The Final Countdown - 6 days to go

Weight : 55.4 kg (121.8 lb)
Yesterday's Food (without counting breakfast) : You have used 893 out of your net daily budget of 1400 calories and have 507 calories remaining. 25% of the calories are from fat, 40% from protein, 35% from carbs
Exercise : Walk
41 mins : 263 calories : 136 max : 114 average
Lower Body
43 mins : 347 calories : 166 max : 127 average

Yesterday I learnt two valuable lessons.

1. You can loosen the reigns a little on your diet (as in a buffet breakfast at the Stamford Plaza and then a larger quantity of food during the day) and not have a huge weight spike the next day by sticking to clean(ish) food.

I ate bircher muesli, dried fruit, nuts, whole poached eggs, full fat yogurt, berries, mushrooms and tomato for breakfast, some black and green chocolate for a treat and then chicken, eggs, fruit and vegetables for the rest of the day and I only went up 200g this morning which is more or less a normal fluctuation.

Ladies and gentlemen, it's quality not quantity. You can eat a few more calories than normal as long as it is good food without ill effects. This is a wonderful discovery - I should have had more treat meals that were lots of good healthy food rather than junk!

2. The reason why you can't stay at competition weight all year round is because it puts your muscles at risk. There are days, when for whatever reason, you don't eat enough or you expend more energy than you ingest. If you body has no fat reserves to call on for fuel at these times, you will burn up your hard earned muscle. This, in turn, will reduce the amount of calories you burn up on a normal day, and less muscle is the opposite of what you want to achieve for the next competition. I realise that not giving my body a chance to build more muscle or at least maintain it in the "off season" by staying as lean as possible is going to backfire. How do I know this - Lindy Olsen told me!

I'm off for an easy walk as Shelley is going to kill my legs in the gym tonight and then we are going to watch Today Tonight which will feature a story on the INBA competition on Saturday.

Have a great day.