Physiological adptations on a Raw diet

I have been thinking a lot on how Physiological adaptations happens faster on a raw diet. I have no way to prove that  just my own experience as coach and athlete.
What I found is pretty amazing, for example I added a few strength exercises to my training routine and I felt a difference within 3 weeks. Also my adaptation on high altitude training, when I went to Boulder was really quick. When I decide to train in Boulder for 2 weeks everyone told me was not worth it because was to short of a period and the 1st week its so hard to adapt and I was going to be really tired and that did not happen at all!
What it gave me the click to write this post was when I read The Secret Race book where Tyler describe the sensations when he donated blood for his first blood transfusion (doping). He said after he donated the blood he went for a ride and felt really weak, and he said "my power was in in the blood", when I read that I thought that is why! On a raw diet you have a cleaner blood due to a good digestion and clean diet, so basically your body its not producing (or producing less) toxins from digestion. A good way to see how clean is your blood just see how hard is to wash your plate after you done eating :)
Hopefully I will be able to do a bigger study on that. I am doing a small one by myself, but it would be great to have one with a lab involved. More info on my study check:   http://rwtraining.net/blog/ 
I also started doing some you tube videos about diet, training etc. Here is my last 2 videos:

Feel Good and Go RAW!
RW

Recovery

The other day I started to think about recovery, and for me looks like we are always worried about muscle recovery, carbs, protein, recovery workouts etc etc but nobody thinks internally!
What I mean about that is simple, have you ever thought on how hard your internal organs work to keep you moving, digesting etc etc.
So for that I add in my workout schedule it is a juice day, all I have this day it is juice, nothing else! It is juice from a juicer, therefor there is no fiber in it. What I notice it is a big stress relief, followed by a great night of sleep and I wake up the next day ready to go  and full of energy! It is a great feeling!
As of a menu I try to use different stuff for the juices, for example:
Beets
Celery
Turnips
Radish
Ginger
Turmeric
Cucumbers
Bell peppers
Kale
Spinach
Carrots
Apples
Pear
My approach is to make the juice as green as possible. Try it and you will feel a difference!

Feel Good and GO RAW!
RW

Ultra Desires

Everything happens for a reason.... After my fall before Ironman Texas, I restarted to think in a lot of things, that brought me old memories, new thoughts etc. When I first started on triathlons, my desire was Ironman, until on my second year I learned about the Ultraman and that came to my mind, with more I learned and read about endurance sports the more fascinated I was but I kind of forgot about ultras.....I did 2 ragnar relay races without much training, and in both of them I ran 30+ miles (I had to cover some people), I felt pretty good and I ran pretty well.  
When I read the "Ultra Marathon Man" I really thought about doing ultras, but I never did. It was something on the back of my mind, and all came back after the fall, sometimes what you think is bad is actually good!
I love ironmans,I will still race them and I will still race pro, but I took a decision to spicy up training and racing. After Ironman Texas I almost sign up for Ultraman Canada, but I thought was too soon to build up that much mileage in all 3 sports until august, so instead I sign up for a 50 miler Trail Run. I must say I am pretty excited to do that, and in 2013 I am really thinking about the Ultraman, and of course a few ironmans :)

If you want to know how ultra marathon will turned out, also how training will go and nutrition (Raw) stay tuned.

Feel Good and Go Raw!
RW

Clay

I did not update my blog for a long time, there is many reasons for that....
I went to ironman Texas and the day before my race, as I was testing the bike and going to drop of the bike on transition I felt and I hurt my right shoulder. I tried to race and 25 min into the swim I just could not take the pain and I decided that was better for my health to stop. After that I went to boston to the fivefingers meeting and it was pretty cool, I got to know Boston, the new fivefingers products and learned a lot. I also got a chance to see the Vibram store in Boston, very cool.
Since my accident I have not been training much, because I wanted to concentrate all my energy in my healing. I am actually grateful for the accident because I am learning a lot from it. There is always a good side of it.
What I wanted to say today about my healing is something that I used before and forgot until 2 days ago. I found Clay(Argila in portuguese), and I remember that I was thought that clay is the same PH as the body and when you pass on your body  the clay dries it sucks all the toxins (or whatever is bad) from the body. The incredible part is that if something is wrong like an injury the clay takes longer to dry. So the part of my shoulder that was hurting it took longer to dry. As you can see in the picture.

I did that 3 times yesterday plus heat and ice witch I was doing already, and today shoulder was 80% better. It is pretty amazing what nature can do it! We have all the medicine we need in nature and in our mind! We just need to be open and aware to it!

As part of my healing I am eating lots of sprouts, trace minerals, and turmeric root. And of course a lot of meditation and love!

Feel good, and GO RAW!

RW

Sports Drink

I am studying Holistic Sports Nutrition and I also study lots of thinks on my own and I test what I study as well. So what I learned about sports drinks freaked me out a little bit.
Basically a sports drink it is complex carbs(laboratory created), little bit of simple sugars and salt. Studies show that complex carbs (sugars) do not satisfy us, simple sugars do (simple sugar from fruits), and salt do not hydrate us, in fact salt dehydrate us. See, try drinking sea water to see if you survive? You will dehydrate. The only sodium that the body absorb is organic sodium from plants. With the been said, complex sugars (laboratory created) that does not satisfy you and salt that makes you thirsty you can drink commercial sports drink ALL day long that you will never be satisfied and always be thirsty.... as a Hydration system not good, but as money making machine is great isn't it?
You can test your self if you want, try to overeating in fruit, is nearly impossible because the simple sugar in fruit will fill you up.
What I do for sports drink? I either make apple and celery juice or I soak a few dry fruits in a jar over night, the sugar and electrolytes from the dry fruit will mix into the water due to the osmotic pressure. I did that with dates, figs, or goji berries so far and both worked great. You can also blend bananas with water or use coconut water (raw of course).
For example, on my 100 mile last sunday, we were riding at 24 to 26 mph all I had was water and my electrolyte drink and some bananas. I felt really good, it was 90 degrees out side and a few people cramp. I didn't. Even on my swim later on I had no cramp :). I did a bunch of Ironmans with those sports in all of them I cramp LOL the very first Ironman that I didn't use (used coconut water) I did not cramp!
If you want more info on that Dr Douglas Graham have a book called Nutrition and Athletic Performance and he explain that in deep!

Feel Good and GO RAW!
RW

Diet

Yesterday I mesuare my body fat % and it was the lowest ever! So I decide to talk about diet here today!
I went to many nutritionist before in Brazil and USA, tried many differents diets and approaches like, high protein low carbs, high fat, lots of supplements etc, read a bunch of books and none of them gave me the result I wanted, expect the ones that talk about raw food diet, but I see as eating the way we were supposed to instead of a diet!
Any modification on the food such as heat, adding, etc makes the food different and it is either unrecognized by the body or really hard to digest causing lots of stress! Some people might say: "we were intent to eat meat" and my answer will be with a few questions: if we are intent to eat meat, can you chase an animal, kill it and eat right at the spot? With blood and everything? If you can maybe you were intent to eat meat.... I know I can't! Also, how come meat is so hard to digest and make our PH acid wicth is danger for our life? Also can you eat meat with no salt, and spices to have a better taste?
The truth is every animal in this planet know how to reconize the foods that they were desing to eat, just look around nature and how animals eat!
So, I got to a 4.5% body fat eating a raw vegan diet! I eat 80% carbs, 10% protein and 10% fat, and I am stronger and faster than ever! Think about it! Detox your mind and body from all the bad marketing around and eat the way you were intent to and reach maximum health! Remember it is not a diet, it is eating the way we were desing to! Also not being sick or not being overweight does not means that you are healthy!

My last few days my food intake has being a lot simple! Lots of fruits and a few veggies! For example, Sunday I did a 100 mile ride, and that day I had:
Breakfast orange, banana and papaya smoothie
During the ride 5 bananas and raw sugar, plus my electrolyte drink (will talk about this in another post)
Lunch 2 mangos, and orange juice
1 hour later raw garden of life protein mix with water
Swim workout than after mangos
Dinner spinach and strwberries salad

Feel good and GO RAW!
RW

Labels

The other day I received a gel (New one I guess) and when I look the label said ALL NATURAL! Since I did not know the brand (not gonna say the brand name either) decide to look the ingredients.... so Ingredients were:
Isolate Whey Protein (Sorry not Natural, it is processed)
Maltodextrin (Not natural, it is processed and one of the worst things to the body)
And a few others, but my question is: HOW CAN A PRODUCT CLAME THAT IS NATURAL WHEN THE FIRST 2 INGREDIENTS ARE PROCESSED!!!!!
Also there is a recovery drink in the market (well known) that says that is all natural and the first 2 ingredients are the same! It is Crazy!

My suggestion it is always read the ingredients, even if the box says all natural, or whatever they try to catch your attention with! You want to see ingredients from whole foods like bananas, raw almonds, flax seed etc...

