PIC: The diet of a modern day inter-county GAA footballer compared with an AFL player

*This story first appeared on SportsJOE in February of this year. Garnering more than 79,200 views, it was our 10th most popular story of 2015.

Nobody said being an elite athlete was easy.

It requires hard-work, dedication, commitment. And that's only to your diet. Brian Darby has released a food diary in his GAA.ie column this week and it is strict as hell. And equally as impressive. It's no secret that inter-county players have taken on a whole new lifestyle in the last decade and that is no different in Offaly where the Rhode defender maintains a religious way of eating. Darby maps out his diet in a typical week now that training is in full swing and he gives us an inside look at the six different meals he goes through a day. In his brilliant column, he also talks about the importance of the day before a game and how he sticks to a seven-hour sleeping pattern each night. The Faithful County man tells us about a blood-monitoring system that they have in the camp and how the amount of protein he's taking in through his diet is relative to his weight. Here's a snippet of the diet if you're looking to follow it. We're going to try our best, too - we're just going to start it on Thursday at 9pm when Brian treats himself to a cup of tea and a digestive. In comparison, Kildare man Séan Hurley's is fascinating. The AFL player is out with the Fermantle Dockers and there's a lot more eating in Hurley's. There's also more indulging allowed - we hope it's allowed - for the professional but we can safely assume that he's having no problems working it off. Head over to Brian's blog for the full diets.