Thanks! I was in denial about the peanut butter because I love it... but it really was causing me some serious problems. Like I said, no more cystic acne or giant nodules! I've never really heard about PB causing migraines, but that might be worth looking into. I get migraines (more of them since accutane, coincidentally or not, I'm not sure). I found a tea that helps with that though sold at teaopia. I mix their calming with sunset honeybush and it helps a lot! That blend also somewhat helps with cramps too which is nice.
My dad baked some christmas cookies and I ate some... I feel bad about it, but they're homemade and I felt so bad not trying them since he spent so long baking them. I swear my skin feels oilier since then too. I've been getting "sugar pimples" too.. They're different than the usual breakouts I have since eating healthy. Small, more concentrated, more red, and mostly on my forehead and chin, areas that I hadn't been having any problems in. Anytime anything confirms that the way I've been eating helps my skin makes me quite pleased.
ALSO, I found a new favourite tea. Chamomile lavender, absolutely delicious!
This time of year is really hard to stay away from all the stuff that makes me break out. I went to a restaurant that had gluten-free and vegan with my family last night, and it was still tough!! Homemade cookies would be my undoing, so I don't blame you for partaking 
And I agree, PB is just soo good... the other nut butter's can't compare (although Sunflower Seed butter might be good, I am reactive to sunflower seeds, so I avoid).
I love lavender in all forms, I got some loose lavender to mix with any of my teas. Thanks for the tip about the tea you are drinking, I will check it out! I could definitely use something that helps with cramps as well as my skin.
Also I'm curious, how much water do you drink? It's something that's thrown around a lot with acne, but the few headaches I would get would be due to dehydration most of the time. I aim for about a gallon a day, and by waiting a little longer, your bladder capacity goes up.
This is going to be my new year's resolution! My naturopath says to drink 1/2 your weight in ounces of water a day (ex. if you are 120 lbs, drink 60 oz of water a day). I think I drink a lot of water, and never have soda, rarely juice. But I could be more hydrated, for sure!
Woah, that picture from a week ago and some looks like a huge improvement! Generally when I'd have foods that gave me issues, the acne that would follow would seem to be a lot worse in terms of redness, pain, size, etc. Also I'm curious, how much water do you drink? It's something that's thrown around a lot with acne, but the few headaches I would get would be due to dehydration most of the time. I aim for about a gallon a day, and by waiting a little longer, your bladder capacity goes up.
Any ideas of what juicer you'll be getting? I'm still loving mine!
I'm actually not sure which juicer yet, I've been so busy with work that I haven't had time for anything lately!!! I do drink a lot of water, I aim for 2L a day, but haven't quite been making it this past little bit. Normally I drink a lot of water at work, but the store's been so busy I don't get as many chances to go into the back and have water/tea.
Thanks! I was in denial about the peanut butter because I love it... but it really was causing me some serious problems. Like I said, no more cystic acne or giant nodules! I've never really heard about PB causing migraines, but that might be worth looking into. I get migraines (more of them since accutane, coincidentally or not, I'm not sure). I found a tea that helps with that though sold at teaopia. I mix their calming with sunset honeybush and it helps a lot! That blend also somewhat helps with cramps too which is nice.
My dad baked some christmas cookies and I ate some... I feel bad about it, but they're homemade and I felt so bad not trying them since he spent so long baking them. I swear my skin feels oilier since then too. I've been getting "sugar pimples" too.. They're different than the usual breakouts I have since eating healthy. Small, more concentrated, more red, and mostly on my forehead and chin, areas that I hadn't been having any problems in. Anytime anything confirms that the way I've been eating helps my skin makes me quite pleased.
ALSO, I found a new favourite tea. Chamomile lavender, absolutely delicious!
This time of year is really hard to stay away from all the stuff that makes me break out. I went to a restaurant that had gluten-free and vegan with my family last night, and it was still tough!! Homemade cookies would be my undoing, so I don't blame you for partaking
And I agree, PB is just soo good... the other nut butter's can't compare (although Sunflower Seed butter might be good, I am reactive to sunflower seeds, so I avoid).
I love lavender in all forms, I got some loose lavender to mix with any of my teas. Thanks for the tip about the tea you are drinking, I will check it out! I could definitely use something that helps with cramps as well as my skin.
