I've had acne for over 10 years now (I'm 21), and have recently decided to attack the problem from the inside by altering my diet, thoughts, and exercise patterns. It's hard for me to keep track of what works and what doesn't as I haven't been writing down what I'm doing, so I'm hoping that this log will help me determine what is clearing me up as my skin and health continues to improve.

My acne is moderate; I get a ton of tiny whiteheads on my forehead and cheeks, random pustules here and there (mostly on my chin), and blackheads on my nose and cheeks. Occasionally I get what appears to be a cyst on my chin, but those typically come to a head and go away with some BP. Unfortunately, it seems like everything scars now, leaving rolling scars all over my face. Other than that, I think my skin is slowly improving with the changes I'm making; it just FEELS healthier than it did when I was slathering BP all over it.

~Current Topical Regimen (trying to keep it simple)~

Evening:
Nourish Cucumber and Watercress Cleanser
Clarity Serum (Salicylic Acid, Witch Hazel, Tea Tree Oil, Pregnenolone and other fun stuff)
Jason 5000 IU Vitamin E Oil

Supplements:

Morning:
Twinlab Stress B-Complex with 500 mg Vit C
Primal Defense Ultra Probiotic (1 pill)
Evening Primrose Oil with 240mg of GLA

Lunch:
Twinlab Quercetin (250 mg) + C (700 mg) (added 8/21)

Evening:
NOW Vitamin D 5,000 IU (added 9/30)
Twinlab Stress B-Complex with 500 mg Vit C

Bio-zyme Digestive enzymes with every meal

Supps I've Tried:
Nature Made Vitamin E 400 IU (added 8/24): no effect
Nature Made Calcium/Magnesium/Zinc 3x daily (added 6/21): no effect
GNC Zinc 50 mg (added 6/21): made me break out along my jawline SO BADLY
Nature Made Vitamin C 1000 mg (for stress): switched to Quercetin + C
Swanson Full Spectrum Bitter Melon 500 mg 2x daily (added 6/30): did nothing and tasted gross

~Diet~

Food: chicken, salmon, tuna, eggs, spinach, broccoli, peppers, carrots, sweet potatoes, steel cut oats, apples, strawberries, blueberries, brazil nuts, almonds, chick peas, brown basmati rice, brown rice pasta, quinoa, occasional Thai food (love it!), coconut oil, cacao nibs, 85%+ dark chocolate, and a ton of chia seeds

Drinks: water, rooibos tea, occasional rum, beer, wine or vodka

Low-GI, Anti-Inflammatory diet
No dairy
Limited added sugar
Limited gluten
Limited alcohol

~Typical day~

Breakfast:
eggs scrambled in coconut oil with turmeric and cayenne pepper, or
organic steel cut oats with oat bran, strawberries, chia seeds, cinnamon and cacao nibs, or with strawberries and cocoa powder and shredded coconut

Lunch:
stir-fry chicken tenderloin with frozen veggie mix (pea pods, water chestnuts, bamboo shoots, carrots, mushrooms, soybeans) and spices (lemongrass, green tea, ginger, pepper) in coconut oil, sprinkle brewer's yeast on top
or
spinach and romaine salad with tuna, broccoli, green peppers, and chia seeds with olive oil and raw apple cider vinegar dressing, sprinkle brewer's yeast on top

Snack:
prunes, strawberries, cacao nibs

Dinner:
baked salmon with quinoa, seasoned with ginger and turmeric

I need to find a new workout plan.

I'm gonna try to stick as close to this diet as possible for a few months and see what happens. My goal is to keep things under control and minimize scarring until I grow out of this. Here goes!

This post has been edited by QuirkyPixy: Nov 18 2009, 08:22 PM

Skin looks pretty good today; less red and oily overall. No new pustules today! Maybe the Vitamin E is helping?

I caved and pigged out on three big Kashi Oatmeal-Raisin-Flax cookies. I guess I'll know in a week if I can tolerate some grains and flax.

