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Friday 25 November 2011

The London Meditation Project


Yesterday I spent a lovely, peaceful day with the London Meditation Project.  The Project offers Servicemen and Veterans the opportunity to participate in meditation as a possible means of dealing with their stress or with coming to terms with experiences encountered whilst serving their country during periods of conflict.
I can understand many peoples skepticism about meditation, but I see it as one of those things that has no downside; the only things that can come from meditating are positive.  In the hustle and bustle of the modern, electronic gadget, now-now-now World we currently live in, just to stop for 10 minutes, to sit in silence and look inside yourself, to concentrate on your breathing and calm your mind has to be beneficial to both the body and mind.  I certainly found it so.
You do not have to go to London to experience meditation, it doesn’t take much searching to find somewhere closer to home.  So of you are one of those skeptics who have never actually tried meditation, why not give it a go and find out for yourself - you might just enjoy it and gain from the experience.
You can find out more about the London Meditation Project by clicking here.

Friday 11 November 2011

Calories out equals calories in.

Yesterday I spent the day punching, elbowing, kneeing, kicking and wrestling a variety of people, pads and equipment in order to qualify as a Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) training instructor and I reckon I must have burnt around a million calories in the process.  Well maybe that is an exaggeration, but it certainly felt that way.  I awoke this morning with most of my muscles aching (in a good and satisfying way) and my body knowing it had gone through a comprehensive workout, but yearning for an input of energy.  (If you have never attended a boxercise or MMA  workout class, please do - it’s a really fun way to keep fit and you would be amazed at how much energy you can burn.)
Chopping Dill
So today, not wishing to upset Newton’s third law (The mutual forces of action and reaction between two bodies are equal, opposite and collinear), I had to put back all those calories that I had burnt up and as luck would have it, today was the day planned to cash in a gift certificate received on my 50th for a day’s fish cookery course..........
Oysters




Dough balls ready to bake.
Banoffi Pie


Squid
But not just a wide variety of fish, the day also included preparing and cooking 3 types of bread, pizza, shell-fish, squid and individual banoffi pies!  Everything we cooked we ate, accompanied by wine and conversation; calories out = calories in. 
Mussels and Scallops
 It was another really enjoyable day and another recommendation from me to you - if you fancy it click here to find out more:  The Cooking Experience Ltd.
Master chef making Hollandaise Sauce



Monday 7 November 2011