After Day 1, I changed everything. I am doing a mix of the Candida and Paleo diets.
NO: dairy, sugar, high sugar fruits, starchy vegetables, highly processed foods, grains
CUT OUT LIMITED AFTER DAY 9: nuts, cocoa powder
Questions? Ask me!
Hi,
I have had acne ever since puberty, when I was around 12~13 years old. I'm 18 now. My acne was doing "ok" over the summer - I didn't want to rip my face off from what I remember. However, now that college has started, my acne has gotten way worse. I have everything. Blackheads, whiteheads, cysts, zits... It's fun.
The one thing that changed when I started school was my diet. With my meal plan, I indulged in my every desire, which was pretty much anything sweet or packed with carbs. I love my rice, burritos, milkshakes, orange chicken, frozen yogurt, fruit, and so much more.
Other than the fruit, everything I just named came from some sort of fast food place be it Panda Express or Pinkberry. I also went from 133lbs to 140lbs in like a month. Definitely not the healthiest diet...
What made me go "Wow, I need to change something" was 1) I hate looking at my acne more than ever 2) It hurts like hell. For example, if I close my eyes really tight right now, both sides of head hurt from the acne being irritated. And just last night, as I was going to sleep my face hurt for no reason. Meaning, a new zit is a approaching. I hate that feeling.
So I thought - eating processed yet tasty foods or living a life with self confidence, health, and no pain.... well, this time I chose the latter.
DAY 1 (11/10/14)
Breakfast: 1/2 cup raw spinach, 6 almonds
Snack: 1 apple
Lunch: Spinach salad with beets, onion, and tofu.
Snack: 5 carrots
Dinner: Collard greens, beets, garlic, onion, tilapia, broth from boiled veggies
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Weight: 140 lbs.
Acne: Same as described above. Painful. A lot of acne around the chin and forehead areas. Mostly right-side of chin. Also some on the upper lip. A couple big zits on the left temple. -_- Around 5~10 small, itchy zits on chest.
DAY 4 (11/13/14)
I basically live off of avocado, almonds/pecans, spinach, lettuce, onion, and organic meat/fish lol.
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Weight: 133 lbs.
Acne: Less painful but looks the same. Chest isn't itchy though.
DAY 9 (11/19/14)
I usually wash my face with coconut oil; once or twice a week with tea tree oil soap; and exfoliate when I have a lot of dead skin.
I introduced coconut flour and almond flour, with Xylitol, as a sugar-craving fix. However, I'm just going to cut out nuts because they can irritate skin. Better safe than sorry. So now I usually eat some sort of egg dish for breakfast, a salad for lunch, and sauteed veggies with meat for dinner. I've used 100% cocoa powder the past two days, but I'm cutting it out now. I'll reintroduce it in a week or so to see if it causes me to break out again.
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Weight: 132 lbs.
Acne: Still a lot on my forehead and chin area, especially the right side - which are painful if I move my eyebrows. I got a couple new zits by my lip that are painful. Luckily they aren't cystic. Chest has no new zits, and is less red. I had been getting these small nodules recently on the outskirts of my face, but they slowly calming down. I plan on switching to homemade shampoo. I think that's what is causing the right side of my face to breakout more than the left. Skin is really dry.
DAY 15 (11/24/2014)
I wash my face with coconut oil, tea tree oil soap, and a salicylic + glycol acid 2% face wash I've had for a while. I also put on BP 10% lotion at night. My moisturizer is this aloe-infused face lotion. I'm hoping the chemicals will help to kill the bacteria and speed up the healing process. I plan to stop/limit them if my skin gets clearer.
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Weight: 132 lbs.
Acne: It's still there
Awesome, I really think everyone with acne should take nutrition seriously, and it's one of the only things that really improved my acne. I started out really hard core, like you, and eventually leveled out to a more comfortable diet that I follow every day. I commend your ambition, but make sure you aren't setting yourself up for failure by being too strict. Remember that you have to follow your diet for a long time, like forever, in order to enjoy results, so you really have to love it. IMO, two weeks is not enough time to see results. It took me three months to see the first changes in my skin.
One thing to remember is that you need to eat enough protein. Based on what you ate on day 1, you definitely need more! The theory behind eating low GI is that it regulates your blood sugar, and one really effective way to regulate blood sugar is to make sure you are getting enough protein, especially at breakfast. Not eating enough protein is also really hard on your mental and immune health, and winter is coming.
Also, I don't think you need to nix fruits. I would say don't do a banana binge or eat three mangoes, but fruits come with lots of fiber and antioxidants, which are really beneficial for your health and skin. And beets have way more sugar than most fruits! You can even make sugar out of them. I eat beets, and I think they're great. I'm just trying to point out that fruits are not bad just because they have sugar. They are whole foods, little packages, and they are a wonderful way to stave off the inevitable sweet tooth without feeling guilty. So, save yourself from eating a cupcake, and eat some strawberries!
Nutrition is so complicated. In some ways I'm glad for my acne because I have learned so much about nutrition! Even if I didn't get zits, I don't think I could ever go back to eating as much junk food as I used to knowing what I know now.
Sorry for the extra large reply. I'm just excited for you to improve your lifestyle and your acne. Good luck!
