Save Money, Make Food

 £3.47 (when Tesco Fruit & Fibre is £1.79ish, serves 10)

 £3.47 (when Tesco Fruit & Fibre is £1.79ish, serves 10)

The grape and granola muesli mix in the picture cost me 3 smackers 47 ronin. That'll learn me, should've bought the raw ingredients.

OK, so after lunch - minus the grapes, I essentially bought the same breakfast today for a fraction of the price; instead of over £3 a pop (over £15 a week just breakfast), it is less than 40p a day (less than £2 a week).

Meal to Finish Day Off

Egg fried with Tesco Finest Sweet Pointed Peppers and Banana, three handfuls of Spinach, two raw Carrots (out of shot)

Egg fried with Tesco Finest Sweet Pointed Peppers and Banana, three handfuls of Spinach, two raw Carrots (out of shot)

Remember that obnoxious bingeing feeling I had a couple of days ago? Well I satiated it with takeaway Favorite's 2 fried chicken drumsticks, breast, 6 spicy wings, chips and strawberry Mirinda fizzy drink (1491kcal). Mmm. However, that eat alone was above my daily 1400kcal allowance, bringing my daily total to 3431kcal. So my footsie belly rose 2 pounds to 12st9lbs at close of play, 😛😜, 12st9lbs! Sometimes you're just gonna.

Yesternight I stuck to a healthier, prettier but unfortunately much blander fry up - 3 eggs, sweet pepper, spinach and banana (579kcal). I know, I could've used seasoning to spice things up - but salt, sugar and other seasoning can add up to hidden calories with detrimental affects. My diet needs more protein, fibre, unprocessed food, lean meats, fruits and definately vegetables. :( Feels like a workout just typing that sentence. Let's do it! :)

Weight update

After 3 days of weighing myself and stuck at 12 stones 12 pounds I weighed in again this morning, 28 May 2016: 12 stones 10 pounds, that rye bread though. 😜

What app do you use?, I hear you ask. Noom Coach on Android, one of few calorie apps that understands British weight of stones/pounds - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.wsl.noom

 Calories eaten yesterday - 1446kcal:

• Morning snack - 548kcal

Tesco Feta Cheese and semi dried tomato pasta

 • Lunch - 169kcal

 ½ passion fruit 8kcal

Mixed fruit salad 161kcal

• Afternoon snack - 436kcal

Oakland Crispy Nutty Seed Bites (6 biscuits) 216kcal

Nabisco Belvita Breakfast Duo Crunch Strawberry (2 biscuits) 220kcal

• Dinner - 293kcal

Rye bread (3 slices) 195kcal

Orange 62kcal

 Oakland Crispy Nutty Seed Bites 36kcal

 ---

Phew! Worked at the Excel Centre today, then hung out with Lego Darth Vader and all good groupie action... I think I'm his un-official photographer:

Losing 2 Stones in 3 months

LUNCH!

Soy Sauce on Brown Lentils, Spinach and Orange Sweet Pepper

Soy Sauce on Brown Lentils, Spinach and Orange Sweet Pepper

It's hard. It isn't easy. But I've seen sustainable and positive results already. This year I decided to lose weight and eat great.

At the beginning of March this 2016 year I was clinically obese for my 5ft9in frame, at 14st4lbs. Though I have a naturally stocky build when heavyset, family and friends did not describe me as fat, instead comments like 'have you been working out in the gym?', 'big man', 'rotund', 'you're looking well' came my way. Then I was classified borderline hypertension, and it had to change.

I got a medical MOT late 2015 at Harley Street, London... They said I had dangerously high blood pressure, and suggested I see my GP. I saw my old GP in North London, my blood pressure measured OK. Not long after I received a letter from my old GP that my address has changed and I'd need a new GP. I registered with a GP in Newham, East London. They carried out blood, urine and blood pressure tests, over several weeks, and decided I was borderline hypertension, with a slightly underperforming kidney (possibly due to HP), then prescribed me BP tablets (blood thinner).

What are Synthesised Assistants?

Formerly referred to as machines, robots, artificial intelligence, Synthesised Assistants are the strident efforts to impregnate humanity into mechanised creations. Immediately we think this is the endeavour to make a real life sentient Hal or a creepy Skynet entity, but we would be much mistaken.

