If you had a final exam tomorrow morning that was the culmination of three years of dedicated work, would you finish studying and get some sleep, or go out and get wasted? The latter is actually more popular than you might think. What’s known as “behavioural self-handicapping” in psychology is when someone deliberately hurts their… Read More

I’ve never been a good songwriter. Rather than trying to be the next Phil Collins or Dave Grohl, I was happy to just be a drummer. That didn’t stop me having the occasional go though, it just never worked out the way I’d hoped. One time I thought I’d cracked it. The chord progression was… Read More

You can change your weight forever, as long as you change your lifestyle too. There is no body fat setpoint.

Have you ever met a celebrity and thought they looked different in real life? It’s as if we’ve built up a mental picture of them that, if not quite what expected in the flesh, forces us to have another look to make sure they’re not really an imposter. The thing is, what we think someone… Read More

You might think that throwing yourself off Niagara Falls in a barrel isn’t an obvious way to celebrate your 63rd birthday, but that’s exactly what Annie Edson Taylor did in 1901. Rather than just for the fun of it, the death-defying stunt was supposed to be a money-spinner, and she was set for speaking tours… Read More

My first paying client weighed 145kg. I was certain that getting him to lose weight would be easy. I was wrong. During our initial consultation, I’d driven home the importance of calories in vs calories out and he was on board with everything. We’d talked about a plan of attack, I’d written up my notes,… Read More

I’m not sure what I like best about the Wolseley. It might be peeping over to see what some minor royal or Tory frontbencher is eating. It could be the pomp and ceremony of the slightly irate service and somewhat tattered silver teapots and cutlery. Maybe it’s because I share my experiences there with a… Read More

I remember when grunge became big. Various bands had bubbled under since the mid-eighties, but once Nirvana had a runaway hit with their second album, it was everywhere. Kids that used to wear Champion sweaters and listen to Kylie were now growing their hair long and rocking ripped jeans and flannel shirts. It happens like… Read More

One of the only real memories I have of my granddad is sitting on his knee watching boxing on tv. This was in the days when you could watch a match on Saturday afternoon, and I’d sit there practising punching wondering what a real fight was like. I get boxing. Whilst it is still bloody… Read More

I think I’m still angry with the paleo diet. Before I knew how to spot nutritional bullshit, I fell for it hook, line, and sinker. It wasn’t that I couldn’t see the cracks in its logic, which says eating like our palaeolithic ancestors is the cure to modern disease; it’s that even though I was… Read More