Also I'm curious, how much water do you drink? It's something that's thrown around a lot with acne, but the few headaches I would get would be due to dehydration most of the time. I aim for about a gallon a day, and by waiting a little longer, your bladder capacity goes up.
This is going to be my new year's resolution! My naturopath says to drink 1/2 your weight in ounces of water a day (ex. if you are 120 lbs, drink 60 oz of water a day). I think I drink a lot of water, and never have soda, rarely juice. But I could be more hydrated, for sure!
Hmm! Loose lavender seems like a great idea. I actually tried my new lavender chamomile topically and it reduced the scars on the left side of my face a fair amount after only 2 uses! I will definitely be using this morning/night daily. It also flattened all my pimples on my forehead. I want to get some almond butter tonight, I'm headed to the health food store after dinner.\
I woke up this morning with a new nodule on my cheek... Noooo. The first one since stopping peanut butter. It's not as sore, red or annoying though. From all the stupid cookies! It seems to not really be getting much worse though, let's hope it gets better sooon!
I've been going without a spot treatment for a little while now, I wanted a NO CHEMICALS at all spot treatment. Found one! derma-e tea tree and e oil. The reviews i found about it online all look amazing, I'm excited! Bonus, I can use it on my stretched ears. It was pretty cheap too, about $12 Canadian. It's 75% Tea tree leaf oil, and 25% vitamin e oil. As well, it only received a hazard rating of 1 on the skindeep database.
I've been going without a spot treatment for a little while now, I wanted a NO CHEMICALS at all spot treatment. Found one! derma-e tea tree and e oil. The reviews i found about it online all look amazing, I'm excited! Bonus, I can use it on my stretched ears. It was pretty cheap too, about $12 Canadian. It's 75% Tea tree leaf oil, and 25% vitamin e oil. As well, it only received a hazard rating of 1 on the skindeep database.
Nice!! Chemical free I'll be interested to hear how that works for you. My husband uses the dermaE tea tree Problem Skin cleanser. It doesn't do much to help my acne, so I usually use something else, but he LOVES it! I want to try their Derma E's Redness Reducing Serum. It has great reviews on MyMakeUpAlley, people said it helped with their acne and red marks.
And that's awesome about the tea! Putting that on my New Years Resolution list too: More water, and decaffeinated tea!
I've been going without a spot treatment for a little while now, I wanted a NO CHEMICALS at all spot treatment. Found one! derma-e tea tree and e oil. The reviews i found about it online all look amazing, I'm excited! Bonus, I can use it on my stretched ears. It was pretty cheap too, about $12 Canadian. It's 75% Tea tree leaf oil, and 25% vitamin e oil. As well, it only received a hazard rating of 1 on the skindeep database.
Nice!! Chemical free
And that's awesome about the tea! Putting that on my New Years Resolution list too: More water, and decaffeinated tea!
I found a skin tea today! Haha.. it's made by Pukka (who I'd never even hear of until I was at the health food store today). Called "Cleanse" and underneath it says it's for purifying the skin. Nettle, dandelion, peppermint and licorice root.
I haven't updated in a while, so I think it's about time. I've switched to an almost completely chemical free skincare approach. I use organic honey as a cleanser, for the past week I have been, and today I bought UMF 16+ manuka honey because I've heard that's even better than normal honey. I tone with chamomile lavender tea every am+pm, and in the pm I dilute the derma e tea tree and e oil in my chamomile and pat all over my face (except for the eye area). I still use my korres moisturizer when needed but I want to cut that out too. Also I've been using jojoba as an eye makeup remover when I wear mascara (rarely). I've had amazing results both for scars and actives in the week since switching over.
Since switching I've noticed that my active spots clear faster, and go through the healing process faster. Also I haven't been picking which has helped a lot.
Looking good! You are such an inspiration Now more things to add to my "To Do" list: no chemicals (about 1/2 way there) and NO PICKING!!
I love manuka honey, I use a cocktail of it plus zinc dioxide and neosporin or aquaphor for red marks. I've never thought of using it for a cleanser. And the tea toner sounds lovely. The "Cleanse" tea peaks my interest, because my husband takes a lot of those things (nettles, licorice root) for his adrenals and his skin is super clear now. Since he had his health crash he started eating better, taking supplements, etc... his skin has been close to perfect. He never had a huge problem with acne, he did have lots on his back though. Both have cleared up so much, I wonder if those herbs had anything to do with it. It's probably just a combo of everything. Sorry, ramble over.
