Two fine chaps aid my path to EV

                                                                            
I think Im getting restless and I certainly confess to a huge element of eco envy, having recently spent time with a couple of chaps who are passionate about their electric cars....and...wait for it.....can also charge them up from energy that has been harnessed by their solar panels.

Yes, no longer satisfied with reducing my rubbish and fighting the good fight to keep our energy usage down, my mind has been wandering in the direction of other ways in which we can reduce our carbon emissions.

And with petrol prices going up and strikes being threatened, I cant help but think about the future of my car.  And herein lies my quandary.

I have a six year old 1.4 VW, which only does 2,500 miles per year.  Its now costing me over £60 in petrol to fill up the tank and for that I get around 300 miles.  I am not a heavy user.  I try to restrict my journeys, walk when I have time and use my bike much more in the summer.  So this car of mine should last me for another ten years at least.  However, thats a decade of higher fuel costs and constant carbon emissions.

But the cost of switching now seems too much of a barrier, so it was interesting to have the opportunity to pick the brains of broadcaster Mark Goodier, who has been driving electric cars since 2003 when he first leased a Ford Think. I caught up with him at the British Gas stand at this years Ideal Home Show.

Marks own switch to EV was very much prompted by the congestion charge in London and leasing the Think meant that not only did he save on the urban driving charge, but also insurance and service costs went down. With no road tax to pay and running on electric power, annual motoring costs became much cheaper still.  

Mark now drives a Nissan Leaf and a year ago he also upgraded his home with Solar PV. Thanks to the feed-in tariff he can now effectively run his car from free energy sources. This is backed up by his subscription to British Gas green Energyshare tariff, which uses alternative energy, so either way he ensures his car runs 100% free of emissions.

I have to confess, he was doing a really good job of convincing me and we soon started to estimate projected savings if I made the switch.

Without exact data its tricky but even with estimated petrol costs at £2,500 per year, Mark calculated that the equivalent cost in terms of electricity would be around £500.  So over just five years, that could mean a saving of £10,000 alone. Extrapolate that to 10 years and were looking at £20,000.

Now, I am starting to get excited.  Throw in free Road Tax, cheaper insurance and service costs and we could notch that figure up by a couple of thousand pounds.  Suddenly, it does make the switch to an EV more attractive.

And then theres the thought of never having to visit a petrol station ever again.

Now thats heaven!

Seriously, if I had the cash, Id be going on a test-drive and would be choosing the right car for me right now!

But I dont have that money and realistically Ive got more pressing issues on the domestic front, such as how we can turn our 3 bedroom semi into a TARDIS to accommodate our everyday living requirements.  Thats where we need to spend our cash for the foreseeable future.

However, I am not going to take my sights of making the switch and if I am honest, its trading in my husbands car that would bring us most benefits, both financially and from a carbon saving perspective. Swiftly approaching 100,000 miles on the clock, in a car that is also just six years old, it illustrates how his mileage easily exceeds mine.

So I reckon well sit tight for a couple of years whilst the next phase of the market settles and wait for the right car to come along.  Mark Goodier predicts that we will see more accessible options by 2013/14, which really isnt that far away.  

By then, he also forecasts that we will see faster charging points that achieve full charge within just 25 minutes.  Private charging points, such as those provided by British Gas, will be bolstered by a wider network of public charging facilities, including supermarkets and motorway stations.  Chains such as Little Chef are already committing to installing facilities for its customers.

We will also see inductive chargers being installed in parking bays, which will make charging electric vehicles even more streamlined.  And as for the cars themselves, he suggests that as well as prices moving in line with petrol vehicles, there will be options that will enable the customer to purchase the car but lease the battery.  Meanwhile he predicts that petrol models will become more efficient too.

It really feels that the electric vehicle market is starting to pick up pace, and for the first time I am beginning to feel that the next time we trade in one of our cars, we will be looking at an electric alternative. The only thing that isnt clear is which car that will be or whether by then, we will have become a one-car family.

So, can you see why Im getting restless?

Having had the chance to talk to Mark Goodier, I am now convinced that EV is the way to go. But the observant ones among you will have spotted my mention of two chaps. Yes, its true, I also had the delightful opportunity of finding out more about the actorpresenter Robert Llewellyns experiences too, another strong advocate who I met at a campaign launch party.

But dont take my word for it. If, like me, you are keen to find out more, check out the video below, which is the first in the Fully Charged series that he has recorded as for British Gas.

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Blogger disclaimer: This is not part of the sponsored post series that I have written for British Gas. However a complimentary ticket was included to gain acess to the Ideal Home Show. 

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I found it! It only took two years but I found it!

Vegeta, that is. 

The seemingly elusive special ingredient that seems to be a staple in 90% of the recipes in the Bernstein recipe book.

I couldnt find it for the life of me over the past two years here in the National Capital Region.  Ive scoured every grocery store and specialty store trying to find the stuff.

Finally, whilst on my latest work travel jaunt to London, I found the creature.

