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WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS GREECE
Friday 5-7-13-Day 1
What a magical experience, competing out in the open, under the stars in a Greek amphitheater with the crowd cheering and cameras flashing with athletes from all over the world being judged one against the other. The judging finishes. It’s about 1am Saturday when I return to the motel. Judging is still going on.
Saturday 6-7-13
The amphitheater is all of a buzz. Athletes are slapping bodies to enhance tan, smoothing on bikini bite, practicing posing, pumping up and changing costumes for different divisions. The air is electric. It’s now 9pm and athletes are coming and going on and off stage. The air is warm, the stars are bright. My anxiety is growing. It’s now 12.30am and I’m pacing up and down with number 116 pinned to my bikini. Not long to go now. Finally , I’m called. It’s 1.20 am. It’s just the routines to do tonight. Routines first and then the results. We wait in the wings and then we’re on. Masters Women is now in progress. Now it’s my turn. I do my routine to “Oh You Sexy Thing” by Hot Chocolate. The crowd goes wild. At the end of my routine the judges and many in the audience stand up and cheer. I’m living a dream! I’m stoked. Then, the announcement comes, “1st place in Grandmasters Women, Ultra Masters Women and Super Ultra Masters Women, Janice Lorraine!” I’m now standing on stage with three gold medals around my neck, cameras are clicking and my smile as wide as the Sydney Harbour Bridge. But what excites me even more is the number of female athletes that have come up to me and thanked me for showing them what is possible saying things like “I want to be like you when I’m 70” These words were music to my ears. So go girls and enjoy all of who you are! You’re not old at 30,40, 50, 60 or 70+. So go for it!
Sunday 7-7-13
Today I”m swimming in the Ionian Sea. What an experience! The water is the deepest blue and a light aqua colour near the beach. The water feels soft and the waves are full but gentle. I feel like I’m living dream. I’m off to a big INBA party tonight!
INBA ALL FEMALE CLASSIC
A couple of pictures before going on stage last Sunday. I fly out to Greece tomorrow for THE INBA WORLD PRO-AM CHAMPIONSHIPS. Wish me luck!
ALL FEMALE CLASSIC
What a day! It was like a fairy tale. I stood up on stage with four beautiful women 50+ I felt so proud of them. I came home with a trophy, First Place in the 70+ division. So girls the 70+ Division is now there. So go for it!
Keep striving to be all you can be. Keep striving to stay in control of how you age. Don’t ever let the sands of time or the expectations or unhelpful comments of others stop you from being all you can be.
I’m off to Greece on Sunday to compete in the WORLD PRO-AM CHAMPIONSHIPS. Who knows I might start a 70+ Internationally!
TEN DAYS TO GO
Only ten days to go before my first competition at age 70. I’ve been training so hard sometimes I feel a bit like “Rocky.” I’m happy with the results I’ve achieved and I’m happy to announce that I’ve noticed some considerable improvements in my physique.
Although I’ve been training consistently for 14 years I have put my all into my preparation for the upcoming competitions. The first comp is on 23rd June in Melbourne and the second one is in Zakinthos in Greece.
Although I’m very excited I’m also very nervous and a bit tired. I get up at 5am four days a week and workout at the gym for three hours. On the off days I usually walk 8km and do my usual push ups etc. In some ways I’m looking forward to scaling back my training a bit after the competitions.
By my competing at age 70 I’m hoping that those who fear older age will take heart by seeing that one doesn’t have to fall into frailty or melt into obscurity simply because one is older and that you can be feminine, muscular, in-shape and vital even at the age of 70. Go for it girls! Show how fantastic you can be!
EATING TIPS
Generally speaking we don’t think about how we eat. We picked up ways of eating when we were children and kept eating the same way. There are, however ways of eating that can help you to stay slim.
1. EAT SMALL MOUTFULLS: It’s difficult to really taste the food you’re eating when you are shovelling it in. If you eat more slowly you will be better able to appreciate the individual flavours and textures of the food and you’ll be less likely to over eat. Eating big mouthfuls quickly doesn’t allow your stomach enough time to tell your brain that you’ve had enough to satisfy your hunger, and so you over eat and most probably end up feeling bloated.
Learn to take small bites of food. You’ll not eat as much and you’ll enjoy the experience for longer and in social situations you’ll be able to eat less and not be conspicuous.
2. USE A SMALL UNTENSIL: Some people say, “If I ate with a small utensil I’d have to take twice as many mouthfuls.” If however these people tried eating with a small utensil they’d find they’d eat less and enjoy the experience more.
