Following on from my last post about that BBC programme which looked at new scientific findings about weight loss, I noticed tonight that Marks & Spencer is advertising a new range of “Simply Fuller Longer” meals. They contain high protein – one of the key points made by the BBC programme.
Exclusive to M&S, the range was launched in January 2010. The range was developed with expert advice from scientists at the Rowett Institute of Nutrition and Health at the University of Aberdeen. The Rowett Institute is renowned for its ground-breaking research on effective weight-loss and their work has shown that diets higher in protein result in more effective weight loss as part of a calorie controlled diet.
It’s interesting how these things work, and how people think. Only the night before I watched one of those UKTV Food programmes – Monster Munchies – which is hosted by Matt Dawson (a former rugby player). On this show, they have two teams competing to make giant versions of common well-known dishes or snacks. Usually, the finished articles are disgusting because you’ve seen how much they’ve messed around with them to get them to work.
On the programme I saw, the challenge was to make a giant Scotch Egg. Matt Dawson repeatedly turned his nose up at the idea of eating a Scotch Egg – he didn’t go into detail, but I think the point was that eggs and sausage meat are unhealthy (in his opinion), hence his dislike of the things.
If the evidence about protein is correct – and there’s no reason to doubt it – the occasional Scotch Egg (and the protein it contains) isn’t so bad after all. Particularly if you make it yourself and eat it as part of a calorie-controlled diet.
As I said in that last post, ADIs are often quite sedentary and managing their health and weight is something they need to be in control of.
The programme starts by explaining that visceral fat – fat which fills body cavities and surrounds organs – is the most dangerous kind, and can lead to various health problems including cancer and Type 2 Diabetes. It is this fat which gives people enhanced waistlines even if they aren’t overtly fat, but it is also the first fat to be burnt when a person starts dieting/exercising.
Just stopping eating – as in the classic diet – is no good. You’ve got to consider other things, too.
The 10 things were as follows (all backed up with current scientific evidence):
Don’t skip breakfast/meals – if you do, your brain makes you crave high-calorie foods to compensate.
Use smaller plates – if you change your plate size from 12″ to 10″ and you could eat up to 22% less food.
Calories matter – for example, a chicken dinner with potatoes and vegetables is quite possibly more than you can eat, but a fruit smoothie containing the same number of calories can be knocked back in seconds.
Don’t blame your metabolism – you’re just eating more calories than you are burning.
Protein makes you feel fuller for longer.
The exact same meal served as a soup instead of separate items with a glass of water keeps your stomach full for longer.
The wider the choice, the more you will eat.
Dairy calcium causes you to excrete more fat – twice as much as the non-dairy equivalent diet.
Moderate exercise carries on burning fat for up to 24 hours after you do it. The actual excercise burns very little, but the main effect occurs after you stop.
Even small changes to the amount of exercise you do burns a significant amount of calories – up to 240 just by going up and down the stairs a few times and maybe walking to the shops.
Obviously, you have to make up your own mind. But it is something that a lot of driving instructors really ought to think about – sitting down all day is not good for the waistline!
What IS interesting is that if you Google for information on weight loss, the advice is all old. It advises just eating less and becoming some sort of herbivore. As the presenter of the BBC show said (and he is a trained doctor), when he was at medical school, they were just taught that calories are calories, when modern science is saying absolutely the opposite.
The average temperature across the UK was -1.0°C – compared with the usual 4.2°C. The previous coldest December was in 1981, when the average temperature was 0.1°C.
The provisional UK, England and Wales figures for December 2010 show that the month was the coldest month since February 1986. In Scotland it was the coldest month since February 1947, and in Northern Ireland the coldest month on record.
I think we can all agree that it was bloody cold! However, actual precipitation was only 38% of what is normal – so it has really been quite dry and sunny, and comes out as the third driest December since records began.
The most annoying TV ad in the world (at the moment). That damned Heinz Tomato Soup one where they are all spitting (sorry: blowing) on to spoons of soup to some idiotic tune you cannot make out.
I must admit I thought they’d responded to customer complaints – I got a lot of hits when I posted it back in October, so it’s obvious I wasn’t the only one who hated it. And it hasn’t been shown since then… until just now. But no doubt someone at Heinz has stubbornly decided they can’t just waste all the money they spent on advertising it and resurrected it.
It’s in a different guise (they will have had several made all at once), but it’s still annoying from the first microsecond onwards. It is a surefire guarantee I won’t be buying any Heinz Tomato Soup anytime soon.
EDIT 2/10/2011: I was going to write another article about this damned advert – which has made a very unwelcome return to our TV screens – but the number of hits I’m suddenly getting speaks for itself.
Heinz is staffed by idiots if it think this is going to sell more soup. I lunge for the remote control mute button the second it comes on.
It’s obvious they have grave doubts, because they took it off around the time I first mentioned it, put it back on again, then took it off once more. At no time did it get the usual wall-to-wall showings. They were obviously testing the water.
Look, Heinz people. The advert stinks. You’ve wasted money on it. You will not increase sales of Tomato Soup by showing it (I, for one, will never buy Heinz Tomato Soup again as a result of the damned thing). Get rid of it and make a decent one that doesn’t involve the sound of bodily functions.
