my personal bests at running 5k, 10k, and cycling the 25 miles to work. Not eating chocolate for periods upto 3 or 4 days at a time, it was hard but with the help of appetite suppressants. Isn’t the maths wrong?

Lots of people enjoy getting their knickers in a twist about calories. Google “calorie myth”, and find a million different websites arguing about the idea that calorie deficit is the most important part of weight loss along the use of supplements like leptitox, gluconite can also be a great fit for you, buy take a look at the gluconite reviews before you buy,