Anyway, I'm glad it's all working well for you. Thanks for keeping us updated.
Looking good! You are such an inspiration
I love manuka honey, I use a cocktail of it plus zinc dioxide and neosporin or aquaphor for red marks. I've never thought of using it for a cleanser. And the tea toner sounds lovely. The "Cleanse" tea peaks my interest, because my husband takes a lot of those things (nettles, licorice root) for his adrenals and his skin is super clear now. Since he had his health crash he started eating better, taking supplements, etc... his skin has been close to perfect. He never had a huge problem with acne, he did have lots on his back though. Both have cleared up so much, I wonder if those herbs had anything to do with it. It's probably just a combo of everything. Sorry, ramble over.
Anyway, I'm glad it's all working well for you. Thanks for keeping us updated.
You just made my week! I'm loving the "cleanse" tea, I've been trying to drink 2 cups of it per day. The taste is actually nice in comparison to dandelion leaf tea, and it's got other great stuff in it.
I hope everyone has a good new years! My resolutions are to continue a chemical free skincare routine, try to eat more cruciferous vegetables, to take up a hobby (pottery I'm thinking), paint more, to make one or two new good friends, and stress less about my skin.
Happy New Year! I've come to confess my NYE transgressions: I had a little too much to drink and totally went nuts, I had several pieces of a tart (dairy, eggs and gluten) and a piece of pizza the next day (it's been 6 months since I've had anything close to a pizza) because I was so hungry/ hung over. HA! Anyway, my skin looks okay for the moment... but I'm worried it's about to freak out.
I just noticed in your sig that you've cut out citrus as well. This is interesting to me because like the peanuts, I think I am getting migraines if I have too much OJ. UGH! It's funny how similar we are when it comes to what we react to.
Haha I had a quiet night in with one of my best friends NYE. I drank lots of herbal tea and had low sodium hemp & sesame tortillia chips with no salt added salsa.. I'm such a dork. Actually I had a mandarin orange., which is not good, but they're so tasty! Whenever I eat something that I know will likely break me out I try to overload myself with water, dandelion tea, cleanse tea, chlorella and spirulina to try to flush the bad foods out of my body. I feel like citrus actually gives me migraines too now that you mention getting migraines from OJ. How strange... I think I actually have a gluten sensitivity as well. I've been eating pretty much gluten free the past week since I'd been having a glutenous oatmeal everyday for breakfast the week before and had a rumbly tummy everyday as well. I had a teriyaki sauce (low sodium) that wasn't gluten free at lunch today and my tummy feels the same tonight. It's going to be something I have to cut entirely and see what happens. My mom is celiac, so that doesn't really surprise me. It is funny that we have so many of the same trigger foods! It's nice to know someone else is in the same boat as I am when it comes to having to avoid all these things.
It's been a little while since I updated with pictures, so here goes. So much of my scarring has gone away, and my right cheek is now clear of active acne. I have probably 4 zits on the left side of my face (the end of the citrus breakout I hope) and one or two on my forehead.
I've also been doing really well at not picking at my face, which has helped a lot. An article I read before mentioned that redness is a good sign, it means your body is healing the pimple, so let's hope that's true!
Everytime I get discouraged by a breakout I just look back at my earlier posts in this log and it helps me out so much. The clearer my skin gets the higher standards I get for it.
Hey allergy-twin! Good for you sticking to your diet on NYE. That's a good idea about drinking tea to cleanse your food "indiscretions", I wish I had done that. As I predicted, I broke out last week. Not terrible, but a whitehead right next to a cyst is not a good look (especially since I went to a party attended by my ex and his new gf. Bleh!)
Right now, I use a digestive enzyme to help with re-introducing foods. My naturopath wants me to start to reintroduce my +1 IgG foods (for me: sunflower seeds, cayenne pepper, banana and some others). I tried this step once before and I went from completely clear to breaking out all over again. She told me the digestive enzymes and a topical azelaic acid / niacinamide would help. No changes so far since I've started using the topical, but I am relatively clear to begin with. I want to get completely clear before I start reintroducing anything again, and I'm scared to go back to where I was.
