(@jerishall3) With regards to English muffins, are they safe whilst preparing for a competition?

Not sure where you are getting your English Muffins but typically they only have a gram or two of fibre each and not as much as oatmeal (even a small portion of oatmeal has 3 grams). Yours could be a whole grain variety??

There is no problem eating them during most of your dieting phase as long as you keep shedding the fat. However (and this is more from observation and experience), you're best off cutting them out in the last week or so before you compete, as grains seem to cause more water retention than "clean" foods like sweet potato or rice and certainly cause a fairly substantial insulin response. Secondly, you'll want to deplete between about 3 and 8 days out and then "carb up" in the last 2 or 3 days and the muffins will have too much sodium to be an effective choice for carbing up.

Yeah stay cleaner like Mark says. Rice is used as a base protein for many cleansing formulas due to being low to non allergenic. Also, muffins and oats may have gluten/gliadin in it. Many folks have mild to drastic intolerances than can lead to water retention amongst a list of side effects.