Hello everyone, welcome to my first post. This is for me to track my progress as I make changes to my lifestyle and diet inorder to clear my acne for good!! I normaly get spots on the temples of my forehead, along the jaw and on the lower parts of my cheeks. It gets really, really red and just looks so bad.I'm hoping that anyone reading this will be inspired to change parts of their lifestyle that could also be causing acne. If it helps just one person, I'll be happy.
Firstly, let me start with a bit of background on what sort of treatments and methods I've tried. I'm currently 23 years old, I've had acne since 14/15 years old. I remember my very first spot all too well.At 17 I took a trip to the GP(UK based here) to find out why me? I was given numerous antibiotics and oral contraceptives both of which did nothing. I finally took the plunge and went on Isotretinoin (Accutane) this cleared me up completely! I remember being so happy with my progress as it was just in time for me to go to University. But then a year later acne started coming back. At best, it was a couple of spots and at worse, it was a full blow breakout. I was really tempted to go back to the GP and I almost did but I wanted to get clear skin on my terms. I wanted to find out what I could do to clear my own skin!
This leads me to where I am now. I've tried chemical peels, so many different skin care products and a bunch of supposed miracle cures which involved supplements, natural masks and you basically get the gist of it, I've tried a lot of different things and it always ended with me back on Google trying to find the next cure. So what now?
Well now I want to try a holistic method. I'm going to start an anti inflammatory diet with some set rules in place for myself.
- First 2 weeks no diary, no sugar and no gluten. I'm going to aim to eat red meat once a week, fish atleast 3 times a week and most importantly a variety of vegetables and fruits with my meals.
- After the initial 2 weeks I want to include some more fruit into my diet and natural sugars(fruit etc) and see if this causes an impact on my skin. As for grains I'm not too sure. If I'm still not seeing a pattern when it comes to sugar and diary and gluten then I will go off grains to see if this reduces my acne.
- Once the period is over and I'm more aware of what kind works and doesn't I'm going to go heavy on the cultured food to help my body ecology due to antibodies potentially messing up the good bacteria in my digestive system. This will also help me combat candida if it is overgrown.
- I'm aware that I may experience purging affects but once I'm sure this has all subsided I want to focus on sticking to this anti inflammatory diet not just for acne but my overall health especially if this clears my skin up.I don't want to drive myself insane as I've got a huge sweet tooth. So I do want to treat myself to the occasional treat once every week/2 weeks.
Along with these changes I'm going to focus on exercising at least 30 minutes 5 times a week. This is all about taking steps to towards sticking to a anti inflammatory diet and healthier lifestyle.
Any input as to what I may of missed or what I can include would be greatly appreciated as I realise changing lifestyle choice and making adjustments to diet are not easy. Here's to hoping this will clear my skin!!!
Ok, so it's been just over a month since I started to make changes (hopefully for the better) and so far I haven't had any significant changes to my skin but that's ok! It's only been a month I wasn't expecting a miracle as I need more time to work on this.
I have to say though, I have really struggled with no sugar or processed foods as I constantly crave to have some. I've found ways to get away from it by having a healthy snack instead like a piece of fruit or some eating some nuts etc. Always having food with me has helped me stay away from buying baked goods or sweets. Furthermore, I'm really enjoying eating a more anti inflammatory diet. There are lots of helpful recipes and advice online and the food I'm eating now is not only better for me, but it tastes great so I feel I can definitely stick with this.
As far as I can tell, the results on my skin aren't really taking effect if that makes sense. I still get pimples on my skin but they're not as deep. Yes they still look angry but my spots are going down more quickly and are appearing less on my chin but more on my cheeks, so something is definitely happening. But as I said it just takes time. I might be eating something I'm intolerant to that be causing acne but I won't know until I start to experiment with cutting out certain foods such as nuts or eggs which will be something I'll start once new year's as gone past.
I'll be sure to keep updating this in the hopes that who reads this will be able to benefit too 
