It was about a year and a half ago now when I first laid eyes on The Clear Skin Prescription. I was moseying around a bookstore in the city feeling depressed about the condition of my skin when Dr Perricone’s book caught my eye like a little diamond sitting on the shelves in the well-being section.
I was so excited to discover a book that promised to give me a flawless complexion in just four short weeks! Finally a cure, finally a medical professional that not only promised a cure, but a number one New York Times Bestselling Author at that (so there must have been some proof to it).
What the Clear Skin Prescription is all about
Dr Perricone’s plan combines three tiers – a strict diet, a huge list of supplements and his own line of skin care. And no, his skin care is not natural. The products use both salicylic acid and benzoyl peroxide which are both the standard topical acne medications that both Proactiv and acne.org use, so I don’t think his skin care is really anything new.
Lets look at each tier more closely.
1. The diet
The diet is very strict, but you get to eat a lot of food so it’s nothing like Acne Free in 3 Days.
I do feel there is some value to it as long as you’re not vegetarian and you love eating fish because you’re required to eat a bit of meat and a lot of seafood. There are no alternatives provided for vegetarians or raw foodists either so it’s really an all or nothing thing. I was a strict vegetarian at the time of buying Dr Perricone’s book so I could not do the diet, simply because there was no substitute to the amount of meat that you’re required to eat.
However, I love how Dr Perricone dedicates an entire section in the book to explaining why the skin, acne and food are related (yes, he quotes scientific data). Continue reading →
I’ve been saying for a long time now that I’ll be doing the Body Ecology Diet in January, and now that the new year is looming the time has almost come!
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the diet, the Body Ecology Diet (or BED) is designed to remove all Candida, yeast, mould and fungus from the body. And because chronic acne is often caused by an overgrowth of Candida, a lot of acne sufferers can benefit big-time from this diet. It kind of works on the same principle as Acne Free In 3 Days, but this diet works a lot better and is definitely more permanent. And you don’t have to starve yourself for 3 days.
But it’s not going to be easy, which is why I’ve been flicking through the BED book and mentally preparing myself for some months now. For a period of weeks I will have to give up all sugars including natural sugars (such as fruits, honey and agave), bread, dairy and most grains. It will also make it extremely difficult if not impossible to eat out so I have to be highly committed for the duration of the diet.
Why I’m doing the Body Ecology Diet
Lulu is one of the people who inspired me to try the BED -
I’ve had symptoms of an overgrowth of Candida for quite some time now. Which isn’t surprising because an estimated 85% of the developed world share this problem.
Obviously acne has been one of my main symptoms. I find that I have to work very hard holistically to keep clear skin which shouldn’t be the case. It’s not normal to experience a breakout so easily. A 100% healthy body and 100% healthy mind should be able to take a little extra sugar or a little extra stress every now and again without getting pimples.
If we have an overgrowth of Candida in our bodies and we eat foods that feed the Candida (like sugar, pasta and bread), then our symptoms can worsen. This is one of the reasons why many acne sufferers find their acne is aggravated or gets worse after they eat a lot of sugar. Continue reading →
When my skin was bad I used to think that as soon as I cleared my acne then I’d be happy. I somehow managed to blame any unhappiness I had on my blemished skin, which doesn’t sound logical at all now that I’m writing it down. But in the midst of despair when I was staring at my skin in the mirror and thinking how ugly I looked, it seemed as though clear skin was the only answer to my eternal happiness.
This is of course not always true, and in my case it certainly wasn’t. As soon as I cleared my skin I managed to transfer my negative thoughts and emotions onto another problem. And when that problem went away, I found something else to be depressed about.
I now realize how important it is to acknowledge the emotional and psychological side of having acne, and realize that perhaps much of that emotional anguish is caused by an underlying issue that’s manifesting itself into a side effect of your current condition.
Two nights ago it all came to a breaking point for me and I had my first ever panic attack. I’ve always suffered from mild anxiety but I’ve never had a panic attack before. I used to think that people who had panic attacks were being big babies about them, and surely they’re not as bad as everybody makes them out to be. Until I actually had one, thought I was dying and asked my flat mate to take me to the hospital (luckily he was experienced in such events and helped to calm me down instead of taking me to the emergency room).