Lately my diet has been a lot of fruits and very little in fat because training it is a lot more intense since my first Ironman is in 20 days. The more fruits I eat the stronger I feel on my workouts. On Saturday I had a great workouts (5 hours) and I notice that I ate around 20 bananas LOL.

Todays Diet:

2 bananas in the AM
Lunch at Hippocrates Health Institute
Orange Juice about 3 cups (I was craving for)
5 bananas at Night
1 cup of Garden Of Life Raw Protein

Feel Good and GO RAW!
RW

Holistic

Today I started to look at some old papers at home and I found my old Ayurveda diet from my second year of triathlon (2006) and I was shocked! All the notes and foods that I have from Ayurveda match the irisdology that I did and I am following now! Also the guy who made the diet for me, did my own Mantra for meditation, and gave me a list of food combination that I was doing already but when I read I was shocked!!!
It is funny to look now, because I notice a few things:
1- Modern Medicine have pretty much no idea on what they are doing (LOL) they just give pills and do not fix the real problem!
2- How everything start to make perfect sense now (Yoga, Irisdology, Ayuerveda, etc)
3- How all those holistic methods have being knocking on my door for a long time! But I guess I am just now ready to accept and put all together! I love it!

On another note, I know I have not written here enough, training has been pretty good. Last weekend I did the Florida Challenge (half iron distance) and my aero bars broke on mile 23 I still try to keep going but I took a wrong turn and end up biking 70 miles....after that I decide not to run. What a crazy day! At least I had a great swim and a good hilly 70 mile ride :)

I decide to race Ironman Texas because of the heat (instead of Utah), so today is 1 month to the race. I am very confident and exited to my first Ironman of 2012!

Feel Good and go RAW!
RW

Clean Body=Better athlete

This week I had the most impressive results from my diet change, detox, etc etc... Let me explain, January I did my 20 min TT on the bike just to see where I was like I usually do, I did the cleanse after the test. Basically my real training started in February when I finish my cleanse. Yesterday April 12, 3 months later, I decide to do a test just for fun. I didn't rest for the test like I did in January, I treated the test like another workout, not a real test. I was just curious.
So lets talk about numbers, I will not take speed in consideration just heart rate (body effort).
January I did 20 min TT on the bike my average HR was 164, on that time I was on a raw diet already and I was rested to the test, but I haven't done my cleanse yet. Maybe later I can find more info when I had a cooked diet to compare.
Yesterday I did 20 min TT in the same place I did in January. So the result was: I did an average speed almost 1 mph faster than in January but my average HR was 142! That is 22 points less and going faster, not rested and not going fully all out. It is amazing how easier is the body to function when is Clean!!!!
This is making me rethink a lot of stuff I learned about fitness, because this shows me that we can raise our fitness level with food and getting the body clean. It is the same of having a clean or a dirty machine :)

Feel Good and Go Raw!!!
RW

Green smoothie day

Since I have been training like crazy yesterday I decided to do a green smoothie day, I had 4 green smoothies as meal during the day! Green Juices and smoothies help to make blood sugar stable. The result was amazing like always LOL. I had a lot of energy during the day, and in late afternoon I had the best long run of my life! It was really good! I must say, this idea was from Jennifer Thompson from the healthybliss.net after we did the Iris exam.
So here is what I did:
Morning
hand full of spinach
Grapefruit juice (2)
1 Banana
1 scoop of the Garden of Life Perfect Raw Meal

Lunch:
Green grapes (hand full)
Hand full of spinach
Hand full of collard greens
1/2 of small papaya
1 scoop of Garden of Life Perfect raw meal

Snack:
1 cucumber (Juice)
3 celery juice
1 apple
mixed with one hand full of spinach

Dinner after run:
5 celery juice
2 apples

Feel Good and Go RAW!
RW

Breathe

My first sponsor ever in my life as an athlete was a Yoga place and I am really grateful for that because I learned a lot from them, yet a lot of stuff that I learned on that time I am only able to put together now that I feel that I am in complete (or close to) harmony.

Today during my run today I had a click in my brain! Lately I have been studying new things like the power of positive energy and body mind relationship. For example, on the movie Thrive they talk a lot about free energy and the energy around us. I also watched for again What the Bleep do We Know and that is opening my mind. One experience I had that helped me with this click was the water machine at HHI, this machine captures the atmosphere water, so basically we can have free water from the atmosphere, pretty amazing machine.

So, O2 is our primary source of energy, to realize that is simple we can spend days with out water, right? we can spend days with out food, right? But how long can you spend without O2? A few minutes at the most....

During exercise we usually are not aware that we are breathing we are to concentrated in the music, pace, what time I need the gel etc etc... and we usually forget to breath, or hold our breath too long without even noticing!

When we are a newborn we use a complete breathing cycle and with time our breathing becomes shorter using only the top part of our lungs. In yoga I learned that we can separate the breathing cycle in three: Top (10% of the capability), medium (30% of capability) and lower (60% of capability). Often during exercise we only use the top part because we are not aware.

Today when my run started to get harder, my first thought was breath! I started to do deeper breaths and the result was amazing! I started to run faster with a lower heart rate. Of course I did not have music on, this way is easier to be aware of what you are doing and it is easier to concentrate.

Usually the first thing I say when I coach (specially swim) is breath! Most people get anxious and shorter their breath, specially in the water! So next time you exercise focus on your breathing!!!

Feel Good and Go RAW!!!

RW 

Fat

Fat is what it makes us fat! Everybody try to blame on the carbs, but I can honestly say that I am with 5% body fat eating a 80% carbs diet, 10% protein and 10% fat. Those % are from calories, that means a 2000 calorie day 1600 from carbs but carbs from FRUITS AND VEGGIES (not pizza and pasta). Have you ever notice how hard is to wash a plate after you eat a meal with a lot of fat? Is the same in the body! Also if you eat a meal with a lot of fat you feel really lazy because your body is working harder to clean, just like the way you do to clean up the dishes :)
Now if you look at 10% of the calories from fat is gonna be very little, for example 1/4 of almonds have about 140 calories from fat.... If you look at any label of processed food the calories from fat is usually 50% or more! Did you know that the 2% milk is actually 20% of total calories from fat? That is right 2% milk, if you look at  fat from calories it is going to be 20% of calories from fat!

Now, excluding the idea of been vegetarian/ vegan or not, if you look at meat even the best cuts have a lot of fat. So taking all this information.... how much fat do you think we are eating? I would think is around 50 to 70% of total calories from fat! That is why we have so many people overweight!

Your diet should be 80/10/10, but remember carbs from veggies and fruits, not bread, pizza, pasta etc neither processed foods. Next time you go shopping look at the label, but instead of total fat in grams look at calories from fat and calculate how much is that % from total calories... you will be impress on how much fat you are eating!

Today was a hard day at the office, swam in the morning, TRX in the afternoon and a 60 mile hard interval bike ride:
Food intake:
Green smoothie
5 dry figs
Salad with kale, spinach and carrots (dressing was very little Nutiva Hemp oil, Braggs amino, Lime juice, and mustard seeds)
2 bananas
During the ride I only had 1 banana and water
After the ride orange juice with a banana and Garden of life Raw protein
6 figs and almost 1 litter of coconut water

Feel Good and GO RAW!!!
RW

We do have super powers

so I am convinced that we have super powers and we just limit ourselves with what we eat, think and do.... I can honestly say that I had one life before the detox and after the detox! I think after the detox my body is rebuilding and getting stronger every day, and that with raw foods is a powerful thing!
The reason I say that, is because today I had an extraordinary day today, with a great amount of energy! I woke up at 5 am, meditate and got ready to do my bike ride. Went out 7 am met 3 of my athletes and we went. I did 65 miles with them, and I had only 20 oz of apple and celery juice plus water. At mile 65 I stopped at whole foods and got more water, 2 bananas and 6 dry figs. I ate the figs, and went to finish the ride. The last 35 miles I was pushing a little bit more the pace. I had only one banana on mile 85 and finish the juice.
I got home and I felt that was nothing! I mean I used to finish a workout like that tired, this time was different, I was ready for another 100 LOL...
Went to have lunch at HHI them my wife and I watched I movie. Having to much energy I went for an easy run, and that easy run became an interval workout (mile repeats) at 5k pace. Felt really good! I have never felt this way after a long ride! It is incredible!
After today I am really convinced if you detox from all the garbage that we eat and start eating raw foods you will feel limitless!!! You can feel limitless physically, mentally, spiritually and with all those three things together life will be pretty amazing! I am still learning but the more I learn how to get all those three in harmony the more powerful I feel!

