PRESS UP CHALLENGES: 1 MILLION IN 10 YEARS.

Tuesday 14th October 2025

Total to end of September now stands at 841,000, so I'm well on track. Say 850,000 by the end of this month - that leaves me 150,000 to do with 22 months to do it in.

Sunday 4th August 2019

Today I was filmed doing my 1000 press ups in the centre of Bristol, by 'Friendsnotfood', an animal rights activist film-maker. It took me just under 40 minutes, as usual, but I found it a bit more difficult, doing it in the sunshine. I moved to some shade about halfway through.

And a couple of weeks ago I was filmed mucking about on the London Tube doing some chin ups.

I filmed 40 press ups - about 4 times, to try and get it right - uploaded it here - and now it refuses to play! Back to the drawing board :(

Very strange - I'll try again, of course, but in the meantime, I've managed to upload it to Facebook - so here's a link to that.

Number 2 in the series - My Fitness regime. My 9kg kettlebell routine. (Once again, the above video won't work on here, so I've linked it to my Facebook page.)

Every 3 days I do my kettlebell exercise: 
20 reps of the nine different exercises you see me doing here. Then repeated once more. The whole exercise takes less than 15 minutes, with a 5 minute gap between the two routines.

[Still not working - I'll post it on Facebook, then link to it from here. My kettlebell film on Facebook]
The story behind this challenge:
I turned 80 in September 2017, and, to provide some motivation to keep pushing myself, I decided I would challenge myself to see if I could complete 1 million push ups between my 80th and 90th birthday.
I worked out that if I did 2000 a week, 700 every other day (2000 x 50 x 10 years), I would reach my goal. 

However, after I'd begun, I thought I needed to get some 'in the bank' as it were, just in case I had an accident or something, and couldn't do the push ups for a while. So I upped my total to 1000 every other day. I've now been going just over 6 months - when my total was around 70,000. So my target is so far well within reach. At my present rate of progress, barring accidents, it's possible I could achieve 1 million p/ups in well under 10 years - I did 14000 in March 2018, for instance.

27th September 2019 - currently aiming for 10,000 a month

Another reason I'm doing this is to show that vegans can be strong and fit into old age - should I ever get there! ;)




My efforts have come to the attention of a wider audience - here's an article about my 1 million challenge. It's been picked up by Plant Based News, and Somerset Live, an online newspaper - and I even got a mention on the Great Vegan Athletes Facebook page, which is crazy!

VEGAN CHOCOLATE CAKE - How easy (and cheap!) is this?

[Posted originally in August 2011] There's a doubled-up recipe, plus cupcakes and Swiss roll - pics at the foot of this post. This is my up to date recipe - adapted from the original.

 Vegan Chocolate Cake (20cm or 8") (w. variations)

Ingredients:

200g sugar

200g self raising flour (or plain, plus 3 teaspoons baking powder)

25-30g cocoa powder (or 25-40g ground ginger, or 2 tsps vanilla extract)

Optional - good half a teaspoon baking powder, for a bit of extra lift

300g water
25g vegetable oil (I use olive oil)

Method:

Measure the dry ingredients* and mix, then add the water and oil. Stir, initially with a dessertspoon, and then with a whisk, and pour through a sieve*, into an oiled 20cm (8") silicon cake former.

*I now don't worry about sieving the dry ingredients, instead I sieve the batter as I'm pouring it into the cake former. This catches any lumps and you're good!

 

Place in the microwave (800w) for 8 minutes. In my experience, not only do you get a quicker cake, but the cake rises about 25% higher in the microwave.

No microwave?
Bake in the oven at 175C for 30-35 minutes.

No oven?

Then pour a little of the batter into an oiled frying pan, on a medium to hot heat, as if you were making pancakes. For a bit of fun, baking with your youngster, cut out circles of the (pan)cake, and sandwich them with - I don't know: jam, homemade fruit puree, homemade chocolate spread (recipe below). Or, why not invent your own fillings?

(It's also possible to make an excellent gluten-free version of this cake.)

Cost:
I'm amazed at how little this cake costs (these prices are from Lidl products):
Sugar 22p
S/raising flour 15p
Cocoa powder 15p
Veg oil 10p
Total 62p

Who says that it's expensive to be vegan? :)

The story:
Anybody who's taken a look at some of the bread conversations I've had on this blog will know I'm not a cake maker - bread's my thing.

