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.