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Yummy!

Vegan Banana Oatmeal Waffles!

- 2 cups oatmeal - 1 ripe banana - 2 cups water (or almond milk) - 1 tsp vanilla - sprinkle to a tsp baking powder -packet stevia

** heat up your waffle maker!

** Blend oats, banana, and water (or Almond milk) in a food processor, gradually adding the vanilla + baking soda

** once mixture is blended, leave it for five minutes to set.

** pour into your waffle maker, they take about 5-8 minutes to cook!

** ENJOY! x

Renniesane / Tumblr

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Yes

May includes a special calendar for people participating in the Pull-Up Challenge to keep you from overtraining!

The directions are simple: find the current date on the calendar, see what workout(s) it asks for, and pick one from each section listed for that date.

For example, if today it says “Arms” and “General,” I’d find an arm workout and a general workout to do today. (The Endurance Calendar also has “stretch” as a category; I do not have any stretching routines, but simply take about ten minutes to stretch out and relax when stretching is called for, or try a yoga video online.)

If you’d like to write about your experiences during the month or see how others are doing, please use the tag “BoP: May”. By all using this tag, we can see what others are doing during the month and send others encouragement along the way. Let’s all support each other on our journeys! (If you’re not on Tumblr but still use these calendars, feel free to update us on the Back On Pointe Facebook Page or the Back On Pointe Fitocracy Group!)

During the month, remember that you should take as many rest days as you need, modify any workouts that you cannot do, stay hydrated, get more low-intensity cardio, and eat well.

Have fun!

p.s. Any of the calendars can be modified. If you are training for a half-marathon, feel free to count that as your cardio on cardio days. If you’re sore in the arms from helping a friend move, substitute a butt workout instead. It’s all about you!

Arms

Lean Arms Workout v.1

Lean Arms Workout v.2

Tone Those Triceps!

Weight-Free Arms

Arms Workout

All About Arms

Dumbbells, Smart Arms

Beginner Arms

Load Your Guns

Awesome Arms

Press, Press, Press

Legs

Inner Thigh Toner

Tame Those Thighs

Kill Those Legs!

Your Best Butt

Thigh Toner

Dancer’s Legs Workout

Legs Workout

5 Minute Butt Blaster

Legs For Days

Shapely Squats

Beach Babe Booty

Get Those Glutes

Love Your Legs

Abs

All-Over Abs

1-2-3 Ab Workout

Quick Challenge

I Seek Obliques

Abs Challenge

Intense Abs

Waist Trimmer

Ballet Abs

Flat Abs Workout

Lower Ab Attack

Easy Abs

Core Work for Beginners

Waist Well-Wisher

General

Jump-Free Workout

Student Workouts

Wake Up Warm Up

Full Body Meltdown

Absolute Beginner Workout

Fat Blaster

Quiet Workout

Coffee Break Workout

All-Over Workout

Whole Body Workout

Morning Angel Workout

No Space? No Problem!

Basic Dumbbell Workout

Full Body Workout

One-Song Workouts

50 Up, 50 Down

Morning Workouts

Leveled Workouts

Count Up, Count Down

Strength and Cardio

Water Bottle Workout

Workout Challenge for the Absolute Beginner

Extreme Bodyweight Workout

Throw Pillow Workout

Dumbbell Destroyer

Powerhouse Workout

Challenges

Weather Workout

Quick Workout

Digital Clock Workout

Challenge

Challenge

Challenge

Challenge

Challenge

Cardio

Leveled Cardio

One-Room Cardio

All-Cardio Challenge

Cardio Circuit

Killer Kardio

Beginner Cardio

Kick-It Cardio!

Basic Cardio

High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)

One Room HIIT

20-Minute HIIT

Interval for Beginners

Interval Running

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To take a look later...

Flexibility:

Ultimate Stretch Yoga Routine | The Yoga Solution With Tara Stiles

5-Minute Flexibility Yoga Routine | The Yoga Solution With Tara Stiles

Body and Mind Flexibility Routine | The Yoga Solution With Tara Stiles

Flexibility and Range of Motion | Beginner Yoga With Tara Stiles

Entire Body Stretch | Intermediate Yoga With Tara Stiles

Balance:

Balanced Strength-Building Yoga Routine | The Yoga Solution With Tara Stiles

Building Balance | Beginner Yoga With Tara Stiles

Yoga for Balance

Tara Stiles - 30-Minute Yoga for Balance and Focus

Balance | The Yoga Solution With Tara Stiles

Tricky Twists and Balances | Advanced Yoga With Tara Stiles

Yoga for Balance, Focus, and Stability

Strength:

