Progress Photo - 24.01.2011

I still get 3-4 new pimples a week, mostly previous whiteheads turning to red inflamed pimples. They heal in 3-4 days, so much faster than before.

Right Side:

Left Side:

One month Summary (24 days on diet)

I was super busy lately and my initial plan of posting here every day was a complete fiasco. I will try to post here as often as I can, but it probably won't be every day.

Today is exactly one moth since I've started this blog. This month passed by very quickly. At the beginning of the month I had a few appointments with my medical doctor, dermatologist and naturopath, trying to get an advice of how to treat my acne. I've ignored the easiest but most dangerous solution to take Accutane, offered to me by my medical doctor and dermatologist. Instead I've chosen to follow a hypoallergenic diet and take some natural supplements prescribed by naturopathic doctor. Since meeting naturpoath I've slightly changed my diet. Most of the time I'm trying to follow vegan/frutarian diet but few days a week I do eat chicken or fish. While most of my meals are fruits and vegetables (raw and steamed) I still eat some cooked grains like buckwheat and quinoa. With hypoallergenic diet I'm trying to avid some fruits and vegetables like oranges, bananas, tomatoes and peppers.

I'm happy to report some positive changes in my acne condition. It's definitely getting better. Maybe not as quickly as I'd like it to be, but it's improving. As my naturopath said it's three steps forward and one step back. I just have to be patiened. The last progress picture I took a week ago and I am posting it today. I've promised my naturopath not to take any more pictures for another month, so my next progress picture will be posted only at the end of February.

Currently I'm reading the "80/10/10 Diet" book. It has tons of interesting information and I would definitely recommend reading it. The main idea of the diet is to eat mostly fruits, and on this diet your caloric ratio will be 80/10/10 (carbohydrates/fat/protein). I still think that it's nearly impossible to live exclusively on fruits, as suggested in the book, for one major reason - it's extremely expensive, and you have to eat a lot of fruits on this diet. In Canada we don't have local fruits available in the winter, only exported from Chili or Mexico or US and they are pricey. Organic chicken and deep water fish which I'm trying to eat now are also not very affordable. So eating some cooked grains and legumes really help with the budget and it doesn't seem to effect my acne.

Day 9

It's my girl-friends birthday. For a long time I've tried to avoid meeting my friends since I was just too embarrassed to show my acne face :( Not any more. I'm going to enjoy our time together. We're going to a restaurant so I won't be on my diet today but I still will try to make some healthy choices. I also will have a glass of wine :) I'm so looking forward to it.

Day 8 Summary

What an exiting day! I went to see a naturopath today, $100 well spent. I really liked this doctor. Today was an initial assessment, which run for about an hour. She listened to my story, then examined me and asked some relevant questions. I felt like she is very knowledgeable and really can help me. She was very skeptical of Accutane and wouldn't recommend taking it. She thinks that my acne is my bodies reactions to some problems inside. She is confident that diet will be sufficient to cure it. She advised me to make some adjustments to my current diet as well as stop taking any supplements I was taking before.

Basically the new diet is Elimination/Hypoallergenic diet and is very similar to what I was doing but excluding some vegetables and fruits that can cause allergies. For example tomatoes, peppers, mushrooms, citrus can cause allergies, so I should avoid them. It was very interesting to see this list and it does make sense to me. I will scan the document and will post it here. I came up with my diet mostly by trials and errors, so it wasn't perfect. I still had many doubts about what aggravates my acne and what comes it down. It makes sense that some common allergens could easily aggravate it. I'm planning to start this diet on Monday. I should do some grocery shopping on Sunday. I'm really looking forward to it.

I also used many different supplements and she asked me to stop taking all of them. I think that's a great advice since I came up with the list of supplement just searching on the web for what can help with acne. I probably was taking too much of everything, especially when I was consuming so many fruits and vegetables that are packed with vitamins. Instead of supplements and vitamins she prescribed me to take L-Glutamine (2g 3x's/day before meals), turmeric (2 pills 3x's days before meals) and mil thistle (2 pills 3x's day).