Either way, certain things I am going to avoid. I'm going to try to stay as vegan as possible from now on, always vegetarian. And gluten-free as well. And of course anything that I think is giving me migraines.
Anywho, you are so right about looking back on old pictures. Look at ya, the left picture looks completely clear! I take a picture almost every day so I can keep track of my breakouts, see if they are correlating with my cycle or not.
Allergy twin, I like that, haha. It's crazy how much the right side of my face has cleared, that's been the problem area for such a long time.
I'm thoroughly enjoying my near-veganism, I love honey too much though to be an actual vegan. That's the only animal by-product that I use though, so I think I'm doing pretty well. Gluten free is essential for me now, I had some gluten sunday night at a work dinner and regretted it that night and all yesterday. Stupid noodles in my stir fry! I almost asked for rice too, but thought that was pushing it after I'd already gotten them to switch the sauce to something else.
I'm going to start writing whatever I eat on the days I post on here.
Today I had:
Chamomile lavender tea
Gluten free apple cinnamon & flax seed oatmeal
Orange pekoe tea w/ honey & almond milk
Almond cranberry gluten free granola bar
Caramel apple flavoured green tea
GoMacro! Macronutrient bar (gluten free/vegan)
Tuscan bean salad, roasted sweet potato salad
tulsi chamomile jasmine tea
I've yet to have dinner, probably brown rice and some variety of a few veggies
I will for sure have some "cleanse" tea and another cup of chamomile lavender before bed.
Already improvement on the left side of my face. Gosh I love my little regimen (: !
This is from tonight, I'm way too excited about this.
Today I ate:
chamomile lavender tea
gluten free apple cinnamon & flax seed oatmeal
orange pekoe tea w/ almond milk & honey
white tea w/ peppermint & ginger
gluten free almond cookie
pukka cleanse tea
carrots
gluten free almond cranberry granola bar
a handful of hemp & sesame chips
tulsi chamomile jasmine tea
gluten free corn flakes w/ almond milk
green tea
moroccan chick peas with quinoa (I made tons, so yay leftovers the rest of the week)
will make a smoothie, probably some rice works sweet chili chips
there is no fruit at my house 
my dad went out to get some a little while ago.
Please disregard how gross my ears look without earrings!
Looking good, Jennifer! Quite sure your ears are fine, too! 
It's cool that you're so encouraged by the results, that's the ultimate incentive to keep it going and I imagine the enthusiasm for it continues to build as well. I've been tweaking my diet a bit this last month or so and had the best results I've ever had compared to taking antibiotics and things like that. Goes to show how sensitive our bodies can be. Wish I'd figured it out much sooner, but better late than never I suppose.
Keep it up!
I'm so amazed how well this regimen is working for you. Yesterday I tried cleansing with manduka honey, and toning with a jasmine, nettle, and lavander tea combo. I was so impressed how soft it made my skin feel. I just got a belated Christmas present from my sister last night: Dermify. I'm going to try it for a month and see how I like it. It's 100% natural and organic, which I apprecitate.
Ugh, the honey thing! Yeah, that and a few medications/ suppliments I am taking (thyroid meds and fish oil) make me a not "true" vegan. Your diet looks great though, lots of good veggies and it seems like you are snacking throughout the day.
One thing I would suggest, just because I have this problem too, is to incorperate a protein source into each of your meals. My doc wants me to eat 15 grams of protein a meal, and 50 grams per day, which is really hard as a vegan. I was like "yeah, yeah..." until I got my last lab test in which said I had a ketone level of +1 which means bascially I am starving 
I'm already a small person (5'5 and 115 lbs), so it definetly scared me. I do a rice protein powder every morning (used to do whey before I went off dairy), just to help me make up ground. Just a thought
Thanks for keeping such a diligent blog... it's awesome to see your progress and hear what's working for you.
Looking good, Jennifer! Quite sure your ears are fine, too!
It's cool that you're so encouraged by the results, that's the ultimate incentive to keep it going and I imagine the enthusiasm for it continues to build as well. I've been tweaking my diet a bit this last month or so and had the best results I've ever had compared to taking antibiotics and things like that. Goes to show how sensitive our bodies can be. Wish I'd figured it out much sooner, but better late than never I suppose.