Core Strength | Beginner Yoga With Tara Stiles

Toned Back and Arms Routine | The Yoga Solution With Tara Stiles

Beginner Strengthening Flow | The Yoga Solution With Tara Stiles

Build Shoulder Strength | Intermediate Yoga With Tara Stiles

Crazy Core Building Routine | Advanced Yoga With Tara Stiles

Inversion Flow Routine | Advanced Yoga With Tara Stiles

Lower Body Strength and Tone

Weight Loss:

Slim Waist Yoga Routine | The Yoga Solution With Tara Stiles

Total Body Holiday Yoga Workout | The Yoga Solution With Tara Stiles

Build Strength Evenly | Beginner Yoga With Tara Stiles

Intense Cardio Workout | Part 1 | The Yoga Solution With Tara Stiles

Intense Cardio Workout | Part 2 | The Yoga Solution With Tara Stiles

Weight Loss Yoga Routine | The Yoga Solution With Tara Stiles

Targeting Love Handles | The Yoga Solution With Tara Stiles

Mood:

Morning Routine | The Yoga Solution With Tara Stiles

Yoga to Get Your Morning Moving!

Routine for a Deep Sleep | The Yoga Solution With Tara Stiles

Energizing Daily Flow Routine | The Yoga Solution With Tara Stiles

Clear Your Mind Routine | The Yoga Solution With Tara Stiles

Get Happy Routine | The Yoga Solution With Tara Stiles

Calming Routine | The Yoga Solution With Tara Stiles

Poolside Yoga to Wake up the Entire Body and Calm the Mind

Basic Breathing | Beginner Yoga With Tara Stiles

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I’ve just finished an amazing month working as a volunteer at Parque Machia, in Villa Tunari, Bolivia.

Parque Machia is the main animal rescue centre of the Inti Wara Yassi organisation. It’s located in a small village about 6 hours from Santa Cruz and houses several hundred animals.

  There are 6 main sections of the park: Birds (lots of colourful parrots, including Toucans which actually look really fake in real life), Small Animals (mostly Tejons, which are basically like racoons with snouts), Spider park (the Spider monkey area), Quarantine (the capuchin monkey area), Clinic (sick animals) and Cats & Balu. There are two pumas, Sonko and Gato, and two ocelots, Millie and Tigre, as well as Balu the bear. There used to be many more cats, but they were moved to one of the other two centres, Parque Ambue Ari.

  You have to stay a minimum of two weeks to volunteer, and one month to work with the cats or Spider Monkeys. As I stayed for a month, I was allocated to one of the ocelots, Millie – and it couldn’t have turned out better. Millie is definitely the easiest and nicest cats to work with – she is very affectionate most days, so she will sit on your lap and suck your thumb for half an hour if given half the chance. She does get excited sometimes, and “jumps” on your, because she wants to play – I received quite a collection of scratches and bruises on my legs because of this, and an impressive cut along my neck from when she jumped at my neck when she was sitting on my lap – but it’s never intentionally harmful.

The other good thing about Millie is that she isn’t too tiring to look after, as she will typically walk rather slowly for one or two hours, nap for 2-3 hours, and then walk back in another hour or so. The terrain is very difficult though, as all of the trails tend to be very steep, narrow and muddy after rain, so you do get tired quite fast.

The only slightly difficult thing, especially at the beginning, when I didn’t know all her trails properly, having only had 2 half-days and one full day of training with the previous Millie volunteer, is that Millie likes to go off-trail. I followed her a couple of times at the beginning, not realizing there wasn’t a trail – and I actually got lost in the jungle one day, for 5 hours, which was not very fun! After walking around for one hour, I ended up stopping next to a river and waited 4 hours, surrounded by mosquitoes, for the search party to find me. What made it especially nerve-racking was that I had only 5% battery on my phone, 2 sandwiches, one bottle of water, and only a waterproof – no fleece. But I was finally found, so no harm was done - and I'm proud to say I kept a cool head the whole time!

  My days basically consisted of having breakfast at the park café with the other volunteers, heading up to Millie’s cage at 8:30 (It’s a 25mn hike up to her cage: 578 steps, I counted them!), cleaning out her cage, and walking around the jungle with her until 4:30, when I would feed her and head back down. I would then usually have to help out in Quarantine for up to an hour, and have the rest of the evening free - this is the part of the day where you socialize with other volunteers, relax, and rest. All in all that's quite long days, especially given the fact that I had no days off in a month! (I could have had one, but that would have meant leaving Millie in her cage for one day and I didn't want to do that).