So she asked me to do the diet for a month and I should see some improvement. After a month I will have a follow up appointment and we'll see if I need to stay on the diet for another month. She hope that I would be able to stop this diet after 2-3 months and eat normal without many restrictions. All her suggestions were in a good agreement with my believes. I've decided to follow her suggestions. From Monday I start the new diet. So excited :)

I also promised her not to be obsessed with my acne anymore, try to avoid looking in the mirror in a search for new pimples, etc. I will really try to do it, and I know that'd be hard. I will post my weekly update photo on Sunday but the next one will be only in a month. She said that with the diet it's always taking 5 steps forward but 1 back. So looking for improvements every day or even every week is a bad idea, because if I don't see any or I see new pimple I get upset and that causes stress and hence more pimples. Therefore, no more photos or mirrors for a month.

Day 7 Summary

Another great day. Again it was extremely busy, so this post will be short. I went to the gym today and I've realized that I need some good skin care routine when at the gym. I usually wear a foundation and eye makeup when I go to work and I don't take it off before the gym, only after I work out. I guess that's not good, but I'm too embarrassed to go to the fitness class without makeup. After work out I took makeup off with jojoba oil. It works better than any other makeup remover I've tried (my favorite brand name makeup remover was Lancome). then I took a shower and gently washed my face with the mild cleanser. I also continue to use some benzol peroxide on the areas with whiteheads. (I'm really paranoid that one day these whiteheads will aggravate to full cysts :( That won't be nice. ) After I've used moisturizer.

Diet: I still doing the same: fruits and more fruits, some vegetables with hummus and for dinner quinoa with salad.

Supplements: These week I used only calcium and zinc supplements. In fact I'm not sure which supplements I should take. There are so many suggestions on the web: vitamins A, C, E, D; Zinc; Chromium; Cod Liver Oil and Fish Oil. Then there are so many different natural remedies and already combines supplements. We also have different herbs such as milk thistle, dandelion root, etc, that help with liver detox and acne. So how would I know which one too choose? I'm meeting with the naturopath tomorrow. I hope to get some help with understanding all these supplements and natural remedies. I've already tried some of them, but there is no quick solution. During the last four months I've tried drinking dandelion root tea for 2-3 weeks, mint tea for 2 weeks, also eating milk thistle, etc. There was no significant results until I've started the diet. I'm pretty sure that some of the supplements and herbs really can help but again "which one is the right one for me???". The same with topical remedies. I've tried all kinds of natural masks and products such as manuka honey, clay, aloe vera just to name a few.  In fact I really overdone it. I simply should of left my skin alone. Sometimes less is better. Anyway, tomorrow I hope to get some answers from a professional.

Day 6 Summary

Today was extremely busy day for me. It's so hard to find time and keep posting here :( I do continue the diet. I had no meat or fish today, just fruits and vegetables. However today I've noticed that more whiteheads appear on the left side. They are very tiny and mostly unnoticeable but I'm afraid that one day they can transform to cysts.  Anyway I'll not worry about them now. I'll use some benzol peroxide on the places where they appeared. Maybe that will help.

Adjusting my skin care routine

After using Dan's products (from acne.org) last night, my skin was extremely dry in the morning. I've used a good amount of moisturizer before applying foundation and it looked ok. However by the midday the skin was extremely dry and flaky. I'm not going to use any product tonight except for a small amount of my favorite moisturizer, Lancome bienfait multi-vital fluide.

Day 5 Summary

Still eating tons of fruits. I also had some green beans and small portion of fish. I fast in the morning for my blood test and my first meal was very late, around 10:00. Even for such a busy day as today the diet was very easy to follow by eating some bananas, apples, kiwis, and other fruits. However I don't think I had enough food/calories today. Since I was extremely busy I didn't have a chance to drink as much water as I usually do, or eat as often as I do.

Another great day

Today was a very busy day for me. Doctor's and dentist appointments went smoothly. I've received a clean bill of health. Great!!! My hormonal level is normal, which was a surprise for me, but no complains here. My doctor also admitted that my acne is slightly better, which is again a good news. She didn't insist on prescribing Accutane this time and was very nice to me.

It's like everybody notice that I feel great inside. It seems that people just really like talking to me, even complete strangers :) I definitely feel more confident, energized and happy and people seem to notice that. Indeed, people judge/except us by how we present ourself in terms of our behavior and appearance. Today was a great proof of that.

Today was the first day that I didn't regret the time when I went on birth control pill. I'm actually grateful for everything that happened to me. This journey to find cure for my acne helped me to realize that what I put in my body really matters. This concerns not only medications we take but also and most importantly food we eat. Unfortunately I came to this conclusion the hard way.