Food intake today:
green smoothie
during ride: 1 banana, 20oz of celery and apple juice, 6 dry figs.
After the ride 2 oranges
Lunch at HHI (few sprouts, greens and some raw crackers)
Banana Ice cream ( just froze the bananas and blend in the food processor) (chocolate cream: 1 tea spoon of cocoa and 3 tea spoons of raw agave and mix well) This was my threat
After the run: green smoothie
Felt great!!!! Very little fat and LOTS of energy!!!

Feel Good, and GO RAW!!!
RW

Be free

So Friday and Saturday I went to st. Pete to do a few five fingers running clinics, and some interesting things happen. Friday night I got to the hotel hungry and ready to eat, so I picked up the menu and I look at it and I thought there is nothing to eat here! I mean even the salad had bacon on it! WTH??? Then we don't why people are overweight! Any ways, I end up getting a plain hose salad with some guacamole, and 2 apples. Next day was even better, woke up and went to check out the breafast and I was thinking it would be a nice breakfast with lots of fruits (I was at the Hilton), when I got there they had 2 fruits and 3000 types of begals, milk, peanut butter etc etc... Once again, why are people overweighted? So I pack up my stuff and went to publix ( first super market I saw), and I felt like I was in the matrix movie LOL, taking the small organic fruit sections everything else was chemicals lol, that is true! I pick up a packed from dry figs and in the ingredients was: dry figs and 3 types of persavatives... Really? How hard it is to sell dry figs? I mean plain dry figs! By the way, does any body know why I can't find fresh figs in Florida?
So I grab 8 organic bananas and that was my breakfas all the way to 2 pm...And it was more than enough! After the clinc I stopped by whole foods and had lunch!
One thing I learned in this trip, everything that we eat is not food! I can honestly say that I did break free from those food and chemical addictions because my body does not reconize those things as food anymore! I was really happy about that and it feels really good to feel this way!
I extremily suggest everyone to be free going on a raw diet and experience the real health, life was made to be abundant and we were made to be healthy, happy and free! Once you go raw your mind will clear up and you will see the world with diferrent eyes. Like I always say, think out side of the matrix!

Food of the day:
8 bananas until 2pm
Guacamole with raw flax seed chips
Green smoothie
Grapefruit juice

Feel good and go RAW!
RW

A juice day

So yesterday I decide just to have juices and smoothies, so no solid food, just to give my body a "break" after the race. It is funny because everytime I do that I have a lot more energy, so much energy that sometimes I think I should train more lol.
Since the race I have been training normal. I did track on Monday and an easy swim. Tuesday a swim and a 2 hour ride (hilly) in the computrainer, actually 50 min on the road and 1 hour and 10 on the trainer (boring but good). Wednesday I did 12 mile progressive run in the am, swam 3500 hard, and I did the beach workout with my team, really hard workout with elastic, jumping and sprints. Also yesterday I had only juice. When I got back home I started to watch the documentary Thrive http://www.thrivemovement.com/home (really cool and informative by the way) so I end up going to bed at 1 am, and I woke up at 515am to coach swim and do my swim after. I was full of energy and ready to go, even with just a few hours of sleep :) later in the day I did a 2 hour bike ride with some good interval training.
During the day today I was thinking usually the less calories I have the more energy I get! So I went back to my race, and I look at the numbers, my garmin said I burned 4000 calories during the race. I look what my calorie intake was very little, for example: my gel I used 5 serving on the bike and it have 50 calories per serving aprox (250 calories total), 4 raw revolution bars of 100 calories(400 total) and my juice witch is was 150 calories max. Run 4 servings of my gel (200 calories). So total of aprox 900 calories for the entire race. I did feel extremely strong during the race, and next day zero pain with a great track session at 5k pace! How is possible? Like I always say, is the quality that matters and how much your body can absorb during an effort like that! The funny part is that when I started training nutritionist, and athletes were always telling me you need around 500 calories per hour on an ironman, you need salt pills etc etc, and when I used to do all that I always had cramps, and stomach issues in races forcing me to slow down! You have to eat what you body needs and what he can absorb. By doing that you will be able to perform well! And what your body needs, and what your body was made to absorb is natural organic raw foods, is that simple!

My juicing day went like this:
My green smoothie in the am
2 apples 3 celery and 1 small piece of ginger juice
2 apples, 1 celery, 1 small beet and 1 small ginger juice
3 grapefruit squeezed juice
1 green smoothie at night.

Feel Good and go RAW!
RW

Race Nutrition

I would like to start this post thanking all my sponsors for believing in me and helping me. Thank you: FletsUSA fletsusa.com, David Dorfman with mobilechiropractic.com, Garden Of Life gardenoflife.com, Nutiva nutiva.com, Boston Bill sunglasses. Also thank you to all friends and family helping me on this journey, I am really grateful for all the help. Special thanks to Jennifer from healthybliss.net for helping me detox and adding a few nutrition tips specific to my body according with iridology, and for Valeria for doing reiki on me, and a big thanks to my wife that is always there with me waking up at 4 am with the biggest smile and telling to go faster lol! Thank you Eduardo Sturla for helping me as well! Thank you to all friends and family (the list is big)!!! Thank you all for the support!! I love you all!!!!

So this was the first race after my detox. The race was part of my training, that means that I did the race with no tapper and I was pretty happy with the results. The week I trained normally, the only modification I did was friday workout I cut shorter and Saturday I only ran 6 miles, other than that my training was a normal week of training.

Day before the race my nutrition was very simple and I did something new, let me explain: I woke you green smoothie with garden of life raw perfect meal, ran 6 miles, than 2 apples and 3 banana bread bars from goraw (goraw.com). Organize my stuff, did my gels and juice for the race, drop of the bike and went to lunch: lettuce, pumpkin seeds, carrots and guacamole and that was about 4pm. After that I had 2 bananas around 5pm and I didn't eat anymore, juice apple and celery juice and grapefruit juice. What was new was not eating after 5pm just juice and eating less as well. And it worked!

Day of the race: Woke up at 4 am, green smoothie (about half of what I usually do), warm up, 1 banana and race at 715am.
Swim: The swim was good, I felt strong the entire time, but 3/4 into I thought I can go faster so I started to increase the pace and felt really good. Swim was longer, Garmin 910 marked 1.35 miles. First time ever I did not have any negative thoughts.
Bike: I jumped in the bike, and my nutrition was: 1 bottle of apple and celery juice, gel (apple, celery and turbinado raw sugar) and 4 small Raw Revolution bars (green ones) rawrev.com and that was perfect! I was so focus on the bike. I did progressive bike, first 20 I avg 22.8, second 20 miles 23.3 and the last 16 miles I avg 23.7. The course was hilly, no crazy hills but it was never flat. Felt pretty strong the entire ride.
Run: I started to run my legs were really loose. The first 3.2 miles of the course was in trails and  was a sandy trail, so it was hard to put some speed. I felt I was running on a soft sand in the beach. After that the last 10 min was up and down, little hilly on the run too. I felt pretty strong. I ran with my Inov-8 (inov-8.com). My nutrition during the run was my gel and water. Due to the heat I could had an apple and celery juice next time. Other than that was perfect!

After race I had a big raw revolution bar with some garden of life raw protein shake!

I was pretty happy with the race. Best part was my mental focus during the race and with no negative thoughts. First time ever! Second, I did 4 min faster than my last one, in a harder course and using the race as training. Third, I finish the race good to go for another half LOL. Today I woke up good to go and ready to hit the track tonight! Fourth, my nutrition was perfect, before during and after!!!

Feel Good and go RAW!!! Thank you for all the support!!!
RW

A day with very little fat intake!

You know after my 2 cleanses I am seing some amazing things with my body. I am pretty happy with all the results and I am exited to see what happen in my first half ironman of the year this Sunday. I am not resting for the race I am doing as training, but I think I will be able to see how I really am.
I am exited because the last 3 weeks I have been doing some great workouts, but the best part is that I am doing paces and speeds that 3 to 4 months ago or either I was not able to do, or I was doing using a lot of effort. For example, I did a progressive 12 mile run today, and in the end I was pushing a 5 55 to 6 pace and my heart rate was not even in zone 3. I look on my training log, 3 months ago that pace would put me in zone 4 to 5 almost red line! I was shock!
So let's see what happen this Sunday, I am pretty exited even been a training race!
One thing I notice is the last fat I eat the more energy I feel, so for this week what I'm doing is having very little fat to see how the body reacts on the race, so this way I can see what is going to be my pre race diet for my first ironman of the year in may!

