Monday, February 28, 2011

Brazilian delights.

"If I was back in Vegas, I would have bet against me for sure being able to finish. But I was able to finish, I was able to convince myself to finish. And that's a fact! I mean, I ran the miles, I did it! And I've learned that any limitations that we have are ones that we set upon ourselves. If you think you can only run 5 or 10K, you'll only run 5 or 10K... it's where you set those goals, you know... 'cause really there are no boundaries. I'm living proof of that. There's no doubt."

The runners completed their expedition in 111 days.
More than 170 marathons. 
Without a day off. 


[ Running The Sahara ].


What an amazing inspirational movie! It totally blew me away... I couldn't stop watching it and it was like a 2h movie (which made me go to bed at 4:30am, lame). Everyone into running or any kind of fitness should definitely watch it. For me it made a HUGE impact for a few reasons... one of them is the fact that I definitely underestimate my capacity. I feel a little sore on my knee and I'm like "man I should take a day off". I mean, c'mon, those dudes were running for 111 days without a day off and I didn't see any of them dying! (well, one of them did get a huge thing on his calf, but he totally survived). I don't plan on run over a marathon per day, but it's ok to feel a little sore or a little hurt. Our body can totally handle so much that we can't even start to imagine... By the way, that reminded me another awesome documentary called BRAIN POWER (the whole documentary it's on youtube). It shows extreme situations that the human body survived thanks to the brain.


I think my fav is the one that tells that when something happens that gives us some physically excruciating pain (like a really unbearable pain) our brain delays the effects of the pain signals so we have enough time to run from whatever caused us that pain. (this kind of thing excites me so much that it just makes me be so grateful for being in med school  :) ).

Workout today was tough. 20min elliptical, 1:45min upper body weights and 20min cycling. I realize that I feel much better if I do some kind of aerobic exercise (60 to 85%) after a hard weight training. After looking up, I found a personal trainer's page with this info (he's also Megan Fox's personal trainer so...):

"Weight Training is great at releasing fatty acids from fat cells (basically releasing fat into the bloodstream)...but is not good for using these fatty acids, once released.

Low Intensity Cardio is great for using fat for energy, but isn't good at releasing fat from the fat cells in the first place.

So basically, you want to do weight intervals to release the fat from the fat cells, followed by low intensity cardio to use these fatty acids for energy." 





So, food-wise... on Sat, I went to a club with my mom and my stepfather to have what it's called in Brazil Brazilian Feijoada. It's a really heavy food and we have it really like 1 or 2 a year. I'm glad I had the chance to eat it, 'cause I haven't had it since I went to NY on 2007! 


Feijoada with farofa and kale.
I couldn't finish the second serving, so I had all the oranges instead lol. 

To compensate it, on Sunday we went a little light with a salad:


Dark and purple lettuce with buffalo cheese, heart of palm and broccoli with balsamic vinegar mustard dressing.
Yum :)

But right after that, we went to pick up my grandma at her sister's house, and they cooked for us some brazilian cheese bread and you have NO idea how delicious those are with a brazilian dark unsweetened coffee. Thank God I had a salad, 'cause I ate like 6 of those babes:

I can almost smell them from here lol.

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Do you have any kind of workout trick that you feel it def works for you? (even as a placebo effect? heh).

I think that the low-intensity cardio after weight training might have become my fav :)

Anything brazilian-related you guys are curious about? 






Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Is exercising really the only thing that keeps you sane?

So, went to my friend's house on Saturday and never came back lol. We really wanted to do a Star Wars marathon but the closest dvd shop was almost 4 miles away and the car wasn't there. So we walked. We walked almost 4miles to get dvds. We rock.

We rented the 6 Star Wars and started watching the first one at 3am. With that, we had a box of chocolate, condensed milk sweets and a pot of ice cream. All gone. We rock part 2. And of course it didn't last long enough for pictures, as aways.