My skin care routine

I've been using some advices from Dan's routine (acne.org) for about 3-4 weeks now. I'm washing my face very gently with very mild cleanser (Cetaphil Skin Cleanser) twice a day. In the morning I follow it by a moisturizer, 5-10 min after washing. In the evening I also used to put a very tiny amount of clindoxyl gel (with 5% benzol peroxide) all over my face. This step was in between cleansing and moisturizing. It seemed to work very well. However I wanted to use 2.5% benzol peroxide, which is very hard to find in a store.

I ordered Dan's kit that includes cleanser, treatment lotion, and moisturizer. Finally it arrived today. I was so excited. I've just tried it and I'm not very impressed. The cleanser left my face very dry. I followed it with a small amount of treatment, which absorbed very well and was ok. Moisturizer took a long time to absorb and now 15 min later my face is very shiny. I will probably not use this moisturizer for daytime. This is only my first time using the product. I'll stick to it for a few days and maybe I'll like it.

My advice to any person with acne is to be very very very gentle. Wash your face at most twice a day, and always use a moisturizer. I've learned it the hard way. I used to wash my face four times a day. I used different masks and home remedies for acne and it only aggravated it. I would definitely recommend to watch Dan's videos and read about his regimen. There are many useful tips there. You can easily modify his regimen as I did. Just watch how your skin reacts to a product or routine and modify it accordingly.

Day 4 Summary

Today I ate tons of fruits, barley, some steamed green beans with olive oil, a pinch of salt, a few drops of lemon juice and garlic (yumm:) and baked fish for dinner. In the morning I exercised outside for about 30 min. I feel good :) Tomorrow I have an appointment with my family doctor. Not looking forward to it :(

First appointment with a dermatologist

Today I went to see a dermatologist. Actually I desperately needed his help a month ago, when my acne was very bad. However I was able to book an appointment only a month in advance, for today. Appointment was kind of long. When he found out about my PhD research he was extremely interested and started talking a lot about his research, which was completely unrelated to my acne. I was very polite and listened to all that, but because of that he ran late for his other appointment and really had to rush at the end. I didn't have a chance to ask him all the questions I had. His diagnosis was that my acne is not hormonal but instead behavioral, and is mostly contributed by stress and my PhD. So he diagnosed me with acne excoriee, or in simple terms "picking acne". And he is convinced that I have a habit of scratching and picking on my face mostly when I'm studying and also when I'm asleep, and  that I do it unctuously. From my point of view that is completely absurd. This is my last year of PhD. Of course it's stressful, but it is exactly the same level of stress as the last 3-4 years. When I was on the pill there was no problem. So why now? Anyway, I will really try controlling my hands and make really sure that I don't touch my face. Also, I don't pick pimples. The possibility of scarring really scares me.

The dermatologist actually completely agreed with my family doctor (they are working in the same clinic) that my only solution is a low dose of isotrtetinoin also known as Accutane. He assured me that there is extremely small chance of me getting any side effects of being on Accutane, and he promised to monitor me closely, i.e. appointments and blood work every month. He really thinks that there is more benefits for me than risks and I can just be very beautiful.

He also mentioned, of course, that everything I read on the web is completely unreliable and that there are no studies confirming that diet works for acne. Nothing new for me there either :) Anyway he gave me two weeks to think about it. I didn't really argue with him, it's absolutely pointless. In the beginning of our meeting I really tried explaining to him that my acne started when I stopped birth control pills and that bcp was the only thing that ever helped me with acne. So it seems that it's hormonal. I also pointed out that I'm really looking for alternatives other than Accutane. Anyway, it was disappointing :(

Oh, he said I have grade III acne. A month ago my doctor diagnosed me with level IV acne. So 1 grade down in a month is not bad! (Unless they both used different grading scales :)

I'm actually very glad that I met this guy only today and not a month ago when I was very desperate to try almost anything just to get rid of pimples. I'm loving my diet and I won't go on Accutane, ever. Even if there is 1% chance of getting the horrible side effects, it is still a chance and I can be the one falling in this unlucky 1%. So that's going to be a no to Accutane for me. I am still going to see him in two weeks. I don't really know why I'm going there, but I am.

