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For years, I’ve steered as far away from cycling as possible. Seriously, friends and partners have tried to force me to do it, but I have an aversion in me that I simply can’t shake no matter what.

Lately, though, something has shifted. Maybe it’s the endless tube strikes, the heatwave, or the sheer cost (monetary and mental) of commuting in, but I just can’t hack it anymore.

It’s gotten so bad that I’m even considering starting cycling to work. There’s just one problem: I have absolutely no idea where to begin.

Although I can ride a bike (to the surprise of everyone I know) I would have no clue when it comes to buying the right one for cycling, let alone all the other bits and bobs I’d need.

If, like me, you’re considering getting into commuter cycling for the first time, I consulted Josh Hale, general manager of London-based bike shop, Quella, for his tips.

First, the bike. The last time I owned a bike was at school, so I am well and truly out of my depth.

Although there are lots of different types of bike out there, Hale suggests finding one that fits you and your needs.

“When purchasing your first bike, the most important thing is finding one that suits both your body and the type of riding you plan to do,” he says.

“The right bike should make you feel stable, comfortable and in control. To find the right size, you should be able to stand over the frame with a small amount of clearance and reach the handlebars comfortably without feeling overstretched. Your elbows should have a slight bend, rather than being fully extended, to help you ride comfortably and confidently.”

The kind of cycling you’ll be doing matters as much as the fit of the bike, he explains. “Are you planning to commute to work, ride around town or head out on weekend adventures? The bike and tyres you choose should reflect how and where you’ll be riding.

“For example, if you have a relatively flat commute, a single-speed bike can be an excellent choice thanks to its simplicity and low maintenance. If your route includes hills, however, a geared bike will make climbing much easier.”

If you’re still not sure you fully understand road biking, we asked Hale to explain the difference between commuter cycling and more adventurous mountain cycling to make sure you use the right kind of bike.

“Road and mountain cycling require different setups because the environments place different demands on both the rider and the bike,” he says.

“Road bikes are designed for efficiency and speed, with a more aerodynamic riding position, narrower tyres and lightweight frames that perform best on smooth surfaces.

“Mountain bikes, on the other hand, are built for control and durability. They feature wider, grippier tyres, suspension and a more upright riding position to provide greater stability over uneven terrain.”

Andy Burnham has promised to “end rough sleeping” in the UK in his first speech as prime minister.

The Makerfield MP said he was “acutely aware” he is the seventh UK prime minister in a decade, and that this is a “moment for reflection and new resolution”.

Speaking from Downing Street, he said he will unveil a 10-year plan to improve life in the UK.

He also promised to set out some of his fully-costed proposals to help ease the cost of living in the UK on Tuesday.

Burnham made his first official pledge as prime minister in promising to end rough sleeping across the country, too.

Speaking shortly after Keir Starmer gave his own farewell speech in Downing Street, the Makerfield MP said: “Britain needs to show the world that we can regain our stability once again, and that is our challenge – to make politics work, to make it work better.

“I know people at home are fed up with politics. I hear you. I want to be honest with you, we have not been good enough and we need to be better. We will be.

“We will make this moment a circuit-breaker for Britain, bringing forward the biggest changes for the last 40 years.”

He promised a new political and economic model via devolution, and criticised the way political power had been centralised in the last few decades.

He said: “Many [areas] feel they are still in decline, and they don’t have the ability to turn things around. That’s why we will change politics.”

The prime minister vowed to make politics “more collaborative” and “more about problem-solving than point-scoring.”

He also promised to put “life’s essentials under stronger public control” and re-industrialise Britain.

Burnham concluded his first speech by promising to “give it my all”, and urging the public to “pull with me” to “build a new national sense of unity, of common purpose and positivity”.

Listen to Commons People, the podcast that makes politics easy. Every week, Kevin Schofield and Kate Nicholson unpack the week’s biggest stories to keep you informed. Join us for straightforward analysis of what’s going on at Westminster.

We’ve written before at HuffPost UK about the fruits and vegetables most linked to disease prevention. In fact, some research suggests that eating three portions of vegetables a day and two portions of fruit is linked to a longer life (though 70% of us don’t actually manage to hit those goals).

Worse, what “counts” as a vegetable for these purposes, as well as what a serving actually entails, can be more confusing than you might expect.

The World Health Organisation says we should eat 400g of fruits and vegetables a day, a suggestion which has been packaged as “five-a-day” campaigns in places like the UK. That means you’d actually need to eat two of some smaller fruits, e.g. clementines, to consume a single portion.

And even though they’re technically classed as vegetables, some produce doesn’t “count” towards your five-a-day at all.

While a potato is a vegetable, it doesn’t count as a serving of your five a day.

That’s not because it’s not a vegetable (it is), but because some research shows it doesn’t give you as many health benefits as others.

Studies have found that eating certain fruits and vegetables may reduce the risk of death from chronic diseases like diabetes, heart disease and cancer.

