Some time at the end of 2018, I ate my last piece of bacon. Never again in my life would a piece of delicious fried flesh pass between my lips...and do I have any regrets? Only that I didn't do it sooner. Vegetarianism came to me quite late (I was 28 when I finally made…
Continue reading ➞ Fine, eat animals if you must but don’t support factory farming
If you were ever a Mighty Boosh fan you'll have the soup song in your head now like I've had FOREVER. You're welcome. Cooking was never my strong point. At uni my speciality was rice, cheese and ketchup in a tortilla wrap, microwaved. I think my lowest point was when, feeling simultaneously lazy, poor and…
Continue reading ➞ Soup, soup, tasty soup, soup…pepper and sweet potato
My day started strangely. I was nearly home from my morning walk, about to head across the open expanse of the South Downs golf course, when a jogger crested the hill and came running straight at me, waving her arms in a panicked fashion. I stopped in my tracks and removed my earbuds, wondering if…
Continue reading ➞ Walk, work, juice cleanse day 4, and a man with a rifle
Deny thy carbohydrate and refuse thy gluten contentOr if thou wilt not, be but sworn my loveAnd I’ll no longer be on the keto diet. As I enter week 3 of my vegetarian ketogenic 'journey' (as everyone seems to be calling it, rather than 'diet', because it's supposed to be a long-term lifestyle change rather…
Continue reading ➞ O pasta, pasta, where for art thou pasta?
I have no idea if I've learnt 11 things. This is a very specific number of learnings but it's what I typed, so let's go... 1. My happiness depends almost entirely on food (immediate access to, or the impending approach of). I really like food. Now that I can't eat very much of it, I've…
Continue reading ➞ 11 things I’ve learnt one week into the Fast 800 Diet
Lent is a test of willpower. Every year, like many people around the world, I renounce things I like for 6 weeks - not because I'm a Catholic (although this is what the official papers say I am) but because I feel like if I don't follow Lent, something bad will happen. In other words,…
Continue reading ➞ I’m trying Michael Mosley’s fast 800 diet for Lent
I recently got back from a brilliant week's holiday in Massachusetts. My friend had her wedding just outside a little town called Groton by a big, quiet lake surrounded by forest. It was beautiful, all of it. The wedding, the lake, the white wood-clad New England houses with their dolls-house dormer windows and immaculately striped…
Continue reading ➞ Supermarkets: the beating heart of America
I've got a little while before I start work so, seeing as I just paid to renew my blog domain name, I thought I'd whack out a short post. I have now been sugar-free for three weeks and three days. Let me just remind you that this includes banning the following: actual sugar the usual suspects…
I'm taking a quick break from novel writing (it's going terribly, by the way) to update you on this year's sugar-free Lent challenge. I'm 1.5 weeks in and I've hit a plateau. This week was my 'time of month' (I don't know why we call it this. It sounds like it should be the highlight of the…
I've made it a week without any sugar! I literally had children waving bananas and fistfuls of Jelly Babies in my face on Sunday during the Eastbourne Half Marathon and still I remained true to my promise to shun all sugar for Lent. In all honesty I probably should have just had a Jelly Baby…
