"Not ANOTHER food blog"

Yes, I have created yet another food blog for the internet. But I'll try my best not to make it boring or full of recipes that don't actually taste any good, or post more articles on "Why you should be Keto".

I keep running out of space on the instagram word count. When are they going to change that?! I like to write (waffle) and so eventually the necessity for a blog became apparent. How much I will post or write on here I'm still unsure of, but it's going to be my place for those topics I feel deserve longer form content. Subjects that can't be surmised in a mere 2,200 characters.

If you're just stumbling upon this blog, I'm Mark. Hello. I'm a nutritionist, I run a workplace well-being consultancy working with businesses in London, I love all things sport and I'm a proud co-parent to an urban veggie patch. I'm attempting to meld all of these things, in my own weird way, into one melting pot of food based pictures, videos and blog posts. Whether it's trying to master the perfect pasta, how to stop slugs eating my courgettes, ways to optimise performance on the jiu-jitsu mats, my attempts to be more mindful of where the meat and produce I consume comes from or how I can reduce my personal plastic use, all while trying to get better at goddam writing!

Food to me was bonding with my dad growing up. Tuesday evenings consisted of making homemade hummus, with loads of garlic, tahini & lemon juice, my introduction to potato gratin with mountains of Ossau-Iraty cheese melted into it and big old Caprese salads. Often that’s ‘all’ we’d have for dinner and I loved it! I think I first fell in love with cooking when I decided, having seen it on TV, that I wanted to cook a butternut squash risotto. The first dish I properly learnt to make from scratch, fancy rocket garnish included. A risotto is still one of my favourite dishes to make to this day, I love the whole process of watching the pan transform in front of your eyes. Other memories include dad buying me dozens and dozens of eggs for me to perfect a poached egg (and then insisting I found a use for the many, many failed eggs. Zero waste was literally forced upon me!). Good food was always around, some of it super healthy, always lots of veg, always lots of fruit, but also plenty of things to indulge in and treat ourselves with. As a chubby teenager it wasn’t unheard of for me to approach a whole New York cheesecake as a solo venture. The main thing being we had this idea of balance, of including lots of nourishing foods alongside the treats.

Another huge part of my upbringing was exercise, all and any forms you can imagine, and not always fun! Whether that be rained soaked orienteering expeditions, being booted out of the car at the entrance to the swimming pool and sprinting to beat Dad to the car park or simply Sundays at the rugby club, movement & fitness became ingrained into me. And to this day it’s something I adore, in combination with cooking, they are my biggest passions in life. They can both be the simplest of things but both give me an unparalleled feeling. Exercise gives me a mad high, a rush, an addictiveness. Whereas cooking is the ying to that yang, in that it calms me (most of the time), relaxes me and brings me back down.

Traditionally, a diet was simply the way you ate. Over time it has evolved to mean "restricting your current intake of food to lose weight"

We moved a lot, we ate a lot and today that is still true. I don’t count my calories, I have tried in the past and there is 100% a time and place to consider that approach. But it doesn’t have to be the only way to a) lose weight and b) create a healthier diet & lifestyle for yourself. As the above quote suggests, a diet used to simply be the way we ate. That way was often varied, based around what the seasons naturally brought to us. We didn’t have endless supplies of absolutely anything we wanted but I would suggest most of us had a much better relationship with food in general.

I love food, I love talking about it, eating it and helping people to understand it a little better. In the past I've played semi professional rugby, I dabbled and obsessed for a while in CrossFit, last year I ran my first 100 miler across the UK and more recently I've become hooked on Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. This has all fuelled my interest in ways to prepare for my training, how to squeeze that extra inch out of whatever I'm doing or how to recover better, all through the power of food.

Those that follow my Instagram will know I have a rapidly expanding veggie patch in my back garden (new raised bed coming Spring 2020 yo!). What started off as a means to try and save a bit of money has led to trying to reconnect with the lost notion of growing your own food and respecting produce. This process has led me to dig deeper into where our food, especially our meat, comes from.

And then there's the cooking. Arguably the part I enjoy the most, my self-care, my form of meditation and my daily opportunity to relax. There is nothing quite like creating something new in the kitchen that makes your taste buds go mad and your feet tingle with excitement ready to do a culinary inspired two-step. Food brings me joy, excitement and a definite addictive quality.

For so many these days food is simply fuel, something they have to do. I believe once we understand how it works, how we can manipulate it to improve our performance, the journey it goes on to reach our plates and what impact that has, then it can be and should be so much more. I hope with this blog that somewhere along the way I help you with your nutrition journey, whether that's for your sporting goals, learning more about growing your own food or simply some tasty recipes to knock up for friends. Thanks for reading this far!