Started Paleo yesterday in the afternoon and plan on giving this 30 days to see noticeable improvement.
Dinner last night:
Grilled Salmon
Arugula Salad with mushrooms olive oil & balsamic vinegar
Sliced cucumbers.
Breakfast this morning:
Two eggs fried with coconut oil
Applegate organic salami
Mixed green salad with mushrooms olive oil & balsamic vinegar
Green tea
Blackberries
I will be updating my meals here daily and it would be very nice if anyone could dish out advice or comments on what I'm eating. I'm trying to be 100% paleo but there seems to be factions within the paleo world on what is actually paleo. Basically I plan on eating all fish and meat, lots of vegetables, olive oil, coconut oil, minimal fruit, some berries. I will not consume sugar, dairy, gluten, beans, other grains, soy, etc... BUT i might occasionally have rice or quinoa because i have heard that too low of carbs is detrimental and I want to be able to digest rice/quinoa. A side note, I have been sugar free for 2 days, and have already seen a little improvement. thanks for reading!
i also supplement with 30mg zinc x2 daily and 400mg Chromium x2 daily
snack:
1 sliced cucumber
1 bunch of celery
rose green tea
half an avocado
Lunch:
2 fried eggs (in coconut oil)
Giant bowl of:
grilled chicken
sprouts
spinach
iceberg lettuce
romaine lettuce
tomatoes
onions
cucumbers
mushrooms
brocolli
bell peppers
with lemon juice & olive oil
Dinner:
grilled serrano marinated chicken
guacomole
salsa fresca
lettuce
2 fried eggs (in coconut oil)
i didn't notice till i just typed it up but i have had 6 sunny side up eggs today and I'm wondering if thats excessive for the paleo diet. But i love me some eggs.
It's too early to be noticing change. Though since i've been off sugar completely for 3 days i think there should be a difference by tomorrow, because my blood sugar should be stabilizing meaning less dht and thus less acne. Does anyone know how long it takes to stabilize blood sugar once you quit sugar? is it immediate? Does it even work like that?
is there a drop?
breakfast:
blueberries
cucumber
coconut milk
lemon chicken
salsa fresca
guacamole
lettuce
I'm already seeing improvement after being paleo for only 2 full days and sugar free for 4 full days. I tried the wai diet before but that was extremely difficult and didn't help at all with my acne. I attribute this to the high fruit consumption, because i basically only ate fruits, raw egg yolks, raw fish, and dried fruits. Paleo is much easier and fun too! As long as you keep your mind off of grain, you can still find pleasure in eating. My skin condition used to be severe but through cleanses, fiber, green tea, juicing, and tons of other holistic approaches i have brought it down to moderate. Now my skin is less red and looks like it is healing up. There are still a few active pimples though. Will update soon.
Lunch:
Cucumber
Applegate salami slices
Blueberries
Chicken with Pesto Sauce
Dinner:
Paleo style meatballs
Pesto Sauce
Arugula Salad
Ok, I'm going to stop trying to see improvement because this is my 3rd day (right?) and I'm going to update on my overall skin condition once a week to avoid high hopes. Trying to realistic here. Still taking chromium and zinc, I also think I will start supplementing with cinnamon at each meal too because that is known to stabilize blood sugar.
Ok i've been researching more now and i think my omega 6 to omega 3 ratio is waayyyyy off. I eat tons of avocados which are high in omega 6. So, instead of supplementing with fish oil (which ironically breaks me out), I am going to eat smoked salmon daily. for breakfast. probably with eggs. smoked salmon is paleo....right?
snack:
smoked Atlantic nova salmon
coconut milk
Breakfast:
Cucumber
more salmon
blackberries
eggs
I'm skeptical of the quality of the salmon that i eat now because it is farmed, so as a cheap alternative i'm going to purchase trader joe's wild canned salmon. It is canned but i think since it is wild it will provide more omega 3's.
/> http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/finfish-and-shellfish-products/4204/2
whoa the omega 3's are so high!
i love this nutritiondata.self
dinner:
1 can sockeye salmon trader joe's wild caught pacific salmon
1 can wild pink alaskan taxer joe's salmon
Salsa fresca
pesto sauce
artichoke dip
bell peppers
i'm trying the two brands out for flavor right now, but I'm curious as to which one is healthier? (omega 3 content, mercury content, etc)
i'm going to start eating a can of salmon daily replacing one of my sources of meat. balancing omega 3's naturally is hard!
lunch:
brown rice pasta w/olive oil & tomato sauce
more salmon
lemon juice
Note: i'm going to have rice, quinoa and other "healthy" grains occasionally. Also i do take a fiber supplement with it to prevent blood sugar spikes. some would consider this cheating but i don't considering the average american diets. The organic brown rice pasta was only part of the meal anyways. I doubt that this will have a noticeable impact. Also, my salmon intake is high right now, which I'm not sure is detrimental or not, but i'm going to be eating 2 cans a day for a bit and then take it down to one can a day and then 3-4 cans a week. This is to balance out my omega 3's because I realize that my entire life has been dominated by omega 6. gotta start somewhere. Fish oil breaks me out for some odd reason. I hope my salmon consumption doesn't break me out either. My fingers are crossed and hopes are high.
