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Paleo Diet Log.

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(@itstrue)

Posted : 09/01/2014 9:09 am

UPDATE:
Unfortunately, this diet didn´t work for me. I had already followed an extremely healthy diet for three months, and I kept going for another month, but I achieved nothing, only extreme weight loss even when I ate big portions and several times a day. For me, it isn´t worth it, but I was desperate like most people here, so I tried it as a last resort. I want to say this to anyone who reads the post because I don´t want anyone to be deceived. I think healthy diet can help some people with acne, but it didn´t help me at all. I wish it had! Good luck :)

Hi!

I´m a 28 year old girl who has dealt with acne for almost 6 years (before that, I had perfect skin).

I´m going to start paleo diet according to the book " The dietary cure for skin" by Loren Cordain. I´ll explain my story, my diet plan and my progression. I really hope it Works, and if it does, I hope I can help other people, too.

MY STORY:

perfect skin until 23 years old. Then, BAM! Acne. I haven´t had a SINGLE CLEAR DAY since then. Don´t have a looooooot of acne, but it´s severe, sometimes cystic and leaves LOTS of red marks (red...Brown...holy shit, that´s terrible!!) AND SCARS. (Thats what worries me the most). It concentrates around my mouth and chin. Nothing in my forehead, no matter how much I touch it. Some breakouts in cheeks, too.

Things I´ve tried (I´m spanish, sorry if some prescription is different to yours. I ´ll try to explain it the best I can).

* Benzoil peroxide (did nothing to me)

* A topical roll on which name I can´t remember

*proderma (antibiotic)

*avene cicalfate (for scars. It did noooooothing, man!)

*Birth pill during 2 Years (I improved, but even in those 2 years my skin was never normal, I couldn´t go a single day without make up because my spots are terrible....even if I had 2 spots in the whole month, marks acummulated from the months before!!!)

*avene Triacneal

*eritromicine (antibiotic, only worked for 2 months)

* ALL kinds of cleansers (some of them broke me out terribly, now I only wash my face with water and even I stil get pimples, they are less inflamed and HEAL FASTER)

*Effaclar DUO

and so on...So I can say the only "traditional" thing I haven´t tried is Accutane. And Accutane is a BIG NO for me. (But my doctor wanted me to take it in my last visit, so you imagine how my skin is )

So this past three months I´ve been trying a diet: vegetables, few meat, a lot of blue fish, fruit, Green tea, whole grains, oat, oat milk, no dairy... results? NOTHING. My face is as bad as the first day.

So my possibilities are smaller and smaller each day. The truth is that I don´t want to get birth pills again, I think they are antinatural and they didn´t even solve my problem 100%.

So, I´m giving diet one last try.

MY DIET PLAN:

Since my diet these last 3 months was very healthy comparing to my habits before, I thing that, nowadays, the only thing I can change is my cereal consumption. Reasons: all my life I have eaten TONS of pizza, bread, pasta, sweets...I mean, literally tons. Most of my diet consisted on those things. I could live without vegetables, and I could live without fish, for sure. But I couldn´t make a single day without eating bread, or pizza, or cake...

As even in this 3 healthy months I have been consuming moderate amounts of wheat or other cereals (whole grain bread in my meals, some days whole grain pasta and all the mornings oat with oat milk) I want to give the paleo diet a try.

So my plan is:

NO grain cereals at all (and hope this makes a difference)

NO legumes ( sounds terrible to me because I like them and think they are healthy)

NO processed foods (this 3 months have been OK relating to this, but now I´ll be even more strict)

NO dairy (I´m almost sure it´s not a trigger for me because I haven´t drank milk since 4 months ago and only ate cheese 4 times during all this time, and Im still breaking out. But I´ll keep them away for one more month.

NO sugar

NO starchy vegetables

Lots of water, Green tea.

Green smoothies all mornings

Lots of fruits, vegetables, meat, fish and seafood in general.

As the ·The dietary cure for skin" book says, I´ll follow this strict diet during A MONTH. If it Works, great!! :D. It it doesnt, I´ll asume my acne problem has nothing to do with diet, as I have already been eating healthy for 3 months and if this one last try doesn´t make the difference it will be time to search other solution.

Hope this helps somebody and Works for me, too. I´ll post my daily meals, so I can give some r©cipe ideas to people willing to follow this diet (this seems the most dificult for me, as I find it difficult to cook without wheat or dairy) .

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(@technoir)

Posted : 09/01/2014 10:59 am

Sounds great.

I don't see the problem with legumes though.

