Aisling Daly is still revelling in the afterglow of Dublin UFC, where the strawweight specialist put in a phenomenal display to dispatch the Brazilian challenger Ericka Almeida.
Having missed out on last year's event, Daly came into this bout with a mission to impress the homecrowd while also determined to atone for her most recent UFC outing in Montreal which ended in defeat.
Under the tutelage of renowned UFC coach John Kavanagh, the training aspect of Daly's game has always been on solid ground. But there was still one obstacle holding her back.
Since transitioning from bantamweight to strawweight, Daly has struggled in dropping weight to the 115-pound requirement. As a result, depriving herself of food during fight week normally produced a host of ailments including acid reflux, heartburn and dehydration.
The pre-fight purge often left her fearing that she might not be able to fight at all.
Love this vid @AHOYBRIGHTON The crowd,the passion! It's like looking at someone else.I guess the Bash kind of is! ? pic.twitter.com/NR5tljfAEB
— Aisling Daly (@aisydaly) October 29, 2015
But on Saturday night, she was visibly a woman transformed. And the Dubliner attributes her transformation to the guidance she has received from nutritionist and champion kick boxer, Lindsey Doyle.
The stars have just aligned for me. Nobody knows the female body better than a female and she's a fighter as well. She knows what it's like to have to cut weight and then fight, and some of her stuff has been trial and error but she she has been through those processes with her own body. To be honest, it's the only thing I've been missing, I have a great team of coaches and a great sparring partner but now I have the nutrition as well
Otherwise known as her 'magic bean', Lindsey Doyle devised a series of simple dietary tips during the training camp which ultimately revolutionised Daly's whole attitude to nutrition. And crucially for Aisling Daly, the revised diet entitled her to eat multiple times a day.
It seems a bit counterintuitive to eat during fight week but I was eating four or five times a day and honestly, fight week was the best I ever felt, I still had so much energy after training which was unusual for me. There'd be a bit less carbohydrate and more protein, fats and green vegetables rather than the starchy kind.
Being kind to my body post fight with the help of @MyproteinUK ? #polishingmyferrari #happy #grateful pic.twitter.com/IMzipvri81 — Aisling Daly (@aisydaly) October 28, 2015
Rituals such as drinking a protein shake directly after training, soon took an integral place in Daly's routine. And when it came to planning her meals, every day was mapped out for her with food choices like carrots, butternut squash and parsnips never too far away from the menu.
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Lindsey's structure was to take in fats towards the beginning of the day so for breakfast I might have something like steak and avocado fried in coconut oil. In the middle of the day I might have something like salmon and vegetables and then in the evening I would have lean meats like chicken or white fish.
Congrats to @aisydaly, making weight like a pro, a pleasure to look after her nutrition & weightcut for #UFCDublin pic.twitter.com/MOzqJDLtqZ
— Lindsey Doyle (@lindseydoylePT) October 23, 2015
Aisling Daly stresses that her comprehensive win over Almeida was strongly influenced by her new dietary plan, which remarkably, is just a few weeks old. But there are still strides to be made and Daly is happy to keep working hard with Lindsey Doyle before hopefully re-entering the octagon in London next February.