I always use a small utensil when eating. I eat my cereal with either a teaspoon or a parfait spoon. If I ever have a piece of cake I use a cake fork. Using a small utensil makes the enjoyment of eating a longer experience and as an added bonus I find I feel satisfied with less food. My armoury of a teaspoon, parfait spoon and cake fork works well for me.
3: CHEW MORE: Chew more and you will eat less. A correlation has been found between chewing and the amount of food necessary to switch off the hunger trigger. in short the more chewing you do the less you’ll need to eat to feel satisfied. As a general rule I choose food that requires more chewing. For instance I’d choose a biscuit over a piece of cake or raw vegetables over cooked vegetables.
If you do choose something that cannot be chewed, for example trifle, take a small portion and eat with a small utensil for example a cake fork or a small tea spoon and you’ll be surprised to find how much less trifle you’ll need to eat to feel satisfied.
Try these ways of eating. They work for me!
EAT ONLY WHEN HUNGRY
Many of us are attracted to the look of food or the idea of it and eat it, not because we are hungry, but because it is there, after which we feel bad and often extremely uncomfortable. Try not to eat when you are not hungry. It might be difficult at the time to refrain from eating what your mind is admiring but if you do not succumb you will feel great afterwards.
The first question to ask yourself when tempted by the idea of food is, “do I want that custard tart or those hot chips because I am hungry or do I want them because I like the idea of them.
The next question to ask yourself is, “if I ate that custard tart and those hot chips what would happen to them?
The chances are extremely high that, the custard tart and those hot chips would journey from your mouth to your belly and sit as extra fat in your Omentum and the more you succumb to eating when you’re not hungry the bigger your belly will become and the less healthy and less streamline you will be.
Retirement Options
I believe far more is possible and permissible for retirees than most people think. If you have a limited idea of what you can do, enjoy and achieve in retirement, you might think that the best thing to do is to stay in a job you hate and as a result, end up sentencing yourself to years of unnecessary drudgery when you could retire and be exploring and enjoying exciting activities and interests in a multitude of diverse areas. My Natural Bodybuilding adventures could be considered extraordinary or even ‘out of the box’ but my very different adventures in Natural Bodybuilding have clearly shown that far more is possible for retirees and for older people, particularly for older aged women than most people think. I hope that by doing what I have done and speaking about it as I am doing in the photo in this post, others will be encouraged to step outside the safety of the norm and pursue whatever it is they might want to pursue.
I believe we retirees need to develop a mindset that is open to the exploration of all possibilities, a mindset that invites exploration, adventure and living to the full.
Janice at 67
CONDIMENT DANGER
Some people say natural nude food is bland. The reason natural nude food seems bland to these people, is that their taste buds have been deadened by the excesses of sugar, salt and artificial flavourings in processed food.
The more salt, sugar and other additives we eat, the more deadened our taste buds become and the more addicted we become to the additives. By increasing the salt, sugar and flavouring levels in food, food manufacturers have been able to gradually decrease the nutritional content of their products without our noticing. By gradually replacing the nutritional content with condiments and the like manufacturers have been able to make a bigger profit. Have you noticed how much artificial flavourings and colours have increased in processed food over the years?
The good news is that you can reverse the deadening of the taste buds and get back the taste of natural nude food. It just takes a litle time and patience.
I experienced the deadening of my taste buds in relation to salt. Many years ago I used to sprinkle salt on my food and when I stopped adding salt, the food seemed to have no taste at all but after a relatively short amount of time without the salt I was able to enjoy the full flavour of natural nude food again.
Try and keep away from too much salt. Dr Trevor C Beard elaborates upon the dangers of salt in his book ‘Salt Matters, the killer condiment.” Some of the dangers he cites therein are, high blood pressure, calcium depletion and a reduction of bone mass! So take the time to adjust back to natural unprocessed nude food.
Natural Nude Food
I recommend you eat as much natural nude food as possible. Natural nude food is food that has not been processed and isn’t adorned with sauces, spices, or gravies. Natural nude food includes vegetables, fruit, nuts, eggs and unprocessed meat and cereals.
Natural nude food revitalises your body and assists your body to function and natural nude food also leaves little or no rubbish behind and it helps keep your body regular and your Omentum small. The Omentum is an organ positioned in front of your stomach. It acts something like a fish net catching unwanted food and storing it as fat. Consequently as the Omentum gathers more and more unwanted food your belly enlarges accordingly. An enlarged Omentum is very dangerous to your health and it’s not a good look!
So choose natural nude food as much as possible over processed food. Also processed food can be very high in sugar, fat and or salt. Excesses of sugar, fat and salt can be extremely damaging to your health.