Brain in Shape (Part 1)

Leaving all those dreams from my last post, let’s come back to reality, maybe a reality that you don’t even know about yourself . . . Who is in charge, you or your brain!?

Quite often a difficult relationship, but knowing better your brain can lever big time your long term goals.

At first is good to remind that brains are always worried about the urgent. In danger or stress, it will give you an abnormal strength and if needed to run, other than doing speed PBs, you would go over obstacles that you never thought you could. Only hours later you are going to notice scratches and wounds caused by the defensive actions.

What if there is no danger in sight?

Well, then the grey mass, is going to prepare yourself for a future danger, in other words, it’s time to store as much energy as possible. And that’s why it’s so hard to exchange your comfort zone to study, diet, work and workout, as all these tasks will not bring you any immediate benefits.

That’s why you will need to persevere to reach any long term goals, and here comes motivation . . . I like this word because it derives from motive, and basically what you need is to give a good reason for your brain to spend all those calories, or why to not store energy when you your goal is to lose weight.

Each person has it particularity when it comes to motivation. For my “profession”, having a notebook with all my workouts is enough, as I don’t want to have any “chicken” workout written down. For your diet it’s even more important, as you are depriving your brain from its most precious thing.

Not talking only about calories, I’m talking about fat!

The captain of your body is made of more than 75% of fat, and cholesterol is what makes your brain works by neural synapses.

I know, we all thought that cholesterol was something harmful, and as David Perlmutter says on his book, Grain Brain: “Ironically, ever since we ‘scientized’ nutrition, the state of our health has declined.”

Yep, your brain has been washed up. And if we could have no body fat, there would be no brain! Making true those statements about gorgeous women with no content! Lol

On the same way, against the idea of bad cholesterol, you will find a lot more on this website: http://www.survivediabetes.com/lowfat.html

>>> continue . . . Part 2

Brain in Shape (part 2)

>>> If you missed, here is Part 1 link.

Luckily time is progressing, but maybe due to comercial issues, it’s kind of hard to hear about this things. So here I am trying to write down what I have learnt since I started noticing alterations on my routine blood exams: thyroid imbalance, high insulin, low testosterone, lack of vitamin D and total cholesterol at 281.

A great doctor from my hometown, Curitiba, wisely told me not to worry about cholesterol, but that I should make sure I could fix all the rest, I couldn`t be competitive with all those blood results.

Hormone intake would be a hard path, as I could test positive for an anti-doping test, and I would need support from my National Federation for a therapeutic exemption use, which I rather avoid.

Since then I started to research the reason why my system was in such bad shape!

Our bodies produce around 70% of the cholesterol available in our blood, and the less cholesterol we ingest, the more cholesterol our body will produce. The reason why we produce cholesterol is that it links neurons in our brains. So if there is not enough cholesterol available in our body, we would probably evolve mental diseases.

The “bad” cholesterol LDL, has also a very important function as it is the one in charge to deliver cholesterol cells to the brain.

Modern scientists point the sugar as the real bad guy. Well known to cause diabetes, it also promotes oxidation and inflammation in the blood vessels, producing obesity, lethargy, tiredness, mental prejudice, strokes and heart attack.

Great video about this: Sugar: The Bitter Truth, Robert. H. Lustig MD.

According to Dr. David Perlmutter, the excess of sugar on blood vessels will promote fast oxidation of the “Low Density Lipoprotein”, the LDL cholesterol, an important carrier protein bringing vital cholesterol to brain cells. Only if oxidized it could be called a “bad cholesterol”, as does it wreak havoc on blood vessels. So the high sugar diet can cause coronary artery disease, other than diabetes, arthrosclerosis and Alzheimer`s, this one can also be called as diabetes type 3.

Interesting is that the worse sugar available is fructose. Yes! That so natural one from fruits. Fructose is whole metabolized by the liver, differently from glucose, which is distribucted by liver and mitochondrias. On this way, fructose don't even enter in the blood circulation. And although the brain got that tasty flavor, it will not perceive any calories, asking you to eat more and more.
Sugar is scientifically proved to be addicted and only one hour after having sugar with no exercise, it will all be accumulated as adipose tissue, or the popular localized fat.

Fruits itself, still something healty, as the enzimes and fibers do the work and comunicate with the brain. The problem is the fructose in fruit juices or added in cookies, cakes, breads, yogurt, and so many things.

Tips:

- Include fat on your diet, specially those with Omega 3. (Fish, Nuts, Avocado, Meats...)
- Sugar, pasta and bread, ONLY during or right after working out. 
- Avoid sugary drinks, including fruit juices.
- Avoid Gluten
- Be careful with cereals, specially bar cereals, if you put some of those in the oven they will become caramel as there is so much sugar added!
- Eat dark chocolates with more than 70% of Cacao.
- Eat lots of vegetebles, green leafs and tomatos.

