Quotes from Victoria Pendleton

If you start lifting weights, you will expect to put weight on, as muscle is heavier than fat. But you have to look more at your body shape - you will get heavier - but you might get smaller and heavier at the same time, which is fine. And it doesn't really matter what you weigh as long as you are happy with your shape and size!

I think just drinking juice is too extreme for a diet. Your body needs more than juice, so I think it's a very hard thing to do - very challenging and probably very unhealthy for your body. You can't get everything you need from a juice. I love juice because it can provide you with nutrients - but drink it alongside your diet!

I am so in tune with my body that I know how it should feel.

I naturally favour a clean, healthy diet. A salad sandwich is one of my favourite meals!

Cycling as a whole is totally underestimated.

The sponsorship offers have been amazing. I have to turn down a lot.

As a professional track cyclist, I have always challenged myself, and I enjoy seeing how I cope when faced with the unknown.

I'm very passionate about my two Dobermans, Stella and Mr Jonty. I go on and on and on about them, and people have to tell me to shut up before I get out pictures of them.

I normally don't listen to my instincts because I'm so full of doubt.

I have always loved animals and groomed friends' horses as a child. I think I may have even ridden the odd seaside donkey in my early years.

I quite enjoy sport, and I'm now an Olympic champion. It's a bit weird, isn't it?

Although, you know it's been really nice to wear the Olympic kit, I'm looking forward to wearing non-sports, feminine clothes.

As you get older, you get more accepting - although, if you asked me whose body I would want, I would say Jess Ennis's at the Olympics.

I beat myself up the whole time because I'm striving for something I'll basically never achieve. I portray this image of confidence, of arrogance, and it's not really me. I'm never satisfied, and I'm never content. It means I'm a bit of a mess some of the time.

I've always been like this - insecure - because I'm striving for something that can't be attained. I don't just want to be OK at this: I want to be the best at it, and I've never achieved that in my mind.

Winning is no longer just the outcome. It's part of the process.

Eating vegetarian in the past would have been a really bad choice as an athlete. Impossible. Just being able to get the amount of protein in was a mission. You couldn't be picky. I feel quite liberated by the fact that I can now quite recklessly choose vegetarian food.

I've seen pictures of me, and I look mean and arrogant. That's how I felt on the inside. I think now, 'Is that really me?'

It really is all about believing in yourself: 80 per cent mental, 20 per cent physical.