Avoiding eggs for a bit to see if I'm allergic, but it's tough. I love my eggie-weggs.

Waiting for some supplements to come in the mail: Nature Made Calcium/Magnesium/Zinc and GNC Cheleated Zinc 50mg. Going to drop my B-100 Complex to a B-50 Complex because it's $4 cheaper and I think I pee half of it out anyway. Also waiting for Kiss My Face Jump Start Cleanser to arrive; this worked well for me before even when my diet was crappy, and it has 5% AHA that might help my scars and blackheads without making my face redder.

Got an interview tomorrow- gotta keep those stress levels low. Time to exercise!

Stayed over boyfriend's for the weekend. Had some swordfish (yummy!) and curry. Slipped a bit and had a glass of white wine, a lot of coconut custard and half a small bowl of ice cream. Broke out on right cheek (one big pustule and 4 smaller ones) after eating custard; might be the eggs? Didn't break out further when I had more of the custard.

Stressed out over interview, but did fine.

Got zinc, calcium/magnesium supplements and AHA face wash in the mail; starting all three tonight.

Went to a party and ate three bowls of fruit (cantelope, melon, strawberries, blueberries, pineapple, grapes, kiwi), two really salty meatballs with tomato sauce, and some Chex Mix; small breakout on chin which could be from anything. Face isn't looking so hot with the new breakouts, but they'll go away eventually. They seem to take forever to heal even when I spot treat with BP. Hopefully the zinc supplements will help with the healing and prevent even more scarring from happening.

Breakouts still looking pretty angry. Nice huge papule on my left jawline, probably hormonal. Lots of tiny bumpies on lower left and right cheek; hoping the AHA face wash will take care of these and even out my skin tone. Was able to take 60 mg of Zinc at once with no nausea; may bump it up to 115 mg in a week if I see no effects.

Today I ate:

1/2 sweet potato w/ cinnamon
orange
banana
about 15 pineapple chunks
spinach salad w/ pepper, cucumbers, and baby corns
chicken w/ mango marinade and brown basmati rice
raisins
almonds
walnuts
yay.

New big zit in T-zone. Face still a mess. Maybe the AHA cleanser is bringing all the gunk to the surface? Spot treating with BP, aloe and Vit E seems to do nothing to prevent scarring, though it might make it less severe.

I've hit a bit of a rough patch. I wouldn't give a damn about my acne if the scarring stopped, but I feel helpless to prevent it now. Man, acne is bad enough on its own, but scarring is a completely different beast! My thoughts are almost entirely variations of "Oh, if I just did this thing then maybe they'll stop and I won't have to live with another new scar forever" or "I wonder if doing this is making the scars worse." I am terrified whenever a big new pimple pops up, because it'll likely leave another dent in my face. I can't use harsh chemicals to treat my face any more because it's so burnt out, but the all-natural stuff isn't strong enough to do much. It's hard to focus on anything else when my cure could be anywhere- eating some particular food, avoiding some particular food, taking a supplement of a particular vitamin or some wacky herb, using a different topical or using no topicals at all...the list goes on and on and on.

I am living in fear of my own skin. It's unhealthy to be focused on something so vain, but I have a hard time getting around it. Maybe I just need to let it all go and let things run their course; if I turn into a scarred mess, then I'll just learn to live with it. I have a feeling that all of this fretting and obsessing might be one of the primary causes of my acne. I doubt that other people see half of what I see on my face.

I am going to continue taking supplements and eating healthily, as both of these things have health benefits that go far beyond acne treatment. However, I am going to try to wean myself off of using BP, which seems to be useless anyway, and wash only at night with the AHA cleanser to promote healing of my scars and red marks. I am also going to avoid mirrors, try more yoga and some meditation, and generally do every thing I can to steer my thoughts away from acne for good. I have more important things to worry about than my skin (like getting a job )

Typing my worries out helps. Now that that's out of the way, time to stop dwelling on small matters and to start living my life again! :)

Good luck. It looks like you have a good plan, but you seem to have a problem with binging. You need to work on that. Just have small portions at a party or special meal.