And we had to stop to see the sunrise... (I haven't seen it in like forever... don't forget I'm on vacation in Brazil so waking up early is out of question for me if I don't have a major reason to do so). And this did last long enough for some shots :)

                                                         Sunrise part 1.

                                                          Sunrise part 2.

                                                                  Sunrise part 3.


                                                               Sunrise part 4.


Well, so despite the fact that we've walked for like forever to get movies at 10pm on Sunday, I potato couched on Monday and Tuesday... It's funny how this is the very first time I didn't punish myself for not exercising. I used (still am) really hard on myself and intend to judge what I do or don't depending on the goals I set... so I would go totally crazy if I had to go out of my routine for some reason (like being on a friend's house) where I couldn't get my own food or my own time to exercise... I would get moody, irritated and it would be extremely hard for me to go back on track. For the very first time though, I was enjoying my friend's company, we were being girlie, watching movies, eating chocolate and ice cream, talking 'till 5am, studying a bit... and I was able to ENJOY every single moment of it without going crazy inside my head about how I wasn't supposed to be in that place, how I was going to workout or eat right or blablabla. So stupid. That kind of behavior led me to much worse things like not eating at all on the next day and over exercising like crazy so I could take the weight off of me. But guess what? I'm willing to take the risk of putting up a few inches if that means I get to LIVE. I don't wanna be those exercises freaks with their priorities distorted. Of course my well-being is my priority, but family and friends ARE part of my well-being, not only how many miles I manage to fit in a day. :)  (I feel so mature right now lol).

Man I don't know about you guys, but do your bodies crave healthy foods BADLY? All those days I was over my friend's I was enjoying the crappy food and all that, but I would manage to stuck some veggies and fruits here and there 'cause my body was like screaming for it... so as soon as I got home, I made my fav snack, banana with papaya and soy + cocoa + oats granola

                                             It was really delicious, thank you :) 

Guys, I used to have a really good trainer to help me with my weight training, but now I'm poor since I go to medical school in another country, so I have to improvise (which shouldn't be an excuse, right?). If any of you guys have an extremely good advice, you guys should download this free app from the Itunes Store called Body Fitness. It's amazing. It has over 300 different exercises. It explains how you do it and it also has a short motion picture with it, so you can see how it's done. It also has a exercise log, so you can click on the exercise you just did and add it to your log of the day (it allows you to put how much weight you did with it, how many reps and also any note you'd like to add). It's a life saver. I save all my weight training there... then, on the following week, when I'm doing like lower body training again, I check what I've done the week before so I can keep it up with it and can also mix up with something new, so my muscles don't get used to the same exercise (and I also don't get bored out of my mind).


ps. I've downloaded the Untramarathon man movie and Running the Sahara. It's breath-taking. For anyone who wants some kick ass inspiration not only about running, but also about life I absolutely recommend them. I have the links if you guys want to download them. (I'm sorry, I would love to help those people buy purchasing the movies, but they never manage to get pass the Ecuador line).

Ultramarathon Man trailer - Dean Karnazes. Running 50 miles, in 50 states, in 50 days. (does the dude rocks or what?)

You should also check Dean's blog. 
                                                                                                                                                                    

 
Running The Sahara - 100 miles a day from Senegal to Egypt.

You can check their page here.

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Do you guys freak out when you're out of your schedules or routines? 

Sunrise or Sunset? 

Any inspirational books/movies to recommend? 

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Picturing.

Adventures in pictures.

2007:
Got tired of Brazil and moved to NY by myself, out of nowhere, without knowing a single word in english.


2008: 
I was living in Baltimore. Needed a vacation. Got my backpack, $300 bucks and went to Cancun. Alone :)  One of the best vacations I've ever done!

                                                 Playa de las Ballenas 

                          Snorkeling in Cozumel, Mexico with peeps I've met there.

                                         Chichen Itza, the Mayan civilization in Mexico

Still 2008:
Was living in between NY and NJ back and forth. Got dressed up as a japanese character called Yuuko for the New York Anime Festival. Blast!

