With effective planning and a good understanding of what makes up a healthy, balanced vegan diet, you can often get all the vitamins and minerals your body needs to be healthy without having to rely on daily supplements.

On the other hand if you have a busy schedule or find it hard to plan a properly balanced diet you could be missing out on essential nutrients your body needs. Vegans in particular need to ensure they get enough iron, calcium and vitamin B12.

What are the main things we need for a balanced diet?

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If you’re a keen runner, few things are more frustrating than getting an injury. Sadly, it’s an all-too-common problem for joggers. The feet and knees are particularly vulnerable, and something like a fractured metatarsal or strained ligament can put you out of action for weeks. It’s certainly not ideal when you’re training for a big event (and speaking of big events – sign up here if you don’t want to miss the deadline for event ballots again)!

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Dating in your 40s isn’t the same as dating in your teens or 20s. In some ways it’s a lot easier (who’d want to be a teenager again, going through all that hassle with boys? Aieeeee) and in some ways it’s more difficult. I’m not exactly an expert on dating in my 40s (or in any other decade, to be honest) but here’s a few thoughts on mature dating:

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My brother used to be some kind of Essex golf champion. Every week he’d come home with another trophy and I’d be paid about 5p to polish them all. After one tournament, he won a REALLY big trophy – so big my mum gave it pride of place on the mantelpiece so anyone who walked past the house could stop and admire it and say, ‘Ooh, look, some kind of Essex golf champion must live there, how exciting’. It also, of course, acted as a huge silver beacon for any passing burglars but this was quiet, leafy surburbia and burglars hadn’t reached our part of town yet.

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