My Izuzu and I, doing pretty well in the altitude!

Completing four weeks here in Boulder, we both are working much better, the main change was in our alimentation.

It is funny how we both work in the same way! Its not only how you eat, but how you metabolize your food. Its pointless using the highest octane fuel if there is no spike from the igniter to explode the calories up and propel the piston to make the machine to run.

To keep your battery at high energy levels, you need a good alternator, or a balanced endocrine system. For my Isuzu I had only to replace that piece, but for my system I had to find a balance with proper fuel. The dietician Megan Forbes, as I said on my last post, has helped me out on figuring out this balance and the main changes on my diet were more vegetables and fruits (as every Mom knows!); more protein (I was trying to avoid it as I want to drop muscle weight #notagoodidea); and supplements like multi-vitamins, amino-acids, selenium, iodine and a root called ashwagandha, that supports the adrenal system, which is related to the synthesis of cortisol and other hormones released by stress during the  intense workouts.

I am feeling great, and I bet my car too! Lol

Training wise I made a big change too, since last week I am joining Apex Coaching Team and have a new guidance for my workouts.
I am still working on my race schedule, but next big goals are only in October, part of the Olympic trials, I will be racing in Mexico (Cozumel) and Colombia (Cartagena).

I have promissed training videos, but unfortunetely the camera I got came defective, so all the videos I did, ended up with no áudio. L

Instead I used my good old camera to video tape the attempt to change the alternator of my Isuzu myself! I counted with a hand of my friend Raphael to do the work and you can find out on the video below if we were sucessful or not!!

With no sponsors and cutting all the expenses the most I can, I had to try doing the "procedure" myself. The initial cost for all the mechanic service was around 375 USD, so I bought a refurbished alternator for 75, and used my mechanic skills for the rest!

I am far away from calling myself a mechanic, but while I served the Brazilian Army in 2003, I was trained to be an official of warlike equipment, which included auto-mechanics and armour knowledge. 11 years later I was being tested if I still remember the lessons...

Ending the Brazilian Season...

6th in the Brasilia Sesc Triathlon...

(Pic: MundoTri)

 

Since the very beginning I was feeling exhausted, Im not sure if this was due to the over-training of past weeks, or if it could also be an imbalance of my thyroid hormone production, diagnosed a few days ago on a routine blood exam.

I raced well, besides feeling very tired specially on the swim and bike portion.

I missed the podium when running for the last lap, when I had a strong belly cramp.
 

My parents saved the "Cavanhas" name!!
Bringing two trophies of their age groups!!

It was great to have my parents here in Brasilia, It has been more than 10 years since our last trip all together in the same airplane. (We missed my young brother!)

Model of family, I mean, a model for any comic family movie, with our mess and laughts!! Lol

Well, as family is suppose to be! The truth is that the sport brought us closer. I am almost 30 yo and this was the first time I had a chat with my father about sexuality! He is very quiet when it is not about politics! He is also synonym of patience and he is the strongest base point in our family.

(Pic: Alexandre Carnieri)

 

If characters I would be that boring one, with no patience and always complaining at my moms individuality and materiality. The bike is her precious and nobody can touch it, the bike goes super packed. Just illustrating the exaggeration part, you can find in the same closure: a locker, a zip tie and a plastic seals, to make sure nobody will try to get into it! haha

 

Well, I will miss them! This race was the last one in the South America, and tomorrow I am heading to US, where I will be racing some more in the North hemisphere Summer!

 

The first one is the Panamerican Championship in Dallas, May 31st, and two weeks later, the next one is a World Cup on June 15th in Mexico.

Both will be summing points to 2016 Rio Olympic Games! #herewego!!
 

Other focus is to treat my thyroid and to discover how the Brazilian Federation will organize the trials to the 2015 Toronto Pan-american Games!!

The Big Fight for the Olympics

The Brazilian federation is getting famous for selecting athletes with no determined criterium. Is it called a technical criterium and there is no trials for the major races.

Luckily there is a criterium for the Olympic Games of 2016, but still having no established trials for the Panamerican Games of 2015. As for the South American Games on this year, there were nothing to explain why those athletes deserved to be there.

Curiously on the first working day after my National Championship win, the Brazilian Federation changed the pattern (Official Note #05) of using the National Ranking, to use the ITU Ranking, on selecting athletes for the Pan-American Championship to be raced on May 31st (5 weeks from now). I rose up in the national Ranking, but by only 16 points, two athletes coached by the Federative Official overcome myself on the ITU Ranking.