Whenever anyone asks me if I make cakes I always tell them there isn't time - there's always another bread I haven't made yet!

However, it was the birthday of both my daughter and my son-in-law this week, and there are bound to be plenty of cakes when we meet up tomorrow. And none of them will be vegan.

Apart, that is, from the one I've just made!

I followed this recipe here:

And tweaked it slightly.

It was a bit of a faff, since each step is on a separate page - unless you sign up, which I didn't want to do. And it's in cups, which I've weighed off into gms for the next time I make it - which I will.

166g s/raising flour
30g cocoa powder
198g sugar
1/2 tsp salt
80g sunolive oil
250g water
2 tsps vanilla extract

Stir the dry ingredients, add the wet ingredients, mix together and pour into 2 18cm (7") lined cake tins. (I placed 354g of batter in each tin.)

Bake at 175C for 20 minutes.

I shall sandwich the cake with the vegan chocolate spread I made yesterday:

And probably spread a bit on top - just to finish it off!

Update, Sunday 31st July:

As I said I would, I 'iced' the cake with a little chocolate spread.

And it went down very well, I must say - much better than I thought it would. My mother-in-law said loudly, "But it's actually very nice!". Everyone at the party who had a taste thought it was lovely and moist - and I had to answer several queries as to the recipe and how it was made.

This was undoubtedly a success - and it's now firmly in my repertoire. This from a guy who'd only ever made one cake in the last 20 years prior to this!  

I'm beginning to wonder if we've been conned all these years into thinking that cakes naturally have to contain eggs and butter (or marge)? Clearly, they don't!

I have asked all my friends on Wildfood for  their opinion. There's a variety of opinions on there with some agreeing with me.

I decided to forgo the salt and the vanilla:  I never use salt in my sweet bread recipes, and I see no place for it here; I couldn't detect any vanilla flavour, but others may.

3 days later. I ate the last remnants of the cake - and it was as moist and lush as when it had just been made. I did think of seeing if it would keep into a 4th day - but who keeps chocolate cake for four days?

(Well, my mother might - she used to extol the virtues of her madeira cake - "It'll keep for a fortnight!" she used to announce to all and sundry. And every time we went home and we were served cake, she felt she had to make good her claim. The damn cake was always well over a week old! In every other respect she was a decent cook. Well, I suppose we all have a chink in our armour!)

3rd November.
After telling my colleagues at my Thursday care home about my cake-making, I was prevailed upon to make one for the residents.

Since we needed a large cake, I doubled up the recipe:
330g s/raising flour

60g cocoa powder

400g sugar

160g sunflower oil

500g water

I left out the salt - decided it wasn't necessary - and the vanilla extract  - didn't have any, and didn't miss either of them! The cake, took about 35 minutes to cook.

I have to admit I was pretty bowled over by the size and appearance of the cake when it came out of the oven:

If you're going to make a cake - may as well make a big one!

That's Melissa's hand applying the chocolate icing

10th November.

The cake tin for last week's cake was borrowed from the care home next door - but this time it was decided we should make fairy cakes:

The doubled up recipe actually made 2 dozen of these. Thought at first we hadn't put enough batter in each one 

But when they came out of their cases and were iced - the size was just right! OK, the icing's not very neat - but that didn't affect the taste one iota!

Friday 16th December.
I've been making this cake weekly since I first made it - and today I made a chocolate log with it:

The cake was too thick so I knew it would split. But using the hints I picked up from Eric Lanlard last weekend (cut off the first 2 cm from the edge you're starting to roll from and place it on the edge if the cake and roll up around it) and those I received from Jemma the chef at Longrun (trim the side of the cake - this is where it gets crisp and prevents even rolling), we managed it.

Next time I'll divide the batter between two Swiss roll tins - and then it won't split! To keep it vegan it was spread with jam. I need a vegan filling for next time.

Monday 26th December.
Wanted to make a couple of Yule logs for the family - but I'm far away from my scales, so I did these with the original cup measurements in the link above.

I used a coffee mug to measure with and made enough to fill two Swiss roll tins and make three large cup cakes.

One was filled with sweet chestnut puree (the puree was mixed with some sugar and soya cream) and the other was consumed as it was - everyone thoroughly enjoyed it.