 
Awesome, I really think everyone with acne should take nutrition seriously, and it's one of the only things that really improved my acne. I started out really hard core, like you, and eventually leveled out to a more comfortable diet that I follow every day. I commend your ambition, but make sure you aren't setting yourself up for failure by being too strict. Remember that you have to follow your diet for a long time, like forever, in order to enjoy results, so you really have to love it. IMO, two weeks is not enough time to see results. It took me three months to see the first changes in my skin.
One thing to remember is that you need to eat enough protein. Based on what you ate on day 1, you definitely need more! The theory behind eating low GI is that it regulates your blood sugar, and one really effective way to regulate blood sugar is to make sure you are getting enough protein, especially at breakfast. Not eating enough protein is also really hard on your mental and immune health, and winter is coming.
Also, I don't think you need to nix fruits. I would say don't do a banana binge or eat three mangoes, but fruits come with lots of fiber and antioxidants, which are really beneficial for your health and skin. And beets have way more sugar than most fruits! You can even make sugar out of them. I eat beets, and I think they're great. I'm just trying to point out that fruits are not bad just because they have sugar. They are whole foods, little packages, and they are a wonderful way to stave off the inevitable sweet tooth without feeling guilty. So, save yourself from eating a cupcake, and eat some strawberries!
Nutrition is so complicated. In some ways I'm glad for my acne because I have learned so much about nutrition! Even if I didn't get zits, I don't think I could ever go back to eating as much junk food as I used to knowing what I know now.
Sorry for the extra large reply. I'm just excited for you to improve your lifestyle and your acne. Good luck!
 
Well... I was kind of in a rush in the morning haha. I was going to cook up some tofu and throw in some spinach but things didn't go as planned because I had class. And actually according to http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/protein women only need 46g of protein a day. With everything I've eaten today, it comes to 45g - I use an app to track everything I eat - which is 30% of the total calories for today. =)
For beets, I mean sure they don't have THAT fewer grams of sugar than most fruits, but they are still packed with antioxidants and have an amazingly low glycemic load (plus they taste amazing) so I would gladly eat a cup of beets rather than a 22g sugar apple any day! I didn't realize apples had so much sugar until after I ate it. Also, I like to eat beets raw so they last longer and feel more satisfying.
I might eat some berries occasionally but fruits like apples and bananas I will eat very sparingly. I was also told once that I could have Candida but I never cut out sugar to see if that changed anything...
In the beginning it's best to be strict in order to get clearer skin faster, and then from there introduce different foods to see how it affects your skin. Plus, having healthy skin beats eating any type of food~ I'm ready for the challenge now x__x
But okay two weeks might not be enough to see much a difference, I agree now after reading more success stories. I'll change it to "Lifestyle-changing Challenge" =)
How is it going?
I am a recent adopter of the no-sugar, low GI/GL/carb diet, and even though common knowledge is that skin takes weeks to change, I swear I can see results within two days the times I've tried it.
I am now on attempt three, and thoroughly committed this time, with no cheating. Once again, I saw a big improvement already in two days; less oily skin, very few new pimples (and less painful, less enduring), and I am loving it. I think I'm on day 10-ish, and have seen a BIG improvement already. I had the worst breakout ever (I'm 32) about two months ago, and it is now calming down.
Keep going!
How is it going?
I am a recent adopter of the no-sugar, low GI/GL/carb diet, and even though common knowledge is that skin takes weeks to change, I swear I can see results within two days the times I've tried it.
I am now on attempt three, and thoroughly committed this time, with no cheating. Once again, I saw a big improvement already in two days; less oily skin, very few new pimples (and less painful, less enduring), and I am loving it. I think I'm on day 10-ish, and have seen a BIG improvement already. I had the worst breakout ever (I'm 32) about two months ago, and it is now calming down.
Keep going!
My acne is pretty severe to the point of nodules... smaller ones but nodules none the less. I haven't really noticed any improvements in these 9 days other than no new breakout on my chest. I got two new zits on the left of my lower lip, one on the lower right side of my chin, and a couple on my shoulders. The lip ones are the most annoying as they hurt when I move my mouth and I can constantly feel them... =/ But I plan on going at this for 2~3 months. If there are no improvements I'm going to start eating fruit but completely cut out nuts and see how that goes. I also want to get a food sensitivities test.
The only "cheating" that happened was:
- I had a piece of gun without realizing it used sugar (2g) instead of Xylitol. I stopped using gum after that incident
- I had a small bite of chicken yesterday, not knowing it had a slightly sweet sauce on it.
- 100% cocoa powder, which has caffeine (I broke out on my lip around when I ate this, so I'll cut this out starting tomorrow)
Daily, I have less than 20g of only natural sugar. around 40~70 carbs, so high GI isn't still causing me to break out -_- Why is the body so complicated...
Maybe its eggs.... I'm thinking about doing a water/juice fast for a few days then slowly introducing different foods. I don't know.
I admire your perseverance with the diet route. I've been down that road many times and so far I have not found success. I am currently trying the eating right for your blood type diet per my naturopaths request but we'll see. I too struggle with slip ups but my advice to you is to not beat yourself up. Live life, enjoy the foods you eat, get creative and recognize that this is a journey thay won't have an end in mere months.
Don't give up and don't get discouraged.