Apple Watch? Rather I Watch Patek Philippe

If you want a watch that will look more fun, cheap, and like a Mickey Mouse timepiece than a refined investment in craftsmanship and tastefulness, then the recently released Apple Watch 2015 may well pull at your electronic heart strings.

But for something more fairytale I'd say look no further than Patek Philippe, who have an exhibition from 27 May to 7 June 2015 at the Saatchi Gallery, to celebrate their 175th year.

In fact, the cocktail of digital wearables ticking away for inches of your wristspace is mind-boggling and potentially distracting: like the Pebble watch - now with colour e-ink display to join it's older monochrome sibling - is a long standing title-contender yet rapidly fading from the buying consumer conscience; then there's the flood of Android Wear devices (though the Huawei Watch looks pleasantly refined many leave a bitter aftertaste of a poorly mixed software-hardware experience); then throw in activity bands such as the Fitbit Flex and Basis Peak monitoring your perpetuation to physical perfection, the non-iWatch Apple Watch with its gimmicky heartbeat 'care-bear-stare-style' share feature, plus a plethora of little known Asian manufacturers flavouring the low end side of the market.. It becomes clear the list of watch concoctions in the wearable techosphere may be hard to swallow. 

However, the issue with smart watches today is that they bastardise a long held essential finesse that's made automatic, mechanical and even quartz watches so attractive - power. To be more precise, long lasting power that's available untethered for years.

That's right, my main gripe with the Apple Watch isn't its audacious price range nor that millions of consumers suddenly feel that a watch is hip to be square because Apple made it. No. Taken for granted with traditional watches, it's a sore point with digital ones: I don't want to charge my watch... at all. Let alone on the daily. It's bad enough lugging that burden with my phone.

(Mention concept watch with transparent digital screen)

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Chrome bezel reminiscent of iPhone 2g.

Chrome bezel reminiscent of iPhone 2g.

How I Shoot Jewellery Photography - Great Shots, Flexible Approach

London's sunny and chilly today, just how I loathe it. Expect gale force storms next.

So, I'm sitting inside processing a batch of photo edits of jewellery and scarves for someone tomorrow, and I thought I'd share with you a bit of my process in taking macro pics, in particular of rings for my website and Instagram.

My macro photos lean towards fun rather than perfection, so more colourful settings and less white-web-ready backgrounds. If you want the white background there's the light box/ tent for that, or use a soft box, and pieces of black card and white card for creating dimension on the shiny jewellery surfaces. You don't have to travel far to get great pictures, I went to my local park; 

Here's the before and after:

Finished and ready for Instagram

Equipment - Camera

1.  Your Brain - the problem solver, use it to get unconventional solutions to finish the job. Remember, it doesn't matter what happened behind the camera, as long as your shot is to your standard.

2. Camera Body that allows different lenses - Canon, Nikon, Sony, Pentax, Fuji are good options. My suggestions will definitely work for Nikon and Canon users. I'm using a Canon 70D.

3. Lenses - 

a) Macro, like Canon 100mm f2.8 Macro Lens. Dedicated for sharp close ups.

b) Telephoto (Zoom), like Canon 70-200mm f4 L lens. Use to include more set design with ring.

c) Extension Tubes (TTL), my favourite method, like Polaroid Auto Focus DG Macro Set. Great as it converts your standard lens, like my Canon 50mm f1.8 mk1, into a choice of macro lenses, with different magnifications.

Equipment - Lighting

How To Take That Photo When Under Pressure - And What To Do If You Mess Up - 29 July 2014

press, success, decisive moment, first job, what lens, canon or nikon?

I'll be talking about getting great photos in situations where you don't have control over the subject's movements - like concerts, sports, parades, photojournalism, street photography, celebrities in public, events & conferences and opportunistic shenanigans. 

Firstly, congratulations, you've made the right and conscious choice to improve yourself.

Now, let's start with the worse case scenario: there's a great photo opportunity, there’s only one chance to get it, you're not prepared and the moment is almost... nope the moment has gone. WHY ME?!!

Now that's out of the way, let's break down what you did wrong and how to fix it. :)

1. Pressure is to do with 'margin of error' as far as photography is concerned, while some say pressure or stress is self-inflicted,