All in all this was an incredible experience and I hope to be able to go back another time to volunteer again - either with Millie again, or I'm sure I'd enjoy most other areas of the park just as much! I really encourage any animal lovers to come and help Inti Wara Yassi for a few weeks. You'll make great friends with humans and animals alike, and come out of it with some great experiences - after all, how many people can say they were lost in the jungle with an ocelot for 5 hours?

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These are a few pictures from the AMAZING two weeks I spent working at Adelaide zoo in November! :)

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Muahaha

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Wingham Brush Nature Reserve, New South Wales, Australia

This is a really nice natural reserve in Wingham, next to the town of Taree where I stayed for a week after Narooma. It's about 5 hours north of Sydney. Here are some pictures I took when I visited the reserve - you'll notice the GINORMOUS trees as well as the numerous flying foxes, an endangered type of bat.

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A few other pictures from Narooma, New South Wales

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First stop in Australia: Paradise Point Pet Lodge, Narooma, New South Wales, Australia

Heather and Jeremy were my first WWOOF hosts (Willing Workers On Organic Farms). As far as first experiences go, this was a really great one! I spent one week there, mainly working in the kennels looking after the dogs (alone for the last 4 days, as Heather was away) but also helping out in the garden and picking fireweed. The latter wasn’t the most glamorous job in the world, but I did cover a fair bit of ground! During my stay, they took me to a Rotary Club meeting where I met several Thais also visiting Australia. We also went to dinner a few times and even to a weekly meeting during which Heather and her friends all speak French - a nice exercise for me after one month in India!

I was also able to go canooeing in the creek at the bottom of the garden, go for walks with Knox, an amazing dog that they were keeping while trying to find him a new owner, went swimming in the sea and creek (I saw several manta rays) despite my host's exclamations that it was way too cold to swim in, and was lucky to see many Humpback Whales and even a few dolphines migrating South along the coast. All in all, I had the most amazing time!

I was even able to see a diamond python (not poisonous), wallabies and seals. Having to get up at 4 am to catch the coach back to Sydney was the only downside to my stay - everything was otherwise just perfect.

Most photos from Narooma in the next post ;)

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(Thank goodness I was able to upload some Doctor Who episodes from the last place I was staying at in New South Wales. )

But anyway:

Back on Tumblr at last!

Hello all! At last I have had a little time for myself, having just finished two AMAZING weeks at Adelaide Zoo and completed my new laptop’s setup.

So here are two posts about Narooma and Taree… And another one about Adelaide Zoo will follow soon, if I have enough access to the Internet for that!

I’ve just flown in from Adelaide and am in Victoria, close to Melbourne, working at a sheep farm, by the way. Friday was the hottest day I’ve ever had here until now, 37 degrees in Adelaide and here I was working on the giraffes – the hottest shift in the Zoo.  But yesterday was the total opposite, more similar to Switzerland in October – not so cold yet, about 18-20, but really miserable with rain and wind. I still can’t get over how fast the weather changes here.  As for  Victoria itself, it’s also pretty cold – especially in the mornings!

Anyway, I was getting somewhere here – ah yes, the flight. A close shave indeed ^^ Basically I knew the flight was at 16:something and was pretty sure it left at 16:30 – though I didn’t check on the day again, so I was only about 99 percent sure. I arrive at the airport at 15:30, which I thought was one hour in advance – leaving plenty of time, as this was only a domestic flight. The check-in was completely empty, which I thought was pretty odd - but I didn’t think much of it. After trying to check in with one of the machines, which told me to request assistance from an employee, I go to a check-in counter. After showing my passport and giving in my luggage, the lady at the counter gives me my ticket and tells me to be at the gate at 15:35. I nod automatically and walk away with a smile – at which point I see one of the clocks showing the time to be 15:40. Hmm, perhaps I should check on my ticket what time the flight leaves at? You guessed it – 16:05. I had actually checked in 25mn before departure without anyone remarking on my lateness, even though you’re not supposed to be able to check in later than 30mn before the flight!

So I wander calmly up to the gate, thinking to myself that I couldn’t be that late, or I would have heard at least one announcement on the PA system – but then I pass a display board and next to my flight was written “Final call”. Woops!  Luckily the airport was really small and I go to the gate very fast and boarded the plane easily enough, though I was the last to get to my seat,  having gotten in from the back even though I had a front seat.

