update

My face is a bit better as of the past couple of days. There could be several reasons, and I'll probably never know what it is:

- the right time of the month. my period arrived. my face exploded. my period passed, my face improves
- i finished my 21 day detox cleanse
- i have been eating almost nothing but race products, beans, nuts, fruits, vegetables, milk supplements, vitamins/supplements, and protein powder for 21 days.
- antibiotics or prescription topical meds starting to work?

i'm afraid my face will soon explode in  breakouts again soon. only time will tell.

i also started reading the book my naturopathic dr recommended, called Skin Deep. it goes against everything i believe - it wants you to think deeply and reflexively about all the stupid little annoying events that happen in your life and ponder about how those events might affect you emotionally. I rather just not dwell, but alas, i said i'd try everything, and so i keep reading... and pondering...

tomorrow, second appointment with my dermatologist. Next week, naturopathic dr. again.

diet review

just so it's clear, here's my current diet:

- no gluten
- no dairy
- no meat except seafood (which I haven't eaten in a week...)
- no corn
- no soy/tofu
- low glycemic load (mind you not very successfully)
- no sugar
- no eggs
- lots of fluids including daily fennel/mint tea

other rules that i adhered to regardless of acne:
- no alcohol
- no caffeine

I also found out I react to the following, and thus have cut out:
- peanuts
- kidney beans
- shrimp

somewhat react to, and cut out/down:
- tomato
- sesame seed

 today :

January: 

i.e. no difference/slightly worse. blah.

....and July 2012, prior to stopping birth control. perfect, flawless, smooth skin. never wore makeup....

milk review

(yes, literally my fridge)

giving up milk wasn't the end of the world for me (giving up cheese/dairy altogether on the other hand...). I will say that nothing will ever compare to a nice cold glass of milk, creamy latte, or a cup of hot milk before bed, but it has been a bit of an adventure to look for a substitute for milk.

first of all, the soy milks (silk and so nice) are not mine as this detox calls for no soy or soy products. (although as far as soy milks go, so nice is obviously way superior, no contest).

I also have flip flopped with drinking and giving up rice milk. When i first started the detox i was drinking quite a bit of rice milk primarily. then i decided i was having way too many carbs. I decided almond milk was better in most senses (teeny bit more protein, less calories, almost no carbs, and nice a creamy).

before giving up rice milk again, I decided rice dream was fair. I didn't try the basmati rice milk or the ryza.

The silk True Almond milk is quite good. Like I said, it's quite creamy. When I first starting drinking milk alternatives, i found most of them way watery relative to actual milk, which disappointed me because i love everything creamy. I must say, almond milk is good competition when it comes to creaminess.

The downfall of almond milk is i don't find it goes particularly well in smoothies. it's ok,  but it doens't compare with rice milk. I guess the almond is not the right kind of creaminess.

coconut milk is a good substitute. way less carbs than rice milk as well, but high in fats (which i'm told by the dr i'm practically immune to, i can eat all the fatty stuff i want. not my problem). when i first started the detox diet i was a little addicted to coconut milk-pineapple smoothies. yum.

I've tried flax milk a while ago. haven't opened t his box yet but i remember it because a fair comparison to rice milk. will have to try it again.

I have no doubt in about 4 weeks i'll be so sick of milk substitutes that i won't want to look at or taste another one for 6 months... happens to everything i overdo. and i tend to overdo everything in small bursts.

AMAZING people

Today I looked at this
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=acne+coverage

Which made me feel a bit better. So many confident, brave, beautiful people out there. In general, so many people out there with acne.

On another note, today is day 7 of my detox cleanse. tomorrow starts day 1 of 7 of consuming 1 protein shake before each meal.

man am i ever sick of protein smoothies already.

fighting acne one smoothie at a time a.k.a Detox Cleanse

I had my follow up appointment with the naturopath on March 28. it was quite interested.

I got the results of my IgG antibody test. not sure if it's bogus considering one drop of blood yielded two pages of results indicating the amount of antibodies present in my body as a result of a list of about 80 foods..

Anyway, if it's accurate, then I'm "allergic" to, or have inflammation as a result of many foods that I have already been trying to cut out - mostly dairy and gluten products.

What was interesting, however, as that i have a high level of antibodies as a response to foods that i thought were go-to, or safe foods, including foods i was eating every single day. Namely egg (egg white yields a higher inflammatory/antibody response than egg yolk), bananas, peanuts, and kidney beans. So yet more items to add to the do-not-eat list.

i also started my detox cleanse diet which consists of 3 weeks of strictly staying away from certain foods, and drinking protein shake smoothies throughout the day. I am on day 6. By day 8, I am to have 3 protein shakes per day, which means i'm getting my daily protein in shakes alone. Gross.

the shakes are disgusting.

on the bright side, i am learning the joy of fruit smoothies, and trying different types of milk replacements.

the results? skin is still getting worse day by day as it always has since 8 months ago or so.

part of it, i sometimes think, may be due to the amount of carbs i consume. i'm sticking to the diet pretty strictly (and it's not easy. it includes cutting out tofu, soy, and corn.... what?!). with such a restricted diet, i justify to myself htat it's ok to eat a gigantic bag of potato chips or veggie chips per day. so i need to learn to cut that out and see if my skin might get better...

quite discouraging indeed.