So this is my food intake for today:

Green smoothie with garden of life perfect raw food
Run (12 miles progressive)- celery, perfect raw food, orange, carrots, turmeric for recovery
Lunch: spinach, kale and sprout mug beans
Dry figs as snacks
1 banana and 5 dry figs after swim 3500
Coached track
Dinner sprout quinoa with a little of Nutiva hemp oil and apple cider vinager
2 grapefruits

Feel good and go RAW!
RW

Raw food power

Today I had the most amazing experience on this raw food journey! Let me begin, I did the 10 miler, and I raced with my five fingers, so since it was a hard workout, I was a little soar in the calf and quads.... Sunday I did a hard swim nothing major and an easy bike. Woke up monday (48 hours after a workout like that is when you feel it the most) still soar but nothing crazy. So I went to the pool for a hard 4000m swim, and after I had speed work on the run at 5k pace. I finish the workout and I thought I still gonna be sore for a little while after today. So I went for lunch at the HHI feeling pretty sore, started to eat, ate lots of sprouts and a lot of Turmeric root (best anti inflammatory) when I stand up for another plate, I didn't feel the soreness as much. Got the second plate, ate and when I left I was not sore anymore! I was shocked! I told my wife I can't imagine, I arrive sore and I am leaving brand new, and after a day with 2 hard workouts! WOW!!!! How impressive is that!!! I am still amazed on how fast it was! We felt so good that we got home and we went to play with our dog at the tennis court and we did a few sprints with him there, and my leg? Brand new!!!!

I don't you if you have been to HHI but the way the food is set up there, is sprouts first, than the "fun food", usually a raw pasta, or raw tacos etc etc. So according with their program the sprouts is the most important for you and it should be more than 50% of the plate and the rest is fun. So usually I look forward for the fun part, but today I ate the fun part but not as much as usual, I was satisfied very quickly with the sprouts and I was not sore anymore, so the job was well done! I love it! How is amazing the power of raw foods!!!!!

Food intake:
Green smoothie in the am
1 banana
2 grapefruit
4 dates
Swim
2 bananas 4 dates
Run (speed work)
1 apple and celery juice
HHI dinner with lots of sprouts and Turmeric!

Feel Good and Go RAW!
RW

Limits?

So today I did the shamrock 10 miler, I trained normal and did the race as training today. We biked 17 miles before the race. I had a really good race, even knowing that I was not racing racing. I did 1 hour and 1 min, my best time in a 10 miler, that is a 6 06 pace (I think). I felt good the entire time, and the best part was my heart rate avg 158, that was great, specially because I have a race next weekend as well, a half ironman.
For me the most impressive thing today was that, I woke up at 4 am to go meet the guys, bike and race. Went home with my wife and we went to play with Bolt (our lovely dog), came back went to lunch, hang out a little bit, watched a movie, worked a little bit and I was not even tired! It is amazing what raw food can do!
After a day like that I started thinking at night, what is the limit? Honestly, how much the human can do? I know that we are not using our entire capacity! I am a extremily believer on this sentence: "we are what we eat" and the truth is we eat a lot of junk. So is our potential as humans and as society becoming junk? Just because of the way we eat! I started to see food as fuel and medicine not as emotional and entertainment.
Until today I can honestly say that raw food have changed my body, mind and spirit! Changed for good, it help me understand me and my purpose in this life, and I want to reach the highest level that I can and I want to help others feel what I feel and reach their best as well. If you change your diet you can change your mind, and changing your mind you can change your life!

Food intake for today:
Breakfast green smoothie
After race 3 bananas
Lunch at HHI lots of sprouts there.
After that just afew bananas, dates, grapefruit juice. That was it! The sprouts make me really full!

Feel good and go RAW!
RW

Reason

The last few days I have been really busy with training, coaching and with the feel good challenge that I have with a few of my athletes. But I ran into some nice people and I got to know a lot of new things about myself and about others as well.
The first amazing thing is after the liver flush I am a new person! I did some research and I found out that liver have a lot to do with anger, and I notice that I am a lot calmer after the flush. It is pretty cool!
Last week I ran into someone at the Hippocrates health institute (HHI), that stayed there for 3 weeks, and we talked a lot and she showed to me her blood exam. In 16 days on raw foods her cholesterol drop from 279 to 170!!!!! Amazing isn't it? No medication! We kept talking and she ran a marathon before and she is signed up for another one, and she asked me "can you do it with a 100% raw diet?" I said of course, I do ironmans on a 100% raw diet!
That conversation helped me a lot! Help me realize my purpose in life! I want to show, and motivate people or even inspire people that it is possible to do ironmans in performing in high levels having a 100% raw vegan diet, and a life with no chemicals. That is helping me a lot on training and is giving me extra motivation as well because now I really few that I have a bigger reason (other than myself reason) to do what I do. That remind me a conversation that I had with my brother the very first day I decide to quite business school. I was doing a fruit smoothie and I told him " I want to do something more for society, like I want to do something good and maybe make a difference". That day I quite business and 8 months later I started exercise science.
Those things happen for a reason! With coaching I help people be healthier, but I wanted more and now I am enrolled is holistic sports nutrition. So decide to put together my 2 passions, raw foods and training to help people be healthier and happier. I think I already do that but I didn't realized :)
Also, today I had a pleasure to see the HHI graduation and it is amazing! A lot of people share their results and it is just amazing the results of 3 weeks on a raw food diet, not only physical but mentally as well!

Thank you all for reading my blog! I will be post more of my training and my food intake. Tomorrow I am biking and doing a 10 miler race locally, and next week a half ironman as training for ironman Utah.

Training today was a little easier since i am racing tomorrow, I did 8 miles run, with some intervals.
Food intake:
My green smoothie
Celery, parsley, grapefruit juice after my workout
Lunch at HHI
Green smoothie at 6pm
And that is pretty much it!

Feel good and go RAW

Liver flush

So I did my first liver flush! Went better than I thought, I counted 60 stones! Some of them were big like the size of an almond! At night I could feel and hear the rocks moving (no pain just noise), it was pretty amazing experience. Some people have trouble sleeping and feel sick, I slept pretty well and did not feel sick at all. The hardest part was drinking the epson salt, other than that was pretty good!
Once again I had lots of energy!  I spent 3 days with no fat in order to do the flush, and I think cutting the fat gives you a lot of energy.  I think(that is from my experience and from talking with Jennifer) when you eat fat it  slows down everything. That been said, WE ARE WHAT WE EAT, think about it!
The liver have really important functions such as:  produce substances that break down fats, convert glucose to glycogen, produce urea (the main substance of urine), make certain amino acids (the building blocks of protein), filter harmful substances from the blood, storage of vitamins and minerals (Vitamin A, D, K and B12) and maintain a proper level or glucose in the blood. The liver is also responsible for producing cholesterol. It produces about 80% of the cholesterol in your body. All those function are key for the body and specially for an athlete. The cleaner your body is, the healthier you are.


Yesterday was a pretty busy since I was working on my Raw food challenge. Worked in the computer in the am with training plans, since I had to stay home in case I had more stones coming out LOL. After I went to buy all the stuff, than went back home and it was training time! During training I was shocked, I was going faster with lower heart rate! I am trying to find some studies related to HR training and raw foods, I think will be really interesting to see.
Since I didn't eat from 2 pm Sunday until Monday at noon there is not a whole lot of food, but here it is:
3 bananas
4 grapefruits
2 salads spinach, kale, alfalfa sprouts, carrots and beets


I am really grateful for this experience!!!
Feel Good and Go RAW!
RW

Liver flush today!

Today I'm getting ready for my liver flush! I have been 3 days with no fat at all! It is amazing how much more energy I have without fat in the diet!
Past 2 days I ate:
Banana
Grapefruit
Apples
Lots of salads full of spinach and kale
Friday I had lunch at Hippocrates health institute and I ate a lot of sprouts

Those days without fat it is been great! I had pretty hard workouts and specially on the swim and I hit my best times.

So I'm doing my workout now today and I will have to stop eating at 2pm and I will eat again tomorrow at 12! I will put here my experience!

Feel good and go RAW
RW

Grapefruit super fruit?