Keep it up!
Thanks Paul!
Positive results really are the best incentive, I'm happier now with my skin than I have been in such a long time. I'm glad to hear that you're having such great results too! Diet is so important and I wish more people would try it and see how much it can help. Just taking good care of our bodies is essential, and it's so hard with all the chemicals and antibiotics out there to decide what to do. Like you, I wish I hadn't waited so long to try diet changes, it's changed my life in such a positive way!
I'm so amazed how well this regimen is working for you. Yesterday I tried cleansing with manduka honey, and toning with a jasmine, nettle, and lavander tea combo. I was so impressed how soft it made my skin feel. I just got a belated Christmas present from my sister last night: Dermify. I'm going to try it for a month and see how I like it. It's 100% natural and organic, which I apprecitate.
Ugh, the honey thing! Yeah, that and a few medications/ suppliments I am taking (thyroid meds and fish oil) make me a not "true" vegan. Your diet looks great though, lots of good veggies and it seems like you are snacking throughout the day.
One thing I would suggest, just because I have this problem too, is to incorperate a protein source into each of your meals. My doc wants me to eat 15 grams of protein a meal, and 50 grams per day, which is really hard as a vegan. I was like "yeah, yeah..." until I got my last lab test in which said I had a ketone level of +1 which means bascially I am starving
I'm already a small person (5'5 and 115 lbs), so it definetly scared me. I do a rice protein powder every morning (used to do whey before I went off dairy), just to help me make up ground. Just a thought
Thanks for keeping such a diligent blog... it's awesome to see your progress and hear what's working for you.
It definitely continues to surprise me that I've finally found something that's working after years of trying so many different things with little to no success. Let me know how you like the Dermify! I think it's valuable to know about any natural solutions that work.
I need to work on incorporating more varied protein sources into my diet, I've been trying with the vegegreens vegan protein, but sometimes I get too busy. That's got a blend of some brown rice, yellow pea, cranberry seed, hemp and chia proteins, as well as a green food supplement. I really should be taking it each day, and even twice a day would be good. I have a doctors appointment tomorrow morning, and I had blood work done last week so we'll have to see how all my levels look tomorrow.
It means a lot that you appreciate my log! I love the org and all the helpful and supportive people on here. 
Today I explored a website a friend mentioned earlier this week, and it's AMAZING. For anyone that's concerned with the environment/chemicals/sustainable living, I highly recommend looking up The Story of Stuff. I watched "The Story of Stuff" mini movie as well as "The Story of Cosmetics" and thoroughly enjoyed both. It's giving me that extra push to be an even smarter shopper and to stop buying into the consumer culture we live in today.
Had my doctor's appointment this morning! It went better than I could have guessed. I predicted I'd get the "you should eat meat" lecture again because of my iron levels, but they were almost 3 times what they were when I started my skin diet. Although I've lost weight, I'm actually healthier than what I was before I started eating for my skin. It was so nice to have good news and having my doctor actually support my diet changes.
Had my doctor's appointment this morning! It went better than I could have guessed. I predicted I'd get the "you should eat meat" lecture again because of my iron levels, but they were almost 3 times what they were when I started my skin diet. Although I've lost weight, I'm actually healthier than what I was before I started eating for my skin. It was so nice to have good news and having my doctor actually support my diet changes.
Awesome! Don't you love when that happens?! In your face, western medicine Good job on keeping healthy on this sometimes tricky diet!
i did not read all of this thread.. but... is it the diets that is helping you.. or the new skin care regimen?
It's a bit of both. The diet changes have helped me to figure out what my acne triggers are and to avoid them, which is making me break out less. Each breakout I get since I started working on my diet has been less severe and lasts for less time. Changing my regimen recently has sped up the healing process even more. The manuka honey, chamomile tea and tea tree oil have been helping to treat the few pimples I do have, as well as fading my scars. As well there was a synthetic fragrance in my old Korres cleanser, so switching from that has helped out a bit too.
Hello everyone!
I've had a pretty good eating week this week, been sticking with my regimen unchanged. Friday night I went out and stayed out too late, wound up falling asleep without washing my face, gahh. At least I don't wear makeup so there wasn't make up sitting on my skin all night.