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(@itstrue)

Posted : 09/01/2014 12:47 pm

Hi Oryon! I don´t really see the problem either! but to be honest, I´m a bit paranoid with acne nowadays....and since paleo recommends not taking them, I´ll stick to a non legume diet for a month. But I´m certainly not planning to leave legumes forever! :D

Sounds great.

I don't see the problem with legumes though.

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(@itstrue)

Posted : 09/01/2014 1:06 pm

Day 1:

Breakfast: Green smoothie with pumpkin, spinach, beetroot, radish. An Apple. To be honest, the smoothie sucked (I can do better) and I nearly starved during the morning! (I used to have breakfast with cereals everyday and have some food after that too). Ill find new ideas and post them here

Meal: Zucchini spaghetti with meat and tomato sauce (home made!)

Ingredients and recipe:

2 zucchini.

beef (or other) lean meat.

1 ripe tomato.

1/2 onion

a garlic

spices you like (I used thyme, oregano..)

You make Zucchini spaghetti (today I have to make them by hand lol!! but I have bought this item and hope it arrives soon:

http://www.ebay.es/itm/351055206566?ssPageName=STRKIT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649

You heat some olive oil (Little!!) with a sliced garlic in a pan. Then you make the Zucchini spaghetti. You MUSNT use the center part as it has too much water. Use only the "walls" of the zucchini and save the center for other recipes. You MUSNT add salt before you cook it. Add it after the zucchini is cooked because if not, it will lose water too in the pan.

Then, I made a home made tomato sauce with 1 red tomato, 1/2 onion , oregano, thyme and salt. (heated in a pan too)

Last, I bought some beef, grinded it and cooked it.

All cooked in Olive oil because its the best oil we have in Spain, but I suppose there will be other oils as good around the world. (a Little oil, and not very very hot since its bad)

Evening: a paraguayan (its similar to a peach, dont know if its called like this in UK, US etc) and a grapefruit juice.

Dinner: I had sardines, a salad (lettuce, tomato, avocado) and a peach.

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MemberMember
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(@avada-kedavra-acne)

Posted : 09/01/2014 1:56 pm

great breakfast.

Cook 2 cups of quinoa in water normally. After cooking is over. Seal it in a container in the fridge. The amount should be about a weeks worth.

Every morning. Scoop some out into a bowl. Put some almond milk into it. Throw it into the microwave. Usually i cook it for 30 seconds covered with a paper towel, and then more without the paper towel. Then take out and add toppings

Add cinnamon.

Add pear (or any fruit)

Pumpkin seeds

Chia seeds

Flax

chopped almonds

A small scoop or almond butter or even peanut butter

Drizzle honey ontop... and bam. Its so gooood. I have it every morning.

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MemberMember
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(@itstrue)

Posted : 09/02/2014 9:05 am

Hi, Avada!

Your recipe sounds really good! But I cant eat any cereals during the 30 day diet I think its gonna be a nightmare !!

My meals today:

Breakfast: I heated a sliced Apple in a pan, with cinnamon. Then I made an ommelete and ate all together. Next time Ill include the apples in the ommelete. I also had a Green smoothie with a peach, spinach, 1 carrot, beetroot.

Meal: pork chop and some beef. I also ate 4 bell peppers (all fried with olive oil) and made a mushroom cream from: 2 big mushrooms, 1/2 onion, a bit of red pepper, salt and oregano.

Green tea and a bottle of water.

Dinner: Im going to eat mackerel.

To be honest, its a livin hell for me eating without cereals.Also, no matter what I eat, Im hungry all the time. But Im curious about the results. If anyone is going paleo too: how do you deal with eating without any bread or potatoes? how do you manage breakfasts?

ps: I m thinking of making zucchini chips to accompany my meals. Will keep you updated it they are worth it, lol

ps2: Im not talking about my progress yet because Im just starting with the diet, but Ill write about it in 5 or 7 days, hope there is something positive to tell you.

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MemberMember
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(@technoir)

Posted : 09/03/2014 12:15 pm

Two words: Omelettes and salads.

That's pretty much the bulk of what I eat daily. The more veggies in either of the two the better.

As for what to do about bread and potatoes? Well bread has always given me both acne and digestive problems. Even whole grain! Even oats! So I've eliminated wheat products and grains altogether. The carbs I used to receive from bread I've replaced with legumes and vegetables. Much healthier imho. You can still do potatoes if you go with the sweet variety.

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MemberMember
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(@itstrue)

Posted : 09/03/2014 5:00 pm

Thanks for the advice, Oryon!! Today I had to eat in a restaurant and my first dish was a salad. It helped, because salads are probably the only meal I always ate without bread. Eating without bread is very difficult, but, if it worked for me (oh...how much do I wish it would!!!!) I would re introduce legumes :D and potatoes, and so life would be easier.

