Family Food, Fibre and Everyday Wellbeing at Chickpea Hub

Last week was busy but nourishing in the Chickpea Hub household.

It began with a vet visit for our cat (an absolute star, thanks to Black Bean), followed by dog walks, orthodontist appointments, and the usual juggling of shopping, meal prep, and cooking around everyone’s schedules.

What we ate this week

Meals included:

• One-pot beef and lentil lasagne – a firm favourite

• Gnocchi puttanesca – surprisingly popular

• Coconut King Pawns – cautiously accepted

• Chilli crab and sweet corn noodles – mixed reviews

• Zaatar salmon – enjoyed, though the latecomers missed the tzatziki

• Carrot and potato soup – apparently the best yet

• Butternut squash – a seasonal regular, cooked beautifully

The butternut squash seeds are now drying for next season, and potatoes are sprouting on the window sills. It all sounds smooth, but fitting meals around work, school, and days off is always a challenge.

The fibre focus

This week I adapted recipes from the January Waitrose magazine with fibre firmly in mind. While eating 30 different plants a week is no longer difficult in our house, reaching the recommended 30g of fibre a day still takes intention.

My aim was to build meals to around 10g of fibre per portion, using simple additions like pulses, whole grains, nuts, or a high-fibre snack afterwards—often just a pear or an apple.

Even the BBC highlighted fibre recently, reminding us that it supports not only digestion but also heart health and cholesterol management, yet many people still fall short of the recommended intake.You can read the article here:👉 BBC Science Focus – Fibre and cholesterolhttps://www.sciencefocus.com/the-human-body/diet-change-lower-cholesterol-fibre/

Behind the scenes at Chickpea Hub

Alongside cooking and testing fibre targets, I’ve been working on some practical business milestones—creating my first Chickpea Hub flyers and preparing an advert for Elmbridge Magazine. Slightly outside my comfort zone, but an exciting step nonetheless.

An Unplugged moment

I’m currently reading Unplugged, which raised some eye-opening points. One study by the Environmental Protection Agency found that adults spend 93% of their time indoors, while the average child spends less than 30 minutes a day outside.

The book also highlights how accessible basic health and fitness markers can be:

• VO₂ max can be estimated using simple walking, running, or rowing tests

• Grip strength can be measured with an inexpensive handheld dynamometer

• Body composition can be roughly estimated using skinfold calipers

• Leg and ankle strength can be assessed using simple functional movements

A personal note on grip strength

On a personal level, I’ve been working on grip strength by hanging from a cross bar and gradually increasing bungy-rope assisted pull-ups. Nothing fancy—just consistency and slow progression.

Grip strength is increasingly recognised as a simple but powerful marker of overall strength and longevity. It’s also closely linked to bone health and fall prevention, as stronger hands, arms, and upper body support balance, confidence, and our ability to stabilise ourselves if we trip or lose footing.

These themes feel particularly relevant following my recent open evening at FIT Partners in Esher, where future workshops with expert practitioners are planned. Practical strength, recovery, movement, and resilience are likely to come up more as those sessions develop—and they sit very naturally alongside nutrition when we think about long-term wellbeing.

For anyone curious, physiotherapist Will Harlow, author of Thriving Over 50 (high on my reading list as I steadily approach that milestone myself), demonstrates simple ways to assess leg strength in this video:👉 https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2205399969887164

A note on rhythm and real life

In all fairness, The Night Manager has been cutting into my circadian rhythm last week. It’s a good reminder that knowing what’s good for us and consistently doing it are not the same thing. As work patterns, daily demands, and our wider environment pull us in different directions, staying aligned with our own rhythms becomes an ongoing challenge.

Small anchors—like regular mealtimes, daylight exposure, and nourishing food that supports energy and digestion—can help, but perfection isn’t the goal. Awareness, adaptability, and a bit of self-compassion go a long way.

Final thoughts

Between family meals, fibre tweaks, movement habits, and building Chickpea Hub behind the scenes, this week was a good reminder that wellbeing is built through small, repeatable actions, not perfection.

As always, it’s about finding what fits real life—and enjoying it along the way.