Day 3 Summary

It was a great day. Lots of fun skiing :) I continue eating mostly fruits, some vegetables (mostly green leaves) and vegetable soups. Energy level is great :) I don't really care about my acne anymore. It is slowly going away. I've posted my progress photos today. Last night I got a skin reaction on my back. I've realized that it might be vitamin overdose, specifically vitamin A. Apparently Cod Liver Oil contains not only Omega-3 and vitamin D, but also tons of vitamin A. Most fruits and vegetables also have tons of vitamin A. So I guess it is from an overdose of vitamin A. I've stopped taking all the supplements for now, except calcium and zinc. Tomorrow I have a meeting with a dermatologist. I'll write an update about the meeting tomorrow.

Progress Photo - 09.01.2011

Here is my promised photo update. In all fairness it's hard to see any improvement in the photo. My scars look more red, I have no idea why :( However to me it looks much better. I had just a few new pimples this week. The rest are healing. Hopefully next week we'll see better results. 

Right side:

Left side:

Day 2 Summary

Today was much easier day with the diet. I won't keep track of my cal or glycemic load anymore. It just takes too much time. I've realized that raw or slightly steamed vegetables like cauliflower, broccoli, etc. are very hard to digest, as well as beans. However soups are processed ok. I'll listen to my body. The easiest foods for me to digest are fruits, some vegetables and vegetable soups like bean soup, tomato soup, etc. That's what I'll be trying to eat every day.

My skin looks better every day. Tomorrow I'll post my photo from this week. The acne on my back isn't healing as quickly as on my face but I'm sure it will, with more time :) Energy level is great. It seems that I eat all the time and I'm never hungry. Quit the opposite, I'm stuffed. I actually have to force myself to eat that much. I hope to gain back 4-5 pounds I've lost.

Day 2

8:00 AM

• 1 Vitamin B100 complex by Kirkland (from Costco)
• 1 banana      100 Cal   Sugars 14g      Carbs 26g   GI 54    GL 14
• 1 kiwi            46 Cal   Sugars 7g      Carbs 10g     GI 53    GL 5.4
• 1 orange       86 Cal    Sugars 16g      Carbs 22g   GI 44    GL 9.6
• 6 baby carrots   30 Cal  Sugars 6g       Carbs 6g    GI 47    GL 2.8
• 2 glasses of water (400 ml per glass)

Total Calories: 262

Total GL: 31.8

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10:00 AM:

• 1 Multivitamins and multi-minerals by Kirkland from Costco
• 1 Iron (35 mg) from Costco
• 2 capsules "Help for Skin Disorders" by Bell (Master Herbalist Series)
• 1 tbsp Norvegian Cod Liver Oil with some lemon juice 122 Cal  Sugars 0g  Carbs 0g  GI 0   GL 0

• 1 cup 4 beans salad    200 Cal  Sugars 10g  Carbs 20g  GI 35 (as for chickpeas)  GL 7
• 1/2 cup zucchini         14 Cal    Sugars 2g   Carbs 4g  GI 15   GL 0.6
• 7 spears asparagus      21 Cal    Sugars 0g   Carbs 7g  GI 1
• 1/2 table spoon olive oil 62 Cal   Sugars 0g  Carbs 0g   GI 0    GL 0
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• pinch of salt 
• 2 prunes            46 Cal   Sugars 8g  Carbs 12g   GI 29    GL 3.5
• 1 glass of water 

Total Calories: 465

Total GL: <12.1 (since lemon juice should lower GI)

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1:00 PM:

• Vitamin E (400 UI) by Kirkland from Costco

Green smoothie: 

• 1 banana      100 Cal   Sugars 14g      Carbs 26g   GI 54    GL 14
• 1 cup blueberries 84 Cal   Sugars 15g    Carbs 21g   GI 40    GL 8.4
• 1/2 cucumber   23 Cal  Sugars 2g    Carbs 5g     GI 15    GL 0.7     
• 1/2 grapefruit   52 Cal   Sugars 8g      Carbs 13g   GI 25    GL 3.3
• Lots of green leaves 20 Cal  Sugars 0g  Carbs 2g    GI  0     GL 0
• 1/4 lemon
• 1 glass of water 

Total Calories: 279

Total GL: <26.4 (since lemon juice should lower GI)

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4:00 PM:

