During what can only be described as a hellaciously stressful past six months, my skin rebelled: the flawless visage I had at 16 became overrun by blemishes — a mutant strain that continued to multiply no matter what over-the-counter washes and drying treatments I used. Coupled with extreme sensitivity, the war I was waging began wreaking havoc on my face, leaving patches of breakouts and extremely dry, flakey skin. After a few months of failed at-home troubleshooting, I decided it was time to get real about my “skinssues” and do something to try and bring back my epidermis of yore.
Attempt #1: A Trip to The Dermatologist (Or, How A Man Tried to Ruin My Life, Again)
Step one in the rebirth of flawlessness ended in a diagnosis of “stress-induced, adult-onset female acne.” No shit. This from a dermatologist at a renowned Chicago office who made me feel moronic for complaining about blemishes in the first place. Thanks, man. He prescribed a heavy-duty zit killing cream and told me to decompress the stress in my life and change my diet, as he predicted both were big contributors to my breakouts. This is annoying because a) I actually eat really well, aside from an occasional cookie dough binge or foray into French fry taste testing, and b) I work my ass off to be zen as fuck. Saying “zen as fuck” seems antithetical to BEING zen as fuck, but I get my yoga/exercise/meditation on regularly, sir, so don’t. you. even.
Based off of some scholarly articles he briefly showed me to back his diagnosis, dude recommended me cutting out all sugar, all dairy, and all red meat. I never take things at face value, but his words combined with the FDA recently coming out with new dietary guidelines which reinforced his diatribe and this article published by the American Medical Association hooked me. The last article presents instances where clear skin prevailed in rural tribal communities which they attribute in part to a lack of refined sugars, caffeine, dairy, and refined fats (oils, butter, etc.) in the subjects’ diets. Essentially, in societies following a low-glycemic index diet—or societies that eat mostly roughage and lean meats—there was virtually no acne in an 843 day period. The article goes on to say that carbo-rich foods from many Western diets can cause insulin levels to skyrocket, which creates zits. Okay, so two legitimate sources were giving his argument some fervor. Armed with that, I decided to bite the bullet and give it a try.
Attempt #1 Results:
First of all, let me say how INCREDIBLY difficult it is to go from eating whatever you want to trying a low-glycemic index diet, which is often prescribed to type 1 diabetics for insulin regulation. One of my BFFs is type 1, and I just say kudos to you, ladybird. So hard.
On day one, I forgot that I was supposed to cut out caffeine and stopped for a giant cup of coffee at Starbucks, which I chased down with a Greek yogurt. Halfway through both I realized I’d already failed, but over the next few days, I weaned off my favorite foods and applied the zit zapper religiously. I saw no immediate improvement, which, as a millennial American, made it hard for me to want to keep at it. To be perfectly honest it was actually getting worse? Finacea is no joke in terms of drying you out, and even though I was applying less than was recommended, paired with blustery January weather, it made my skin all the more dry and my face redder and angrier.
I kept at it for two whole weeks—seriously, I tried and tried and hoped diet and the cream would cure what ailed me. Okay, I get that two weeks isn’t, like, forever, but something should’ve been improving—I had switched from a red and white meat eating diet to eating only fish, more veggies than I had been previously, whole grains, soy milk and I also applied the cream religiously. The picture above is me, two weeks into Fiancea on a low glycemic diet. It isn’t the worst skin ever, but it also isn’t my status quo, and shouldn’t have been what was going on after two weeks of reformation.
Attempt #2: Going Au Natural (Mostly)
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