Dagging Out and on being a "Dirty Diana"

I have a confession to make - when it's cold outside (well by Queensland standards anyway) and raining, I love nothing more than to dag out inside wearing holey tracky daks and old TShirts and my fluffy slippers. I must look quite a sight, but I am as happy as a pig in mud and love getting all contented reading bits and pieces and sipping a cup of tea. Today has been that sort of day - had a cancellation and got to train Shelley (I am currently waiting for a post describing what she thinks of straight arm lat pull downs and whether she's bringing her mixing bowl with her oats in it to Hi Performance tomorrow). I went and did the grocery shopping (reminder to myself - take a list next time - through my own stupidity I now have 6 cartons of eggs in the fridge - frittata city here we come!) Then I stretched out, answered some emails and read the paper in my dag out ensemble - couldn't have been better.

Tonight was a different story - had to do an RPM fill for a dear friend and who does RPM at 6pm Friday night? Most of Fitness First apparently! Absolutely smashed myself silly which felt awesome and can't wait to do it all over again tomorrow. Am starting to feel a bit weary though now - nothing one of Kerryn's Lindor Balls (how did you know?? ) won't fix.

I've also been mulling over all of the competition preps I have done this year and come up with the conclusion that if you keep your diet a bit "dirty" you more often than not come up with the better results - I think that knowing that you don't have to give up your favourite foods and that you are following a set of guidelines rather than hard and fast rules works very well for most competitors and transformationists alike. Which is why I enjoyed Kerryn's posts about her chocolate souffles so much - yes, she was eating them in the final week and enjoying an Indian meal on the Saturday beforehand - she had arrived in terms of leanness the week before and all we had to do was cruise in for the final week. My other client Caryn, had pasta , which most competitors would consider a no no on the Tuesday prior to her win in the INBA Vics last Saturday - again reaching the required levels of leanness was no problem with her balanced food intake.

Which leads me to my own personal theory that eating super super clean can be detrimental to a transformation or a competition prep. I read so many posts on various forums and blogs about people feeling virtuous because they've meticulously consumed all their vegetables (which isn't in inself a bad thing) , good fats and proteins (which isn't bad either), taken all of their supplements (which isn't so terrible either) - but I think the combination of all and trying to be "perfect" takes a toll on those trying to live that way. For example during my first comp prep I had to go up to Woop Woop to check out our housing situation. There was little good stuff up there and in the end I had to eat what the locals had on offer - if I had decided, for example that only organic yoghurt would do, then I'm sure I would have burned up bucketloads of muscle by stressing that I could only get the artificially sweetened diet stuff and that all that phenylalanine was going to kill me. A focus on keeping nutrition "pure" is not only stressful, it's unhealthy - if you can't switch gears and go for the dirty stuff now and again and if your digestive system has become so rarified you can't enjoy a gorgeous restaurant meal, it's time to rethink what you're doing.

I know that I have at times got myself caught up in the clean eating bandwagon - and for the most part I enjoy eating healthy whole foods - but I also enjoy a daily Pepsi Max and I hate eating vegetables at breakfast. Sometimes I don't eat starchy carbs after a workout and sometimes I have oats for dinner because that's what I feel like! I hate being told what I have to eat and what supplements I need to take. I eat well because I enjoy it and when I want to be a Dirty Diana and have a Pepsi Max and a Slim Secrets bar together - I do so and enjoy every mouthful. Having this balance is what has got me on stage so successfullyand keeps me successful in the long term.

I'm choosing a lifestyle, not a diet - one where I can wake up every day and know that I can live and enjoy it for the rest of my days! I train because I want to and I teach others how to train so that they can live lean and love their life too. Nothing better than sharing knowledge and sharing the love.