Thank you! I will admit that I have a bit of a binging issue, but I'm working on it. I feel like I'm always hungry (I'm a complete ectomorph with a fast metabolism) so it's hard for me to eat just small portions of delicious things sometimes.

Did a good job of avoiding mirrors all day, only to find a breakout on lower left chin tonight; 4 very red and angry looking papules. My bets are on the face wash; I'll give it a week or two to finish purging.

Realized that the Vit. E I've been using on my face is the artificial kind, not the natural kind, and is therefore probably not absorbing or doing anything; cutting topical E from my spot treatment. Ordered some alpha lipoic acid capsules to try to help my shallow scars heal, and some bitter melon capsules to help with digestion and blood sugar regulation.

I'm starting to think that my acne might be caused 25% by diet, 25% by lack of an effective topical regimen, and 50% by stress since I'm stressed out so much. Keeping busy helps take my mind off of things, so I'm packing this weekend with fun stuff to do!

Left chin is still pretty bad, and the papule on my jawline is now probably the grossest looking pimple I've had in a long time. Gonna put some hydrogen peroxide on that monster to see if I can draw the infection out.

Despite the zits, I'm feeling really good! I woke up at 9 am today without an alarm, got out of bed with minimal effort, and am feeling clear-headed and energetic. Despite the lousy weather (over a week of rain every single day, another week of constant rain to come), my mood is good. Yay! :D

Got a bunch of good eats from a local farm today: a TON of kale and baby spinach, bean sprouts, pineapple, Macintosh apples, limes. Found fish sauce and coconut milk! Gonna make a yellow curry with chicken, pineapple, potato, red pepper, and onion tonight. Yummy!

Overall texture/ color of skin looks better today. Haven't moisturized in a while because I haven't felt the need to. Got about 10 pustules of various sizes scattered around face now, on top of the typical non-inflamed stuff.

Going over zee boyfriend's place for a few days, then going to a potluck dinner party on Sunday where I will eat God-knows-what. Not gonna worry about breaking out; good times, ahoy!

Had a great weekend at the boyfriend's place, but definitely messed with my diet. I had a green tea popsicle (milk, sugar, green tea, oh my!), white wine and chardonnay, white pasta with a pesto sauce, and AN ENTIRE JAR OF PEANUT BUTTER. Holy cravings, Batman! At least the peanut butter was all natural, no sugar added.

I also started a Newswriting course that is stressing me out way too much, and I'm hormonal and moody. Yay.

Switched my cleansing routine up a bit. I think the Kiss My Face cleanser may be breaking me out, which is unfortunate because I liked the way it made my skin feel otherwise. Now I'll use an olive oil and aloe soap at night to try and give my skin a break.

Started taking bitter melon and alpha lipoic acid supplements today in hopes of regulating my blood sugar and digestion.

Gonna have an egg tomorrow morning. I've been avoiding them for a while now without any noticeable improvement, and they're such a great breakfast that I think they may actually help more than harm me in the long run.

Skin looks ok today. Had an egg last night and two for breakfast this morning with no negative effects so far. Moisturised with Jason Vit. E oil last night, skin felt good this morning. Have been using Blue Emu oil with vit. A, vit. E, and ALA from capsules on scars 2x daily; will see if there's any improvement in a month.

Feeling pain and small lump under left armpit today; might be related to very red bug-bite type lesion on leg I got over the weekend. Gonna get it checked out tomorrow to make sure nothing's up.

Finally found a sodium lauryl sulfate and flouride-free, all-natural toothpaste! :D

Also got some granny smiths, an avocado, some tomato, basil and artichoke flour pasta, and more all natural, no sugar peanut butter. Yummmm.

How do you like the desert essence cleanser.

It's probably the best cleanser I've used. No unnatural chemicals, non-irritating, ph-balanced, and a bottle of it lasts for months because you only need to use a little bit. It doesn't keep me clear on its own, but it does keep my face clean and less irritated. :)

I eat way too much peanut butter.