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Day 6 (yesterday): My nostril feels sore so I'm guessing there's inflammation deep inside it. That's happened before. I was clear for 2.5 weeks before this. Although I found a raised red mark on my back so I'm not sure whether that happened a while ago or recently in the 2.5 weeks and I just didn't notice. I'm gonna say 1 so far this month. Seems better so far.
Here's what I changed since mid last month:
-Taking 8000 ui Vitamin A everyday (though my skin has been itchy all over for the past week or so and it might be that, I think I'll start taking it every other day instead). Fish Oil and 50mg of Zinc picolinate as well.
-Eating a bowl of vegetables everyday and substituting meat I normally eat for fish a lot of the times (though I've been eating unhealthy a lot lately. Now I wonder if that's the reason for this inflammation or if it would have happened anyway, lol). Also trying to substitute a lot of snacks and chocolate for fruit.
-Exercising 15-30 minutes every day or at least every other day.
Day 8: There's a pretty big bump on my back but it doesn't seem inflamed, not painful, only a little red (maybe from me trying to feel it several times). It's been there for a couple of days. I actually thought it was allergy before. Interesting. It's like it's formed but it never got inflamed and turned into a nodule. I wonder if it's something I'm doing that's reducing inflammation. That stuff in my nostril kind of went away and is barely there as well.
Day 15 update: So I've had one medium sized breakout under my right cheek bone, and one on the other side though there's little inflammation. A couple or so small painful bumps. Looks like no large breakouts this month so far. I have tried to stick to fish and steamed rice/veggies or at least one healthy meal a day, as well as keep up with the other changes I made last month. I don't know if it's one of the things, or partially all of them, but I believe something is working.
Day 26: So looks like I've been breaking out non stop in middle size acne since the middle of second week. I've gotten 6 total (5 on my face on sides of my cheeks and chin and one on my back) so far. Although they are smaller in size than the lumps I used to get they're still pretty deep and painful, leaving PIH marks.
With the healthy diet and exercise though I'm feeling like I'm not getting enough calories every day. Also having tried it for the first time in my life I still think it doesn't have too much to do with my acne. Still, each time I get a breakout I tend to blame it on that cake I ate the day before, though I've had a few weeks where I would swear off sugar yet wouldn't stop breaking out. I believe vitamin A is one of the things affecting my acne the most, it just makes sense knowing all the properties it has and how it reduces inflammation. I still get clogged pores. New bumps appear on the sides of my chin every month. I feel like I would get a lot less inflammation if they didn't keep appearing as they inflame and become acne all the time leaving nasty marks. I don't know how to stop those from forming. I'm getting a charcoal mask which is supposed to draw things out to the surface so I'll see how that works. I already use azelaic acid cream at least once a day.
Day 27: got a big breakout on my chin, though not sure if it's as big as the huge ones i used to get, again. If i did count it as one it would be 1 so far this month which is still progress. But it's more raised than those, and has kind of come to head. Since I started taking supplements I feel like I've swapped those nodule like lumps for medium breakouts. It's not a bad trade at all even though these still leave marks. I don't think it's as bad, anyway.
Day 1-20 update: I got a medium size breakout in the first half of the month, and what seems like a deep lump on my chin today (day 20). Overall so far 1 medium, 1 large breakout. Things seem to have gotten better after I stopped taking fish oil, but now I have a large lump again, when i had none last month. We'll see how this goes.
Day 21: Noticed a much larger lump on my chin under the one that popped up yesterday. That one went down a little, but this one is huge. So up to 2 large breakouts. UPDATE: I got another similar lump on my chin, so 3. Lol this is weird, I don't get these often let alone 3 within 1 day. I havent been eating any sugar other than fruit, and mostly low fat meals. I wonder if it could be skincare products, though unlikely. The fact that all of them are in the same area makes me think it means something, and I have no clue what.
