My New Year resolution? Well, to be honest, I've got quite a few. Start running seriously again, stop drinking alcohol during the week and, most of all, eat a better breakfast every day. I've an unhealthy addiction to scrambled eggs, which means I'm taking in lots of protein but also too much fat in the mornings - not the best way to start the day.

 

I don't want to overdo it on the carbs either so want to avoid simply eating toast. Plus I'm not a big cereal fan, though I remember being given some granola at my Godfather's house in Edinburgh and absolutely loving the stuff. So I recently tried out some LoveDean granola (www.lovedeanlarder.co.uk) and it's absolutely fab. It comes in three different varieties - I went for the apple and date, which is also full of oats, nuts, seeds and other extra healthy ingredients. So, from now on, you can expect me to be eating granola with yoghurt and honey for breakfast. With eggs on a sunday, just as a treat...

 

Now all I have to do is cut out the weekday wine and start doing the 15 mile runs again, and I'll be well on my way...

 

Ross

 

LoveDean will soon be on sale in Fortnum & Masons, Whole Foods, Daylesford Organics and Selfridges.

 

With all the recent commotion over food labeling, wouldn't it be great if we had control over what manufacturers put in our grub? Well, now one such company has allowed some regular folks to do just that. Eat Natural, makers of the best cereal bars on the market (in my humble opinion, anyway) have put together a panel to design and approve new products. Good for them, I hear you say. But there's an added twist - all the members of the panel are kids. But, seeing as obesity is a, ahem, growing problem among the nation's kids, this makes perfect sense to us. The group of upstarts are allowed to have the final say over what goes into the snacks (we presume this doesn't mean chocolate, wine gums and other bad things...).

 

Being an ultra-modern interweb company and all that stuff, we've got this great bit of audio in which the wee nippers talk about being given such an amazing opportunity. Awww.

 

 

We love getting feedback from our readers, so please continue to send your comments, views, thoughts and feelings! However, I must confess it was a bit of a tough old month for me after I wrote an article about the new wave of hair trend sweeping celebrity, that being: the blunt fringe.

 

Now don't get me wrong, I don't believe (as was suggested by some) that anyone, let alone me, has the right to say what everyone should look like. And of course we all know the world would be boring if we all looked the same. Which is precisely why it seems strange that as soon as one celeb dons a new hair cut (ie, Kate Moss in this instance) lots of others follow. It's like hopping on board the style express, and if you haven't got the right cut, you're not trendy. Which seems a bit daft.

 

We do like to be a bit provocative with our articles here at MSN, just to get our readers all talking, a bubble of conversation or debate is good and interesting. And despite what some readers thought about the piece, they were still interested enough to write a post on this blog about it, albeit anonymously. So a big thank you to everyone who called me a 'noob' (?) 'poo', 'nuts', 'jealous', 'stupid', told me to 'get a life' and (my all-time favourite) 'please die', I was touched. But you missed the point.

 

We all think about style and especially the people who read fashion and beauty sections of websites and magazines love to find out what's in vogue or what the latest trends are. The point of this feature was to say that what the world of celebrity dictates they are isn't necessarily right for everyone. A genuine thank you goes out to abs193 who hit the nail on the head when he said: "Just because something is fashionable at the moment, doesn't mean you have to do it."

 

And Bobbie who backed us up with "I think everyones opinions on here are absolutely pathetic....they are sayin that this aricle is sad n crap but why the blinkin ell r they takin time out of their lives to criticise it? At least whoever wrote the article got paid!! Anyway my opinion is that fringes are cool but not on every1! But write whateva u want, Im not losin no sleep, unlike others on here who sound like they r gna need anti depressants!!! lol"

 

OK I've said my piece. And the point is I do put my name to my articles, whether you agree with them or not. So it would be nice if people who posted on this here blog did the same. We're only interested in entertaining our lovely readers for a living.

 

And to anyone who was genuinely offended by the article, I am sorry, the point was not to offend people with certain hairstyles, but a culture of celebrity where everyone seems to copy one another. For my own part, I had a fringe for years (about an inch long, it looked ridiculous on me) but I know plenty of girls - and boys for that matter - who look fab with a fringe.

 

Bye for now,

 

Nic