• 2 tangerines    80 Cal   Sugars 16g    Carbs 20 g   GI 40?    GL 8
• 1/2 mango     67 Cal   Sugars 15g    Carbs 17 g   GI 56    GL 9.5
• 1 cup blueberries 84 Cal   Sugars 15g    Carbs 21g   GI 40    GL 8.4

Total Calories: 231

Total GL: 25.9

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5:00 PM:

• 2 cups Home-made Tomato Basil Soup:
• 6 tomatoes       162 Cal  Sugars 24g  Carbs 36g  GI 15  GL 5.4
• 2 avocado     645 Cal  Sugars 4g  Carbs 34g  GI 0    GL 0
• 1 red pepper, roasted  46 Cal    Sugars 6g   Carbs 8g     GI 15    GL 1.2
• basil, water, salt
• yield 7-8 cups of soup
• total for 8 cups:  Cal 853  Sugars 34g  Carbs 78g  GI 15  GL 11.7

Total Calories: 214

Total GL: 3

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6:00 PM

• 1 apple        116 Cal   Sugars 23g    Carbs 31g   GI 38    GL 8.7

Total Calories: 116

Total GL: 8.7

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8:00 PM

• salad
• 1 cup blueberries 
• 1 banana
• 1 orange
• sweet peas
• 1 tbsp olive oil

Total Calories: about 400

Total GL: about 35

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Total Daily Calories: about 2000

Total GL: 143

Exercised indoor for 20 min (5 min jumping rope and 15 min strength) 
No skiing for today :(  Rescheduled for tomorrow

Day 1 Summary

What have I learned today?

It was extremely informative for me to write down what I eat in detail. I realized that I don't consume enough calories on this diet and you can see that I've decided to add some extra cal at my last meal. Not a wise decision. But in my defense I had no idea that 1.5 avocados would add up to almost 500 Cal.

Another observation is that low GI diet is quite the opposite to LFRV(low fat raw vegan) diet, which consists almost entirely of raw fruit. As you can see 1 banana has a high GI index = 54 and GL = 14. So 30 bananas a day diet would give us GL of 410 vs max suggested amount of 120 on low GI diet. So which way should I go? Fruits or low GI? Well, it seems that 2 diets are kind of two extremes. I'll try to combine both. It's winter here, so it's hard to find nice ripe fruit. Moreover they are very expensive.

I'll try eating lots of fruit but also will add some cooked low GI food. I want to keep my daily calories about 2,000 which means small 6 meals of 330 calories. I still want to keep daily GL around 100 or 17 per meal. I'll try to eat smaller and easier to digest foods for dinner and not eat too late, not past 8:00pm, but preferably before 7:00pm.

My energy level today was extremely high. I didn't feel this good for ages. So far I like what I'm doing. My body loves it :) Tomorrow we'll go skiing! Can't wait :)

Day 1

7:00 AM

• 1 Vitamin B100 complex by Kirkland (from Costco)
• 1/2 banana      55 Cal   Sugars 7g      Carbs 13g   GI 54    GL 7
• 1/2 kiwi            23 Cal   Sugars 3.5g   Carbs 5g     GI 53    GL 2.7
• 1/2 grapefruit   52 Cal   Sugars 8g      Carbs 13g   GI 25    GL 3.3
• 1/2 orange       43 Cal    Sugars 8g      Carbs 11g   GI 44    GL 4.8
• 2 glasses of water (400 ml per glass)

Total Calories: 173

Total Sugars: 26.5g
Total GL: 17.8


GI - Glycemic Index
GL - Glycemic Load=(GI x the amount of carbohydrate)/100


Recommended GL per day no less than 80 and no more than 120. For acne there is no suggested GL per meal, but someone tried GL of 10-12 and it worked. 
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10:00 AM:

• 1 Multivitamins and multi-minerals by Kirkland from Costco
• 1 Iron (35 mg) from Costco
• 2 capsules "Help for Skin Disorders" by Bell (Master Herbalist Series)

       Green smoothie: 

• 1/2 banana    55 Cal   Sugars 7g      Carbs 13g   GI 54    GL 7
• 1 apple        116 Cal   Sugars 23g    Carbs 31g   GI 38    GL 8.7
• 1/2 cucumber   23 Cal  Sugars 2g    Carbs 5g     GI 15    GL 0.75
• 1/2 orange       43 Cal   Sugars 8g      Carbs 11g   GI 44    GL 4.8
• 1/4 lemon
• 1 slice honeydew melon 15 Cal   Sugars 4g  Carbs 5g   GI 65 (as for cantaloup)  GL 3.3
• 5 leaves of lettuce 5 Cal  Sugars 0g  Carbs 0g    GI  0     GL 0
• 1 glass of water 