Today was a great day! Woke up full of energy, I coached swim in the am than I jumped in the pool and did some extra drills, I added 2000 on my training, I had to much energy LOL.
After swim I went biking and for the first time I used the computrainer on a friend/ client house.... I must say I like the fact that I did the St George course, but boy computrainer is BORING! I know everyone swear by it, but I don't think I can do more than once a month. I love outdoors. So 30 min into the workout I wanted to leave, but I stick with the plan and did 2 hours on the hardest part of the course. Of course I had to put music on. 
After I finish the workout I went home had some of my raw recovery shake, and 1 hour later I had lunch. I think I ate a little too much at lunch, felt a little heavy. After lunch about 2 hours later I was craving for grapefruit. So I had a glass of grapefruit juice and in 5 min I was feeling a lot better. 
I was so impress with that, so I started to research the benefits of grapefruit. I found some amazing things about it. The funny part is that the first time I ever tried  (I was 15 years old)grapefruit I did not like it at all, and now I love, and even crave for it!
So here are the few benefits that I found:
1- Is super rich in vitamin C ( Good to fight colds and free radicals, also reduce the risk of death from cancer, stroke, and  cardiovascular disease)
2-Prevent Kidney stones (Increase your urinary pH value. This helps to significantly lower your risk of calcium oxalate stones forming)
3-Help on weight loss (Rich in fat burning enzymes and help to flush excess of water from high sodium diets)
4-Super charges your metabolism (combination of acids and enzymes makes your internal organs working)
5- Helps your liver detox (In fact the liver flush I will do this weekend I have to drink grapefruit juice)
6-Helps fight prostate cancer (flavonoid naringenin help repair injury DNA in prostate cancer cells)
7- Protection against lung cancer (6 onces a day has shown  to help reduce the activities of enzymes that can activate the cancer-triggering chemicals that are found in cigarette and cigar smoke)
8-Lower cholesterol (studies shown the reduced up to 20% in 30 days)
9-Fever reducer  (helps to reduce the burning sensation)
10- Indigestion (It is considered a light food in comparison to other foods and can be digested quickly and easily. This eases indigestion by reducing the heat and irritation that is in your stomach)
It is amazing how nature have  foods that can help with everything, you just have to eat the right food and it's natural state, RAW! Is that simple but people still  want to take pills with all those side effects (I don't get it).


Daily food intake:
Green smoothie
Raw energy bar (with raw protein) my recipe
Recovery drink raw
Sprout quinoa and hemp seed dressing
Grapefruit juice
4 bananas


Feel Good and go RAW!
RW

Raw food=super powers?

Ok, so now that I have been hitting hard my workouts I am really impressed with the raw food world, specially after the cleanse! I really don't understand why is hard for people to believe or do, if they just knew how I feel maybe more people will try!
Today was a crazy day! I woke up, personal train and went to do my workout! A few things called my attention, first I didn't need music (I usually listen to music on hard runs), during the run I notice I was running faster than the pace I was suppose to with a lower heart rate even with a 30mph wind! Also my concentration was beyond my normal, I didn't feel the need of my raw gel, and after I finish the workout witch was about 10 miles total with a lot of speed, I felt that I didn't do anything! So I went to do some core workouts, and end up adding a few burpees as well!
As soon as I got home did my recovery shake and went to do my taxes (finally), finish went to lunch and went to Bedners farmers market to get food :))
Got home organize everything grabbed my stuff went to swim! Did my best swim set ever in my life! Swam about 3500m. Once again I finish the workout and I felt that I didn't do anything! Crazy! I went to the track to coach my team and I felt I wanna to run! I didn't run, but the energy was increadible! When I got home I was still getting some stuff done, and now is 10 30 pm and I still feel like running lol.... It is insane the amount of energy I have even after the workouts I had today, is was not easy workouts were hard workouts that I did my fastest time in training! That is why I think raw foods can give you super powers lol. If you didn't go raw yet, you should! And is cheaper too, I spent 65$ at Bedners and I have food for about 2 weeks, for me and my wife!
This weekend I am going to do a liver flush, my wife is doing as well and I think is good for body, training etc, you can see what it is at http://healthybliss.net/gallstone-liver-flush-recipe-cleanse-info suggested by Jennifer.
I am really grateful for Jennifer for teaching me and my wife the power of cleanse and learning more about raw food. Thank you Jennifer!
I really want to see how this season will finish :)

Raw food intake:
Morning green smoothie
1 banana before run
1 recovery drink
Lunch: salad with kale spinach and guacamole
Snack 1 banana and figs
Snack at track 1 apple and figs
Dinner: sprout quinoa with creamy dressing ( nutritional yeast, bell peppers, and Nutiva hemp seeds)
Snack raw chocolate shake
That's it! Doesn't sounds much right? But I did great workouts and I had lots and lots of energy! Maybe super power? LOL
Feel good and go RAW!
RW

Raw chocolate shake

1 cup of water
1/4 cup of Nutiva hemp seeds
1 tbs of raw cocoa
1 banana
2 dates or 2 tbs of agave or coconut nectar

Put everything in the blender and blend well! add ice if you want to make it really cold!

Feel good and go RAW!
RW

Recovery

I hear a lot of people saying I need to train more, but what people usually need is more recovery! It is very important to know that the body gets stronger when it rest and not when stress! That is why some people train a lot and never lose weight because they are always in stress, and of course a diet can help a lot! One thing a learn with my diet and on Brendan Braizer books is that food cause a lot of stress, nutritional stress.
In fact diet can reduce up to 40% of your stress level, yes 40%! Can you imagine a world 40% less stressed out? Will be pretty good right? Any ways, I notice since I became vegan and mostly when I became raw is how my stress level reduced, and that make me recover better and faster. For example, my body don't have to stress (work) to digest foods, therefor I can use that energy to train or recover.
I notice that certain cooked foods, or even hard to digest foords, or foods with a lot of sodium, or with a lots of fat, that made me "lazy" and with "heavy" legs. The past 3 weeks, I have been hitting pretty hard workouts everyday, and each day I wake up with more energy! The most amazing thing was the day with out fat, was the day that I had more energy, and my fat intake is from avocado, flaxseed and sometimes a few nuts. So easy digest foods (raw) equals of less stress. Less stress better recover, more energy!!!
Also, what usually happen when you are stress out? You look for comfortable foods witch are fatty foods, or coffee and sugar causing even more stress in the body, and the "lazy" feeling, specially after the coffee effect ends and you crash! And after you crash? You take more coffee, and the cycle starts all over again! There is another fact that if you are lacking from energy you try to eat more, but adding more calories can cause even more stress in body, than causing more stress people gain weight or don't lose weight, so what they usually do is cut calories and that can cause a lot stress as well! Best think you can do is change the food that you eat, by going raw!
So, what I am trying to say, is that most of the time is not a training problem, is a recovery problem! And that it is a simple fact, you can change what you eat in order to recover better, just simply imagine your life with 40% less stress? Can you picture that? Imagine 40% more energy what you can do? Maybe you can finally lose what you always wanted to, or do that race that you always wanted, even spend more time with family, sleep better etc. There is plenty of stuff that you can do with 40% more of energy! At least I know I can :)) I felt a big difference in being raw, sometimes feels life I have super powers lol!

Raw food daily from yesterday:
6 bananas
4 dates
Recovery drink (my own recipe raw)
4 grapefruits (I love it)
Salad with kale, spinach and guacamole!

Feel good and go RAW!
RW

A day without fat!

In my diet I usually have a little bit of fat from avocados, or flax seeds, hemp seeds etc etc... But today (did not plan ahead) I didn't eat any fat, I actually ate lesss calories too but i had lots of energy!
I woke you and had a tangirine, later on another banana did some stuff, made my gel for training and went for a 3200 swim, not only had a great swim, I did one of my fastest time! I think I was just happy to swim at the pool where my triathlon life started. I swam at the pool that I did my very first swim workout! After the swim I went to a 30 mile bike ride, little easy to moderate. Got back I had my recovery drink but this time was grapefruit juice, banana, 2 dates and raw protein.
90 minutes later I went to do my run, was 20x1/4 mile progressive, with 1 min active rest. Had a great workout. And that got me thinking: I ate very little today and had lots of energy, so like I said before is not about calories is about absorbition and quality. So if you eat the right foods (quality) and this food being raw you will have better absorbition therefor you will need less calories, is so simple! The reason I say absorbition is because raw foods the body recognizes causing less stress in the body.
Funny thing is that during the run I realize that I didn't eat fat during the day and that I think is a good part on the reason I hade a lot of energy. Fat is a little "sticky" in the body and I feel like it take longer to digest. I think that's the reason that I had extra energy :)

Daily food intake:
4 bananas
1 tangerine
Grapefruit juice (2)
Raw graden of life protein (2)
Kale salad
And that's it!
See very little calories but lots of energy!