(National Brazilian Ranking)

 

I know there is only two ways (the easy one and the fair one). I am sticked to the tough path, and I really don`t mind if they pull me out of races, as it has happened before. I feel the need to express myself, I have my conscious and my value, which I pay the price on every day routine. I am a big believer of the Divine Providence.
 

I do hope that the Federation Officials take this post as a constructive criticism for future fair and objective trials. 

Vacation time!!!

Nice!! I took advantage of some time off to make a bunch of stuff that I never had time due to work!

Like pulling out the wisdom teeth... Yeaaah!! Who has never waited for this unforcracktable day!! lol 

 

As my vacations are not paid, and neither arms nor legs can read the "sick paper", I decided to wait for my tiny week of vacation to do the surgery.

 

It was all four at once, what a brutal procedure! Someone needs to invent a pre-anesthesia to that needle, because even the anesthesia is painful!

 

Actually the worse was not the pain, but those noises and sensations of pulling the ligaments out... :O 

I survived, and the teeth came all out at one piece, wealthy teeth!

I could check that those dentist logos were right, and a tooth really has "legs". A questionable fact since every milk teeth came out with no legs!! lol 

There are white stains on them because the dentist told me that the more I let them soaked on the bleach, the whiter they would became! I almost killed these little guys! :)

 

Wanna see me doing it wrong, just tell me "the more the better"...

I do have a serious problem with that, and will always do more than what I think it could be the maximum possible.

 

But at least I learned it for studying! I knew I need to face books as a sport training periodization, which it must have a preparation, a base, a build, a peak and a race phase! This stuff works for everything in life!!

 

So as I would have some extra time, I invested it all on studying law for 8 weeks. Since I got my law degree I have never got the chance to try the bar exam, as I was always racing or training in USA. At this time the dates were good, but I would not have much time to study... :S

 

Damn! I would not have a DNF!! There were so many triathlons where I wasn`t ready, and ended up doing so well!! What if I just wake up in a good day!?!

 

I had to score 40 questions, and I did 38!!
Now I am waiting for the official result, because if they nullify 2 questions (which is not rare to happen), I am down for the second phase! And than I need to build another macrocycle of law studying!!

Well, let me stop to dream about it, because my vacations is already gone and the duty calls me! Need to go back to the same old routine: swim, bike, run, gym, sleep, repeat... and also get the luggage ready for more trips!

January 5th starts my 2014 season:
ITU Panamerican Cup - Viña del Mar/Chile!

Our saga proceeds in Rio de Janeiro...

Alexandre came up with the idea: "Lets race on this Sunday, there is a biathlon happening in Cabo Frio?!". 

 

Right on!! Matching workouts and tourism together is always the best! Flor was ready to go too, even that we had planned to visit the statue "Christ the Redeemer", for that day.

I guess she was afraid because I told her that I wanted to get there riding bikes, its a great climb!!

hahaha Maybe we can do that on the next year!! ;)

 

On the last minute, Alex decided to not go, he wanted to enjoy his son, who doesn`t live in Rio and was there just for a few days. This kid is going to be a triathlete for sure, he had joined us on a bunch of swim, bike and run workouts!!

 

On that Sunday, Arthur, with only 8 years old, rode his bike for more than 12 miles racing his father on a running day! While Flor and I were on the way to Cabo Frio!!

The race start was delayed, and the distances were nothing precise!! But as the plan was more than anything to have fun, it was all great!!

On the picture above is the start. I am in black, on the side of that crazy guy!! I can see him running like that on a movie like "Saving Private Ryan"!! lol

Love this brave spirit though!! Wondering for how long he could hold those balls to the wall!!?

It was a very fast race! I won those 400m swim and 4k run in a  little less than 20 minutes.

 

Afterwards we took some advantage of the amazing beach over there, and waited for the awards.

Afraid of the traffic jam later, we hurried up to start up the trip back...

Just leaving Cabo Frio, we saw a sign saying "House of the Flower"

Flower in Spanish (or Portuguese) is Flor, and Flor is also a nick name for Florencias!

 

Kinda joking I followed the sign which was saying that apparently Florencia would have a house over there!! We kept going for a while and started to get far from the road. We were almost giving up when we finally saw the house!

 

At first sight we were kinda disappointed, it seemed only concrete ruins, so we parked the car to at least get a picture with the sign "Casa da Flor".

While we were shooting the picture, an old man left from the next door and asked if we were there to see the House of the Flower. With no much attention I told him we only ended up there due to the curious name of the house.