So that was a fun adventure, though I’m sure it would have been less fun if I had actually missed the plane!

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Always loved Pride and Prejudice ^^

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Since 2009, photographer Chris Jordan has been documenting birds on Midway Atoll way out in the Pacific Ocean — near what’s known as the “Pacific Garbage Patch” or, essentially, a swirling heap of plastic the size of Texas.

What Jordan found on those islands were carcasses of baby birds that have died an unnerving death: According to the BBC, “about one-third of all albatross chicks die on Midway, many as the result of being mistakenly fed plastic by their parents.”

(via How Soda Caps Are Killing Birds : The Picture Show)

Photo: Chris Jordan

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Quick update!

Hi all! First of all, sorry for not posting before now. I've been having pretty huge laptop problems and had prepared two posts that I was going to add in. However I had very little Internet access during the last two weeks or so, and when I did I was busy completing questionnaires and sending E.mails about my UCAS applications to uni. Then my computer stopped working last weekend - the exact same day that I had bought an external hard drive to back everything up. So I opened it up to back up all my important files and - you guessed it - it had stopped working. Typical.

I've just bought a brand new computer, but what with working at th Adelaide Zoo all week, trying to explore the city  minimum and restoring all of the documents and stuff I have been able to recover on this laptop, I havenét had much time to update this blog. Also because of that horrible thing, procrastination - you know it.

Which also means I am actually finishing to write this at midnight on a Sunday, because we all know that time flies by much more quickly when you're not busy and so the best time to do important stuff is when it's dark outside.

There's actually a scientific theory about this, by the way - people with higher IQs stay up later than others. See how I inserted something intelligent in the middle of this pointless update? Bam, here's the link proving my point: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/westview/smart-people-sleep-late-82486792.html It's not procrastination after all, just my intelligence forcing me to work late. And that will be a real consolation tomorrow morning, I'm sure. 

So you should see two new blog post in the next few days about this time, with pictures and everything (I hope). In the meantime, "Be safe, be well, eat fruit, and remember - it's not copyright infringment, it' just collective research." Natalie Tran

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Goodbye India...

I arrived two days ago at the house of my first ever WWOOF hosts, in Narooma, Australia. I’ve been pretty busy for the past week – packing up everything after one month in India, saying goodbye to everyone, finishing my report on dog behaviour, then 36 hours of travel to arrive in Sydney, spending one night in the city before travelling to here – so my blog is not really as up to date is I would have hoped!

  All in all I was pretty happy to leave India for the next step of my big adventure. It was an amazing experience, being able to live only among locals, meeting so many different people with completely different cultures, customs, and perspectives, eating amazing food (I like food!) and even learning to cook some Indian food. I was able to attend the Durga Puja festival that lasted one week (though it was not exactly as great as it sounds, since the temple was right outside my window, on the other side of the street, and all day, every day, even sometimes in the middle of the night or at 5 am, there would be either: very, very loud music being played on loudspeakers; drummers banging on their instruments with no sense of rhythm for hours at a time; or priests reciting “mantras”, short repetitive sentences in Sanskrit, again and again in a microphone turned on maximum volume. Oh, and did I mention the firecrackers that kids would set off every few minutes during the whole day and night, sometimes right outside my window, and that would make me literally jump out of my skin with fright?), I tried on a sari (trust me, it’s not too complicated to actually put on – it’s keeping it in place that’s the challenge), was asked to give a speech out of the blue in front of 600 students while I was just sitting on a seat in the back of the room, minding my own business, made friends with several of Dr. P’s students who taught me a lot about Indian culture…

But on the other hand, it wasn’t exactly easy to adapt to this huge change in location and culture. The average temperature was 35 degrees during the day, hardly under 30 at night, and it was extremely humid; the quantity of flies and mosquitoes was just unbelievable – especially in the bathroom, so showers were extra-quick!; I got stared at every single time I went in the street, followed by kids and adults and even filmed in the street. Most people, though very welcoming and willing to help, hardly spoke English – and those who did had a very strong accent which made it a bit complicated for me sometimes.

  Soooo, I’m pretty happy to leave India, everything said ^^

  But before telling you a bit about the wonderful world of Narooma, Australia where I am now, I just wanted to write a few last thoughts and stories about my stay. I’ve had the opportunity to learn a lot about India and West Bengal in particular - sometimes through talking with different people, sometimes through observation, and sometimes through very embarrassing mistakes ;) So I decided to make a kind of list of all of the things I’ve learned or didn’t expect. Here goes!

