twinsfan33

From personal experience my friend....I'm 6', not dark, but I'd say pretty handsome, and my gf would agree. Imagine being in your shoes, but then going off to college, knowing NO ONE, and having acne, and by acne I mean moderately/severe acne. You have 3 options:

 

1) you can be your normal, confident, self-assured way that you were around your family, where you know youre loved and can be your true person

2) you can be shy, quiet, introverted, and self conscious because you think every single person you talk to/try to meet will judge your acne

3) you can take a road in the middle, and be a little bit of both, but moreso quiet.

 

I chose path #3. And let me tell you, I spent a good year or so digging myself out of that hole. Not to say that going to college and being reserved initially hurts, but when you don't know anyone and don't meet a lot of people, it can be troubling down the road when people make their little groups of friends.

 

The moral of this story, which I can go into WAY more detail should you want it, is CHOOSE PATH 1. not just for college, but for life in general. you NEED to live life for you, and truthfully, after probably a good two years, lord knows how many medications/creams/treatments I tried, and a lot of thinking and self reflection, I realized that I needed to be able to look into the mirror and love myself before I could love anybody else.  You need to be comfortable in your own skin (literally), and sometimes, as much as it sucks, just pretend as though nothing is wrong, even when indeed you know there's stuff wrong. If you're charismatic, loud, have energy and enthusiasm, and ooze confidence, NOTHING and NO ONE is gonna get in your way, the ladies will come by the flock, and trust me, they won't care if your skin is flawless or looking like a nuclear bomb hit. Keep trying to improve yourself, make your life interesting, stay busy, and STAY CONFIDENT. Those are the ingredients to making life awesome and to making the girls swoon, one at a time.

I've been just cleansing and moisturizing in the AM, and cleansing, moisturizing, and using either the proactiv clay or retin-a on the areas where I see spots starting/see spots there. I tend to use the clay if the skin is pretty dry, retin-a if it's hydrated. i'm readjusting to the florida climate, so that requires some time and may help keep me less dry than northern winter.

 

internally, i still take erythromyacin, and I take a fenugreek supplement, cod liver and fish oils, zinc, and have tried to stay away from rGBH milk for the most part.  My diet has been split into high carb day (1x a week) and low carb days (5-6/wk), maybe a medium carb day (~1/week) and I'm not sure if it has any correlation to success, but I can hope so.

 

shaving I still use the brown sugar to exfoliate, and i did it for my chest before shaving there too and the irritation was much reduced compared to before I would use it.

 

I want to try that sea salt toner, I just am hesitant because I dont want an initial breakout period and I want to keep improving. You had said the toner could replace everything and that would be so convenient, I just want to be almost clear before trying it out

updated photo. any improvements/thoughts?

I was horrible at looking at this and keeping up with it the past month over break. I can say the following:

@starlite, I dont use any hair care products except a 2 in 1 shampoo/conditioner from head and shoulders. So I'm not thinking its that, because I've been using it for close to 8 years now. Detergent I never thought about.....

in terms of rice protein vs whey, i was in an exercise science lab this summer at my university, and we found that rice protein is far inferior to whey in terms of building muscle mass. however, its definitely something I will look into if it reduces breakouts

I was almost FLAWLESS. for about 3 weeks. finally. and now i have a huge deep spot on my forehead, a couple ones that were painful on the bridge of my nose, and a couple on my chin, all primarily (my thought) due to dryness in the winter climate that I"m in. I'll post a picture soon!

@onefatalgoose, I use shaving cream. I use sensitive skin gilette brand.
I haven't switched to anything you've mentioned yet because these past couple weeks have been crunch time/finals week (this week) so once i'm home for winter break, it will be a lot easier.

BUT...with the toner, I literally would use just that, and nothing else, and it would keep me clear and moisturized? and if I did become dry, what would I do to fix it? the rose hip oil?

I use muscletech whey protein. It has whey, BCAAs, and some creatine recovery blend in it, but not a very high volume. I eat it a LOT. you eat the eggs raw? wouldn't that make you sick? eggs are perfect because they have a high leucine concentration, as does whey, so that switch wouldn't be too bad. I've switched my eggs to cage free only the past couple weeks, easy fix.

I'll look into the organic powders, although being a college kid, I usually can only spend my $35/5-6 weeks on whey powder. I used to take HMB also, but that started becoming too costly. If the organic powder wont break me out, i'd consider it if it delivers the same result and is still a high quality protein. do you have a brand name you particularly like?

I probably should switch to organic milk or no lactose at all. I eat cheese and cottage cheese, so those would have to be organic as well? and what about soy milk? I've heard of chia seeds being a superfood before and i've considered them. maybe i'll experiment with them over break.

@gingergirl22, thank you! I'm hoping this is making progress. I'm still getting a few, but they're not too bad and i'm hoping everything seems less inflamed and is calming down