I got a new piercing!

The silver ball is the new piercing in my right ear.

Not even sure what this piercing is called but I've been admiring other people's piercings for awhile so I figured I'd get one before the summer was over.

In case you're curious here's a run-down of my current piercings:

3 in my left ear

4 in my right ear

1 belly-button piercing

1 nose piercing

In the past I had:

1 eyebrow piercing

1 tongue piercing

2 nipple piercings

The past piercings I took out because I outgrew them. No other reason than that. Anyway, not a workout or food related post but still thought I'd share!

Vegan Portobello Mushroom Pizzas

This recipe I found on Google+, specifically from the website Carrie on Vegan so check it out. I made them last night. They were super delicious and very, very easy. The tomato sauce was so good. I plan to make it again to put on pasta.

Vegan Portobello Mushroom Pizza

SAUCE:

1/2 red onion (or one small one), chopped

3 garlic gloves, minced

2 cups unsalted tomato sauce

1/4 cup nutritional yeast

10-15 fresh basil leaves

(I used 1 tsp. dry leaves)

1 tsp. dried oregano

PIZZA:

4 portobello mushrooms with stems removed

pizza sauce

nutritional yeast

Place the onion in a pan with some oil and cook until soft. Add some water so it doesn't burn. Add garlic and cook 30 seconds. Add sauce and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and stir in nutritional yeast, basil and oregano. Fill mushrooms with sauce and place in a 375 degree Fahrenheit (190 Celsius) preheated oven. Cook for 25-30 minutes or until the mushrooms start to shrink.

So good and a nice alternative to pizza. On the website it says this is enough for 4 people but I think you'd still be hungry. My husband and I ate them all and also had a side dish.

Achieving Six-Pack Abs: Weight Routine

Hey, if she can do it I sure can!

This weights routine in my Achieving Six-Pack Abs program is going to be broken up into, initially, 12 weeks. Once the first 12 weeks are over I will re-evaluate what I've done.

I took some advice from Google+ and looked on bodybuilding.com. They have a segment that is called "The Female Training Bible: Everything You Need To Get The Sexy Body You Desire!"

The name is kind of cheesy and infomercial-ish but the information is really interesting. I plan to do this 12-week program without a gym membership and without taking any supplements. The website recommends all these powders and things that will help burn fat quicker etc. 

However, I'm really picky about what I put into my body and I doubt most of that stuff is vegan. Plus, I don't have a gym membership and don't want to purchase one. So I will have to tweak some exercises by making them body weight/free weight friendly.

The main overview of the program is to lift heavy weights. Starting in weeks 1-4 you perform 3 sets of 8-12 reps for each exercise. Meaning that if you can do more than 12 reps, you need to add more weight and alternatively if you can't do 8 reps you need to take off some weight.

In addition, there is a part of the program called "Stubborn Fat Protocol" which is just a fancy way to say HIIT (high intensity interval training). I plan to do 10-15 minutes of HIIT followed by 15-30 minutes of low-intensity cardio. During weeks 1-4 I will do HIIT twice a week.

On days that I can't run (because of weather, for example) I will incorporate some of the ZuskaLight videos or anything else I find on the web that allows me to do HIIT inside the house.

I also would like to keep up my running endurance. So once or twice a week I will do a normal long run. So anything up to an hour and more. I haven't decided whether I will focus on distance for those runs or not yet.

So here is what a typical week will look like for the month of October:

Monday -- weights upper body, abs, back exercises 

Tuesday -- weights lower body, long run

Wednesday -- HIIT, abs, back

Thursday -- weights upper body, long run

Friday -- weights lower body, abs, back, some kind of run

Saturday -- HIIT

Sunday -- REST

To give some examples of the types of exercises I will do for the upper body here's a list. 

I will be doing modified versions (again, so they are body weight/free weight friendly) of:

• bench press
• bent over barbell row
• dumbbell shoulder press
• skull crushers
• barbell curl
• dips
• pull ups (reverse row instead)
• lateral raises
• tricep push-downs
• cable curls

After the first week, which will be October 7th, I will post a reflection post. Then I will post after each month. The next abdominal picture for my photo diary will be on October 31st. So I hope to have some improvements!

Vegan Brownies

Vegan Brownies

2 cups flour 

(I used the white whole wheat flour, not the kind that is completely brown)

3/4 cup agave syrup

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

1 1/2 cups water

1/2 cup oil

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 Celsius). Stir together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt. Then add the agave syrup, water, oil and vanilla. Mix well until blended. Pour into a greased and floured baking pan. Bake 25-30 minutes. Let cool 10 minutes before serving.