                                                           Original

                                                        Moi

2009:
Went on meetup.com and met some cool outdoors freaks. Then we went hiking on Cold Springs, NY. 

It took me forever to get to the top 'cause my backpack had so much food in it that it was 2 times heavier than me.

Still 2009:
Met some other cool people at meetup.com and we all went water rafting at Weatherly, PA

It was the first hot day of the year, so you guys can imagine how freezing the water was. Awesome.

Still still 2009:
NYC Halloween parade. Oh lord.

                       The guy wanted to turn around to be in the picture... I mean, why?

2010:
Hiking in Brazil (Itiquira Falls, Goias). 

2 hours walking at noon. No map. No water. All hills. All to reach the top of that waterfall. And we did it :)

Later on, still 2010: 
Moved to Argentina to go to Medical School - before taking a single spanish class in my life lol.

  This picture was in La Plata, a small city close to Buenos Aires, where I'm attending school :)

2010:
Started taking karate classes and got my yellow belt last December:

         Yup. I was the only gal. Who wants to do a sports filled with chicks anyway? :)

2011:
Went in a buggy in the middle of the dunes of Genipabu beach, in Brazil.

They ask you if you want the trip with or without emotion. We said "with LOTS of emotion". My ass still hurts from that.

Still 2011: 
Snorkeling in Maracajau, Brazil.

        I'm pretty sure I was a mermaid in another life. I mean, c'mon, look as this water!


Well well. Hopefully lots to come. Sorry about the pictures, I just felt like opening up a little bit about my craziness. I'm a little unstable, meaning that I'm not scared to leave everything behind and just go somewhere else by myself without knowing anyone or the language... I love traveling, I love meeting new people and I definitely talk too much as you can see. 

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Tell me about the craziest things you guys have done in life!


Friday, February 18, 2011

'Cause I'm bigger than my body gives me credit for.

Mix in plenty of mental training. Many runners drop out of races despite having the physical capacity to keep on going. It’s often the mind that gives in before the body does. Identify your personal mental barriers and then train through them.  35 Ways To Become a Better Runner.


  The Spirit Of The Marathon. Check this out guys, it's really inspiring. 

Ok, before you guys start questioning the very few amount of miles I run every week, I just wanted to say something. First of all: I don't plan on going to the Olympics. I may not even be planning on ever running a full marathon - ok, maybe someday, but that certainly ain't my main goal in life. That would be to get my residence in Sports Medicine and to train athletes. I do everything I do because I want to apply what I study on Medical school on me because I think that would make me a better doctor and a better couch. No one talks better about anything than when it's based on experience. If, on the top of that, you gave a great background of study on it, I think that would do it. :)  So you guys better stick with me, I might be very famous one day.


Hot cops might even ask me to take pictures with them on the streets, believe it, it was totally his idea and I don't even know how that picture ended up in my camera.

With that said, I'm now declared officially freaked out for the 10K. I had a nightmare last night about the finishing line... I took so long to get there that...


Expectation:


Reality:


Ok, I'm a total drama queen, but oh boy. Yesterday, I ran 6mi, 54min. It was nice, considering that 2/3 of the park is a gigantic hill. It felt so great to run again... I need to improve my times badly... As I was running yesterday, I kept thinking how much I had to improve, how slow I was, how harder I should try... and the more I kept being so hard on myself, the less will to keep trying I had. So right in the middle of this life crisis thoughts, Granade, Tyler Ward came up (I know it's Bruno Mars' original, but this version, at least for me, is much better :) ) and that part "Yes I would die for you baby, but you won't do the same". And as corny as this is gonna sound, I started thinking that it was every inch of my body singing to me... like the amazing things our bodies do for us everyday and what do we do in return? We eat crap, sit around and complain - not. Somehow, that gave me an extra boost of energy and boy did it feel great when I not only did what I planned, but even a little more :)  My body shouted a big thanks and we were in peace again <3


Oh I almost forgot! I got new running shoes! And they're soo great! I used to have the older Mizuno, but the new wave is definitely worth it...

