Friday, June 24, 2011

Don't Quit

In one week I will be traveling to Klagenfurt, Austria to do my first Ironman triathlon.

It is almost time to do the event that I have chosen to become the inspiring goal behind my Superfit Project. For the last 5 months, I have been training again with consistency (and having lots of fun in the process) while thinking about the challenge I will be facing next Sunday, July 3, 2011.

Swimming 3.8 km in the lake, then switching to cycling for 180 km, and then finalizing the day with a marathon run (42 km) is not an easy thing.

It is going to be a long day of approximately 11 hours (hopefully less!) of uninterrupted racing, full of many difficult moments. If I do not manage myself well during the race, I could be facing muscle cramps, hunger, low energy, nausea, swollen knees and many other body problems. In those many hours, also many things outside my control can happen like heavy rain, flat tires, bike crashes, and so on.

In short, I could be facing many crises during the day.

Actually, I know many of these crises will inevitably come. And I am sure that no training in the world could have prepared me to avoid them completely. Thus, I know I will just have to face them without panicking when they arrive.

In fact, on the Ironman triathlon, it is fundamental to be able to overcome those difficult moments. You have to keep going until you reach the finish line. Keep pushing, even when the pain clogs your mind with fears and doubts. Keep moving forward, even when your body is screaming at you to stop.

How can you do it?
What can you do when your legs do not move anymore?
What can you do when you think you have nothing left inside you?

You can slow down and smile (instead of frowning).
You can focus on the surrouding beauty (and not on the pain).
You can even take a short break to relax and breathe (instead of being anxious).

But there is one thing you should never ever do:
You must never surrender.
Not for a second.
You just DON’T QUIT!
Never.

For it is usually in the most difficult moments when you discover how strong you really are in Ironman triathlon racing. And in everything else.


The following is a poem (anonymous author) that was sent to me by a very special friend of mine a few months ago. I received it almost when I started my preparation for the Ironman, and I have kept it with me all this time. I guess now is a good time to share it with all of you.

Don't Quit

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you're trudging seems all uphill,
When funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest if you must, but don't you quit.

Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about,
When he might have won if he'd stuck it out.
Don't give up, though the pace seems slow -
You may succeed with another blow.

Often the goal is nearer than
It seems to a faint and faltering man;
Often the struggler has given up
When he might have captured the victor's cup,
And he learned too late, when the night slipped down,
How close he was to the golden crown.

Success is failure turned inside out -
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are -
It may be near when it seems afar;
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit -
It's when things seem worst that you mustn't quit.

Friday, June 17, 2011

The Switch (final part)

It’s time to close the series of posts about how to make The Switch happen. This time, I will not focus on the right foods, but on the right quantities.

As you might know already, even when you eat the best food possible, if you eat too much of it, you will store the extra calories as body fat. No way to go around that. Period.

Fat is the ultimate and most efficient way for your body to store energy.

If you keep eating in all your meals more calories than what you need, you will end up storing more and more energy. And your belly and hips will end up becoming larger and larger!

So - you might say - if I stored fat by eating too much, I can get rid of it by starving myself, right?

Wrong!

Your body does not work exactly like that.
(Bad news…I know, I know!)

However, that is what many people do: eat like maniacs and drink gallons of alcohol one day, and then eat almost nothing the next couple of days “to balance” things out.

While the effect is that they feel lighter after eating very little for a couple of days, in reality, what has happened is that their bodies have gone through a very negative cycle of:
  1. Feeling bloated and enlarging the stomach  (from eating large amounts of food)
  2. Storing extra fat (because too many calories were ingested)
  3. Having low energy levels (during the following day/s when eating very little)
  4. Tearing down muscle tissue (the body needs the protein to sustain vital organs and life processes – if you do not eat, the body gets its needed protein from its natural storages which are the muscles)
  5. Slowing down the metabolism (no energy is getting in, so the body slows down to consume less energy – it consumes less fat, too)
In other words, if you pig out one day and starve the next day, you end up with a larger and upset stomach, with lower energy levels, less muscle and a slowed down metabolism.  You might have lost a kilo or even two, but that lost weight is manly water and muscle, not fat.

So, what to do to avoid this negative cycle?

Just avoid overeating!
And do it with every meal you have.

Very simple, huh?

OK, I know it is not easy. Not at all.
Honestly, for me this is the most difficult thing to do.
I tend to overeat a lot when partying or when dinning out.
I just can’t resist good food  (and sincerely, I just do not want to!).

Since I guess you might have the same “problem” I have, let me give you now some quick tips on how to avoid overeating when going out to parties or dinners:


Eat before you go
Eat a small snack before going to the event. The whole point is to avoid arriving there starving, so you do not end up eating the whole buffet by yourself as soon as you arrive. Ideally, you should eat some sort of protein in your snack, as it will satisfy your appetite much better. As an example, you can try eating some nuts (not salted or fried, but natural) and a small piece of fruit.

Drink water
If you drink a couple of glasses of water before your party, not only you will be better hydrated, but also your stomach will be already filled a little bit with no calories at all (more on the importance of drinking water in later posts!). With water in your stomach, you will have less desire to pig out once in front of the food.

Take it easy with the alcohol
Alcohol is full of calories. You know it. I know it. We all know it! So try to avoid drinking too much. A couple of glasses of good wine or beer are perfect with nice food, but more than that starts to become too much if you are trying to lose fat. If you are drinking alcohol, at least eat less. On the other hand, if you feel like partying and losing your senses with alcohol one night, invite me!!!

Slow down and be aware
I think this applies for almost anything in life. Slow down and savor every single moment. Enjoy every single piece you eat. Be aware of how food awakes your senses. You’ll end up eating much less, but being much more satisfied. After all, Life is mainly a qualitative, not a quantitative experience.

Ok, let’s be honest here.
If you are like me, you will not do this perfectly. Far from it.
You will overeat and drink too much many times.
But now you know what the consequences of your actions are.
You are also better equipped to reduce their negative effects.

So, don’t sabotage your Perfect Fat Burning Machine.
Follow your appetite and do not overeat.

Remember that constantly starving yourself does more harm than good. Just eat a little lighter the days after you have eaten too much, but do eat. And eat properly.

Relax and enjoy your dinners and parties.
No need to be extremely strict.
It is enough if you follow good habits 80% of the time.
(and make sure the other 20% really counts!)

It's all about quality, not quantity!!!