Diet and athletic performance: an interview with Blake Worrall-Thompson on my work with the Roosters

Following on from my recent blog post on the work I did with the Sydney Roosters as their nutrition coach, I was recently interviewed  by Blake Worrall-Thompson who is the Director/Founder of Ministry of Wellbeing, a personal training organisation.

To view the interview on U-Tube click here.

Blake runs periodic "6 Weeks to Sexy" personal training programs aimed at females. For those who might be interested I encourage you to check  out Blake's website and/or contact him on: Phone: 0433 820 408 Web: www.ministryofwellbeing.com Email: blake@mowb.com.au Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/wellbeingbyblake Blog: http://www.wellbeingbyblake.com Instagram: blakewt1

I will be offering cooking classes to Blake's clients who are undertaking this 6 week program. Training becomes so much more effective when you combine it with eating the right foods. You can't out-train a poor diet.

Coincidentally, a couple weeks after I posted my article on the Sydney Roosters, an article was published in the USA on the Lakers who have also adopted a nutrient-dense traditional wholefoods diet under the guidance of their new nutrition coach. To view  the article on the Lakers click here. I find it interesting (but not surprising) that the new nutrition coach for the Lakers is  Catherine Shanahan who wrote “Deep Nutrition- Why our Genes need Traditional Foods”.  I read that book a few years back and it is, in my view, a seminal text on nutrition and one of the few books that I am constantly recommending to friends, colleagues and clients.  I have the utmost respect for Catherine and what she has brought to the table in terms of her research and learnings on epigenetics and how environmental factors – in particular nutrients and toxins- directly impact gene expression. There is definitely a growing  movement worldwide back towards a nutrient-dense ancestral wholefoods diet, which is where we originally started from. The tide is starting to turn. There is a long way to go but the experience of the Sydney Roosters and the Lakers are but 2 examples that more and more athletes and their nutrition coaches worldwide are starting to question to the conventional food pyramid which has been such a dismal failure in protecting our health. The dangers of sugar and trans fats have now squarely hit the mainstream. I think its only a matter of time before more people start to question the consumption of refined grains, sports foods/drinks, synthetic supplements and industrial seed (processed) oils.

Would love to hear from any athletes (professional or amateur) or PTs out there on their experience with how conventional diet versus traditional wholefoods influences training and athletic performance.

Is your diet helping you to rise to the Challenge?

While I was out indulging in cheese purchasing at the markets, 8000 participants braved the wind and rain on Wednesday to compete in the annual JP Morgan Corporate Challenge - a 5.6km race around Centennial Park.

I would like to pay tribute to 2 runners who finished this event with awesome results. A friend Mike Conway, and my husband Grant Chamberlain, both 41 and both have super-intense long-hour jobs in stockbroking and investment banking respectively. They both eat a largely unprocessed traditional wholefoods diet and shun conventional sports "foods".

Mike finished the race in 19 minutes- his personal best- coming 32 out of 8000! Mike leads a running group in the city during lunch hours a few days a week.

Grant typically competes in longer-distance events (eg iron man). Nonetheless he finished at 23.42 minutes. As he said his result is nothing to rave home about compared to Mike's effort BUT what I think is important is that Grant was able to maintain the exact time he last ran that race 5 years ago, give or take a few seconds AND he only maanged to squeeze in a few training runs for this event AND he blew the doors off the much younger members of his work team who also competed.

This shows yet again that an unprocessed traditional wholefoods diet allows you to achieve stellar athletic results well past your 20s, into your 40s and be able to maintain your fitness without the need to pound the pavement on a daily basis.

I think both these men would agree that there is no way that they could have achieved these results and maintain their level of fitness on a conventional diet. Of course getting plenty of sleep and rest, managing stress, engaging in pleasurable activities, soaking up sunshine and breathing well also lay the foundation to our health and fitness. But a wholefoods diet is a "critical enabler" as Grant eloquently put it last night. Nail the diet and you'll be miles ahead of pack.

Well done guys!

For related blogs regarding diet and athletic performance click here, here and here.