EDIT 10/10/2011: Someone said to me yesterday “have you seen that advert where they’re blowing on soup? I have to turn the TV off when it comes on”.
Get wise, Heinz. You’re damaging your sales while you keep showing it. It’s the most annoying ad ever.
Someone found the blog by Googling “what kind of person has personalised licence plates?”
In my experience…
Such a person will have more money than sense – a plate which doesn’t really have any obvious personalisation will cost you £250; something in the old style (like F4 ABC) will cost £600; and if the letters are even close to spelling any word in the English dictionary, you’re looking at over £1,000. Anything with “MAC” in it is closer to £2,000 – and that’s just the reserve price at auction. And so on.
Such a person will be retired and drive a Jaguar (or large Rover, etc.). They will drive it badly.
Such a person will own a pratmobile, have acne, and usually a problem in the vertical plane. They will drive it badly.
Such a person will be a middle-aged woman trying to look 20-something, driving a Mercedes. She will drive it badly.
Such a person will be an Audi owner. Enough said on that one.
Such a person will be driving a large car of some description – a Merc, Jag, or Land Rover, etc. - but one which has seen better days. They’ll most likely be covered in tattoos and may drive in a vest (usually with a cigarette on the go). They will drive it badly.
You can see the link developing here. They just draw attention to themselves - which is why they bought the plate in the first place – but not in quite the way they had originally intended.
If you use one of those spiral binding machines (also called comb binders), make sure the plastic base is firmly attached before you pick it up.
Especially if you have just punched around 250 sheets of paper.
This is because 10,000 little squares of paper (about 2mm x 4mm) make a mess when they get on the carpet. As you can probably guess, I just tested it for you. You’re welcome.
I keep getting hits for this. Well, I’ve already posted elsewhere that the best Indian takeaway in the area is Curry2Night in West Bridgford. However, there are some other decent takeaways in the area.
Curry2Night in West Bridgford – 0115 9811 712
The best kebabs come from Shaks in Clifton – tel. 0115 9844 666. They also do a passable curry (and pizzas, but I’ve not had one of those).
A good Chinese is had at Yeung Chow in Clifton – tel. 0115 9216 070.
Another decent Indian is Everest Tandoori in Ruddington – tel. 0115 9848 358.
Update (July 2011): I had a kebab from Shaks last week and it was bloody tasteless. They appear to have been infected by the must-remove-all-salt-from-everything disease. Unfortunately, this screws up any meat dish, and totally screws up any form of fast food. To be fair to Shak’s, they’re still one of the best around, and they buy in their kebab meat, so it’s the supplier who is to blame.
Why can’t people get it into their bloody heads that you do not eat kebabs, Chinese, or Indian food from a takeaway because you are on a calorie-controlled, low-sodium diet!!!
I noticed a thread on one of the forums about personalised number plates.
Someone who is an ADI says he has bought a personalised plate and is asking if the examiner “would mind” if he made it – for example – A12BC D instead of A12 BCD.
People who buy these things usually do what he is suggesting as standard (they also use yellow/black bolts to make/fill gaps in the letters to change what they look like). Favourite tricks include turning two adjacent 1s into an H by putting a black bolt between them and moving them closer together, and putting a yellow bolt in an O, 0, or other character to make it look like a G or something.
He immediately got a reply advising him that it would fail the MOT, so he should keep a spare set and switch them whenever he takes it in for its MOT. I believe that this reply is from an ex-traffic cop!
Next, there’s a brief argument on how easy it is/isn’t to get plates made which don’t conform to the standard.
Let’s just clarify something: it is illegal. The person who asked the question knows that, otherwise he wouldn’t have asked. All the people who have answered know it, otherwise they wouldn’t have advised on ways around it.
And then there is this comment:
How many posts have there been on this forum about “jobsworth” examiners?! Maybe not at your usual TC, but you’re bound to get one at another TC or someone covering that will refuse to go out.
So, any examiner who refuses to take the car out if it has plates which are illegal is a “jobsworth”. Now we know who the professionals are, don’t we? Can you believe that these people call themselves professional driving instructors, yet openly advocate breaking the Law and suggest ways of concealing the fact?
The original poster says he has a plate which reads A12BC D, so he apparently doesn’t realise the proper format is AB12 CDE or A12 BCD!
Then there was another post to the thread – subsequently deleted – informing everyone that there was no problem using any font you wished. All fonts were “road legal” according to this “expert”. In actual fact (obtained from UKSpeedTraps.co.uk):
A number plate must be displayed at the front and rear of motor vehicles (with some exceptions)
Number Plates must be easy to read and meet the British Standard
Lettering should be black on a white plate at the front and a yellow at the rear
The background surface should be reflex-reflecting but the characters must not
There are separate requirements for traditional number plates displayed on vehicles constructed before 1 January 1973
Lettering and spacing must be of a set size. They must conform to the specification for either plates fitted after 1 September 2001 or plates fitted before 1 September 2001 .