feel good and go raw!
RW

PH

Everything I will talk about here today is based on my experience. A few months ago I started to use PH testing to control my training and this experience has been amazing. It is true and proven that a alkaline body is a healthy body. Also it is proven that animal products, and processed foods make your body acid. So when I first started studying about vegan and raw foods, first thing I learned is that a vegan diet specially a RAW diet make your body more alkaline.
Since I don't believe in "no pain no gain" (I think you have to push but not go over, specially in training), and I focus a lot on recovery I started to test my PH pretty much everyday. The reason I started doing that is because when we exercise we make our body acid, so that is when nutrition comes into play! It is really important after training make your body alkaline, therefor the body can recover faster. The faster is your recovery is the closer you can schedule hard workouts. The closer hard workouts are the faster you will improve. Simple isn't it?
What I did was every time my PH was a little bit acid I will drop the intensity of that workout a little bit, if I was more alkaline I could push a little bit harder. Remember, alkaline means healthy body and with a healthy body you can push more the limits. Of course I still follow training plans and periodization, with weeks focus on recovery but with the PH test as a plus.
The result has been amazing, to have an idea, every year I do the race for the faith here is west palm beach, since I do my first Ironman of the year around may, I am always at the same period of training. So this year I drop 2 min form my previous year, and not only that, the week before I raced a half marathon and I did 10k a week after and still drop 2 min. Also the day before the race, I did 10 miles of speed interval. The other years I was doing an easy run the day before. Technically I should be tired, but I improved 2 min. So I extremely suggest in taking a closer look on your PH. It is really easy to test, you can buy PH straps at your local pharmacy and test on your urine.
The best thing you can do is focus on your food intake, SPECIALLY your recovery drink! This is one of my biggest fight, most recovery drinks on the market are not good because they have whey protein. Whey protein is extremely processed, is from milk therefor is ACID forming. The other bad thing about is MALTODEXTRIN!!! Malto is extremely processed, but is a cheap carbohydrate that is why the companies use, but it is ACID forming. Also Maltodextrin is not well absorb but the body and it contain is most of the sport drinks out there.
Lucky you there are brands out there they are natural or you can make your own recovery drink (RAW). Vega is a really company with lots of good products including recovery drinks.
Here is my recipe:
Chocolate "Milk" recovery drink
1/4 cup of Nutiva Hemp seeds
1 scoop of Garden of Life Raw protein
10oz of water or  Zico coconut water
2 dates
3/4 of an apple (you can juice the apple if you prefer) or 1 banana
1 tbs of Raw cocoa
Put all in the blender and blend well! Note, you don't need a vitamix neither a powerful blender, just a regular blender will be fine.
Feel good and go RAW!
RW

How to start

Lots of people ask me how to start on a vegan diet, and usually give 2 options. I always compare food with running barefoot and how to start on a vegan diet I do the same thing.
The hard part: Do a 3 day juice cleanse, that will help you reset your body and after that you start on a vegan diet! Is hard to do like that so I really don't recommend if your diet is really poor, because it will be really hard. If you are already vegetarian or eat fairly good, this might be the best way to start. Just for reference, when people ask me about barefoot, I tell them if they want to go straight to barefoot, you need to learn how to run again, that means that you will start running 1/4 mile a day.
The other way is to start is little by little. For example, calculate the % of your diet is based on animal products. Once you figure it out, start taking 10% less a week, and start adding fruits and vegetables to replace those 10%. Every week lower a little. Change milk to almond/hemp/rice milk. It is really important to pace your self, specially because you will have a few detox symptoms during this phase. The good thing is, the worst you feel during the change the better you will feel later on! Detox (strong symptoms) can take up to 6 weeks, so pace yourself, but minor symptoms might take even longer.  Just for reference, this is I usually suggest to start running barefoot, adding little by little into your daily mileage.
The best thing to do is to  do is to add lots of greens on your diet, and make little challenges with yourself like: 1 day just juice, or one day no animal product, one day just fruit, one day all raw etc etc Add lots of smoothies (specially green), they taste good and satisfy a lot. .Also try to get a friend or family member to do with you, having company will help you. When you see, your taste will change, and your body will start craving more of the good stuff. The big secret is never get hungry!
 A great thing to do is to start exploring new restaurants and tasting new dishes, look up restaurants in your area, avoid big chains and start exploring a new taste! When I first started I was impress on how a raw vegan diet is so tasty! There are wonderful restaurants and wonderful products vegan and raw out there you just need to try! You can always ask me here, because I try lots and lots of different products out there!
After you go vegan you can start going Raw!

Daily raw food intake:
Morning: 1 banana, 3 tangerines and 8 oz of perfect raw food (Garden of life)
Lunch: 4th generation market, I had the raw mock tuna wrap and 1 sweet potato enchilada, and raw "mozzarella" stick
Dinner: green smoothie with raw protein (garden of life) and hemp seeds (Nutiva)

Feel good and Go RAW!!!
RW

Benefits

You know there are plenty benefits form a Raw vegan diet but one benefit impress me more than anything: The Mental benefit! Is even hard to explain, but since I started on the raw diet, and specially after the detox my mind is working faster than ever!!!
The reason I say that, is for example long workouts I don't get the mental fatigue anymore therefore I am able to concentrate longer, having a better quality workout! Another example is I always wanted to do a newsletter for my company and I never had ideas, and today I did my second newsletter in less than a week! (if anyone wants to join the list contact me at www.rwtraining.net )
The body, mind and spirit feels like is in completely in harmony, the good energy just flow with zero effort, specially after my friend did Reiki, it is incredible. My body and mind just naturally seek positive energy! The cool part is, my entire life I was looking for that, and I study a lot of stuff like: The secret, Buddhism, Tao, Body Talk, Auyrveda, Yoga etc all of them mention positive energy, abundance and all that, BUT with raw foods, for me looks like that your body gets in Harmony, that state of positive energy happens naturally, and abundance becomes easier!! Is hard to explain! My view on that is, if the mind don't get tired, your body won't get tired either :)
Second great benefit is the sleep! Oh my god, my sleep quality is amazing! I can sleep 5 to 6 hours and wake up fresh, even with very hard training days. Maybe one day I can explain all that in a deep way in a book!!!

Day and Raw food intake!
Today was a busy day, I coached swim in the AM, came back home worked in the newsletter and some other stuff like my interview (http://firsttimeironman.com/richard-wygand.aspx ), then I went to a bike ride on my favorite time of the day, 1 PM I love when is hot, that is just one more excuse to drink more Zico (coconut water), after that did some TRX training, and in the end of the day our family time: Dog park, we love taking Bolt to the dog park!

Daily food intake:
1 banana before coaching
Breakfast Raw pancakes
Lunch green smoothies
50 miles bike ride (intervals), with raw gel, Zico coconut water, and fresh apple and celery juice.
Dinner: salad with sprout quinoa, sprout mug beans, spinach, kale and avocados

Feel good and go RAW!
RW

Green Smoothie Recipe

Here is one of my favorite green smoothies:

Fill up half of the blender with kale and spinach.
1 and 1/4 cup of water of apple juice (fresh)
4 dates or figs
1 banana
1 kiwi (take the skin out)
1/4 cup of Nutiva hemp seeds
1/4 cup of Raw Garden of Life Protein
1 tbs of ground flax seed (optional)

Blend well and enjoy! That makes a really big smoothie!
Feel good and Go RAW!
RW

Raw pancakes

Recipe for the raw pancake that I post the other day!

1 banana
1 tbs of raw cocoa powder
4 dates (can use figs as well)
1/4 cup of milled Nutiva chia seeds
2 tbs of ground flax seed
1 tbs of raw macca powder (optional)
1/4 cup of wall nuts
In a food processor mix all ingredients until is all is in cake is solid. Note, add more chia seeds if is too "watery".
Make pancakes forms and serve. If you want to make it hot, put in the dehydrator for 15 min at 115 degrees.
You can top with fruits, agave nectar, raw honey or  raw coconut nectar. Enjoy!

Feel good and go RAW!
RW

Mens Health Brazil

Funny just saw my article when I was at Mens Health Brazil, and now I am 15 kilos (33 pounds) less!!! I got to the weight that everyone said was impossible, 71 kg (159 pounds)!!! So for me impossible is a word that does not have in my dictionary!!!

Now with 71 kg (159 pounds), I think is time for another before and after article? LOL

All I have to say is don't let anybody tell you what is possible or impossible. Follow your dreams and Just do it!!!

Feel Good,

RW

Busy

The last few days were pretty busy, I did a few clinics, training a lot, did the A1A half marathon as training. So I was just busy over all.
The half marathon went well, it was humid and hot, but was a great training run. One thing I did notice, and I have been noticing for awhile my recovery time is so fast!!! For example I ran the half at a good pace (1 hour and 26 min) that's a 6 30 pace (4'05'' per km), normally a training day like that (21km) at this pace would make me tired. But with raw foods I notice I recover so quick that even 48 hours after (when it hits) I was not tired at all. That is so good! During the race I tried my new Raw gel and it worked really good! By the way did any read the article in runners world the other day? about gels with arsenic in it? Please check it out: http://news.runnersworld.com/2012/02/16/refueling-with-arsenic/  It is insane!
I think I am seem more benefits from my detox now! My energy levels are insane! Today I did one of my best bike workouts and didn't even felt tired!
Sorry I missed my food intake on the last few days but I was very busy!
Today:
Breakfast: Garden of life raw meal
Snack: apple and dried figs
Lunch: salad with Kale, spinach, sprout lentils and peppers
snack apple
dinner: salad with kale, flaxseed ground, spinach, sprout alfalfa, cucumber, carrots and bell peppers