As I picked up some staples for my hotel room, I found it tucked in the soup section.  Eureka!

I made my first vegetable soup with it from "the book" and it was good.  Of course, its a sodium salt lick, but Ive made a few of the soups in the book, and they are just too bland for words.  Stripping them recipe of Vegeta makes the Cheddar Cauliflower soup pretty gross.

Vegeta has saved the day - though will retain the water.

Ive used it in the big pot of homemade chicken soup though that Ive made for the family.  The kids are raving about the soup, so thats comforting.

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Two Down Paleo Wrap Up

I have been remiss in my blogging due to a couple of nutty weeks at school, but I am here to try to remedy that. I finished Paleo two days ago and have already moved on to my (mostly) Raw Vegan diet.

While there were several aspects of Paleo I enjoyed, there were also some major issues I had with the diet that made it problematic. As I did with Atkins, I provide you with my Pros and Cons list of Paleo:

Pros                                                                         Cons

Emphasis on Fresh Foods                                         Restrictive

No "Counting"                                                          Unclear Rules

Athlete Friendly                                                         Lack of Satiety

(Lots of cooking)                                                       (Weight Loss)


The absolute best and greatest redeeming quality to Paleo, in my opinion, is its emphasis on eating high quantities of fresh, clean foods, especially vegetables. Any diet which pushes foods that are natural, unprocessed, and healthy earns major points in my book. Likewise, one can eat as many of these clean foods as they want; there is very little counting or calorie tracking on Paleo.

Personally, I enjoyed how often I had to cook on Paleo, but then again, I like to cook. On my busiest days, when time is an issue, the amount of time I spent in the kitchen was a bit frustrating, but well worth it. Being fully in control of the foods going into my body, knowing the ingredients and in what quantities, gave me a full knowledge of just how many great vitamins and minerals I was getting to consume. For someone with not a lot of time to spend preparing food, Paleo could be tough, it requires dedication.

For the athlete in me, Paleo left me with plenty of energy for exercise and long workouts were no longer a problem, except that they made me all the more hungry. Unfortunately, in my case, I was hungry all the time on Paleo. As I may have mentioned before, this is something that may be entirely my fault, as I do not eat ninety percent of the proteins that are the very cornerstone of Paleo. My mom, full meat eater that she is, said she had no problems with hunger; Paleo left her feeling fully satisfied (in the hunger sense).

Now when it comes to satisfying cravings, Paleo fails rather miserably. Both my mom and I have a pretty big sweet tooth, and about the sweetest food you can eat on Paleo is a berry. This leads to binges and so-called "cheating." Now, Paleo allows for a 85-15 split on Paleo vs. non-Paleo eating. Basically, it tells you to cheat within reason. Unfortunately, this can, at times, lead to the individual consumption of and entire mini-bundt cake or a full Dennys pancake breakfast. (those may or may not have been me)

My mom also struggled a bit with the clarity of the Paleo rules, trying to decide whether or not a particular food is sufficiently processed, to be considered "processed," was a tough issue for her. Unlike Raw Vegan, there are no clear cut rules for determining the proper degree of naturalness necessary from a food. Now, in her case, my mom stated she did lose weight on Paleo, on the order of a couple pounds per week. I, on the other hand, gained weight on Paleo.

However, despite the fact that I gained weight on Paleo, I did not gain dimension, which indicates to me that I may have converted some of my fat to muscle mass, thereby increasing my weight without increasing my size. The emphasis of Paleo on quality sources of protein and on mineral and vitamin rich foods most likely allowed for this conversion. I am certainly not going to complain about some numbers on a scale if my pants still fit.

In the end, Id say I like Paleo as a diet principle, with its clean eating and higher protein intake, but in practice, it comes with several strong issues. Paleo may yet earn a lasting place in the lifestyle diet field, but I do not think it has anything particularly unique or special to offer to the individual that another diet couldnt provide equally well. If Paleo appeals to you, and you think it might work with your lifestyle, by all means, give it a try. From a nutritional and personal standpoint I can say that Paleo certainly does more good than harm and is far healthier than many diets out there.

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Dont let food waste be next years shock headline my two penneth

Well Happy New Year everyone.  I can see its kicked off in fine style!

Having just got used to my back-to-school routine and having my first day at the laptop, this morning I found my Twitter stream awash with the topic of food waste and the medias shock that statistics published by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers reveal that 30%-50% of the worlds food never gets eaten.

These are huge figures to contemplate, whichever way you look at it, with growers, manufacturers, retailers and consumers all playing a key part or being affected.

But this isnt the first time that the headlines have been full to the brim with the horror of food waste.  Heres a random sample, taking us back to 2007, when I first became aware of the issue.

2012 - Unilever calls on companies to tackle food waste mountain

2011 - UK families are wasting less food but are told to do more

2010 - UK Restaurants waste 600,000 tons of food a year

2009 - Elimination of food waste could lift 1billion out of hunger, say campaigners

2008 - Brown urges Britons to cut food waste

2007 - Call to use leftovers and food waste

Despite making inroads into the waste mountain, I am very much concerned that each spell of outrage even when followed by best intentions, dwindles back towards stunted action, as we move on - for whatever reason - to other competing issues in our lives and organisations.

