cardio and complete grooming package

Hit the gym today to do some cardio and to slowly condition the body to get used to exercising again after years of inactivity.

Completed the following:

1) 30 minutes on the elliptical trainer with average spm (strides per min) of 120. This was an improvement over the last session where I did 15 minutes of average 100 spm on the trainer. Out of the 30 minutes, I spent 25 minutes doing the 'Pull' for the upper body workout and the remaining 5 minutes on the 'Push'. The exercise handles, when set to the 'Pull' position, work the shoulders and biceps, and when set to the 'Push' position, work the chest and triceps. I find it more taxing to do the 'Push' hence the 25min-5min 'Pull' to 'Push' ratio, but I intend to slowly even out the ratio to equal durations. Here's how an elliptical trainer looks like with the various parts labelled.



2) 10 minutes of brisk walking on the treadmill at a speed of 6.5km/h.

3) 5 minutes of jogging on the treadmill at a speed of 8.5km/h. I had wanted to do 2 sets of 10 minutes of jogging at this speed separated by 5 minutes of brisk walking, but decided to stop at 1 set of 5 minutes because I was starving to the point of getting gastric cramps and I didn't want to risk fainting on the machine.

4) 12 minutes of brisk walking at a speed of 6.5km/h until I hit a total distance of 3km on the treadmill. Ended the treadmill session with an additional 3-minute cool down slow walk where the speed decreased gradually from 6.5km/h to 3km/h.

5) Finished off the gym session with about 10 minutes of cool down stretching (plus I threw in about 15 crunches too) with the housemate.

Got home after gym (and a quick dinner) and declared the rest of the night personal grooming and beautifying time.

With the Pure Revive essential oil blend of white grapefruit, fennel, bergamot, cypress and tangerine in the burner, I enjoyed a detoxing hot bath in a mixture of Epsom salts, Amazonian clay and ricegrass extracts while giving my hair a water matrix moisture treatment and doing an apricot seed powder and antioxidant pomegranate body scrub.

After the bath, I gave my face a full facial - cleanse, exfoliate, (I skipped the facial massage bit), deep cleanse (with a 15min mask), tone and moisturise. I trimmed the nails, shaved the bits of monkey fur off the shin areas and moisturised the entire body while doing the 15min deep cleansing mask.

Finally, I applied the newly bought bottle of tea tree oil to the pimples on the back. I experienced a sudden outbreak of pimples on the back and they turned into a bloody mess when I couldn't stop scratching them (this is quite a unique monkey trait of mine - the scratching - especially during stressful times). I dug out my tube of 5% benzoyl peroxide I usually use in such pimple outbreaks and it gave me a rash on the neck and shoulder areas. Tudi recommended I use tea tree oil instead. The housemate also suggested I use tea tree oil many months ago in a previous outbreak and even offered her bottle to me, which I didn't use much as I didn't think it was a nice thing to do to use up her stuff. So I went and got myself a bottle last weekend and it's working really well - one extremely huge and pus-ly pimple is starting to dry up after only two applications. And I shall stop using that tube of rash-inducing peroxide.

And now I feel healthy, clean and pretty. Yay!