This has to be one of the easiest recipes in the world!  Plus you only have to use one bowl. It's so easy that my husband has even made them a couple of times. I adapted it from a recipe online that had a lot of sugar and oil in it.Try them, you won't regret it.

Gibraltar

This is our third (or fourth...can't remember) trip to Gibraltar. But yesterday was the first time we went and took our time. The previous trips we were just rushing around not sure what to do.

Gibraltar is technically in Spain but it is a British overseas territory. So one minute you are in Spain and then when you cross the border into Gibraltar you are in England! It's crazy. I actually have to show my passport before I'm allowed in.

Most of the tourist sites are located on el peñón or the Rock of Gibraltar. I didn't want to go up because it is famous for its wild monkeys (Barbary Macaques) that live up there. Since this is one of the reasons tourists go up there the monkeys are very "friendly".

Sometimes they jump on your back and try to open your backpack. Actually people like taking pictures with them and will let them get on their shoulders and backs and such. I am not one of those people.

Interestingly, while we were waiting for the bus there were two monkeys playing in the trees. The hubby took photos while I maintained a safe distance away from them. I was taking no chances!

The purpose of the trip was not only to get away from Córdoba for awhile, but also to purchase some things that are impossible to find in Spain. We walked around the shops and even went to our favorite British supermarket, Morrisons.

This is the outside of Morrisons

This is a vegetarian spread rich in B vitamins, which are hard for vegetarians to get as they are typically found in meat.

Blackberries! All types of berries are impossible to find in Córdoba.

Hubby's favorite beverage and the UK version of tater tots (they are called "potato crunchies")!

LOVE these things!

This is my favorite kind of nut butter.

Of course, my eating regimen for the Achieving Six-Pack Abs does not start until October. So I plan to enjoy my tater tots (we bought 3 packs) and the bread pictured above until then!

We also bought some measuring spoons with the US system of measurements (ie not the metric system) to take the guess-work out of cooking. I also got this gigantic, super cute, orange mug and a portable notebook for when I write down my lists. 

El Torcal de Antequera

This is one of the places we visited yesterday. (I will talk about the second place in another post). We left the house at 830am and didn't get back until 1030pm. It was a great trip and we were exhausted! Yesterday we walked around for a total of 5 hours and 15 minutes. It was great exercise.

In Antequera we visited el Torcal, which is a great place to go hiking. It's a nature reserve in the province of Málaga. There are different routes but we did the "ruta amarilla" (yellow route) that takes 2 hours. However, we did it in 1 hour and 15 minutes. It's 3 Km (roughly 1.86 miles) but you are trekking through some seriously precarious places.

About 150 million years ago (during the Jurassic age) this nature reserve was all submerged under water. Later erosion caused fractures and cracks, leaving the big blocks of limestone seen today. 

You have to be careful because it is very tricky walking around. Basically because there are humongous pieces of rock jutting out of the ground wherever you go. If you fall you can seriously hurt yourself.

Another cool thing is that there are tons of wild goats walking around the area. It was nice seeing them in their element.

Stay tuned to see the next place we visited!

Task #8: Read All Isabel Allende Books

In my post 3-0 is STARING me in the Face! I mentioned that I wanted to read all of Isabel Allende's books.

In case you don't know she is a Chilean writer and most of her books (if not all) have women as main characters. She is a great story-teller and so are many of her protagonists.

I just finished reading Eva Luna today and I plan on starting Cuentos de Eva Luna (The Stories of Eva Luna) next since you kind of have to read them together.

Here's a list of the works of Isabel Allende (I've put the books that I've read already in bold). You can find the English titles online:

The House of the Spirits (La casa de los espíritus) -- I read this book in English as a child.  It is one of my favorite books, period.
Inés of My Soul (Inés del alma mia) -- I also read this book in English
El Zorro: comienza la leyenda
Eva Luna 
La isla bajo el mar -- I started this book awhile back but just couldn't bring myself to finish. It was just too depressing...and long. Maybe I'll try again.
Cuentos de Eva Luna
Hija de la fortuna
Retrato en sepia
La gorda de porcelana
De amor y de sombra
El plan infinito
Paula
Aphrodita
La ciudad de las bestias
Mi país inventado
El reino del dragón de oro
El bosque de los pigmeos
La suma de los días
El cuaderno de Maya