You want to know an interesting statistic? More Indians have mobile phones than toilets. This is a country with fast-expanding technological markets, and most people will chose to invest in a phone or TV instead of toilets or bathroom. Something that is totally unused is toilet paper – I did not see a single roll during my stay. Nor did I find paper tissues, which got a bit embarrassing when I caught a cold for a few days! Because of this, it is considered extremely bad form and very shocking to use one’s left hand to handle food – I guess you can use what it is normally used for, at least in theory! This was sometimes difficult for me as I am used to eat with both hands – so I did have the occasional moment of absence (especially when eating roti, like flat round pancakes you eat with curry and tear up as you eat them – ever tried to tear out a piece with a single hand? Not so easy!) and would find myself being stared at by the people I was eating with. Oops! 

There are no dustbins in the street – only small ones inside of houses, and they are then emptied out in the street.

It is considered very rude to wear one's shoes inside a house, and certain shops even ask customers to take their shoes off before entering. However, touching someone else's feet is considered very respectful.

I spoke to quite a few people my age about marriage and dating. It turns out arranged marriages are still very much normal, and parents forbid their children from dating anyone before marriage. This doesn't really stop them from doing so anyway - but unknown to their family.

Poorer families use cow pats for fuel. They collect the cow pats, slap small "pancakes" on walls to dry in the sun, then use the dried-out result to produce fire for cooking.

Most Indian girls until married can't really go outside alone unless to go to school or to go to a friend's house. But you will never see a girl shopping alone, for instance, or talking alone to a boy in the street.

To say yes, Indians don't nod their head, but tilt them from side to side. This was quite confusing for me at the beginning since a head tilt usually is the physical equivalent of "meh" in Europe!

There are few "family meals" - most of the time, women prepare the food and serve it to the men, hang around while the men eat, then they take back all the dishes and then eat.

If offered food on a plate, you must either take some off your plate before starting to eat or empty your plate completely, as it is rude to leave food on your plate. This was one custom that I took a while to understand, and I might have offended a few people along the way! But seriously, how do you know how much you can eat until you've started the meal? What if you hate the food?

 Most Indians actually did eat meat, which I didn’t really expect – meat is kind of like a luxury food, so eating it makes you feel more well-off, from what I understood. So people from the lower classes won't eat meat because they can't afford it, however middle- and high-class families will eat meat at least once a day.  A nice aspect, and something you’d is that I’ve only ever seen someone eat meat once while I was invited at their house – but otherwise it seems like they prefer to cook and serve purely vegetarian food to all people partaking in the meal so as not to disturb me with the smell or appearance of meat. Of course, eating meat in itself is rarer in India than in the Western world.

In Europe, the most popular meats are probably chicken, beef, pork, and lamb. However in India the only meats that I have seen eaten are chicken and goat. They might also eat mutton, but I’m not really sure – I didn’t see that many sheep and those I did were kept for wool, I think. As to beef and pork, I think religion might play a big role for these – the most widespread religions in India are Hinduism and Islam, as you probably know already, and Hindus don’t eat meat while Muslims don’t eat pork.

Finally, I realized that, though I love savory Indian food – curry, daal, bread, rice – they have a very sweet tooth and use a lot of sugar and milk for their desserts and tea. Indian tea isn’t actually so bad – probably because I don’t like “normal” tea as I find it flavourless – but sweets and desserts are full of oil, butter and especially sugar, so they really disagree with my stomach ^^. Sadly I kept on being offered sweets, milk rice, tea and milk and did not want to seem rude by refusing point blank, but I think in the end they understood that, though I love most Indian food, desserts not so much! Apart from Narkel Naru – these are sweets made of milk and coconut, kind of like the inside of a bounty bar, and they are delicious J 

  So I learned a lot during my stay, everything said… I hope you found this blog post interesting though it is a bit long ;)

Coming up next is more information about my stay in Australia – and especially the first WWOOF hosts I’ve been staying with for a week, a few hours south of Sydney!

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Is there ANYTHING in the world cuter than puppies and kittens?

All of these are free-ranging, which means that they have no owners and roam the street feeding almost solely on garbage. There is a very high mortality rate - for instance, only one or two puppies out of a litter of six or seven will typically survive until their first birthday.

Pictures taken in West Bengal, India.