All the images we have of the elderly (in movies, television shows and bizarre stock photos) have us thinking of bingo nights, cruise ships, and the occasional culturally insensitive remark to remind us we're in a slightly different era. But we very rarely think of 75-year-old people who could beat you up, especially if they're also wearing a bikini.
If you're anything like me and that's a genuine fear you have to contend with at points during your life, perhaps you should steer away from Australia, where Janice Lorraine pushes her 75-year-old body to the limit for a body most 25-year-olds would be proud of, let alone anybody in their 70s. Hailing from Granville, Sydney, Lorraine took up her latest hobby almost 20 years ago, and since then, has won an astonishing 23 titles on her way to the top of the bodybuilding pyramid.
In the late 90s, and Janice Lorraine had just retired from her vocation as a psychologist. A lot of people at that age are mostly concerned with keeping their minds active, but Lorraine had something else on her mind. Talking to the Daily Telegraph, she revealed how she got her big idea while walking out of the gym one day, noticing an elderly woman in the car park.
"She couldn’t walk unaided and she was standing, teetering on two heavily veined legs, which were as thin as toothpicks. The last I saw of this old lady she was leaning on her support and shuffling across the car park. It was then, at that very moment, I decided I was not going to be like her and that I was going to march into the male dominated weights room and start Weight Resistance Training (WRT)."
For Lorraine, becoming a bodybuilder was as simple as that; 15 months later, she was competing in her first competition in 1999, at the age of 56 years old. But keeping your body in tip-top shape is a hard enough ask, let alone for bodybuilding competitions when your metabolism has slowed to a crawl. So, how exactly does Janice Lorraine like to eat?
Our favourite septuagenarian bodybuilder employs something called a 'natural nude food' diet. This has nothing to do with her attire (I'm assuming that Janice eats her meals fully-clothed), but instead, it refers to foods served without condiments or sauces. So, dry foods and delicious foods, but Janice Lorraine largely plumps for unprocessed food, a salad or a small piece of microwaved sweet potato.
If she needs a bit of protein, then it's grilled chicken, grilled fish, or maybe an eye fillet steak if she's feeling fancy, plus a glass of wine with her dinner. While she's very disciplined by not eating takeout, she does like to treat herself once a while, and when she does need something a little special, then she goes for a single biscuit, plus a square of 90 percent sugar-free dark chocolate.
"My aim is not to rival those younger than me. My aim is to show what’s possible and to motivate and encourage women of any age," says Lorraine of her profession as a female bodybuilder, and says she could go on for a while yet. "I don't know when I'll stop bodybuilding," she said. "I'll keep going until I no longer want to. I'm out to make a statement. I'm trying to change people's perception of what a 70-something-year-old should be."
Well, you go, Lorraine. With that nude food diet, she's still due to keep kicking butt for a while yet.