Feel Good and Go Raw!
RW

Point of view

I am really grateful to be able to understand English, Portuguese and a good chunk of Spanish, therefor I have access to a good amount of information. Today I decide to show my point of view here!
Every coin have a side, right? So this point of view is how I feel and from lots of books and talks! The other day I compare barefoot running with raw food and I will do this  in this post because I think is a great!
Ok, so if I tell anyone that I run barefoot style lots of people think I am crazy! My big question is why? I must say, I always liked closer to the ground shoes, I never had a running injury, never used supportive shoes, every time I used an arch support it will hurt me, and so on...Now I only run with 3 shoes: Five Fingers, Inov-8, or New balance Minimus trail, since I started running barefoot I got more efficient, I got stronger, I run faster and I feel better. So my point is, if you look both sides how much information about barefoot running against regular running supportive shoes and arch support? If you go to any running store they will say that you need support, cushion and will try to put an arch support too but no one say you should try minimal shoe! And yet we keep getting injury, crazy, right?
Same reaction I get when I say I am vegan and RAW! They ask a lot of questions like how you get your protein, how you have energy, why are you raw, what you mean no supplements etc etc. My point is, if you look at it there is a drug for everything in this world, we are getting sick everyday, a big part of the population is obese,  actually, I don't know if you know but the Medium size now is not the same size Medium than 10 years ago companies made a bigger Medium so we can "feel" better!!! WTH???? So how come with all those drugs we are getting sick, we are obese?? Since I changed to a vegan diet I perform better, I have more energy, I feel better and I do NOT remember the last time I was sick or the last time I miss a day of work, neither the last time I took a medicine, it is at least 2 and 1/2 years!!! 
My big view here is very simple, what make more money, high cushion shoes full of support or barefoot running? What makes more profit selling you a drug for everything or raw foods? Therefor, who can spend more money in studies? That is my point, is a lot more information on the dark side (shoes and drugs) and it is so easy to learn about the "bad things" than actually knowing the right information!
Now, I say that just because one simple thing: THE WAY I FEEL!!! I did a few years of therapy and I try to do as much as I can, and I try to know myself  as much as I can, and one thing I learned is feelings are always right. I don't care if is good or bad, you know how you feel, nobody teach you that! No one can say is BS or right/wrong if you feel good you feel good, or if you feel bad you feel bad, if you are angry you are angry, no one in this world can say that your feeling is right or wrong, it is just the way you feel, simple as that!
So my conclusion is: Running barefoot it  feels extremely good, also I did several testes and it does make me run faster with less effort! Same thing with my diet! Since I turned vegan performance got better, energy level are higher, recovery is faster etc etc, when I turned raw (specially after the cleanse) everything got even better, energy, recovery my mind is focus, I can think clear, I am more motivated etc etc.
I am not trying to prove anything here, all I want to do is to show my point of view and maybe people can start looking at both sides of the coin and see how they feel about it and maybe try barefoot running and raw foods! Or simply just add more raw in the diet and some barefoot running in your training! Think about that!

The day was busy today! I woke up early for a bike ride then I went with my wife to the A1A marathon expo, I help out with her business www.fletsusa.com  (check it out, best compression apparel), and the day finish with a 6 mile easy run, and here is the food intake:
Green smoothie with kale, spinach, Hemp seeds (Nutiva), water and dates
1 apple
6 figs
Salad at whole foods (lots of greens, sprouted mug beans and with a little avocado)
5 fis
1 apple
Another salad but add kale and did not put avocado
Plus one Raw meal (Garden of Life)

Feel good and Go RAW!
RW

   

Always learning

The past few days I have been pretty busy, witch is good! I am learning each day more about my body! After this cleanse, it is pretty amazing how the body works, specially being clean and with the right fuel it works even better! This is a few things I learned so far after the cleanse!
1) taste changed- for example, I didn't use to like grapefruit, and now I love! Also, figs I did not use to like, now I found out that give me an enormous amount of energy! And I love the taste!
2)If I eat too much (eat more than I actually need) my body throw it out! For example eating more than I need will only make me go to the bathroom more. Before when I used to eat bad if I eat more I felt that the food just stayed there longer and sometimes for a long time! That's why I had so many plaques!
3)since the cleanse I few that my body ask more for mono meals, for example, just fruits or just certain vegetable etc etc, I don't feel I have to mix a lot of stuff, if i do mix i feel that is harder to digest.So that been said is hard to think about breakfast, lunch and dinner ( by the way who said that we have to have those 3 meals?) I started doing a few small meals during the day, and eating what I few like, is a lot easier, but physiologic is harder because I have stuck in my mind that I have to have breakfast, lunch and dinner! Does that make sense?
I think is a lot more to learn about my body and mind, but one thing for sure: energy level is sky high, and sleep quality is 100% better! To have an idea, today I drove from Orlando back to west palm, pick up the new bike, biked 20 miles(love the new quintana roo by the way), personal train, coach my team track session, came back home prepare my wife raw birthday cake than finish at 10pm, had too much energy so went out to do my speed work :) and now I am writing this post full of entry thinking I should have ran more lol! Is a great feeling!
Food intake:
Raw meal garden of life with banana and papaya
Go raw bars ( banana bread flavor, delicious)
Apple
4 figs
Apple
Small portion of home made guacamole
Raw chocolate cake ( midnight wife birthday)

For people who likes ice cream there is a raw ice cream call cashewtopia, extremely good!( had one yesterday)!
Feel good,
RW

Choices

Today was a busy day! I worked in the am, than since I have family in Florida from Brazil, we went Disney with the family.... So, I though: Staying Raw at Disney? How hard can it be? Thinking it will be hard I took a few snacks, but in my mind I wanted to use what they have there..... One of my snacks was the meal replacement RAW from Garden of Life (Is delicious, nutritious and RAW if you have never tried before)!!!
For my surprise, it is very possible to stay raw at Disney and eat correctly! For example, I found out that they sell apples, and some other fruits that I don't remember in a little bag! Also, there is options of salads at most places to eat! So I ate a Greek salad with no cheese and no dressing. Is that simple! My big question is why people don't do the best choice? Because while I was ordering I saw 99% of the people ordering fried chicken sandwich, cheese burgers, bacon cheese burgers with french fries! Sad but true, but is not that they don't have another option!
After walking all day at Disney with a clinic in the am, I got to the hotel and went for my run! Another surprise, legs were fresh! Did one of my best tempo intervals, pace felt really easy! Of course I had Five fingers on it, and that help :)))
Dinner, I thought, another challenge? We went to a Mexican restaurant, and yes there is options! I had fajita salad, with out the cooked bell peppers, instead order raw! This restaurant they make the guacamole in front of you, so I add that on the salad. So I had a mix green salad, with peppers, mushrooms and guacamole (fresh)! So honestly, is not hard to be Raw vegan, pretty much everywhere you will have a choice, or even if you are not raw, you can make some great options! Now, one thing I notice, got to be careful with cheese, because they wanted to put cheese on the guacamole...crazy! What is up with that? People put cheese everywhere? salads, guacamole etc etc...I don't get it, but I always order no cheese :)
One funny thing I notice and when I tell friends they don't believe, but when you eat clean (RAW) your taste change. For example, back in the days when I was out of shape, I did not like grapefruit at all!!! And since I changed my diet, I started to love!!! Same thing happen with figs, witch by the way I found out that figs for me give me a lot of energy and endurance.... a lot more than dates!!! Fig was also a fruit that I was not a big fan of it, and now I love it!!! Pretty amazing! The human body is a perfect machine, and we need to learn how to use correctly, because we are far to use our full potential!
So ZERO EXCUSES! YOU JUST NEED TO MAKE BETTER CHOICES TO CHANGE YOUR DIET AND YOUR LIFE!!!!
Feel Good and go RAW!
RW

Comparing

The other day I was thinking and I end up some how comparing barefoot running with Raw foods, how? It's simple: If you ever read "Born to run" you remember how he explain that technology in running shoes increased a lot but the injuries remain the same, correct? Is same thing with food! For example, we have all this vitamins, drugs, cooked foods, microwaves foods, super meal replacements etc etc, and we are getting sick, overweight, and dying younger and younger!!! Think about it!

If you really stop to think, is the same thing as running! We improved so much in shoes thinking we will prevent injuries and didn't help! With food is the same! Also keep in mind, the body HAVE the power to heal itself, but it need the right tools, that means, it needs RAW FOODS!!!

Today was cold so I ate more :)
Daily food intake:
Breakfast :2 bananas, 1 apple
Wheat grass shot
Lunch: Salad with greens and raw guacamole
Snack: raw crackers (flax seeds)
Dinner: salad with mixed greens peppers and raw guacamole!

Feel good,
RW
ps: I will wright more about barefoot X Raw foods soon!!!