Talking about other things, today I had an appointment with a new dermatologist. He directly suggested Accutane (here it´s called Mayesta, but it´s the same) and I told him in a quiet and shy way that I feared its effects. Well, he nearly went nuts! He was AWFUL, NOT nice at all and very very sharp talking to me. It made me very sad and I have nearly lost hope because I DONT want to take it ... So if this diet doesn´t work, I don´t know what else could I do. Sorry for this story, people. I know it hasn´t got anything to do with paleo or this post, but I needed to tell it to people that are in a similar situation...because I feel no one else understands it.

Well! Back into the paleo stuff:

Today I ate:

Breakfast: a Quiche I did yesterday. It´s really GREAT!!!

Easy quiche recipe with peppers, zucchini, aubergine.

3 eggs

olive oil (a Little)

black pepper, salt, thyme, basil. ( I used all these and it was delicious, but you can use only some of them or make variations, for sure :) )

1 aubergine

1 zucchini

1 onion

1/2 tomato

Green and red pepper

(the quantities are not very important, I think. I did it this way without paying much attention to the original recipe, which I saw in a magazine, and it was ok too!)

1st you heat the onion (every vegetable must be sliced!!!) in a Little olive oil, with m©dium or low heat. (that´s my trick to cook: if the heat is low, things are slowly cooked and don´t need much oil. Heat some minutes (5 or so...didn´t really count)

Then you add the peppers.. Heat some more minutes.

Then, you add all the rest. You add the salt ,thyme etc etc, and you heat until they are soft.

Then you mix in a bowl all these vegetables with 3 beaten eggs, and you simply put the mix into the oven in the bowl. You wait 45 minutes and voila! It can be eaten cold (in fact, the recipe was called "Cold quiche...". And I think it perfectly lasts in the fridge 2 days. Maybe it can be frozen too, I must try. Its GREAT for breakfasts or meals. :)

I also took a Green smoothie ( spinach, peach, beetroot, carrot) and a Green tea.

) dessert: watermelon.

During the day I also ate a carrot and 2 bananas.

) and a sliced and heated Apple with cinnamon.

Maybe I´m eating too much fruit? I´m always hungry and it´s the easiest option...

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MemberMember
10
(@o-havoc-o)

Posted : 09/04/2014 8:46 am

Stop calling it "Paleo diet" because no such thing exists.

 

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MemberMember
0
(@itstrue)

Posted : 09/04/2014 5:33 pm

Well, I dont really care how we call it...I wouldnt for a second refuse to eat wheat and other delicious things if I didnt have this BIG pROBLEM called acne...but I have it, unfortunately. And, since it has helped others, Ill give it a try just in case wheat and high carbohydrates are being harmful to me

I really hate eating without bread and other things that were the MAIN source of my diet...I dont think eating meat is healthy, either. But Im giving it a try, for sure. At least, if it doesnt work, I will be able to eat wheat and other things I love without feeling guilty at all, so this can only benefit me, it doesnt matter if it Works with my acne or not. (Hope so, by the way :S )

So...day 4:

Breakfast: today was an awful day, I hadnt done my shopping so I had Little food. I only ate a banana ommelete. Not even my Green smoothie because there wasnt any "Green" at home :S

Meal: here, I already had food I ate: a tuna fillet, then I made a lot of zucchini and aubergine chips (I just cant stand eating fish or meat alone, so I searched for something which had a "neutral" taste to eat with it, and it was quite good!!

I also made sauteed vegetables: pepper, avocado, onion and egg.

Then I ate quite a lot of fruit during the evening. 1 Apple, peach, grapes and a carrot, too.

Dinner: stuffed aubergines, made in the oven. I made one with pork meat and another with canned tuna, all with home made tomato sauce.

Im thinking that, at the end of this month, Im introducing probiotics: kefir and natural yogurt. I have stayed away from dairy for 4 months (only ate cheese 5 times or so during all this time) and Im almost sure it doesnt affect my acne at all, so Ill try probiotics for sure.

And, about my skin progress, all I can say is that I havent got any new pimples these 4 days, but it doesnt mean a thing, Im almost sure its something casual. Its the story of my life: I try something, and maybe I got 4 clear days and then I break out, and this repeats again and again. By the way, even without new pimples, my skin sucks because of scars, marks and very recent pimples.

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MemberMember
0
(@itstrue)

Posted : 09/05/2014 3:34 pm

Hi!

Day 5:

Breakfast: smoothie : cherries, berries, lettuce, 1 peach.