Wow so healthy! Wonderful!
Thank you!
it takes some people 3 days to get clear from fish oil, others it takes 3 months. But since my diet is lower now in omega 6 and I'm consuming a natural source of omega 3's daily, i hope this can speed up the process. is that logical?
after looking a bit more into omegas, its really difficult to avoid omega 6 and i am still getting a lot of it from olive oil and other sources, so I'm going to be only eating canned salmon as a meat source for probably a week.
just discovered this study:
/> http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20708391
seems like bad news for me, as i am a male and am eating lots of salmon
Keep up with the good work.
Did you experience any improvement? I have been on Paleo for 3 days now. I see the blackheads in my nose are starting to disappear. The skin feels a little smoother on the cheeks, but I still have an oily chin (That's where my acne problem is located).
i see slight improvement, but i think it will take longer
/> http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3047582/
/> http://cygstarz.hubpages.com/hub/Start-Exercising-If-You-Want-Beautiful-Skin
after reading these two pages, i think i need to start exercising more in order to speed up the process of balancing my omega 3 to 6 ratio. It turns out that it can take up to a full year for even a 40% cellular turnover rate of fat cells and i hardly exercising now. I didn't realize how important this is, but I feel if I'm loading up on omega 3's but not burning fat, it is useless. So now I'm going to start jogging daily.
maybe the amount of excersise is key to why some people don't benefit from fish oil supplements or just eating fish.
i've stopped posting all my meals on here not because my skin is looking SO GOOD! I'm not entirely sure what i can attribute my skin condition to right now because i am taking 30 mg zinc & 400mg chromium daily too. (i reduced my intake of them). Also i sometimes have cinnamon cause its apparently supposed to help insulin resistance. And i'm not 100% paleo either, occasionally i do have rice pasta or sushi, but when i do cheat i usually make sure to have fiber with that meal. I also had carrot cake which is a big no no but you gotta live. My skin is not 100% clear either. I still get occasional active spots but its only been a week and i feel so good. This is something that I will continue indefinitely. Its been 2 years and I finally have made progress! I'm starting to think that my fish intake is the largest contributor to my improvement in skin and not paleo or the supplements. The reason being is that omega 3's do so many things, i keep researching omega 3 plus a health problem keep finding official studies showing the importance of omega 3's. They relate to androgens, liver health, brain function, insulin resistance. Maybe omega 3's are one of the largest contributors of acne for everyone. Simply popping a fish oil pill won't do it for most. I believe the paleo diet has aided this because it reduces your intake of omega 6 so much and helps to bring you down to a healthier ratio. My regimen will continue.....
my skin was always slightly oily but not enough that really concerned me at all. I haven't really been looking out for the oiliness of my skin, but i would say it is less oily. Its hard to tell because that wasn't ever the issue for me. are you 100% paleo? do you consume fish often? I honestly believe fish was a huge roll in my acne condition. just search for omega 3's on here:
/> http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed
and you will find plenty of studies regarding them.
im not sure, I'm no expert. I only know the feelings of my own body and in no way and am I a good source of information on nutrition. BUT....my opinion is that since most of what we eat is dominated by omega 6 (aka another huge fault of the western diet), it might take longer balance out your ratio if you are consuming mostly other meats with fish occasionally. I might be overdoing it because i have fish for at least 2 out of my 3 meals a day. I'm also exercising more which i hope will burn fat so that my body can replace the omega 6 with omega 3 and speed up the process of balancing my omegas. I base this theory off multiple threads, published studies, and personal anecdotes so its obviously not foolproof, just a theory. But since an increased intake of omega 3's boosts insulin resistance, lowers risks of heart disease/osteoporosis/depression/brain damage, heals the gut, and controls androgens, I think it is wise to aim for a healthier omega ratio and thus possibly see a reduction of acne.
so personally i would say yea eat more fish if you can, preferably wild caught salmon. have you seen any results on paleo? also how long have you been doing paleo?