I panicked because of a bunch of ordinary problems in my life (like everybody has), that all put together with extreme lack of sleep felt like really big deal. Really, why I panicked is irrelevant. I just wanted to write about it to first help you understand that if you suffer from anxiety and panic you’re not alone – a lot of us do too. And to encourage you to start acknowledging any depressive thoughts and feelings you may be having about your skin and realize that perhaps they may not be solely about your skin.
You may find that when you start working on your overall stress levels and your happiness, that not only your acne goes away but your toxic thoughts and feelings go away with it, instead of sticking around like mine did.
I’ve already included information in my mini-course and acne treatment guide about the importance of being happy and stress free. But I want to elaborate on this point a lot more because I now realize how significant it actually is.
In the new year I’ll be talking more about working towards being stress free and happy, and as I work towards a anxiety free life, I’ll be blogging about my experiences and hopefully making some discoveries that I can pass onto you.
I’ve had a horrendous time sleeping over the last couple of months while traveling around the world, so of course I’ve been spending hours researching and even more time trialing different sleep remedies to help me go to sleep.
Apart from the obvious daily tiredness and irritability that comes along with chronic lack of sleep, I’ve also noticed that is has made me more emotional than usual, hungrier for bad foods (sugar and carbs), I’ve lost that nice healthy glow to my skin, and my skin is tending to get clogged up and break out a little more. Yes, sleep is very, very important.
Insomnia seems to fall under two categories – trouble getting to sleep from lack of being tired, and trouble getting to sleep from emotional disturbances such as anxiety and depression. It’s important to recognize the difference in the two because treating the wrong type won’t help alleviate your problem.
I kind of had both. I started off with trouble getting to sleep from jet lag after a flight to Glasgow. In less than a week my jet lag was gone but I was left with anxiety – I was scared that I would always have difficulty sleeping. This panic feeling at night made it a lot more difficult for me to fall asleep (sometimes our brain just thinks dumb things).
I started drinking green tea when I gave up coffee, and loved how refreshing it felt to drink in the morning compared to the gluggy feeling I felt after a big cup of coffee. And green tea is widely known as a healthier alternative because of its extremely high levels of antioxidants. But one thing about green tea is concerning me a lot – its caffeine content.
You may be surprised to learn that green tea can contain almost as much caffeine as coffee! So you really need to be careful with what type of green tea you drink if you have a sensitivity to caffeine (and lets face it, most of us do).
I avoid caffeine because I know it increases the stress hormone cortisol in my body, meaning it can make me feel stressed. And I suffer on and off from insomnia so caffeine in my body is never a good idea.
First lets look at how much caffeine green tea can contain -
Pretty scary huh. But if you’re like me and you love green tea and you want to enjoy its health benefits, there are a few ways to minimize the amount of caffeine in the tea -
1. Don’t drink green tea out of a teabag
Loose leaf green tea contains less caffeine than a tea bag so invest in a teapot and start brewing your own. I have a couple of tiny ceramic teapots that are perfect for my own cup of tea in the morning. They only cost me about AU$20 each from a tea store so were a good investment. You can also find cheaper teapots in kitchen warehouses or even dollar stores.
2. Choose a green tea that is naturally less caffeinatedContinue reading →
It was about a year and a half ago now when I first laid eyes on The Clear Skin Prescription. I was moseying around a bookstore in the city feeling depressed about the condition of my skin when Dr Perricone’s book caught my eye like a little diamond sitting on the shelves in the well-being section. 
The diet is very strict, but you get to eat a lot of food so it’s nothing like Acne Free in 3 Days. 
I’ve been saying for a long time now that I’ll be doing the Body Ecology Diet in January, and now that the new year is looming the time has almost come!
When my skin was bad I used to think that as soon as I cleared my acne then I’d be happy. I somehow managed to blame any unhappiness I had on my blemished skin, which doesn’t sound logical at all now that I’m writing it down. But in the midst of despair when I was staring at my skin in the mirror and thinking how ugly I looked, it seemed as though clear skin was the only answer to my eternal happiness.
I’ve had a horrendous time sleeping over the last couple of months while traveling around the world, so of course I’ve been spending hours researching and even more time trialing different sleep remedies to help me go to sleep.
I started drinking green tea when I gave up coffee, and loved how refreshing it felt to drink in the morning compared to the gluggy feeling I felt after a big cup of coffee. And green tea is widely known as a healthier alternative because of its extremely high levels of antioxidants. But one thing about green tea is concerning me a lot – its caffeine content.
1. Don’t drink green tea out of a teabag