Reflexion

Today was a great day! I had the chance to hand out with friends in Sarasota, and had a great dinner with them! We went to this Mexican place mipueblomexican.com and they have the Mi Pueblo organico witch is all raw Mexican dishes! Pretty cool and excellent food!
After my cleanse I can't get over how much energy I have extra feels like I have a 30 hour day just for me! After I post about calories yesterday that made me think in a simple way to explain what I talked about, food is pretty much like what I say about training: quality over quantity!!!! Is better to do one quality workout than actually do 2 crappy workouts. So that means is better to have a few quality calories than actually have a bunch of crappy calories!
When I say crappy calories I say over cooked meals, animal products, and fat! Why cooked foods? Is simple, when you cook over 118 degrees you kill a big part of the food enzymes and if it goes over 300 degrees it kills everything, so if you think about it, microwave food is not food, is mutant food, or just rubber! Why no animal products? Animal products make your body acid, and when your body gets acid that is when you start getting sick! Some people might say we were design to eat meat! Well who cares if we were or not? Plant proteins are better absorbed by the body, more efficient, and make your body alkaline (this is just a few benefits), so really who cares? Now fat! Fat is what it makes us fat! Makes the blood sticky and when you eat a lot of fatting food we get tired after a meal like that! Also too much fat in the long term will cause a lot of problems! Fat, in my point of view is the hardest craving and the most emotional nutrient, because every time we are stress we reach for fatting comfort foods! But like everything else you can reverse that!
What I suggest is, start adding on your diet raw foods, you don't need to be 100% like me right away of course the idea is to be closer to 100%, but start little by little until and go based on %. For example if your diet is 10% raw increase to 20% until you reach a bigger amounts! You would be amazed what that can do, and after awhile your body will start feeling the difference and he will be asking for more! So really, just make a little change and work on small goals, all you need in the first step!

Food intake:
Breakfast: 2 bananas
Speed work on the run
After run: chlornella+ an apple
Snack: banana
Lunch: small salad with bell peppers and a few sprouts and fresh squeezed lemon as dressing
Swim 3000
1banana
Dinner I had 2 salads at mi pueblo one with kale, hemp seeds, and tomatoes! The other with spinach, sprouts and avocado! Was delicious!

Hemp seeds is really good for you and is good to add in the salads! My favorite brand is Nutiva (http://nutiva.com/) check them out!

Go raw and Feel good!
RW

Calories

I decide to talk about calories today, because I was talking to one of my athletes about that. The truth is that we don't need as much calories as we think we need. Like I said before, food is emotion, and we over eat, specially after my cleanse I realize that, I spent 8 days with no food and I had lots of energy!
I rememeber one of my first ironmans, I had a 5000 calories a day, but I was tired. At the same note, I did one week of juicing during my hardest week of training last year and I had so much energy!
So what I'm trying to say, is eating a lot of calories does not mean that we will have energy, because if that was true people that eat fast food would have more energy than everyone else! Eating raw is less stress for the body, therefor you spend less energy (calories) digesting food and your body is more efficient using that food for energy, of course you will have more energy! Eating junk food, not only fast food, but food with chemicals, additives etc is considered junk, will make more stress to the body to digest, so you will be spending energy (calories)to digest and getting very little energy in return.
That's why when you have a clean diet, calories is the last thing you have to worried about! After my cleanse I am eating a lot less and having a lot more energy, first my body is clean that is easy to absorb, second my body is a lot more efficient and I get satisfied with very little!

My daily intake:
Breakfast: 2 bananas
After my 90 min bike ride (pretty fun, I did mountain bike all off road)+ core
Juice: apple, celery, and parsley
Lunch: spinach, kale, dulse sprout mung beans with apple cider vinegar
Snack: kale chips and sweet potatoes chips (all raw from whole foods)
Snack: 2 bananas

That's it! Had enough energy to, train, coach swim in the am, drive to Sarasota where i will work at the expo with five fingers, drop of my new bike at the shop etc etc.....
Today was a busy but fun day! The off road workout was cool and made me think about doing a xterra soon!
Go raw and feel good!
RW

Great day!!!

Great day today! I have so much energy, is hard to explain! So I woke up, ship my old bike (new one arrives tomorrow, going back to Quintana Roo, I am very happy) and I went to a 5 mile easy run with my Vibram Five Fingers seeya. I went easy because yesterday was I went hard for the first time since the cleanse. The run was easy.
After I went to have lunch at Hippocrates Health Institute here in West Palm beach, great place. They have a raw buffet. Funny thing is every time I go, I used to eat a lot, and this time was different.... I was satisfied right away. Also, they had a dish with nuts (of course have a little of fat) witch I usually eat like crazy and this time, I didn't want to eat!!!! I just didn't feel like it at all!!! I was craving for sprouts, not fat!!!Awesome!
After lunch, I went to the pool for a 3000 meters swim. Felt great! Lots of energy. I also tested my new Garmin 910xt, is pretty cool how it works in the pool! Finishing the swim, went home got ready to go coach my team at track (www.rwtraining.net). It was busy there, most of my athletes went. Now the great part of track is: one of my athletes went 2 days RAW, only for 2 days, and she have a lot  more energy and guess what? She had her best track workout in probably 2 years! Raw food is power!!!
One thing I notice after the cleanse is that I am looking for positive energy every where I go, for example, I naturally  started getting away from bad vibes and drama. Is not conscious, is something happening naturally. Is pretty cool actually  and I love this feeling!!!
During the day, I was talking to my wife, and I remembered something that blew our mind. When I started to train and I decide to make my career as a triathlete my goal weight was always 172 pounds (78 kilos), and in Brazil I went to a pretty good amount of nutritionist and all of them said is was impossible, and that my body would not allow to go that low. The lowest I got in Brazil was 181 pounds (82kg), and because they were always saying that I need calories, all this crazy supplements etc etc,I was never able to hit my goal also after a race in recovery time I would gain the weight back again. Today when I realize that I was 172 pounds (78 kilos) when I turned raw before the cleanse, and after the cleanse I am 159 pounds (71.9 kilos) as of today, feeling stronger and with more energy than ever, taking NO supplements, recovering faster and performing better, that just BLEW my mind. And just having a few calories :)))) And as I am writing this post my feeling is to go for a long run! That is how much energy I have!
Ok here is my food intake for today:
Breakfast: 2 bananas and 2 dates
After run: Juice with apple, celery and parsley (This foods are rich in organic sodium so the body can absorb better, and this is what my body needs according with my irisdology evaluation) I also added turmeric powder good for inflamation
Lunch: big salad with lots of sprouts, dulse, pieces of turmeric root, but the plate was pretty much sprouts. No fat on it, and a little bit of the Hippocrates raw hot sauce.
Snack: 1 apple and 1 raw GT's Kombucha
Dinner: spinach and bell peppers small salad with some dulse.
And that was it!!! I had only this during the day and a crazy amount of energy!!!! Also, after a hard swim today was the first day I was not hungry, I had no gas during the day and stool did not smell. I can't believe that!!!
Feel good, go RAW!!!
RW

Numbers

Today was my first day eating again, and it is amazing my body reaction. I had fruit for breakfast (little fruit salad) and I felt full!!! Went for a run, and today was the first day that I actually did some speed again, and it felt easy to run with this weight! For lunch we went to whole foods, and I almost didn't finish my salad, I was satisfied with very little, I didn't crave for fat, and I will keep it like that! Dinner we had another salad, and I ate a lot less than  lunch time, and I was very satisfied.
The body is an incredible machine! I honestly think everyone should do a cleanse one day! I want to give a special thanks to Jennifer Thompson from www.healthybliss.net for suggesting and guiding me and my wife thru this cleanse. I am also very proud that my wife did the entire 14 days. We are extremely happy with the results, and like I always say, health is priceless, and to be honest is a lot easier (and simple) than we think.
Curiosities that I notice today: First thing, no gas! That used to be a big problem for me, trust me, used to hurt during runs sometimes. Also, my stool did not smell, crazy... But what shocked me the most is that after my run, sweating for 70 min, I did not smell at all!!! I love it!!!
 
Ok, here are the numbers and picture from the 2 weeks cleanse, before:
Weight: 174.5 pounds (79kilos)
Body fat: 9%
Now after:
Weight 160 pounds (72.5 kilos)
Body fat: 5.5%
Note: all the weight I lost was pretty much in the core area!

My goal now is keep posting all my meals, and training in the blog, so I can show, and maybe inspire everyone  that is really possible to stay healthy, training hard and specially performing well with a raw vegan diet because everybody ask me, do you have enough energy to workout? where it comes from? So you will be able to check it out :)
Feel Good,
RW

Phases

That is me when I used to eat meat!

That is me vegetarian!

That is me vegan!

That is me Raw!

Raw before the cleanse!

This are the phases that I went thru! Reason that I am posting is because you guys can see the difference after the cleanse! Of course the very first picture I did not have a healthy life style, but I put the picture, because on that time I had no energy and no desire to exercise, and I was doing Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, but every time I lost weight I gained right back. So honestly, change your diet and you will change your life!!!!
Feel good!
RW