Hello again! It’s been a long, relaxing week on vacation, and even though I was pretty active all week (took the stairs, walking on the beach, swimming, sprints, shopping, etc.), my diet was DEFINITELY not in check, so this wasn’t the first vacation where I lost weight after all. But, that’s okay, because now I can safely fall into a routine that will ensure that what I gained will fall off relatively quickly!
Yesterday, my plans to work out turned into my plans to go for a long walk with the pooch, go shopping for organic teas (YUM!), and go shopping for clothes. Soooo… not ideal. But I’m planning on going for a long walk this evening at the very least, and I hope I can fit in a quick T25 work out as well!
I may or may not have mentioned this before, but I’m going into super crazy home/self improvement mode lately! There are about a million and a half projects around the home that I’m going to do for my mom, so I’m looking forward to getting my hands a little dirty for the sake of fixing up my mom’s house for her! She’s also going to ask around some of her friends to see if they’d be willing to help us out with the things we can’t do for a reduced rate. I’m setting aside some cash for home improvement stuff, so I’m going to try and get as much bang for my buck as possible!
When it comes to the self improvement side, I’m struggling a bit to get back onto the primal bandwagon, but I’m trying! I’m also making strides toward a natural beauty regimen based on some techniques outlined on Wellness Mama! I’ve tried her Natural Shampoo, and I like it so far (it’s weird not having the oily residue that makes your hair seem slick when it’s clean), but I made the mistake of trying to use coconut oil as a conditioner. DO NOT DO THIS. As a result, my hair was ridiculously greasy, and I didn’t shampoo it quite well enough last night, so it’s still a little greasy. I’m going to make an extra effort to shampoo that really well tonight!
I’ve also changed out all of my body soaps for Castile soap, such as Dr. Bronners. I managed to find some of the liquid and bar versions of the peppermint castile soap at a local Trader Joes, which saved me a bunch in shipping! Converting from the conventional body wash to a straight up bar of soap is kind of weird, honestly. After using it, my skin feels like it has some kind of wax coating in the shower (like there’s extra friction there), but I can only assume that this is due to the fact that other soaps left an oily residue to slick my skin in the shower? However, when my skin dries, there isn’t a noticeable difference!
More excitingly, I decided to try some Oil Cleansing on my face. This was another one of those articles that, as I read it, it just made sense (kind of like Mark’s Daily Apple and the Primal Blueprint). So, I purchased some Hazelnut Oil (supposedly more environmentally friendly than Castor) and just used some olive oil I had laying around in my mom’s cupboards. I decided that my skin type was probably more combination than anything else, so I went with slightly more than a 3:1 ratio of olive oil to hazelnut oil (like a 3:1.25 ratio). I mixed it up in an old plastic medicine tub (yay recycling!), washed my hands, dipped my finger in and touched that finger to my forehead, repeatedly dipping and pressing for my left cheek, right cheek, and nose/chin combo. Then, I gently and deliberately rubbed the oil in using small circular motions with my fingers. I made sure to focus on the areas where I tend to get breakouts, or where I have black heads. Then, I walked around my house for about ten minutes to let the oils soak in and break down my body oils (my mom got a kick out of my super greasy looking face). Then, I hopped in the shower and rinsed my face with warm/hot water, rubbing the oil in a little more and trying to rinse away the excess. I didn’t further wash my face, and I only lightly patted my face with a towel to dry it, trying to keep the oil intact. I also didn’t need to moisturize my face, and went to bed without further face regimen!
It’s time for some real talk about my face. I’ve been struggling with small white pimples called milia for about 6 or so years now. I went to the dermatologist, who explained that my skin doesn’t shed itself efficiently on my chin, so the skin will cover my pores and create little white bumps. Basically, I will have white bumps on my chin pretty much all of the time, and occasionally, they will get swollen and need to be expressed. In my experience, my chin is basically a ticking time bomb. For the most part, I look fine, but the second that one of those milia decides it’s time to go, I know that I’m going to have to deal with a week (at least!) of having a chin that looks red, inflamed, and destroyed (scabbed over). Gross! Here is a picture of what I’m talking about (sorry the lighting is pretty bad):
Now, I know what you’re thinking: “Seriously, Hokie? Two pimples on your chin and you’re whining and complaining?”
Confession time, I was about to have a major milia break out, and this picture was taken AFTER the oil cleansing! I was expecting my skin to get worse over the next week before it got better, but when I woke up this morning to find that my swollen milia was not only no longer swollen, but was HEALING, I immediately grabbed my camera to snap what was as close to a ‘before’ picture as I could get!
So far, the rest of my skin seems to have improved as well! I’ll keep everyone posted about my progress, but I’m so excited, I just had to share!
I hope everyone is having a great day! Stay healthy!
Hokie Doke Fitness 