MAKING IT EASY!
Gail Bailey catches up with one half of the Hairy Bikers, Dave Myers, to chat about their latest book and their visit to Westholme School next month
Described as ‘big-hearted, down-to-earth cooks’ the Hairy Bikers latest book The Hairy Dieters Make It Easy is a godsend for that age-old problem of how to maintain your ideal weight once you’ve achieved it – as all too easily the scales can quickly begin to creep back up!
Dave Myers and Si King met over 20 years ago by chance on a TV set – Si working as a locations manager and assistant director and Dave as a make-up artist specialising in prosthetics, and quickly realised they had shared interests – namely a love of motorbikes and food. As they began to keep in contact and chat by email the concept of the Hairy Bikers began to form and their first TV show ‘Motorbikes, Food and the Search for Nirvana’ was aired in 2005, followed by three further series, and the rest, as they say, is history.
With a career that then combined TV and book publishing it was in Turin filming ‘Bakeation’ that the trigger for a change in lifestyle came: “Whilst there, we both felt boiling hot and uncomfortable and when I had to ask Si for one of his high blood pressure tablets as I’d run out, we realised it was time to change,” says Dave.
Since shedding the weight (both Dave and Si lost three stone each) they have produced a diet book every year.
“There are no mysteries to losing weight – put less in and do more!” says Dave who explains the importance of calorie counting, without losing the element of good taste. There aren’t any calories in flavour and we needed a diet that was no sacrifice to taste and satisfaction. The beauty of this latest book is that there aren’t too many ingredients and it’s not too challenging – but the ethos running through it is to keep the weight off!”
Busy modern lives often mean there can be an over-reliance on convenience foods, which may well account for the rise in obesity in the UK that leads to a host of health-related conditions. While women seem to have always been happy to discuss weight issues and dieting, men now too are becoming more educated and feeling the benefits of shedding the pounds.
“Substantial weight loss can have a positive impact on both high blood pressure and diabetes for some, and with men having higher rates of insulin dependent diabetes than women, this can only be a good thing,” says Dave.
Dave and Si have each other, plus their publishers, to help keep them on track and that support is immeasurable as Dave says: “We often have to spend a lot of time in the car or on a train travelling between shows and appointments. If one of us tries to nip off and buy some snacks (which was often a 40 pack of cocktail sausages) we will give each other ‘the look’!”
The pair feel they have become better cooks because of the weight loss and think much more now about the ingredients they use. Dave’s favourite dish from the new book is garlic chicken, marinated in lemon and served with kale and cannellini beans drizzled with a sherry or red wine vinaigrette – follow this with a microwave mug cake, also from the book, which takes just 90 secs to cook and only 175 calories – what’s not to like! The book also includes exotic dishes such as a Hawaiian avocado poke (pronounced POH-keh) bowl and a delicious traditional apple strudel.
In 2012 the Hairy Bikers first diet book, The Hairy Dieters – How to Love Food and Lose Weight, toppled Fifty Shades of Grey from the top of the best sellers list. Dave explained what it is about their books that keep them at the top of the charts: “The recipes just work. Si and I hope we have the knack of making something that people want to eat. In book two we made a diet donner kebab – who’d have thought that could be healthy, but we made sure it was and our key rule is that taste is always the most important factor.”
This principle means that the pair are happy to take feedback so that by the time the recipes are published they have been through two or three sets of hands, with Dave and Si keen to take advice.
“This book is full of tips and tricks with family favourites for everyone to enjoy,” says Dave. “Of all the books written this will be the one on people’s shelves, full of post-it notes and covered in juice!”
DATE FOR YOUR DIARY
The Hairy Bikers will be at Westholme School in Blackburn on 13th June at 7pm talking about their new book in the Croston Theatre.
Entrance is £16.99 (excluding booking fee) and includes a copy of the The Hairy Dieters Make It Easy, which can be signed on the night.
For tickets visit: www.silverwoodevents.co.uk