I'm planning to cover the cake with melted chocolate. I'll post a pic when I do.

A WHOLE FOOD PLANT-BASED (VEGAN) DIET AND CANCER

21st April 2023

Just in - turkey tail mushrooms prove effective against some cancers.

Why is there such a huge disparity in prostate cancer rates? For instance the incidence of clinically malignant prostate cancer is highest in African-Americans—some 30-fold greater than in Japanese men, and 120 times greater than seen in Chinese men in Shanghai. The reason has to do with lifestyle.

When I began intermittent fasting (something else I would recommend for optimum health), I did so because it was shown to reduce the level of IGF-1 (insulin growth factor 1) in the body: IGF-1 being a marker of cancer risk (the more IGF-1, the more risk of cancer growth). It turns out that a WFPB diet also lowers IGF-1. Cow’s milk, being designed to produce a 600lb calf in very short order, is packed with IGF-1. (It’s also, because cows are made to produce milk whilst pregnant, full of oestrogen and other unwanted hormones).

At the last count, I have four friends and family members suffering from cancer. Here I've tried to gather in one place, all the info I can find on the subject.

"Cancer is one of the leading causes of death worldwide, and there is an urgent need for a new direction in battling this disease. That’s why the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) has created materials specifically for cancer prevention and survival."

https://www.pcrm.org/health-topics/cancer

Dr Michael Greger, who runs NutritionFacts.org, has many short videos on how diet influences cancer. 

Cancer and a WFPB diet. (Whenever I look at one of Dr Greger's videos, it's always worth checking out the comments section, there is a wealth of info in there - plus some inspirational stories!)

Fasting and cancer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CxMsqpzhT4&t=13s

Protect your prostate from cancer

Effects of a low-fat, high-fiber diet and exercise program on breast cancer risk factors in vivo and tumor cell growth and apoptosis in vitro.

https://www.pcrm.org/health-topics/cancer

Stunning results from the largest diet/nutrition study ever: Cornell University: 

A healthy diet will slow and/or stop most cancers: Why not?

“Study finds vegan blood is 8 times more effective at killing cancer cells.”

I didn’t know just what study to link that sentence to, but if you put that into a search engine, you get loads of results.

Finally, there’s help available here, from someone who has been through it:

chrisbeatcancer.com

A WEEK'S MENU FOR A VEGAN

This was first posted in 2013 and started out as a weekly menu, but I've since added to it. I need to update this, since I try to follow Dr Greger's Daily Dozen, and my lunch routine has changed considerably.)

Breakfast:

Porridge – made with water - is probably the healthiest breakfast. Combine it with blueberries, strawberries or whatever suits your fancy.  I like mine with blackstrap molasses – although I no longer draw faces and yachts on the porridge as I did with treacle when I was younger! (Still do with the grandchildren on occasion! :-) )

My wife has hers with sultanas (soaked overnight) and banana. (Ugh!)

I only have porridge about once a week - my usual breakfast used to be spicy fruit naan, slathered with mashed banana.

However, since I'm rarely hungry in the morning, I skip breakfast these days, except for the once a week porridge when my wife and I have a Sunday lie-in.

BREAD BOWLS - from trenchers to naan breads

Or: From trenchers, through bread bowls, and pizzas (with a nod to the focaccia) to naans…

I call my blog “No bread is an island”, since I maintain that every bread is linked to at least one other.

The rolls I’ve just made (and turned into bread bowls) exemplify that.

Here’s the recipe for the bread: 

100g (4oz) each strong white flour and strong wholemeal flour

1 teaspoon vegetable stock powder

1/2 teaspoon dried mixed herbs

1 dessertspoon pesto (optional)

1 dessertspoon curry paste (optional)

1 dessertspoon fresh yeast stirred into 125g lukewarm water

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Method:

Mix into a dough using a stiff palette knife or a table knife. Once it forms into a dough, get your hands in. Add more flour or water as needed to obtain a soft, squeezable dough. Place on the worktop (without flour) and knead (flatten and fold) for about 30 seconds. If it needs more flour, add some back in the bowl, then bring it out and knead a little more.

Divide in 2 and shape each piece into a large roll. My method is to place the rolls into a stainless steel roasting dish with baking parchment above and below, then a baking tray over the top, so that the rolls, as they rose, would flatten out.

