5 replies to this topic

[the seaward]

I want to get back to eating more healthfully but all the different info regarding diet has me feeling a little overwhelmed & unsure. Rather than doing a complete overhaul of my eating habits, I want to start gradually with a few things at first & build on that... Maybe focus on making sure I drink enough water & cut out sugar as much as possible???

[the seaward]

So, almost 6 mos later & I've been pretty good about staying hydrated. I'd say I drink 64 oz water maybe 75-80% of the time more or less. The rest of the time I come pretty close to at least half that, but I don't make myself too crazy over it. I stopped buying any groceries with sugar or corn syrup in the list of ingredients. I've given up coffee for herbal tea. That was really hard & took many tries, but I have been coffee-free for over a month now, since November 25th.

I am taking a hair/skin/nails supplement by Futurebiotics & I'm taking acidophilus 3x/day. I bought a Clarisonic & have been using that with Cetaphil cleanser since about December 2nd. A couple days ago I started taking a zinc tablet (50 mg) before bed. I also just recently (this weekend) started exercising in the morning--who knows if that will "stick" though. All I can do is try. Oh yeah, & I started a food log yesterday too. Busy, busy, busy.

What can I say? I'm very motivated because my skin looks really bad right now. Sometimes I'm almost tempted to go back on Bactrim, which I took for years & stopped taking last year when I went on Yaz. Then I stopped taking Yaz in March of this year. Which led to my first post here in June. I am very motivated to treat my skin holistically, even though it's hard sometimes. At least I want to try not to create new problems for myself in treating the acne.

I've been lurking here a lot the past few days, picking up new ideas. Some things I want to try in the future are: niacin, getting outside as often as I can in daylight hours, cutting out dairy, cutting way back on my fruit intake in general, cutting out high glycemic foods, & cutting out high fructose foods. Not all at once of course, but that should keep me occupied for the next six months at least.

Topically, I'd like to try grapeseed oil, neroli oil, & neem oil. I've been using a few drops of jojoba oil after cleansing, but I don't think it agrees with my skin & I'm almost out anyway. I have heard grapeseed is good for oily skin & neroli has oil balancing properties, so we'll see. I've been using tea tree oil or a tea tree oil & lavendar oil blend to spot treat & it works okay I guess, but I'm just not very patient. Not that neem is a miracle--I've heard it smells like stale garlic, ew.

What we won't do for the hope of clear-ish skin...

Edited by the seaward, 28 December 2009 - 01:41 PM.

[the seaward]

Feeling the urge to update... In addition to what I'd been doing before, I've started taking niacin, getting out & taking long walks, exercising every day, cutting down on my fruit intake, & cutting down on my dairy. Also trying to eat a big salad & green smoothie every day. I saw the inflammation in my face lessen dramatically. Plus I felt so much better in general. I was still breaking out though. Give it time, I know.

I read a book called Breaking Out: A Woman's Guide to Acne at Any Age by Lydia Preston. Cannot recommend it highly enough although it isn't holistically focused on healing the skin. It is more of a "conventional" remedy kind of book, however I found the info helpful. Specifically, it inspired me to give benzoyl peroxide another shot. I'd never been able to tolerate it very well in the past.

With all the great diet/lifestyle changes I'd implemented plus the more recent use of more aggressive OTC topicals I saw my skin start to clear a bit. I'd been on vacation a couple weeks so I had the time to devote to making sure I did my best. Well, now I'm back at work & more pressed for time which is a little stressful. Nothing too outrageous--just the usual rat race. Getting back into the groove I could have adjusted better.

Raiding the work candy stash the first half of the week has put me back to square one. I would have never identified myself as an emotional eater before but that's only because I wasn't paying attention. Lurking on the forums I got an idea to snack on sunflower seeds instead. Bought them with shells on to help me slow down as well. Always getting such good ideas from this site--Thank You! I can't be too miserable when I know now what will help make my skin better.

[the seaward]

Hello again; a quick update. Checked out Nicholas Perricone's The Clear Skin Prescription (original published title was The Acne Prescription) from the library yesterday. Skimmed through it last night & that was all I needed to see. Won't read it all the way through. Not impressed with his recommendations for topical products. I'll stick with my OTC drugstore buys. He does tout a low glycemic diet though, which is one of the things I was wanting to try next. I'll be better served looking into books just about that.

Been doing all right. I temporarily discontinued my use of the Futurebiotics multivitamin: it has iodine in it. I will use up the bottle eventually but I happened to have a bottle of women's one-a-day on hand that I needed to use up as well. In addition I am taking niacin, zinc, & acidophilus. When I remember. Ever since I stopped keeping a food journal, I'm having a harder time remembering. Oh well.

Diet-wise, I'm still off sugar/high fructose corn syrup, I'm not eating pasta or bread, & I have also eliminated milk & cheese, still eat yogurt/drink kefir though. I get my water from the cups & cups of herbal tea I drink (Yogi brand, multiple varieties). I'm buying free range organic chicken or wild caught fish for my meat. Generally gravitating toward more & more organic foods which entails shopping at different places than I normally have in the past. Indulging my sweet tooth with organic dark chocolate. Still learning. Sometimes I have no idea what to eat now that I have eliminated so much.

And my skin? It looks okay today. Last week I got a little frustrated & squeezed a bunch of nodules I probably should have left alone, but since then I've been keeping myself occupied in more constructive pursuits. I took a 2 hour walk today. Wow. I'm still not back to how good my skin was looking on my vacation in early January, but I see improvement every day. I'm getting better at being healthy even when I'm working & tired/rushed. Still exercising daily. I've managed to stick with that.

Baby steps...

[the seaward]

Been on a cycle of self-sabotage since my last post. Namely picking & negative thinking/attitude. Skin not looking good & also feeling tender on top of that. At a low point; climbing my way out of this hole. Trying to take charge of what I can: diet/exercise/lifestyle, & letting go of how fast my skin heals itself. Steering my attention mostly away from my skin & onto other pursuits for now. I don't want to think about it anymore...

[the seaward]

A quick update: doing well, keeping up with the diet/lifestyle/supplement/OTC product changes. I did end up going back & reading the Perricone book & trying his 3 day diet with very good results. Happy about that. Then I started reading The Paleo Diet & have been dabbling in that as well, not very strictly though. Enjoying clearer skin at the moment. Just getting over a hormonal breakout. Think I'll try taking an OTC pain reliever my next bout of PMS. That is supposed to help, although can't think what it is off the top of my head. Aleve maybe?