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Losing fat is about losing fat.  It's not about losing weight.  The whole process can be emotionally charged so let's make it easier for ourselves.  Hide the scales. When our clothes get tight, it’s because we've eaten more than we usually do, even though we've...

This, my lovely friends, is a dish which my colleague Emma knocks up regularly for her family as a lunch or a light supper.  I'm sharing it with you, given it's the festive season and you may be heartily sick of rich food.:) 2 red peppers, deseeded and thickly sliced...

The marvellous Joy Skipper has done it again.  A delicious (and slightly less calorific) version of this seasonal favourite. Thank you Joy ! 300g mincemeat (or you could make your own....if you had absolutely nothing else to do in the whole world) 25g dried cherries...

(Not my recipe you'll be relieved to hear). This gorgeous cake comes from the woman at the centre of all things home-grown and home-baked, Joy Skipper.  She has very kindly shared this recipe with us, so here it is: Vegan Christmas Cake Serves 12-16 slices I kg dried...

The pelvic floor muscle (PF) is a sling of muscle, like a hammock which goes from your pubic bone, under your bits and bobs, to the coccyx (tailbone). It is part of the ‘core’, and works with the deep abdominal muscles and the diaphragm to strengthen the spine and...

  Cholesterol.  Smacks of bad news, doesn’t it?  But actually cholesterol is pretty jolly vital. It’s made in the liver and forms part of the membrane of every single cell. It’s used to help us make vitamin D and hormones and we can’t do without it. It’s not...

I stole this recipe from Woman&Home magazine (November 2021) because it's so lush. Perfect for meat-free Mondays. Serves 6. 400g prepared butternut squash (actually you can get this in the freezer cabinet too) 3 garlic cloves skin on 2 tbsp olive oil 2 large...

You might be by the pool in a quarantine-free country, lapping up the cheap beers and endless sunshine so motivation for anything other than reading the next chapter of your book or choosing which bistro to visit is way down the list.  But September is here and that...

Thank you to Rukmini Iyer, author of "The Roasting Tin Around The World" for this recipes.  Makes a lovely lunch or light supper. Personally, I would reduce the honey and halve the oil, but then I'm no fun. Serves 3-4 3oog baby carrots whole 225g halloumi cut into 1/2...

Many of you followed me on Instagram during my recent  4 day trip walking The St Cuthbert's Way (100km in Border country up north) and it seems my enthusiasm for plodding along in the outdoors has is contagious.  You want to know more.  So here are my tips for a very...

I feel I’m in the perfect zone to write this, given not long ago, I returned from a very wet cycling trip.  Cold feet.  Cold hands.  Just cold.  I can barely dip a naked toe in the Mediterranean in mid-August, let alone submerge my whole body, yet my Facebook feed is...

The Yorkshire Dales Cycleway is an official circular cycle ride of 250km (extended version) or 210km if you want something shorter. In July 2021 me and my cycling buddy Fiona did the extended version, starting at Skipton and taking 4 days.  We arrived on Wednesday 21...

I’m going to shout this bit.  Protein is VITAL for our bodies, even more so as we get older and it’s not just about keeping fat levels down…(but yes, I’ll talk about that too). First we’re going to look at how it makes our bodies beautiful. Brace yourselves for some...

Pick it up.  Dust it off.  Give it mouth-to-mouth. (The libido, that is). I told some of my clients I was tackling this topic…  “Save us and our stuttering sex drive” they begged.  Busy family lives, work issues and fluctuations in how we feel about our partners can...

Never mind beach ready.  Let's get menopause ready !  Let’s look at some numbers. Between 2007 and 2017 the population of age 65+ increased almost 3% to 12 million people.  6 million of those are women. Life expectancy in the UK is 82.9 years for women (79.2 years for...