When they’d risen sufficiently (which didn’t take long since I’d used loads of yeast), I baked these at 210C (425F). After 10 minutes the bottoms were well done (I wanted the bottoms to be really well cooked). Then I removed the baking tray and turned the rolls over, giving them about 8 minutes this time.

Nice and flat on top

I then carefully cut around the top of one, hacked out most of the crumb and, for my dinner, had this filled with leftover bolognaise sauce (to which I’d added red kidney beans, chunks of seitan and curry sauce) and had this with oven chips. 

I tried to leave a 1cm thick edge all the way round

This was well worth doing. The bread was so tasty, that for supper last night I hacked out the top of the second roll, removed the crumb and ate it on its own. (I can’t recall ever doing that before!) The second bowl I had for lunch today - again filled with curry.

I want to try these again with a more liquid filling. Not really a soup fan, but I'll happily experiment in the interests of science!

SPLIT PEA SOUP (vegan) - why have I waited so long

29th December 2013

I have just finished my first split pea soup for many years - a bowlful leftover from yesterday's evening meal. And I'm filled with regret that the last spoonful has just disappeared…

I was looking in the back of a top shelf of a cupboard for a container to put some lentils in, when I came across a jar containing some old split peas. I've no idea how old they were, but they must have been 5 years old, at least. 

OK, I thought, I'll give these a go!

VEGAN PARKIN - the concise recipe (And Ginger Cake)

(The story behind this recipe.) (Ginger cake recipe at the foot of this post)

Simple Parkin (vegan)

Ingredients:

100g porridge oats

100g wholemeal flour (for a gluten-free (ish) version, substitute with Dove's gluten free flour)

2 and 1/2 tsps baking powder

4 tsps ground ginger

1 tsp mixed spice

100g sugar

100g blackstrap molasses (or treacle if you can’t find molasses)

220g lukewarm water

25g vegetable oil

Method:

•       Preheat the oven to 180C [or see microwave version below - recommended]

•       Measure the oats, flour, sugar, baking powder, ginger and mixed spice and stir to distribute the ingredients

•       Gently heat the molasses and water together to approximately blood heat and add to dry ingredients

•       Add the oil to the mix and stir – initially with a large spoon or spatula, then with a whisk

•       Pour in to an oiled and lined 20cm (8” inch) cake tin

•       Put in the oven and cook for between 35-40 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean

•       Leave on a cooling rack in the tin for ten minutes

Turn out on to the cooling tray

With a traditional parkin it is recommended you leave it for several days to mature. This is supposed to enhance the taste. I’ve no idea whether this works with this recipe – as, in this house, the parkin disappears very quickly after cooling. It is simply gorgeous from the moment it is cool enough to eat.

The only way I’ve found not to gorge on this cake is to, as soon as possible, cut it into, say, 50g pieces, then put them in the freezer. This way I can allow myself one piece per day.

If anyone has the strength and fortitude to keep the parkin for several days to see if it does in fact improve with keeping, I’d be very glad to hear from them!

Variation: For a gluten free version of this, simply use Dove’s gluten free flour in place of the wholemeal flour - and you'll need GF oats.

27th July.
Following a conversation on the Wildfood forum about microwaving carrot cake, I decided I'd try this with parkin.

I put my 800w microwave on for 3 minutes - and the parkin looked like this:

Baked in the oven my silicon cake form contains the parkin easily - but it rose much more in the microwave, as you can see! 

Once it's turned out onto the cooling rack, you can't tell the difference between a cake made in the oven - or in the microwave!

Comparing the two methods of baking:
40 minutes in the oven (with 10 minutes warm-up time), as against 6 minutes in the microwave - and you get a better risen cake!

Ginger cake (latest attempt below)

Ingredients:

200g s/raising flour

100g sugar

4-5 tsps ground ginger

1 tsp mixed spice

100g blackstrap molasses (or treacle if no molasses)

300g water

Method:

Measure the flour, sugar, ginger and mixed spice and stir to distribute the ingredients

•       Gently heat the molasses and water together to approximately blood heat and add to dry ingredients

•       Add the oil to the mix and stir – initially with a large spoon or spatula, then with a whisk

•       Pour in to 20cm (8” inch) silicon cake former
•       Place in the (800W) microwave for approx 8 minutes

Latest variation - 8th Feb 2020

This was merely leaving out the sugar and doubling up the blackstrap molasses. Gives a deeper flavour, I feel.