Hey, I just looked through your log, and I wanted to ask about inositol, since you've been taking it for a while. I just started taking it yesterday at the dose of 1/8 of a teaspoon, and I wanted to know if you've had any side effects like weight gain. I am super nervous about new hormonal stuff and hope I get no weird side effects!
Hey, I just looked through your log, and I wanted to ask about inositol, since you've been taking it for a while. I just started taking it yesterday at the dose of 1/8 of a teaspoon, and I wanted to know if you've had any side effects like weight gain. I am super nervous about new hormonal stuff and hope I get no weird side effects!
Hi there! I did have some side effects in the beginning. I probably gained about 5 pounds, also I would feel really sleepy during the day, and felt like my body required more sleep at night. I have some OCDish tendencies/anxiety and that did get worse especially when I increased the dosage. Funny because it's actually used to treat OCD. All of the side effects kind of went away within 3 months or so. I started exercising and eating healthier eventually so I lost weight (not sure if that would have happened by itself). My skin got better within 2 weeks of taking it, there was no initial breakout. I hope this helps ^.^
Day 26: Got another large breakout on left side of chin (came from a closed comedone). Though there is not a lot of inflammation or pain right now, it's pretty big. I decided to try popping one of the vit A softgels I take and apply it to my skin to see if it helps. The smell is awful (fishy), don't know if I can put up with that. Maybe not every day.
Day 1-11: Got 2 medium breakouts all spread out the first 1.5 weeks. One on the left side of my chin (another closed comedone), another on the right. A whitehead in place of an old lump on my left cheek, though it didn't last long, and a tiny whitehead on left side of my cheek. I feel like my skin has been purging a lot (4 of the closed comedones on the left side of my chin turned into inflamed acne ranging from large lump to small whitehead). I don't know if this would have happened anyway, or if it's me using charcoal cleansers and masks. Either way you'd think it doesn't have to be big to purge. The fact that there's a moderate amount of inflammation to me means something is up still. Either way, at least I got rid of most of those comedones so that's a plus, even though they've been traded for red marks.
Day 1-11 + 11-28: Overall got 0-1 large and about 3 medium breakouts. All of them happened after applying both azelaic acid and benzol peroxide gel to closed comedones. I have been eating healthier the second half of the month, and had no breakouts at all during the last week which is usually the worst. Pretty impressive. Although I did get new closed comedones (about 5) on my left cheek. It seems even with healthy eating, exercise, and daily usage of bp cleanser and gel, charcoal cleanser, mask, and scrub, and azelaic acid cream I'm still getting new comedones. I just hope I can exfoliate them out before they turn into inflamed acne-->marks. I'm not sure though.
Day 1-14 update: had 3 medium breakouts in the beginning of the second week of cycle. Diet's been mixed though I'm trying as hard as I can to avoid fat and sugar (it's hard!!!). Been applying the same topicals. Esp. bp spot gel which I apply all over the left side of my chin and jaw due to closed comedones in that area.
I should mention I've slowly increased my Inositol dosage to 1.5g.
Day 14-26 update: had another wisdom tooth taken out over a week ago, was on antibiotics for a week, still taking pain pills. came off of amoxicillin on monday, and found a pretty large and deep lump growing on my left cheek yesterday (wednesday). About the size of a pea now. Will update more. Stopped exercising due to surgery (over a week), also been eating less healthy. The lump seems bigger than what I've gotten in the past few months.
Update: I don't know if it's due to meds I was taking or applying bp spot gel, but the bump shrunk and disappeared within 1 day 0.0
Day 3 update: today I noticed a huge deep inflamed bump under my ear on the same side where my wisdom tooth was taken out. It's so big and painful I don't even know what it is. Is it acne? Is it lymph node? Wtf. It's making my jaw hurt. I don't know if it's even hormonal acne in that spot, I don't know if it's acne at all lmao. I didn't take my Inositol this morning, I was about 5 hours late from when I usually do cause of an early appointment and errands. I have no idea if those are connected. It would be kind of ridiculous if it was. I mean come on. It happened within hours. Or maybe before I just didn't notice it growing, I have no idea.
