Food Glorious Food.

Source: TV Week

Date: Oct 27-Nov 2, 2001.

All Saints Georgie Parker and Blue Heelers Jane Allsop jumped at the chance to veg out together and enjoy the fruits of a hard day’s labour...

Their acting roles may be very different- ones a nurse and one’s a copper- but All Saint's Georgie Parker and Blue Heelers Jane Allsop have the same issues when it comes to staying healthy and fit. With their working days often long, both Jane and Georgie say that it can be a struggle to include exercise and a healthy diet in their lifestyles.

“Ive had to work really hard to find time to exercise” Says Jane. “I went from working out intensely to working 12-hr days, and learning lines on top of that. And I’ve had a really hard time trying to fir a fitness routine into that as well.”

“I’ve been on the show for 2 and a 1/2 years and I’ve only just discovered how to find the time.”

While Jane has recently brought herself a home gym with a treadmill and weights, Georgie agrees that exercise has been hard to fit into her hectic schedule.

“I try to sneak in a jog between scenes but that's rare. And I love Yoga so I’m always doing some sort of stretching throughout the day. But these days the main form of exercise I get is walking with my baby daughter. I have Holly in a hiking pack on my back and she weighs about 12kg now, so you really start to feel the extra weight. She actually gives me a bit of a workout,” Georgie says.

As actors, keeping a healthy lifestyle  is extremely important, and not just for physical appearance.

“Youve really got to stay on top of it all because you can't have sick days and I find that even more so being a mother. You feel this great responsibility to stay well for your child. And I haven’t been sick a day since I had Holly,” Georgie explains.

“And even if you are sick, you still have to go in to work,” Jane adds. “You know subconsciously that you can’t get sick, so the second you take holidays you automatically get ill.”

Working long hours, the girls both say that they try to keep their diets as healthy as possible.

“I love food and I’ve got a fast metabolism which helps me burn it up,” Georgie says. “But as the scenes in our show can be very challenging, eating regularly plays a big part in keeping us going.

Unfortunately, I love a lot of not so healthy foods like chocolate crackles....actually, anything chocolate really!”

While Georgie says the more tired she is the less she eats, Jane says for her its quite different.

“Even thought I’m working less in a physical sense than I have in the past, the brain drain from the concentration I need for the role makes me unbelievably hungry,” Jane explains.

“and because you’re up so early in the day, your stomach often feels like its lunchtime when it’s actually only 9 o’clock in the morning. So I find I’m a lot hungrier because of the long hours and I do want to eat more because I’m tired and I need a pick me up”.