Day 4

Day 4 of juicing, and it is amazing!!! I woke up with so much energy, but what amazes me more how my mind is clear! I am able to think a lot faster and easier. The energy level is soooo good!!! Hard to explain how it feels!
Morning juice today was:
Celery
Zucchini
Apples
Beets
Carrot
ginger
I did use the juicer for all the ingredients!
Feel Good,
RW

Day 3

So today is my day 3 of Juicing! Everyday I am feeling a little bit better! Craving is becoming better and better and my energy level is going up!

Juice of the day:
Kale, spinach, lime juice, ginger, 1 small avocado, zucchini and bell pepper (green).

I used the juicer for the bell peppers, ginger and zucchini and the rest I blended!
Excellent green juice :)
Feel Good,
RW

Long season

After a long season I decided to do 2 weeks of juicing so I can help my body reduce the stress from all the hard training and racing from this year!
So far this is the second day (complete day) since last friday I have been juicing but eating a little bit, and yesterday was the first day that I did all juice!

Today I feel much better than yesterday and I slept a lot better as well!
Today's juice was:
Apple juice (3 apples) Juicer
One piece of ginger (big one) Juicer
Than I put the spinach(hand full), Nutiva Hemp protein (1 table spoon), Macca (1 tea spoon) and Chlorella (1 tea spoon) and blend until is mix well.
Feel Good,
RW

My juicing experience

Last Sunday I watched “fat, sick and nearly dead” where the guy only drank juice for 60 days, and he lost a great amount of weight, but what catch my attention was the amount of energy that he had!

So, coming into my biggest week on training (tomorrow I finish 30.000 yards of swim/250 miles bike and 50 miles run) I needed more energy, and I decided to test it out!

 Because my diet is very clean I didn’t have to worry about the detox period, so this is what I did:

-Morning my vega health optimizer shake as usual (since I am in training didn’t want to risk)

- Snack was a fruit juice;

- Lunch veggie juice lots of green with a little bit of fruit;

- Snack fruit juice;

- Dinner veggie juice with beats;

- I kept taking my vega sport protein after my workouts with Zico coconut water to don’t compromise my recovery;

The result was amazing! I had lots of energy, slept really well, and my results in training were a lot better on my hardest week of my coming up Ironman training, and I lost a little bit of body fat too!  

 I have the Ironman Louisville in 2 weeks, my nutrition is definitely going to help me out!!:)

Energy pudding

1 banana
2 dates
1/2 tbs of chia seed (soaked)
1/2 tbs of yerba matte
2 tbs of agave nectar

Mix that on a food processor. Eat 30 min before your workout! I have been doing for 2 weeks now and the results are great!
Feel good,
RW

Reason

This is one of the reasons that I don't eat anything processed, and one of the reasons I don't eat meat, of course I have more reasons.....but this is one of them and is good enough! Make a change, be healthy, go plant based!

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/26xZM9/www.totalhealthbreakthroughs.com/2007/12/processed-meats-declared-too-dangerous-for-human-consumption/

Check the link!

Buckwheat pecan Pizza

1 cup of low temperature cooked buckwheat

1 ½ cup of pecan

¼ cup of Nutiva Hemp oil

Sea salt

1 cup of spent flour

Curry to taste and cayenne pepper to taste as well

On the food processor put all ingredients and mix.

Put a little bit of Nutiva hemp oil on the trey and put in the oven on 300F or lower for 10 min

Toppings:

Shredded sweet potatoes

Diced onions

Diced tomatoes

After cooking for 10 min the crust put the toppings for another 10 min or more, depends on the taste…. I prefer raw so I just leave for a little bit, to “warm up” only.

ENJOY!!!

This is gonna be a great movie!!!

GEL

My energy gel during racing and training:
1 cup of agave nectar (raw)
2 TBS of coconut oil Manna (Nutiva)
1 TBP os sea salt
4 dates
1 TBS of soak chia seeds (nutiva)
1 TBS of ginger juice
1 TBS of lime juice
1 TBS of RAW Cocoa

Put everything on a blender and blend until is gel consistent. This makes 2 gel flask.

Facebook question

The other day I asked a question on facebook, asking how many times a week you eat animal products. I had a good response, and I would like to say something when it comes to performance ( I am taking the health aspect out).
When you train your body get acid, the more intense it is the training the more acidic your body gets. Now is proven that animal products and high processed foods make your body acid.....so now the question is: Why would you eat animal products to make your body more acid? why would you cause more stress on your body after you cause a lot of stress training? don't you want to recover from the workout? Think about that.

You can make your body less acidic with a plant based diet, therefor you will recover faster conseguently you will improve faster! Think about that!
Feel good,
RW

Benefits of a plant based diet

·         More energy (I notice that on my training! Is crazy the amount of energy that I have)

·         Recovery faster ( I can recover from one hard workouts faster and that allows me to schedule hard workouts closer together, and improve faster)

·         Be healthier ( Don’t need to say much here, my body is working the way it should be)

·         Lose weight (lost  a lot of body fat)

·         Stay hydrated (I don’t feel my mouth dry any more after a meal)

·         Lower core temperature (This is big, my core temperature drop, therefore I can train a higher intensity and my HR don’t go as high, also on hot days when everyone is complaining about the heat, I am feeling really good about it)

·         And much more….Ask me if you need any info, I am plant based nutrition certified!

FEEL GOOD!!!!

Super dressing II

1/4 cup of hemp oil (nutiva)
1/4 cup raw tahini
1/4 cup of hemp protein (nutiva)
1/2 cup of water
1 tomato
2 tb spoons of lime juice
sea salt to taste
pepper to taste
1/3 cup of nutritional yeast

Put everything in a blender and blend to desire consistency! Enjoy! 