Total Calories: 257

Total Sugars: 45g

Total GL: <25 (since lemon juice should lower GI)

+ 2 glasses of water
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1:00 PM:

• Vitamin E (400 UI) by Kirkland from Costco 

• 1 cup mushroom barley soup  73 Cal  Sugars 0g  Carbs 12g  GI 25 (as for barley) GL 3
• 1/2 cup 4 beans salad    100 Cal  Sugars 5g  Carbs 10g  GI 35 (as for chickpeas)  GL 3.5
• 1/2 pear            50 Cal    Sugars 9g   Carbs 14g   GI 38    GL 5.3
• 1/2 red pepper  23 Cal    Sugars 3g   Carbs 4g     GI 15    GL 0.6
• 3 prunes            69 Cal   Sugars 12g  Carbs 18g   GI 29    GL 5
• 1 glass of warm water 

Total Calories: 315

Total Sugars: 29g

Total GL: 17.4
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4:00 PM:

• Calcium Plus (600 mg) with Vitamin D (400 IU) and minerals by Kirkland from Costco 
• 1/2 kiwi            23 Cal   Sugars 3.5g   Carbs 5g     GI 53    GL 2.7

Steamed vegetables (3 min in microwave in Case Steamer):

• 1 cup broccoli       54 Cal  Sugars 2g  Carbs 12g  GI 15  GL 1.8
• 1 cup cauliflower  28 Cal  Sugars 2g  Carbs 6g   GI 15   GL 0.9
• 1/2 cup zucchini   14 Cal    Sugars 2g   Carbs 4g  GI 15   GL 0.6
• 1/2 cup sweet peas  67 Cal   Sugars 4.5g  Carbs 12.5g   GI 48    GL 6
• 1 table spoon olive oil 124 Cal   Sugars 0g  Carbs 0g   GI 0    GL 0
• 1 table spoon lemon juice
• pinch of salt 
• 1 glass of water 

Total Calories: <310

Total Sugars: 14g

Total GL: <12 (since oil and lemon juice should lower GI)

Note: I've calculated all the calories as for boiled vegetables. Raw vegetables have less Cal and Carbs then boiled. I guess steamed should be somewhere in between raw and steamed. I've decided to take the largest number and went with boiled.
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6:00 PM:

• 6 baby carrots       30 Cal  Sugars 6g  Carbs 6g  GI 47  GL 2.8
• 1 pear             100 Cal  Sugars 18g  Carbs 28g   GI 38  GL 10.6
• 1 glass of water 

Total Calories: 130

Total Sugars: 24g

Total GL: 13.4 

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8:00 PM:

• Zinc (50 mg) from Costco
• 2 capsules "Help for Skin Disorders" by Bell (Master Herbalist Series)
• 1 tbsp Norvegian Cod Liver Oil with some lemon juice 122 Cal  Sugars 0g  Carbs 0g  GI 0   GL 0
• 1 cup 4 beans salad    200 Cal  Sugars 10g  Carbs 20g  GI 35 (as for chickpeas)  GL 7

Guacamole:

• 1.5 avocado     483 Cal  Sugars 2g  Carbs 25.5g  GI 0    GL 0
• 2 tomatoes       54 Cal  Sugars 8g  Carbs 12g  GI 15  GL 1.8
• 1/4 onion         20 Cal  Sugars 1g  Carbs 3g  GI ?  GL 0
• 1 glass of water

Total Calories: 879

Total Sugars: 21g

Total GL: 8.8 

Daily Calories: 2064

Daily GL: 94.4

Water: about 3.5L

Exercised outside: 40 min (20 min running and 20 min strength: squats and lunges)

Is my diet really enough? or Should I eat 100% raw?

Today my energy level is not as good as it was before. I've started questioning my diet. Is it really enough or 100% raw is the only way. Yesterday I had some mushroom barley soup and today I cooked a delicious four-beans salad. Could that cause a problem? Pimples still appear but they are very tiny, mostly whiteheads. I'm pretty sure that diet works, but it might not be strict enough.