But there were exceptions to this rule: fruit juices and starchy vegetables.

As they may not contribute as well to the health goals campaigns like five a day are designed to help us reach, or due to their nutritional make-up, these are usually left out of the program’s recommendations.

Fruit juices, vegetable juices and smoothies are only ever counted as one of your five-a-day, the NHS says, no matter how much of them you drink.

They added that we should stay under 150ml a day, because these beverages are often lower in fibre and higher in sugar.

Meanwhile, foods like potatoes, which are classed as a “starchy food”, don’t count at all because “when they’re eaten as part of a meal they’re usually used in place of other sources of starch, such as bread, rice or pasta”.

Other examples of vegetables that wouldn’t be counted include:

1. Potatoes
2. Yams
3. Cassava
4. Plantain

There is some evidence to suggest that peas and sweetcorn might confer fewer health benefits, but the NHS still counts these as one of your five-a-day.

Interestingly, sweet potatoes, parsnips, swedes and turnips do still count, because they’re usually eaten alongside the starchy part of your dinner.

Just because a vegetable doesn’t contribute towards your five-a-day does not mean it’s unhealthy. Far from it, in fact – a lot of people in the UK rely on potatoes for their vitamin C intake, for example, and the tubers are a great source of fibre too.

Nuts don’t count as your five-a-day either, but eating them every day has been linked to a longer, healthier life.

In other words, this isn’t about avoiding foods off the “five-a-day” list. Just try to eat them alongside the suggested intake of other fruits and vegetables, too.

Christopher Nolan has claimed that bringing the cyclops to life in his new movie The Odyssey is “right at the top” of the most difficult technical tasks he’s come across in his directing career.

As ever, Nolan tried to eschew green screen technology and CGI as much as possible in his adaptation of the Ancient Greek epic, instead relying on practical effects and filming on location.

This included when it came to the cyclops sequence in The Odyssey, which the Oscar winner has said he achieved through the use of both puppetry and animatronics.

“Everything about the Cyclops sequence is aimed at trying to imagine: what would this be like in real life?” Nolan told Empire last month.

“Not approaching it from a storybook or cartoony point of view, but really trying to be in there with Odysseus and his men. It’s a horrifying situation.”

To pull it off, he reunited with the actor Bill Irwin, who previously puppeteered and lent his voice to the robot TARS in Nolan’s movie Interstellar.

“Bill was doing voices and noises and was with us that entire time,” the filmmaker added.

Meanwhile, in a junket interview with reporter Jake Hamilton, Nolan opened up more about the “terrifying challenge” of creating the 60-foot cyclops character.

“I wanted to tell the story with a credible tone,” he said. “My rule of thumb for everybody involved in the film was ‘give them a reason to believe’.

“You know, as the movie goes on, we want to see extraordinary things, we want to go to extraordinary places. So, we need a reason to believe.”

He continued: “We’re going to real places, we’re shooting real things as much as possible. And the cyclops is the first pure fantasy element that comes into the film, so how do we give that some kind of reality?”

Nolan said that he “used every trick in the book”, including “all these different techniques, from puppetry to animatronics”, but said the “smartest thing I did” was to get Bill Irwin to help “find this guy from the inside”.

“We need a performer at the heart of it,” Nolan reasoned. “It’s one of the most challenging things that I’ve been involved with.”

After the interviewer admitted to feeling sorry for the cyclops by the end of the scene, the Oppenheimer director noted: “I learned from my friend Guillermo Del Toro that a monster is never just a monster – and that’s something he’s brought to his own work in a major way.

“It’s really about finding the individual behind that, and, in that way, presenting a more real and a more threatening [character]. The cyclops is a real individual, it’s a real character that Bill’s been able to create with everybody else involved in the film.”

Leading man Matt Damon also spoke about the scene with Amy Poehler on her podcast Good Hang.

“[Nolan] does as little special effects as humanly possible,” he claimed. “You can do quite a bit without CGI. He understands what year he lives in and has the absolute best special effects teams, they really help try to figure out how we can do just about everything in-camera.”

Elsewhere in his Empire interview, Nolan admitted that the on-location shoot for the cyclops sequence presented some real-life hurdles that he hadn’t prepared for.

“It got pungent,” he admitted, referring to the 40-strong herd of sheep also featured in the scene. “Yeah, it got very, very dank and smelly after a time.

“But I’ve built a lot of caves before – shooting in a real cave, the feeling is utterly different. Once the rock is moved across the door and you’re in the dark, it’s very, very oppressive. It gave it a sense of reality.”

Matt also shared: “At the cave mouth, there was a buzzing. And you can hear it in the movie, because there were thousands of bees right at the mouth of the cave. You had to walk through this curtain of bees to get in.”

The Odyssey is in cinemas now. Read HuffPost UK’s extensive round-up of behind-the-scenes facts about the making of the film here.