okay, perfect.

I’ve noticed a lot of change in my face, and a lot of changes in my lifestyle because of it. Majority of my readers saw me with pimples, zits, blackheads, the whole nine yards.

For aspect:

This was me last February and it really is taking a lot of courage to post this lol. I would try to cover the bumps with makeup, not realising that by doing so, I was creating shadows on my face that were more noticeable and clogged my pores even worse. I was using little to no good face products, my diet consisted of coffee, bang energy drinks, and my birth control + acne medication.

None of which benefited me in the long run.

The birth control gave me more acne, the cream and pills prescribed to control my acne made it worse, my hormones were everywhere and I’m sure my ex contemplated breaking up with me more than once (nervous chuckle).

So I switched things up. After the break up in August, I:

• stopped drinking for 3 weeks straight to really process and feel the emotions.
• Started therapy to figure out what I was doing wrong.
• Changed my diet and reduced my caffeine intake.
• Increased my meat consumption, especially raw salmon (once a week to cleanse the gut) and red meat.
• Reduced DRAMATICALLY my carb intake.
• Started putting myself first.

The last one was the most important.

Once you start realizing your needs and understanding that you can’t give others what you don’t give yourself, it changes your whole perspective on life.

Also, the fact that almost everything you would expect someone to give you, if you give yourself first, that mindset adjusts and you don’t find the headspace of “they aren’t texting me, something’s wrong with me” and stuff like that.

And this was the first week of May- no filter, no “smoothing the lines out”, no photoshop. Just a LIGHT layer of foundation that I’ve NEVER been able to do.

It’s a literal 180 degree turn.

The reasons behind acne, other than just genetics, are stress, oily face wash, and diet among many other things, but these are the primary.

Your pores are constantly secreting oils and where a lot of young girls go wrong is “more-means-better” and it actually isn’t. As we get older, these are things we learn, but the long term damage it does to our skin and confidence are insane.

I know I would hear “you shouldn’t wear that much, it clogs your pores” but in my head I was thinking:

I have no choice???

We all do. I just had to take a few steps back, painstakingly, and stop with the coverage, stop with not using proper techniques for application and use multi-step skin care regimes to help.

Hear me out:

• Dual cleansing: wash your face more than once a day. I washed twice each time in the morning and evening and in between if I was super sweaty.
• MOISTURIZE. For the love of all thats good, you skin is dryer than you probably think.
• Use SPF.
• Wash your hands before you even think of touching your face. I mean it…
• Analyze what you eat:Things high in sugars and salts will cause dehydration in the skin and will also mess with your hormones (the short short story) so its best to watch how much butter you put on your popcorn and how much chocolate we consume on V-Day.
• Annnnnd what your drink:Alcohol is terrible for you, in general. Many nutritionists consider it “poison” and in reality, it is. But everything in moderation needs to be taken into consideration.(Alcohol is Poison) Or (Psychology Today)A glass of red, a shot of whisky, an entire butter cake, a bowl of pasta.

I’m not a doctor, I’m not a certified in any kind of medical program, but I spent 5 years getting a degree in biomedical research, spent 25 years fighting cystic acne, spent 3 years shadowing/following doctors and learning holistic techniques and have ultimately done things myself to see how I can feel/do better for my body.

We’re only given one vessel, so its important to take care of it, even though it might only last us 60 or 70 years, make those years enjoyable. Set an example for your kids, actually wake up happy and perform at the top of your game.