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? 






2 comments:

  1. I think music makes any workout better! Or, if you're lucky enough to have a treadmill or gym at home, popping in a movie. The time FLIES by!!

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  2. I think I would never ever have a treadmill at home!! It's so boring! lol I like the feeling of getting my ass out of my house and going to the gym, people watch, learn some new exercises... I think the social part of the workout thing is really joyful for me lol. :)

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