PIKELETS (FREEFORM CRUMPETS) - CHEAP AND CHEERFUL!

June 2010.

Placed in the frying pan, a dessertspoon at a time

Oops, seems to be one missing!

There are few things easier than making pikelets (free-form crumpets).  It’s a good way into breadmaking for a beginner.

100ml lukewarm water

1/2 teaspoon yeast – any kind 

Enough strong (breadmaking) flour - around 50g - to make a thickish batter

(Check here for a gluten-free version.)

Start by making a thick paste, then gradually stir in more water to the water/yeast/flour mixture, to make a batter. 

When you're ready to go, lightly oil a frying pan and place over a medium heat.

When the pan is warm enough, place a spoonful of batter in the frying pan to see if the batter is the right consistency. If they spread across your frying pan the batter is too thin and you’ll need to add some more flour to thicken it. Cook them until the top has turned pale and is set in a mass of tiny holes.

As soon as the top is dry – and not before – turn them over to cook on the other side. They should be nicely brown on both sides.

Keep them warm in a folded cloth until they are all done.

For fruit pikelets, as in the pic, add a handful of sultanas after you’ve mixed the batter.

I made these last night and had half the batter left over for this morning’s breakfast. The fruit plumps up lovely.

Note:
These can also be made with self raising flour - in which case, simply mix the batter and go straight ahead.

Tuesday 22nd October 2019

Deciding to go a little bit healthier, I thought I'd make these with wholemeal flour (Doves organic - very tasty).  What stops me making these more often is just laziness - after dinner I generally can't be bothered, but there really is nothing to it. And if I have everything prepped beforehand, I've no excuse.

So this morning, I mixed 4 heaped dsps of w/m flour + 1 dsp sugar (optional, hence the 'almost' above), with enough water to make a thickish batter and a handful of sultanas. I added half a teaspoon of fresh yeast - but half a tsp of baking powder would serve just as well, added just before cooking - stirred it and left it for this evening.

Saturday 28th January 2017

Been making ginger pikelets, recently. Instead of sultanas, I've used chrystallised ginger, chopped into small pieces - and I've added a teaspoon of ground ginger to the batter. Simply wonderful!

Monday 23rd January 2012

Following a discussion on the BBC Food board last night, I made a batch of these, some of which I had last night, and another batch of which I've just eaten for breakfast. 

(When starting a sourdough culture, you're asked to discard part of it regularly during the early stages. However, this discard makes excellent pikelets.)

In the light of this I've updated the recipe (see below) - and I took several more pics:

The first two were cooked on top and the rest are just drying from the sides 

The third one turned over and the others continuing to dry from the edges 

All done - perhaps a little on top...

...and covered with marmalade. Breakfast is ready!

Have to admit I found it hard to resist eating these just as soon as they come out of the frying pan. Had some for my pudding tonight, made some for my wife and made enough for tomorrow's breakfast.

A VEGAN DIET AND FASTING - BOTH CAN HELP TREAT ARTHRITIS

(21/10/14)
Often, when there's not a lot on the box and I have time to kill, I google the word 'Fasting' or 'plant based diet', followed by a condition, or an activity or somesuch.

I saw my GP last week for something minor and I just happened to mention that my arthritis had been in abeyance for several years. It was just a throwaway remark along with all the other subjects we'd been discussing.

But later I began to think about this, and realised that my arthritis, which had steadily been getting ever so slightly (but significantly) worse - until I stopped eating meat and dairy foods and became a vegan. Since then, while there has been no real improvement in my condition (apart from the amelioration of pain I gained from acupuncture), it hasn't deteriorated in the slightest. In fact, apart from the swelling in most of the joints of my fingers, it would be difficult to tell I had arthritis at all!

So I searched for  'Plant-based diet and arthritis', and found this article which more or less explains why my arthritis has been stable for the past ten or so years. And why fasting, in conjunction with a plant-based diet is beneficial.

Here's the story of someone who has benefited from giving up meat, dairy and eggs.

It's well worth looking through all the success stories on the 'Forks over Knives' website. 