And another banana, heated in a pan.

Meal: mackerel with zucchini chips. Another smoothie: 1 banana, 2 peaches, cherries, berries. I shared it with my mother so I didnt drink it all. I also ate a grenadine.

I drank a Green tea.

Dinner: a loaf of salmon, then boiled beef with vegetables, and some aubergine from yesterday. I also had 3 figs. (perhalps too much sugar).

No new pimples. However, I feel hopeless and waiting for a breakout. But I will stick to the diet no matter what, until the month ends. Tomorrow Ill try eating less fruit.

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MemberMember
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(@itstrue)

Posted : 09/07/2014 3:40 am

Day 6 (yesterday) :

I had an AWFUL Green smoothie, lol! it only had: one apricot, lettuce, 1 carrot and beatroot. Very Little fruit and tasted horrible! :S

I also had a banana and a peach omelette, with cinnamon. It was great.

Meal: mushrooms with egg. and grilled squid. Dessert: watermelon and a Green tea. I ate in a restaurant so I had very Little choice.

I have a doubt here: anyone knows if squid is bad for acne? I have seen some squid recipe in Loren Cordain normal Paleo diet web, but I dont know if its adequate for the acne Paleo diet!!) Other seafood like shellfish and crab is recommended, but they dont say nothing about squid!

Dinner: I had mackerel and other fish, with aubergine and avocado.

Progress: I dont like to write about it everyday because I think progress should be evaluated in the long term, because it doesnt matter being clear today if I have another horrible breakout in 2 weeks. Im looking for staying clear for a month or so, before I can celebrate if something Works. But, today, I havent got any new cysts. Only a very small pimple that started yesterday and I think it isnt going bigger nor inflamed. Lets cross fingers.

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MemberMember
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(@itstrue)

Posted : 10/02/2014 1:41 pm

Hi!

I ve been missing all of this time cause I moved and didnt have internet until last week. I only came back to say that, unfortunately, paleo DIDNT WORK FOR ME.

I had 2 or 3 breakouts during the diet, exactly as when I wasnt dieting. Im so frustrated...I have been eating well for 4 months and Im the same or even WORSE than in the beginning. All around my mouth I have bumps and, it ITCHES TERRIBLY. I think it must be something like bacterias/yeast, because it itches as HELL the same days as the breakouts, its mathematical. If someone wants more paleo ideas I have no problem in posting them, by the way. But, as it was absolutely useless to me, I dont find it useful to share my "method".

Nowadays Im hopeless, dont know what to do...I have been on zinc for 13 days and I see no improvement.

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MemberMember
26
(@quetzlcoatl)

Posted : 06/16/2015 9:36 pm

Hi!

I ve been missing all of this time cause I moved and didnt have internet until last week. I only came back to say that, unfortunately, paleo DIDNT WORK FOR ME.

I had 2 or 3 breakouts during the diet, exactly as when I wasnt dieting. Im so frustrated...I have been eating well for 4 months and Im the same or even WORSE than in the beginning. All around my mouth I have bumps and, it ITCHES TERRIBLY. I think it must be something like bacterias/yeast, because it itches as HELL the same days as the breakouts, its mathematical. If someone wants more paleo ideas I have no problem in posting them, by the way. But, as it was absolutely useless to me, I dont find it useful to share my "method".

Nowadays Im hopeless, dont know what to do...I have been on zinc for 13 days and I see no improvement.

 

Because this post has already been drudged up from the depths, I will add that what you have is probably perioral dermatitis, not acne. Acne does not usually itch. You could try eliminating products that you use on your face and lips, as well as changing your toothpaste to something without fluoride or SLS.

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MemberMember
2
(@intothewild)

Posted : 07/08/2015 8:16 pm

Hi!

I´m a 28 year old girl who has dealt with acne for almost 6 years (before that, I had perfect skin).

I´m going to start paleo diet according to the book " The dietary cure for skin" by Loren Cordain. I´ll explain my story, my diet plan and my progression. I really hope it Works, and if it does, I hope I can help other people, too.

MY STORY:

perfect skin until 23 years old. Then, BAM! Acne. I haven´t had a SINGLE CLEAR DAY since then. Don´t have a looooooot of acne, but it´s severe, sometimes cystic and leaves LOTS of red marks (red...Brown...holy shit, that´s terrible!!) AND SCARS. (Thats what worries me the most). It concentrates around my mouth and chin. Nothing in my forehead, no matter how much I touch it. Some breakouts in cheeks, too.

Things I´ve tried (I´m spanish, sorry if some prescription is different to yours. I ´ll try to explain it the best I can).