Found this interesting forum about amazing results with raw food diet and specifically someone's experience with going raw just a  few days ago for treating acne. I'm so confused. I thought that low GI food is the key and eating tons of fruits with high GI would be harmful. Apparently some people were able to eliminate acne by eating 100% raw with tons of fruits, especially bananas, which have medium/high GI.

Starting tomorrow I'll keep writing down and posting here everything I eat during the day. I might go completely raw starting Monday, 10.01.2011, or at least try to eat more fruits and vegetables and less cooked food.

Currently I'm searching for a good book that can explain the basics of raw food diet. There are tons of books that make it look very complicated with gourmet recipes that require dehydrator, etc. I need something that works and doesn't take tons of time to prepare. Moreover I want to understand why raw diet works, an how it works. 80/10/10 diet book by Dr. Graham has many positive reviews and seems interesting. I'll try to find it and read it.

I must say I'm very inpatient :) I should give the diet I'm on a little bit more time, not just a week. I know that it's working but I always want to look for a better solution. For now I'll just try eating more vegetables and fruits. Wish me luck!

I've started losing weight, 4-5 pounds so far, but it's already noticeable on my petite figure. I don't limit the amount of food I eat. I eat as much as I want and whenever I want. Strange... Don't really want to lose more weight :( Hopefully my body will adjust to this diet soon and I'll keep a stable weight level.

My Diet

Today I'll talk about my diet. Finally :)


It was a long journey to figure out what works well for my skin and what doesn't. I started with the diet that would help to cleanse my liver. I just simply eliminated all fried food and tried to lower amount of sugar in a diet. That didn't really seem to work. Some days my skin would get better but some it would just get worse. I couldn't really understand what I'm doing wrong. Researching on the web brought my attention to the raw diet and fasting. I've read some testimonials where this extreme diet helped people with acne. I've decided to try it: raw diet minus any kind of sugar, not even honey. But how to to do it? I have to change my eating habits completely. It'll be more time consuming since I have to cook separately for my boyfriend. And then it's December - holiday season. We were planing a ski trip with our friends. How can I do it? I started slowly. I did raw diet for one day for detox purposes. There was no improvement on my skin. Then I thought that if I can do it for one day, I can do it for a week. I did it and miracle happened, my skin started slowly improving.  Trying it for a week I realized that I cannot really stick to this diet in a long run. There is not much to eat on this diet, only raw fruits and vegetables. That was just too much of extreme for me. And then came the holiday season and ski trip. I was doing my best to eat healthy. When we're going out and my friends ordered beer and chicken wings and fries and nachos I was ordering water and chicken salad without dressing or cheese or bacon or any goodies. (It was a nice entertainment for my friends when the waitress was writing my order for five minutes. Too may no  :) Basically I ate only lettuce and chicken. I still had lots of bread. So again with my skin it looks like it's one step forward but two steps back. Now after all these holidays I'm 100% committed to my diet.  Wish me luck!


I still don't have the complete list of foods I can or cannot it. But here are some rules that I follow and it seems to help with my acne.


Rules that work for me:

1. Nothing fried!!! I eat mostly raw and steamed food. Fruits and vegetables are the best, but not all of them. I'm trying to avoid fruits with high glycemic index, such as kiwi, watermelon, mangos, pineapples. Fruits with medium GI such as bananas, oranges, pears, I usually split into half so that the amount of sugar I get from them is not very high. I also enjoy beans, chick peas, lentils and peas. They are really good too. My favorite food now - green smoothies: some fresh or frozen fruits, cucumber, lemon, cinnamon and tons of green leaves. Yam! 
2. Nothing sweet!!! No chocolate, candies, cakes or pastries. No pop and juices from cartons/bottles. I think I was addicted to sugar before. I couldn't imagine my life without sweet treats. At the beginning I tried to substitute sugar with honey. I thought that if I eat honey I can eat it as much as I want. I was wrong. Eliminating it almost completely helps. It seems really important to have the insulin level stable, and avoid insulin spikes that happen when we eat sweets or high GI foods. I had horrible cravings for sweets in the beginning, but it quickly went away. Cravings stopped! I'm so surprised.  
3. No caffeine in any form. I drink tons of herbal teas: camomile, peppermint and spearmint. I've tried dandelion tea for liver cleansing and detox. It's ok. 
4. No bread or flour products of any kind. It seems that complicated food, like breads have very high GI index. I'm not quit sure about breads yet. While multi-grain bread seems ok from GI side, it has some seeds that might be effecting acne. So I'll try to avoid it for now.
5. No meet! I'm a meet lover. I consider it as a main source of protein and many essential nutrients. However it seems that meet can also contribute for acne aggravation.  Stopped eating it for now.
6. No dairy! There are many studies that linked dairy and acne. Stopped drinking until I get clear. 
7. I try to stick to low glycemic index foods, so i've eliminated things like potatoes and white rice too. It reduces the insulin spikes, which also affects your hormones.
8. Portion control: extremely important. I'm eating small portions 5-6 times a day.