Saturday I went to Toronto, and discovered the cutest little gluten free restaurant. If anyone lives in the GTA and is following an acne diet, I highly recommend this place. Everything they serve is gluten free, and there are vegan options as well. Called the Kensington Cornerstone restaurant, right at Dundas and Kensington. As well anyone downtown should check out Karine's while you're at it. Vegan and gluten free friendly all day breakfast place! Right near OCADU. Everything comes with tea and a big pile of fresh fruit, with real cutlery and dishes (yay no garbage).
I've been on a mission to have litter-less lunches everyday at work. Glass containers are my best friend.
Today I ate:
chamomile lavender tea
gluten free apple, cinnamon & flax oatmeal
green tea w/ fig pieces, orange blossoms
apple
green tea w/ blueberries
GoMacro! Macronutrient bar (vegan, gluten free)
apple
gluten free, vegan, homemade minestrone soup
pukka "cleanse" tea
apple w/ almond butter
chamomile jasmine tulsi
dinner will be veggies, I've eaten a lot all day and am feeling rather full
will have at least 1 more cup green tea, 1 cup cleanse, 1 cup chamomile lavender, 1 cup "sleep well" (roobios, tulsi, melissa, lemon verbena)
I had a small breakout on the right side of my face, I was expecting it from the gluten I ate about a week ago, it's almost healed now though. The breakout on the left side of my face is healed. I can feel one zit on each side under my skin though, I've put some tea tree oil on it to help them heal. Hopefully they don't even surface (wishful thinking).
Hope everything is going well Sounds like you are keeping your wits about you, and being aware. Good for you!
*Edit- adding a couple of things
You inspired me to get a "Skin Detox" tea by Yogi from the health food store. It has rose petal and hibiscus, burdock, yellow dock, red and organic green tea. I'm not crazy about the fact that it's caffinated, because I usually have caffine maybe once a month. But the blend is nice, and I used the tea bag as a toner after i washed my face. I'm not liking the Dermify as much as the OCM plus my homemade concoxions. But I'm going to use it until it runs out, just to give it a chance.
Hope everything is going well
*Edit- adding a couple of things
You inspired me to get a "Skin Detox" tea by Yogi from the health food store. It has rose petal and hibiscus, burdock, yellow dock, red and organic green tea. I'm not crazy about the fact that it's caffinated, because I usually have caffine maybe once a month. But the blend is nice, and I used the tea bag as a toner after i washed my face. I'm not liking the Dermify as much as the OCM plus my homemade concoxions. But I'm going to use it until it runs out, just to give it a chance.
I've been wanting to try something with burdock for some time now, sadly it hasn't happened yet! Lately I've been really into the chai, which is good because it has some cinammon which is potentially good for my skin! Also, it hasn't been black tea chai tea, I have a loose leaf green chai, a white chai, and an herbal vanilla chai which I got this week, which is amazing.
I wanted to try the OCM for a while but I was scared off of it by people who said it broke them out like crazy. Hopefully the dermify turns around for you and starts working better.
So my skin isn't looking as great as it did a few days ago, although I can attribute that to my time of the month. And some thai food on Wednesday... Ugh. I went out for lunch with a friend to this thai place I'd never been before. They had good vegan, but I could tell there was probably gluten in the food and as well as lots of sodium. I only ate about half of it, but I had this feeling like "I'm ruining my skin as I eat this". As well some of it's got to be the stress from everything that's been going on, or lack thereof.
Either way, here's where I'm at as of right now. I feel like my scars are purging and then clear skin emerges, it's bizarre.
Usually I don't subscribe to horoscopes or pay any attention to that type of thing, but the horoscope section of today's newspaper was on the desk in the back room at work so I glanced at it on my break. It said that I was feeling deflated from the excitement of the past few days, and to not get discouraged because more surprises were coming this weekend. The first part was bang on which is super weird. Although the second part, likely not true, I'm spending my saturday night on the org!
I should also add that I had to break down a buy a moisturizer. The cold weather is starting to dry out my face. I only use it in the am. I bought Green Beaver brand "Antioxidant Green Tea & Soothing Aloe" moisturizer. Fragrance free and intended for sensitive and acne prone skin. From the skindeep database it looks pretty good, regardless I still only want to use it when absolutely necessary.