I know they're like size 10, but let's just pretend they're my dad's or something. 


By the way, I went to get a blood test today, so I couldn't eat since 9:30pm yesterday. I thought I was gonna die. I mean, I used to be the kind that would eat tons of food at once and then spend the next 6 hours without food... but now I got used to eat little by little throughout the whole day and I'm totally adapted to that. So when I run out of food, I go crazy. I get annoyed, irritated, moody, you name it. So we went to this place here to get breakfast and I wanted to show you guys how delicious it was, but it didn't last enough time to get its picture taken. It was a cheese biscuit with a strawberry/orange juice (fresh, of course, this is a tropical country after all! :) ).

Now it's time to download yesterday's episode of American Idol and Skins UK. ('cause the US version is an epic fail. When are they gonna stop ruining all the great shows with US versions of them?).



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Do you guys have any life crisis during your runs?


Always. I come up with great plans like ending the war, how am I ever gonna travel to Egypt or Japan, or I make up scenes I want to happen to... sometimes I can make up an entire conversation with someone! Weird is the fact that, later on, those thoughts get mixed up with my memories and I start believing they really happened lol. 


Are you guys anxious? How do you cope with your anxiety?


I've always thought I was the most relaxed person I've known... but lately I'm starting to rethink that. I'm extremely anxious. Most of the times, I eat out of anxiety, sometimes I run... sometimes my brain sabotages me out of my anxiety and it makes it twice as harder to workout. ): 

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Make it healthier, even if it's a tiny bit.

Hey guys! :)  Kind of a hectic week between mom, doctors, cousin... usual vacation style.

I tried running on Tuesday on a treadmill and failed (again). I ran for 20min and then did 20 elliptical 'cause I was so pissed at myself for not being able to run on a treadmill. I really need to either start convincing myself that I love it or start planning better my outdoor runnings. Summer is great, but it sucks too. You always have unplanned stuff to do and it's either too hot to run out or too dark. ): You guys have any ideas that don't involve me waking up at 5am? :D

So as you may know (since my huge ego told me everyone actually reads everything I write), I'm in Brazil for the summer. I'm staying at my sister's (she's 19) and my mom live literally 4 blocks away from my sister's. Yet somehow I manage to stay a whole week without seeing her. So on Tuesday, I was like "let me pop up there and say hello!" (I might have decided to do so on lunch time, I swear I just noticed it later). So since I made a big announcement that I was coming over and I thought moms really missed their daughters, I was hoping for some:

Expectation:


Reality:
ps. My mom owns an tourism agency and she works from home. She's such a lady that she stays home on high hills. Man if I worked from home, I wouldn't leave my pajamas. Ever.


After I cried and slammed the door screaming no one loved me in the world (not before I ate, obviously), I went over my cousin's to see if she could show me some love. I was determined to cook a recipe I saw at The Hungry Girl's blog, but I really wanted to try it out with whole wheat flour and brown sugar. It might have taken me a couple hours to convince my cousin that it would turn out just as good. I don't know if she was convinced or tired of me whining, but she went along with it. 


Have I mentioned she's a killer cooker? Holy lord, she is. 

So the dough looked (and tasted, believe me) so yummy... 


Then we opened it up to throw a whole bunch of cinnamon and brown sugar.


And then it has to grow again. I'm so impatient when I'm cooking. Usually, I start eating up all the ingredients and, by the time whatever I'm cooking it's done, I'm so full that I can barely try them. Those 4 little cakes I ate while the rolls were cooking might have contributed with that.


Anyways, boy the rolls turned out GREAT! And to know that they were 100% whole wheat and 100% brown sugar made me even happier to eat them :)



The smell of anything freshly baked that has cinnamon in it might drive me a little bit crazy :)


I seriously had 11 of those. Oh and they were so tiny because my cousin has a tiny oven and because we were baking them all just for the 2 of us (those were 20 out of the 40s total we baked lol). There might be 5 left - or not. 