Day 4-18 update: I've gotten another big and deep lump on my left cheek near temple and a medium size breakout on my jaw near neck during the second week of cycle. Plus 3 medium breakouts (one on left side of chin from the one and only comedone I had (actually cleaned up nicely with the bp spot gel), another 2 on my chin). So 2 big ones and 4 medium ones so far. Looking a tad worse than a couple previous months. I think diet and exercise does affect it. Been eating worse and only now getting back to my exercise routine after the wisdom tooth surgery.
Day 1-28 update: So during the past cycle I got a couple medium breakouts in the beginning of week 2, as usual, due to ovulation. One of them left behind a lingering hard bump on my jawline but it wasn't quite like those big ones I used to get. Another medium breakout/zit on my cheek 10 days before the end of cycle. That's it. I can safely say that was my best month by far in 2 years or so. I'm still taking yaz, 1.5g inositol daily, I try to exercise and eat healthy when I can though I don't get too crazy about it. I still ate out a lot this past month, and exercised a little less than the few months before. I eat a lot more fruit and berries though, especially around the times of the month where I normally break out.
Day 1-28 update: Got a painful inflammation in my nostril in the beginning of second week, then a medium sized acne that came to head on my right cheek 10 days before period. During the placebo days, had an inflammation on my left cheek that felt like a large deep lump. I was smothering it in bp and taking ibuprofen, not sure if it was that or not, but it went away. So 0-2 large inflammations.
Day 1-28 update: Had 2 inflammations during the second week (ovulation) as usual, both around my ear, one of them was an old cyst though it wasn't big. Also a lump on my chin that never got inflamed. I'll say 1-2 large inflammations. Had no acne before period except small ones, which is amazing. And I hadn't even been eating that healthy prior.
I am going to stop using bp spot gel all over my cheeks though as I'm wondering if a couple lines I noticed happened due to how dry it makes my skin. Will continue to use on chin and jawline.
UPDATE: so for the past 2 months I've gotten 2 or so large breakouts every month, this month 2 already both on my chin (it's day 18), this new one that appeared today is the largest I've gotten in months. I did cut back on exercise (2 days in between instead of 1) and have been dealing with a lot of stress. I try to eat healthy still but not too over the top crazy about it.
UPDATE: I know it's been a while. Mostly because things have pretty much stayed the same or improved. I had a few months inbetween last update and now when I didn't get a single large lump. Last month, however, I got 2 which was kind of backward progress. I stopped exercising back in december but it didn't seem to bring back the acne as I had the clear months after that. I did begin eating unhealthy again, which might be the reason it worsened. However, at this point I'll take this and consider it success. Still swear by Inositol (1.8g daily split between day and night) as well as Neurogena Rapid Clear 10% bp spot gel.
WHAT I'VE LEARNED:
-healthy diet mainly low on fat and sugar with lots of fruit and veggies can help keep comedones at bay, as well as inflamed acne. That being said, the effects of Inositol are much much more dramatic. I need a combination of both to stay mostly clear.
Day 1-28 update: so last cycle month I had 3 medium breakouts. And the cycle before I believe it was one. I went back to exercising after I started getting a TON of comedones and some emerging inflamed acne in mid May (after a month of not so good diet) and it didn't start clearing up until I was exercising for about a couple of weeks and eating healthy again for over a month. Now, 2 months later, the comedones are more or less under control (4 on each side right now).It's odd that if exercise does matter, this is only happening now. But I suppose it's possible. There seemed to be no change from diet alone before I added being more active to the list. It also seems if I eat until I'm full on a daily basis that also causes acne, which is why I'm planning to increase my Inositol dosage today to 2.4g. I just don't think it's right that even if I eat healthy and give up some foods I love, I still have to starve most of the days not to have acne. Screw that. Also if it gets rid of random smaller acne, I suppose why not.