Super dressing

1/4 cup of Nutiva hemp oil
1/4 cup of raw thahini
1/4 cup of pumpkin seed
1 cup of water
2 spoon of lime juice
1 spoon of raw agave nectar
A little bit of oregano, parsley, curry, cumin, cayenne pepper
2 scoops of raw or hemp protein (Nutiva protein, I prefer with hemp protein)


Put everything on a blender, and blend well!!!
Enjoy!

RAW=PERFORMANCE

In the past 2 years I did some major changes on my diet. First one was cutting off coffee, and with that I gained a lot of energy reducing the amount of stress that caffeine was causing my body, and my performance got better. Second change was going vegan, also performance went up and one of the reasons, again, because your body really doesn’t need the stress to digest animal products. Third and biggest change was going 100% raw (reasons below), and the performance got a lot better!

One good example of those changes can be exemplify by the following: Last year I was training for Ironman Florida and I was doing my long bike ride at average heart rate around 120 to 125bpm and average speed 20 mph and I raced at 22mph average speed.  This year I already did some long bike rides such a 120 miles, and my heart rate was 124bpm average and 21.5mph average speed. I can honestly say that there is no other reason than the different nutrition that I am doing now that made my performance improve, because of some facts like the ones listed below:

-        -  Energy: eating raw makes digestion faster, so the amount of energy spent on digestion I spend on training;

-        -  Recovery:  because I am eating raw my recovery is a lot faster since I don’t have the nutritional stress, raw foods make the body more alkaline, and when you train you make your body acid, so by making your body alkaline via nutrition you will recover faster;

-         - Health: what I figured out is that I am a lot healthier eating Raw so the adaptations from training occurs much faster.

Refreshing "chocolate milk"

Today in the morning I did a refreshing breakfast!

1 cup of coconut water
2 bananas
2 tbs spoon of raw agave nectar
2 tbs of raw cocoa powder

Blend everything on a blender, and you will have a delicious "chocolate milk"

Energy chocolate mousse

Just had my chocolate mousse (raw) and heading out to run on the sand!

Chocolate mousse:
2 bananas
4 dates
1/3 cup of cocoa powder (raw)
1/3 cup of raw protein
2 tbs coconut oil
1 little zip of agave nectar (raw)
sea salt to taste
1/2 lime (squeeze)
1 tbs of ginger juice

In a food processor blend everything, until becomes a cream!
Enjoy!
FEEL GOOD,
RW

Hydration

Since I am raw vegan athlete for hydration I use coconut water. Coconut water is easy assimilate by the body, low acid, rich in natural electrolytes....and much more, but the important think is NATURAL!
Commercial sport drinks used carbs highly processed really hard to the body to assimilate, also, those carbs such as maltodextrin and dextrose makes your body spend a lot of energy digesting. So for me, the LAST thing I want when I am training/racing is spend energy digesting. Also something I notice is that with those commercial drinks, my body never assimilate the electrolytes, because in every Ironman I did using them I cramped and got sick. Since I started using coconut water or making my own drink that didn't happen again.
My favorite coconut water is Zico and that is what I have been using for training and racing.....For example, I just ran 14 miles, at 85 degrees out side and only use coconut water, with no problems at all!

Pancakes

Before my long run today I did my RAW pancakes, I used:

1 banana
4 dates
1cup of almond milk
1/4 cup of grounded flax seed
1/4 cup of RAW protein (Garden of Life)
1/4 cup of Raw cocoa
1/2 cup of spelt flour
sea salt

Put everything on the food processor and blend. Put a little of coconut oil on a fry pan, keep the heat really low, takes longer, but like this you will keep it raw (bellow 115).

Nutrition path!

I will tell my history through the nutrition path.  I started doing triathlons in 2004, in order to lose weight. Before that, I was leaving in US and eating as much of all kinds of junk foods as possible, and I was obese with 260 pounds. When I decided to lose weight, and I didn’t know much about nutrition, I decided to cut meat. With that and eating mostly salads, I started to lose weight and I was feeling great. I went back to Brazil in March of 2004. In Brazil, everybody was telling me that I needed to eat meat if I was training that much. So I went to a nutritionist, I had a bunch of supplements, had a lot of protein (meat) etc. I lost weight, but I didn’t feel great. One year later I cut meat again, my performance started getting better, and I was feeling better, lost more weight, raced one of my fastest half ironman.

Because training the following year, I got in overtraining and my body was in a lot of stress, I gain weight and my blood iron was really low. Once again, I was told to eat meat. 

In 2007, I came back to US and I was working a lot, but I learned about all kinds of different supplements and I thought that would be the solution, but it was even worst, so in 2008 I had my second worst Ironman time.  After that, I seek for help with another nutritionist (the 4^th one in my career), and still eat a lot of animal products and supplements, and that was worst, in 2009 I quit a race in the middle, for the first and last time of my career, a Half Ironman, in Miami Man.

2010 came up, and I thought: “IT IS TIME FOR A CHANGE”! I came across with the Thrive Diet book. I went completely vegan and my diet was all based in plants and not processed foods. I did my best races in 2010, I was using NO commercial supplements (last year I still used some commercial gels), everything natural. I was feeling good and confident again. I hit and pass my goal weight that I always wanted as well. I did make a 360 degree change on my diet, and stated training myself, and my performance came along.

Now, I am my own coach and nutritionist! I am finishing my plant based diet certification, so I can help people to feel the amazing change I felt. I am 100% raw, my energy levels are really high, I lost even more body fat and I gained muscle, so my strength to weight ratio is higher and better. I’m pretty excited for 2011 season, and to start passing on my knowledge and experience not just on training matters, but in nutrition too.