 

He explained that everything in there has the shape of a flower, and invited us to come in. He advised it would cost one dollar for each and I need to confess that I was afraid of a racketeering and evilly I thought "what a petty thief, investing all this chat to get only one dollar!". Going in I got surprised with such a wealthy and brilliant house and ended up giving him another five dollars, sadly this was all I had on my wallet.

 

I was not the only one to mistaken that place, afterwards the very kind man, told us that many people disregards that façade with no grace, seen from the street. He continued saying that Mr. Santos would never be worried to call the attention of others. Instead, his worries were to make the back of the house look great, so he could enjoy his friends with the beautiful view to the mountains. In other words, he made a house with the back door in the front!

A work of art! Gabriel Joaquim dos Santos started to build this house when he was 20 years old, and he only used shards and left-overs that he found on the streets. He would also kindly buy some shards from the neighborhood kids!! The house is not only endowed by the visible beauty, but it has also a brilliant architecture of rain rails and a construction designed to drive the wind, what would even be useful to maintain an artisanal fridge.

Waldivey, who received us on the entrance, told us that Gabriel used to not like to receive contributions in their integral state, he would not see any grace on breaking them apart and would only find the beauty, on  giving a new life to those shards and left-overs that were seen only as trash before.

How nice is this kind of tourism of popular art and knowledge!
We never thought we would have so much fun on this improvised trip!!

Check their website out!! http://www.casadaflor.org.br/intro.htm 

When almost arriving in Rio, we decided to extend the trip to Niteroi. I always had the curiosity to watch that Oscar Niemeyer`s construction that seems like a spacecraft!

Ibero-American Championship

Tomorrow happens the Ibero-American Championship Triathlon in Cartagena, Colombia!
I confess that I hardly know why there is an Ibero-American!?

Searching on dad Google, I saw that it is a junction of Spain and Portugal and several American nations that were colonized by these countries... Very interesting! LOL
The issue is that the technical brieffing was conducted in Spanish and English ... Still trying to discover which english speaker nation was colonized by Spain or Portugal!

Well .. nevermind! lol
The mean point is that this is also a Continental Cup and its worthing points for the international ranking!

Important news on the race brieffing:
Water temperature: 82°F
temperature at 8:00 am: 87ºF
thermal sensation caused by high humidity: 102°F

Lucky who starts at 8:00... But the male professional start will be at 11:30 (109ºF thermal sensation)!!

Uhuuuu the things will get ugly!! lol

9:30 on L.A. zone time, but unfortunately will not be covered... so as soon as I can, I will update the blog!

Despite being a Caribbean beach, Cartagena, has no paradisiac beaches, the water is not that clear as when we imagine Caribbean...
But it is a historic city with churches, forts and well-preserved buildings, the triathlon course will be inside a fort castle.

After nearly one month of a sequence of bad races, I did not feel very confident, but very optimistic and ready to have fun, going as hard as I can!!!

Soon result and pictures post of Cartagena!

Training in LA has been a priceless experience!

Things are progressing well after nearly one month of training, the difference in my workouts is radical and I hope that the race results are too!

My training partners are all very focused and all aim at great results, so the climate is full of motivation! Motivation should be the second name of my coach Siri Lindley,  because she is brilliant at inspiring us even on the days we do not have the strength to get out of bed!

Besides our beautiful team, I was sooooo lucky to find wonderful people here!
With Chris Foster´s help using Twitter, I met Renata a Brazilian who lives and trains here and is a member of the LA Tri Club.  She had a great idea and sent an email to tri club members asking if anyone could host me as a homestay.

I was very lucky to be greeted by a awesome couple Mark and Crista McCain (in the picture with me on a soccer match of L.A. Galaxy). They are very athletic and such nice people and they gave me a room to stay in while training here.
Crista was a college  athlete and knows the hassles we athletes have to endure,  that is until you get a great sponsor ...

They are helping me so much, not only as friends, but  now I have a new manager, an english teacher and gourmet cook, OMG!! You can't believe the delicious gluten-free foods Crista can make!!

If I call her mother, she kills me, because she is almost my age!
So instead I have to say I have a family two new brothers and a sister. There is also Dugan,  a chocolate labrador who is always around the house wanting to play with his dinosaur!

These days I found a little piece of Brazil when we went to Cafe Brazil restaurant, where I had  a nice sugar cane drink, with yuka fries and a steak bbq with rice and beans and "farofa", a kind of toasted yuka flour! Uhuuuuuuu, that was really tasty!!! :-D

My focus is now on the two Pan American Cups in Colombia, the first one will be in Cartagena, where I am right now,  the first one will be on June 12th and next one will be on 18th, in Guatapé!!