There are many great healthy foods that I like but have to avoid for now to get clear skin. I will be trying to add these foods one at a time after I get clear. It seems that my skin reacts very quickly to the food I eat, usually within 3 days. So I can easily check what works and what doesn't.


Why does it work?
This is just a short note for know. I'll write a more detailed post with some references to the papers I read. 


As I understand what's happening is that at some point in our live our bodies start to produce an excessive amount of "free" hormones in our blood. This can be cause by quitting or starting birth control pills, puberty, accumulation of toxins in the body due to bad diet, etc. Everything in our body is filtered through the liver, including those hormones. So basically if we eat bad food, our liver is busy breaking up the fats, sugars and other bad stuff in the food and not filtering the hormones. The only way to help it is to eat food that liver can easily digest, so it would be able to deal with excessive hormones better. I'm not a doctor, but that's the only thing that makes sense to me. I've tried all kinds of things for my skin, but the only thing that works is a proper diet.

Five elements of my physical & mental well-being

Exercise, Fresh air, Water, Diet and Supplements are five elements that make me feel good and help with my acne problems. Of course, there is nothing new here. Many articles are already written on importance of all these elements and indeed they work.  I cannot stress enough how vital they all are for us, specifically for people how suffer from acne and hormonal imbalance.

Exercise & Fresh air
I've always was fit and exercised regularly in a gym (3-4 times a week). About a  year ago I've also started running a few days a week for about 20-30 min. For sure exercise alone doesn't help with acne but it helps to keep stress level under control. I've notice that the days I run I feel much better, happier than the days I don't. Somehow exercising indoors doesn't do the same trick. Now I run every single day. Sometimes I get lazy and really don't want to run, especially if it's snowing or raining outside. So I have to force myself to do it, and a few minutes on fresh air do the trick. I start to enjoy running and my mood just jumps up :)

I think that everyone can find something to enjoy doing outside. For me it was running. It's easy for me. I don't need any extra equipment, I don't have to go the gym, just get my snickers and clothe and I'm ready to go. In the gym I found that group fitness exercises are so much fun. They also give me a lot of energy and improve my mood. And we all know that "no stress" = "no pimples" :)


Water
Lots of acne sites suggest that drinking at least 8 glasses of water a day is necessary for clear skin. It should help with flashing out toxins from our bodies and keep our skin cell hydrated. I've started drinking that much water about 2-3 months ago and I've also stopped drinking tea and coffee. It's hard to say if that alone helped with anything but it definitely doesn't do any harm.

Diet
I have to write a separate post on this one, since this is the key element. It's hard to choose the right diet. There are so many out there. On web there are many success stories of people experiencing great results with raw diet, fastings and low glycemic index diet. However there is some controversy with the diet story. It seems that it works great for some people and doesn't work for others. Why is that? I'm currently  researching this question. I'm looking for scientific evidence and explanations that would link diet, acne and hormonal balance.

I'm still trying to develop the right diet for myself. It's not such an easy process. During the last four months I've tried different approaches. What I've learned is that you have to be very careful with what you eat. Even foods that seem healthy like boiled potato, rice or watermelon can cause acne by increasing your insulin level. Some foods definitely can aggrevate my acne. For example walnuts and pumpkin seeds. I've stopped eating dairy and caffeine. I'm also trying to eat food with low glycemic index to keep my blood sugar level stable. Right now my diet consists of mostly greens, fruits and beans. Eating 5-6 times a day small portions is also necessary.

Vitamins and Supplements
I'm taking vitamin B100 complex the first thing in the morning, multivitamins and iron with breakfast, vitamin E at lunch, and zinc and calcium at dinner time. Apparently it's important not to take zinc and iron together however calcium and zinc is ok.