As for the frosting, we didn't use the normal one 'cause I'm not a big fan of powered sugar... so since we used brown sugar for the rolls and they were not extremely sweet, we could just do a sweeter frosting that it would be a perfect match. So we did:

1 can of condensed milk
1 1/2 T. butter

You just stir it until desired consistency. :)  (if you add cocoa powder, it becomes something called brigadeiro, one of the most famous desserts in Brazil, commonly eaten at birthday parties :) Have I mentioned it makes you reach nirvana when you eat it?).

HINT: If you guys are cooking 100% whole wheat, the best way to make the dough smoother is to add almost the double amount of yeast that it's asked on the recipe. Since whole wheat doughs are usually harder, you can get the smoothness you expect by putting on some more yeast. - hint by my aunt (take in consideration she owns a farm, gets her dairy and proteins straight from her cows and chickens and she cooks for over 10 people every day. Just sayin'. 
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Are you guys addicted to any kind of food that you can barely smell it that you go crazy?


I am with cinnamon. My mom told me when she was pregnant of me, she had cinnamon cravings all the time. She used to put cinnamon into every little thing she was eating, weather it was sweet or salty. After she had me, she has never eaten cinnamon again. 


You guys rather bake alone or do like a group baking?


To be totally true, I'm kinda new into the baking department. My mom has a lady who cleans her house and cooks twice a cook. She eats out the other 5. I'm not sure if she knows the difference between frying and boiling. So I've never had much motivation to cook myself. Anyways, I like cooking alone. Even if I'm cooking to other people, when it comes to important decisions like what to put and stuff like that I have to say I'm extremely selfish. Probably a bad habit of living alone for so long. 





Monday, February 14, 2011

Chicken legs ain't sexy under the Ecuador line.

Procrastinated my run until 5pm. What a brilliant time to go to the gym that it's downstairs on your sister's building, no air-conditioning, summer time in Brazil. Genius, Lyvia. I was supposed to run 3mi conversational pace, but it didn't matter how lower I was putting the speed, my heart rate wouldn't drop from 170 :S  I don't know if it was the heat or what, but then I stopped after 20min - I'm a wussy, I know.

So I did what I love the MOST - strength training. I know most of the blogs I read around here are from runners. Well, despite the fact that I run a lot, I have never run for more than 1:30h and I can't stand the treadmill. Barbells, dumbbells, weights, excruciating pain is just HEAVEN for me. I do it as slow as possible, I enjoy the pain as much as I can and there's nothing more satisfying for me than waking up to feel muscles that you had no idea existed - freaking masochistic. Maybe cinnamon is more satisfying. Can't decide.

Anyways, I did 1:30h lower body training.

                             Improvising. You gotta do what ya gotta do!



  
ps. don't look at my size 10 shoes. Or my chicken legs. 


Back in High School, I was the girl everyone would make fun of because I was too tall and too skinny. I think I'm still a little traumatized with that. Believe me, inside the boys' heads, being skinny is Brazil just means you're unhealthy.

I did 45min bike afterward and felt awesome. I love biking 'cause it makes your legs more muscular and bigger and that's all I want. Muscles <333


Now, I'm sitting here, and I had to stop 'cause this was stuck in my head the whole day and I couldn't wait to eat it ALL:



If you think it wasn't that good, think twice:



Now that I'm stuffed with a mango head-sized, I wish I could have saved some for tomorrow. I have a huge issue (really?). I can't save food for the next day. I bake some dessert, I buy a cake, fruit, whatever, something that I don't consume daily... I can't think like normal people and just eat a little bit so I have it for lots of days... Nooo I can't stop thinking about that half chocolate I left, or about the rest of cake staring at me. I. Have. To. Have. It. 

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Have you guys ever been bullied in High School? If yes, why?

I have, not only in High School, but Elementary as well. Besides my not-at-all gorgeous brazilian looks, I was way more into books and movies and literature than I was into carnival or parties. I'm that weird. At some point, I started dressing all black and listening to metal. That might have contributed to the bullying. Just guessing. 

