My biggest insecurity right now is the skin on my face. I can’t leave the house without a cake face on. It doesn’t matter if I look fake, orange, or powdery, I prefer that look over people being able to see my acne and scars. I have decently "clear" skin right now in regards to acne, I mostly just have white heads. My cystic mountains have almost disappeared but have left behind hyperpigmentation all over my cheeks and jawline. I have redness and dark spots and just overall really unhealthy looking skin. If I look at the chart from Friday, my problem areas are my liver, stomach, and large intestine. Which means I HAVE to clean up my system.
I have been talking about bettering my lifestyle for awhile now but just can’t bring myself to do it. My number one excuse is “I don’t have time”. I think it’s time I find the time.
1. Drink more water. Drink lots of more water. Currently I’m drinking about 1 cup of water a day, along with 1 of coffee and 1 of tea. My goal is to be drinking the “recommended” 8 cups (we all know that varies per person/lifestyle).
2. Cut on the gluten. As Vanessa mentioned on Friday’s post, gluten has been tied to acne quite a bit. While I’m not ready to give it up completely, I do want to try to and cut some out of my diet to see the effect on my skin. I’ve been thinking about cutting on the dairy, but you guys, I love yogurt and milk and cheese and sour cream and cottage cheese. I can’t do it yet.
3. Exercise. My eternal enemy. I can’t find anything to keep me interested. I’ve tried gym, at home videos, and group classes. None of it is as interesting to me as watching marathons of Buffy on Netflix. Currently I’m giving Cassie at Blogilates a chance. I like that she has a calendar a month with workouts she comes up with. She’s also just a very likeable person. I don’t like how the videos are scattered and it takes me longer to find them and load them than it does for me to do the workout. My goal is to start fresh in April and do at least 4/6 workout days.
So those are my baby steps. They don’t sound daunting, but on a day to day basis I lose the battles more than win them. Hopefully this time I can turn it around and eventually add more baby steps.
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| My face without any makeup, right after a Concha Nacar mask. Putting this on the internet is one of the scariest things ever. |
How are you living a healthy lifestyle? Any tips for a rookie?
Hey Angie, I had the same problem for a year. My face was like a battleground and now that I've recovered, I'm left with wounds! But after a lot of research and facials and meeting estheticians...I found the right diet, which basically rebooted my system. I went on an extreme extreme Anti-Inflammatory Diet for two months. I haven't had any cystic acne since. It became a really good lifestyle for me but then...I went to coachella and trips and...all that nonsense. But to my surprise, considering my diet for the last month, my face is still clear and flat (flat is a must haha). Just google Anti-Inflammatory (no coffee, dairy, processed foods, fried foods, bla bla), do it for two months to clean out your system. I guarentee it will work!
ReplyDeleteI am also using Lush and UltraBlend from Lush with my homemade toner (tea tree oil, apple cider vinegar, and water), and jojoba oil as a moisturizer. Also, my face LOVES LOVES sunscreen.
Hope that helps!
Herbalism and UltraBlend from Lush*
DeleteAh, that sounds interesting. My skin has been doing much better, definitely flatter. I cut out a lot of bread/wheat. I'm interested in the anti-inflammatory but you literally just described everything I eat.
DeleteAnd ditto to your skincare routine, sounds awesome! I'm using SheaMoisture stuff right now actually and it's been a big help, the African Black Soap stuff. I use Grapeseed oil as my night moisturizer but I think it's giving me little white heads so I might stop that. But yay, I'm so glad you found something that works for you!!