However, with austerity biting at politics, retailers as well as the householder, 2013 could very well be the year that we look back on as being a watershed period in all our efforts to tackle this huge issue.  There is certainly enough expertise around us to help, with WRAP offering a bank of resources for the hospitality and retail sectors as well as its Love Food Hate Waste website for consumers.  And saving money is a bloody good carrot to wave in front of our noses.

But even so, it can be very easy to slip into old routines when hit by everyday pressures, and that, especially for the householder, is one of the greatest problems in tackling food waste.

If that sounds like you, there are simple steps to help you grab the problem by the balls, and which will help to ensure that youre not contributing to next years food waste horror story.


1. Make yourself accountable.   Tell your family, friends, Facebook pals, Tweeters or blog readers that you are determined to tackle food waste.  If you think itll help to keep you motivated, get them to sponsor you for a good cause.

2. Set a deadline to help give you a focus.   For example, trying to reduce it over the next couple of months.  It takes a while for new habits to form, so commit to going the distance rather than the novelty of a short sprint.

3. Start a food waste diary, to identify what type of food goes to waste and why.  This will help uncover regular waste habits.  And remember, throwing that mouldy fruit into the compost bin is still a waste, even if you think youre going to get some free compost out of it.

4. Use a separate bin to monitor your food waste.   Then rejoice when you see it reduce.

5. Stop buying things that you regularly throw away.  If you reduce the problem at source, youll have pounds in your pocket and less food in the landfill heap.  Check out my ornamental melons story as a very good example.  If you have regular leftovers when buying takeaways, just buy less next time.

6. Freeze it!  Food labels now advise that you can freeze certain products up until the use-by date.

7. Visiting www.lovefoodhatewaste.com is a must!  Youll get top advice on portions, recipes for leftovers and food storage.


Of course, if youve got fire in your belly and want to do more to either understand or tackle the wider issues of food waste, there are various avenues available, including

• Join food waste campaigner Tristram Stuart and his Feeding the 5000 campaign to help bring an end to food waste in the retail and supply chain.

• Follow Kerry McCarthy MP and her work commitment to drive change through parliament.  See last years blogpost about her Food Waste Bill.  And of course, you can always lobby your local MP to get behind the issue.

• Contribute to the WI Great Food Debate, the NFWIs series of debates about Food Security, which reaches at the very heart of the organisation.

And last but not least, if you live in Wiltshire, Shropshire or Suffolk and want to get involved in slimming your waste-line either on your own or as part of a community project, keep your eyes peeled for some fantastic Rubbish Diet initiatives coming up.

For instance Wiltshire Wildlife Trust is kicking off the new year with a county-wide Rubbish Diet, which will mentor householders through slimming their bins over a period of 8 weeks. If we get through to the next round of the Nesta Waste Reduction Challenge competition, Rubbish Diet Shropshire will be hot on their heels in the springtime, with a choir, school and football club all joining in with the bin slimming antics.  And in Suffolk, my own neck of the woods, therell be a lot of fun and games involving local well-known personalities who will be leading the way too.   Tackling waste will be a key topic for each of these projects.

Even if youre not a resident of any of these counties, hopefully youll be inspired to take action from a distance and come together in National Zero Waste Week, which will be held in September, where therell be another chance to work together to focus on reducing the amount of food waste, and other superfluous stuff that ends up in our bins.

Hopefully, this should all make for a great 2013, especially if we can pull together to ensure there are no shock food waste headlines this time next year.

And on that note... Im off to have another word with my 8 year old, whos busy listening to BBC Newsround about this very topic.  Time to remind him about his bad habit of abandoning bread crusts!

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Day Two and counting

So, it was really difficult to get back on the diet bandwagon yesterday.  When youve let yourself slip to grab some popcorn here, and starches and carbs there; a few sweets thrown in for good measure, it requires a real kick in the ass to resurrect some self discipline.

However, its back baby!

And while I cant say its back with a vengeance, me sitting here in my size 10 jeans with a muffin top hanging over the edge is motivation enough to say, "Bring on the veggies and egg whites!"

So, I was dutiful today and have stayed within the Bernstein proteins, 16 oz veggies, 2 melba toasts, an apple and 1 Jello cup, with lots of water and decaf coffee, which is making my heart happy.

Yup, Im actually feeling a bit of the hung pang starting to develop (so I know Im in the right zone.)

Ive pulled out the Daily Multi vitamin; picked up some Vit B complex pills at the pharmacy; taking a few Senokot S with my meals (wow - was that a shock when that kicked in at lunch again... I had forgotten about the power of those little orange pills) and staying away from the bad food cravings.

Heres to my willpower.  Im sure if I pull out the old pee sticks and jar tomorrow morning, Ill be back on the right track if I see ketosis in full bloom.

Heres to the pee-stick!

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