Are you guys able to save desserts or any kind of food that isn't normal during your daily basis? 

That mango is all inside me now, so you got your answer I guess.

Beyoncé or Angelina Jolie looks?

10003984098409380 times Beyoncé. Bring in the curves!


ps. Sorry about the quality of the pics, my camera was stolen last year in Argentina, so now I have to get pictures taken from my itouch ):  

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Procrastinating the procrastination.

Hello, good people around the world. As you can see, I'm in an awesome mood, but that just started after I basically dragged my ass off the bed at almost 8pm to run. Yes. I procrastinated it the whole day after PROMISING myself several times that I was gonna get it over with in the morning. Then I started reading blogs. Then working on my curriculum for some new gyms to teach after summer vacation. Then I ate way to much to be able to move. Then I ran out of excuses, so I went.

First, I had my usual breakfast (0% yogurt with oatmeal and banana). For lunch, I made myself some grilled chicken with salad... it was very filling... for 1h or so.



I didn't think it was normal to feel hungry 1h after lunch, so I was like wtf?, I'm gonna wait. Bad, bad idea. I was so starving out of my head that I started picking on every single thing I could see. I started with a french bread (a whole one lol). Then, those whole wheat nut cookies.


I might have had like 5 of those... but it didn't help. I stared at the fridge for like forever and I couldn't find anything else to eat (well, besides fruits and vegetables, which I love but not if you're binging like I was!). So I started eating (and this might actually sound really yucky)... powered milk. (?) Wait, let me clarify. It was not like I put it on some water and drank it. I actually got a spoon and ate it out of the pot. Go figure.


I don't know what the hell was in there, but it managed to stop me from eating.  

I finally finished my curriculum... I used to teach spinning at NYSC when I was living in Jersey, but since I've moved to Buenos Aires I only taught as a replacement teacher (mainly because I didn't know even how to say "hi" in spanish, so picture that as a hell of a good reason). Somehow, I liked how it turned out:


It's obviously in spanish tough (yeah, after 1 year and a few bad latino's breakups, I managed to learn the language).

Anyways, I went downstairs to get the key to the gym (the gym is locked, so you have to go downstairs to ask the doorman for the key) and he said "some idiot tried to go earlier and broke half the key inside the locker... no gym for ya today, sister". Grrrr I had this really awesome 10K planner I wanted to start today:













Basically, I was planning on starting on week 2 (since I'm 7 weeks away from the race), so I was supposed to ran 5mi today... but I've never paced myself running and I have no idea how to do that without the treadmill... that upset me a little bit but I dragged myself to the park (which, luckily is 2 blocks away), and the weather was perfect! It was almost 8pm, summer time, so it was still a little sunny... Then I started thinking that it was a good idea that I couldn't make it to the gym...




The park is basically 1.66miles, 2/3 hill, 1/3 flat. I jogged the hill part and then sped up the flat part. I did 3 turns around it, so it gave me 4.99mi (and I needed 5mi for my planner starter), so it was great after all! :)



(I desperately need to wash this ipod holder thingy. I mean, it smells from so far away that I don't doubt that people might have sped up a bit when they were running by me).

Then, dinner it was a gigantic sandwich with chicken leftover from lunch, cottage cheese, lettuce, tomato and cucumber) with homemade 100% pure mango juice. Heavenly.



Now, watching the Grammy's red carpet and wondering why I'm not married with some famous dude.

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What give you guys inspiration to workout?


I read blogs of other runners, lots of nutritional websites and sometimes I stare at pictures of really hot guys and imagine myself looking really sexy married to one of them.


How often do you procrastinate?


Me? Every. Single. Day. Everything. I even procrastinate to eat, that's how bad of a procrastinator I am. 


Do you guys usually binge on something?


I usually binge on bread. I love bread. I crave bread. I can't live without bread. Give me bread and wine and I'm happy (how christian am I?). 

Spread it!