* Benzoil peroxide (did nothing to me)

* A topical roll on which name I can´t remember

*proderma (antibiotic)

*avene cicalfate (for scars. It did noooooothing, man!)

*Birth pill during 2 Years (I improved, but even in those 2 years my skin was never normal, I couldn´t go a single day without make up because my spots are terrible....even if I had 2 spots in the whole month, marks acummulated from the months before!!!)

*avene Triacneal

*eritromicine (antibiotic, only worked for 2 months)

* ALL kinds of cleansers (some of them broke me out terribly, now I only wash my face with water and even I stil get pimples, they are less inflamed and HEAL FASTER)

*Effaclar DUO

and so on...So I can say the only "traditional" thing I haven´t tried is Accutane. And Accutane is a BIG NO for me. (But my doctor wanted me to take it in my last visit, so you imagine how my skin is )

So this past three months I´ve been trying a diet: vegetables, few meat, a lot of blue fish, fruit, Green tea, whole grains, oat, oat milk, no dairy... results? NOTHING. My face is as bad as the first day.

So my possibilities are smaller and smaller each day. The truth is that I don´t want to get birth pills again, I think they are antinatural and they didn´t even solve my problem 100%.

So, I´m giving diet one last try.

MY DIET PLAN:

Since my diet these last 3 months was very healthy comparing to my habits before, I thing that, nowadays, the only thing I can change is my cereal consumption. Reasons: all my life I have eaten TONS of pizza, bread, pasta, sweets...I mean, literally tons. Most of my diet consisted on those things. I could live without vegetables, and I could live without fish, for sure. But I couldn´t make a single day without eating bread, or pizza, or cake...

As even in this 3 healthy months I have been consuming moderate amounts of wheat or other cereals (whole grain bread in my meals, some days whole grain pasta and all the mornings oat with oat milk) I want to give the paleo diet a try.

So my plan is:

NO grain cereals at all (and hope this makes a difference)

NO legumes ( sounds terrible to me because I like them and think they are healthy)

NO processed foods (this 3 months have been OK relating to this, but now I´ll be even more strict)

NO dairy (I´m almost sure it´s not a trigger for me because I haven´t drank milk since 4 months ago and only ate cheese 4 times during all this time, and Im still breaking out. But I´ll keep them away for one more month.

NO sugar

NO starchy vegetables

Lots of water, Green tea.

Green smoothies all mornings

Lots of fruits, vegetables, meat, fish and seafood in general.

As the ·The dietary cure for skin" book says, I´ll follow this strict diet during A MONTH. If it Works, great!! :D. It it doesnt, I´ll asume my acne problem has nothing to do with diet, as I have already been eating healthy for 3 months and if this one last try doesn´t make the difference it will be time to search other solution.

Hope this helps somebody and Works for me, too. I´ll post my daily meals, so I can give some r©cipe ideas to people willing to follow this diet (this seems the most dificult for me, as I find it difficult to cook without wheat or dairy) .

I started with cutting gluten out for about 6 months then did a strict paleo/low carb/no grain diet for 4 months. Not eating enough carbs actually made things so much worse for me. Too much protein was damaging my liver and I was disrupting my thyroid by not consuming enough carbs, I started breaking out bad and my hair started thinning where I part my hair. Do your research this stuff is not uncommon for someone doing a low carb paleo diet. I cannot stress to you enough to make sure you are getting adamant carb intake if you proceed with this diet, I wish someone would have told me these things before I started, I would've never tried the grain free diet.

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MemberMember
0
(@itstrue)

Posted : 07/09/2015 3:15 am

 

Hi Intothewild,

thanks for your advice :)

My acne didn´t improve AT ALL with the diet, although I never felt bad during it. But it was useless, so I stopped. I lost A LOT of weight and I didn´t need it, I ate all day but it wasn´t enough (carbs are veeery important, and even if fruit has sugar etc, it´s definitely NOT enough).

I was hopeful about this diet, but it didnt work at all, so I want to let other people know that, even when some people can be successful , others won´t, and it´s not our fault. I followed the diet in an strict way,with a lot of willpower, and yet it didn´t work. The only thing I achieved was getting very thin and that was not my goal. Now I eat as usual (some healthy food, some junk food, but very very far from that diet) and my acne is as always. I´m gonna try Accutane in a few days. I tried everything before, but I´ve lost all hope and I´m not gonna spend another 6 years feeling sorry for my own skin and trying a thousand things that aren´t worth it, while my skin gets worse and worse. I only wish some of the things I´ve tried had worked, but they didn´t, and there´s nothing else I can do.

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