Your Skin
Throughout my teens I had quite good skin; not too many break outs which is quite a relief compared to some girls I know.
However, when I started losing weight weight my skin became terrible, blemishes & breakouts I'd never experienced anything like it. Hence, the title, pass the brown paper bag I seriously just wanted to hide away my skin was awful, couldn't image what it would've been like if I was in my teens but now I'm an adult in my mid-twenties with acne of someone who should be 10 years younger. Each month the condition of my skin would be different & different patches on face, one part dry, another really oily I just felt like I couldn't win.
This was something the slimming groups obviously don't tell you when you sign up. I figured out that unfortunately our skin doesn't hide all of our sins. From all the years I had been eating god knows what full of chemicals & harmful substances then stored away in my fat cells for a long time. I was now breaking these down & these radicals that been stored in my fat were now making there way to face, unfortunately there's not enough concealer to hide them. Having the skin of a 17 year old does make you quite depressed, when your 27 & getting ID'd in Asda for a bottle of voddy, when your going out later that night.
Some months my skin, would back to its usual normal self, and I would feel great, but then it would go funny again. My mum has always taught my sister & I the importance of looking after your skin. So, I've always practised a cleanse, tone & moisturise routine, with the added in exfoliation & face mask. I found its important to try lots of different products to find the best ones that work for you. I currently use a combination of Liz Earle & Ren Skincare.
So I started to do a little research online about what else I could do, to try and help my acne/blemish problem. I found this handy little website, which uses Chinese medicine & reflexology approach to skin mapping for acne. I thought I'd try this first before going to the doctors, because as we all know the condition of someone's skin is usually a representation of what they've put inside the body.
When I returned from travelling last year my skin was bloody awful, literally the day I landed my sister made me an appointment at the doctors. It was really bad, and she didn't want me to end up like her; having just finished 6 months on Accutane & having to wait for treatment for scarring. I've been using Duac cream since November, which has worked well also now I have got my food back to normal, unlike when I was travelling it was extremely carb heavy.
A lot of my blemishes & acne breakouts were on my chin, with a combination of my skin routine, the Duac cream from the doctors, and with help from the skin map, I've finally got my skin under control. I've realised that I probably wasn't having enough omega 3's in my diet to regulate my hormones properly. As I make sure I have oily fish a couple of times a week, and I also have a flax seed mix I put in my porridge most mornings, this has helped my skin improve considerably.
(Gorgeous, Aren't I?)