It seems to make perfect sense to me. Thoughts, anyone?

THE EASIEST PASTRY YOU'LL EVER MAKE - and it's vegan!

A Thai chilli non carne pie!

The other half ended up in the freezer

As a vegan, I often find myself thinking out of the box, and here's a pastry which uses no milk, butter, marge or lard. Consequently, there is no need for that tiresome technique known as 'rubbing in' which is supposed to make something like 'breadcrumbs'. 

No need, either, for resting the pastry in the fridge - this is a 'quick pastry'. Or for 'baking blind' - there's no need for any of that faff. Instead, the ingredients are mixed into a dough - kneaded for a few seconds to distribute the ingredients properly - then rolled out and popped into a pie dish. If there is an easier method, I'd like to hear of it!

GARLIC BATONS - in the oven and frying pan (Vegan)

Saturday 1st July 2017
Since I began teaching at Taunton Association of the Homeless, a couple of years ago, I've made quite a bit of bread in a frying pan, along with the students. When they find accommodation, they may not always have an oven, but they may well have a hob and a frying pan. 

Last week the students on my current Burnham breadmaking opted to make garlic batons, as below, in the oven. So I wanted to see how these would fare, making them in a frying pan.

I used self raising flour, as I often do, these days:
Put the frying pan on a medium heat
100g s/raising flour
Pinch of salt
65ml water

Mixed into a dough and kneaded for a minute or two
Roll out into a rectangle a bit shorter than the frying pan

Garlic spread:
3 cloves garlic, smashed 
Heaped dessertspoon vegan spread -mixed together

Spread the garlic, et, over the dough and roll it up tightly.

Using a little flour and a rolling pin, flatten the dough and place it in the frying pan with a lid of some sort. Bake for 4 minutes each side - the colour should finish up a golden brown. 

Not like this one...

I baked it too long on both sides.

Still tasted gorgeous, though!

I made one for my neighbour - his verdict was, "Stunning!"

Sometime back in 2011.
Whenever I'm offered garlic bread at a gathering it's almost inevitably a supermarket baguette, cut into chunks, slathered with butter and garlic and baked for a while. It's OK, but it doesn't have the depth of flavour of these batons, where the bread and the filling are cooked together. Vary the filling as you will, with herbs, pesto, etc. As a vegan, I use olive oil instead of butter.

Garlic batons. Dough rolled out flat, covered with mashed garlic and olive oil, then rolled up like a Swiss roll

This method infuses the whole loaf with garlic

Ingredients:

400g strong white flour of your choice

1/2 teaspoon salt

250ml lukewarm water

1 rounded dessertspoon fresh yeast

Good splash of olive oil

Filling:

Garlic spread made with around a dozen or so cloves of garlic, peeled and squashed, and olive oil to taste. Mix in any herbs or spices you fancy. Spread with pesto to give it a bit more oomph.

Method:

1. Measure the water and stir in the fresh yeast. Place the flour and salt into a mixing bowl, pour in the yeast liquid, then add the olive oil.

2. Have a little water to hand to add if necessary, remember, it is better for your dough to be wetter (slack) rather than drier (tight). Begin to mix by stirring the ingredients together with a knife, cutting through the dough. When it gets too stiff for the knife, use your hand to squeeze the mixture together. As it forms into a solid mass, keep turning it over and pressing it down to pick up the flour at the bottom of the bowl – but make sure it stays soft. Don’t be afraid to add more water to keep it soft! When all the flour has been mixed in, wipe the bowl around with the dough, turn it out onto the worktop and begin to knead.

3. Knead by stretching the dough out, folding it over, stretching it out and so on and so forth. Do this until it is smooth – or until you get fed up! Either leave it, covered, for an hour or so, or go to step 4.

4. Divide the dough in two and form each piece into a round bap shape. Roll each piece out into a large rectangle – about 20cm by 30cm on a floured worktop. Spread the filling all over the dough and roll each piece up like a Swiss roll, with the seam side underneath. Gently tuck the ends underneath to stop any leakage. (You’ll still get a bit.) Place them on a baking sheet lined with baking parchment.

5. Leave to prove until they have risen appreciably.

6. Bake at 220C, 425F or gas mark 7 for between 15-20 minutes. Look for colour underneath.