You must not alter, rearrange or misrepresent the letters or numbers
Characters must not be moved from one group to the other (e.g. A242 ABC must not be displayed as A242A BC)
After 1 September 2001 all new number plates must display the new mandatory font (shown above)
Number plates fitted before 1 September 2001 need not be changed provided the character font used is substantially the same as the one shown above
Number plates must be replaced if they have been customised with stylised letters and/or figures such as italics
Number plates must be replaced if they have been customised with fixing bolts that alter the appearance of the letters and/or numbers
I’d expect any professional ADI to be able to find this information quickly, and to abide by the Law. I mean, if you are likely to get points on your licence and jeopardise your career you really would expect someone to check properly first before doing it.
There is a final reply (so far) in the topic thread:
I don’t think that a mis-spaced number plate portrays the correct image for a driving school or any other company vehicle. It says that you don’t really worry about laws and regulations, or at least you choose which ones you will abide by. Not the type of image I’d want my business to portray…
…I have a couple of relatively good plates that rely on being mis-spaced to spell my name. I don’t have either on my driving school car, but do have one on my bike. I’m sure I’ll meet a stroppy policeman one day and I’ll have to change it, but I’ll take my chances until then, and won’t complain if I get done.
You couldn’t make some of this up, could you? This professionaldriving instructor (supposedly a “fit and proper person”) thinks personalised plates are wrong for a driving school and not the image he’d want his business to portray – then openly admits to having them and using them on a motorbike! He admits that he’ll probably get pulled one day, so he knows he is breaking the law.
I mentioned in a recent post about cancelled driving tests in the bad weather that you could see why we classed ourselves as “professionals”. I was being ironic, of course. I wonder if these people realise the DSA/DVLA can see these posts?
Addendum: Incidentally, people keep asking/searching on “UK car plate font” or similar. It’s called “FE-Schrift”, but there is a free version available here. I got it from dafont.com . However, I suspect many of those searching are looking for a prat font and not the legal one.
What number looks like a “G” on a car number plate?
Yep. Someone found the blog on that search term. If they have to ask, I suppose I could tell them it’s a “1” – after all, if they’re that stupid they probably can’t count up to nine in the first place and shouldn’t even be allowed out on their own.
One of my pupils sent me this picture. He bought a Lego Advent Calendar – it’s a boxed item – and this was revealed in one of the windows. He said it can only be a hoodie with a knife:
When he told me about it I asked him to send it to me for the blog. On first sight I thought “no, that is a sword – not a knife”, but when I mentioned it to him tonight he was quite specific that the hat is a baseball cap, the white top has a hood on the back, and Lego only do two types of sword and they’re both oversized like that (it turns out he’s a bit of an expert on Lego). Now that I look more closely, the logo on the front is actually an open neck with drawstrings, side pockets, and an elasticated hem. And his face is spotty/freckly.
It is a hoodie.
What the hell is Lego playing at selling this stuff to kids?
Police are warning that not clearing snow off the roof of your car can lead to a fine.
They really should take action against some people. You wouldn’t believe what I have seen over the last week… idiots driving with 8 inches of snow on the roof, blowing off and obscuring the view for traffic behind; lorries with huge slabs of ice on top, which slide off on to the road when they go round a bend; and so on.
Several times I’ve had to warn my learners about the sudden appearance of snow in the road which has fallen off other vehicles and which could seriously affect your grip if you don’t see it.
Take a look at Rule 229 of the Highway Code. It says:
Before you set off
you MUST be able to see, so clear all snow and ice from all your windows
you MUST ensure that lights are clean and number plates are clearly visible and legible
make sure the mirrors are clear and the windows are demisted thoroughly
remove all snow that might fall off into the path of other road users
check your planned route is clear of delays and that no further snowfalls or severe weather are predicted
[Laws CUR reg 30, RVLR reg 23, VERA sect 43 & RV(DRM)R reg 11]
The laws quoted apply to the “MUST” conditions. The others fall into the “SHOULD” category, where there is no specific law, but which commonsense would suggest those possessing some ought to apply it a little.
Unfortunately, commonsense is in such short supply – or plays second fiddle to bad attitude – that the Police are prepared to get involved:
But, while “hoax” text messages warning of automatic fixed penalty notices for drivers with snow on their vehicles have been dismissed by South Yorkshire Police, Greater Manchester Police say they may prosecute if there is an accident as a result of uncleared snow.
It could mean a £60 fine and 3 points. So, you have been warned.
It’s interesting how these things work, and how people think. Only the night before I watched one of those UKTV Food programmes – Monster Munchies – which is hosted by Matt Dawson (a former rugby player). On this show, they have two teams competing to make giant versions of common well-known dishes or snacks. Usually, the finished articles are disgusting because you’ve seen how much they’ve messed around with them to get them to work.
I just watched a fascinating programme on BBC One called “
In my experience…
I keep getting hits for this. Well, I’ve already posted elsewhere that the best Indian takeaway in the area is Curry2Night in West Bridgford. However, there are some other decent takeaways in the area.
Police are warning that not clearing snow off the roof of your car can lead to a fine.