clear up my skin

My skin is always good in the summer because I get more sun which for some reason cuts down on the acne. So if I have perfect skin this summer, I won’t be able to check off this goal because I need to get through the winter with no skin crisis’. I think it will be a matter of continuing with less sugar and milk, more exercise, and more washing- gentle soap.

Ever since I started eating less sugar I’ve felt really good in terms of my mood. I’ve also noticed how much sugar my boyfriend encourages me to eat! Last night he was all, ‘I want to buy you a candy bar’ (This was before I told him what I was doing). But he’s always telling me to have ice cream and kool aid! Now I see all this stuff as gross American tradition, an onslaught of sugar to bring on the acne. I’m trying to cut it out, but it is hard. This morning I had prepackaged oatmeal and it had tons of sugar already in it.

I was researching online and it seems the easiest way to clear up skin is to change your diet. Don’t drink coffee :(, or soda, don’t eat anything with processed sugar in it including white bread, don’t eat anything with heavy fats in it, only light oils, Eat whole grains, fruits, and vegetables. It also said no dairy products.

Now I don’t think I’m going to stick to all this but I would like to improve my diet. Right now I drink coffee if I have to get up early, I drink sugary hot chocolate a lot, and kool-aid sometimes. I eat ice cream sometimes, cheese, cream cheese a lot, almonds, I bake stuff, and some fatty meats.

I can’t change my diet just yet because I’m really low on cash and I just went grocery shopping (and bought all my normal foods). I can’t just let them go to waste and buy healthy food all of sudden. So next time I need to grocery shopping I will think about this.

Wow my skin was feeling bad because I’ve been failing to put medicine on it and today it sunk in but then I went outside and went for a good run and did some situps and pullups (with my b/f’s encouragement) when I got back, my skin was back to normal! Exercise helps it SO much! (and the sun too).

I got laser hair removal on friday. My mom has been wanting me to get it ever since I was in high school but I’ve been too chicken. Well now that my skin is pretty clear, I thought I could go in and it might make me skin even smoother. It didn’t hurt hardly at all (getting a tatoo was much worse) and so far it hasn’t irritated my skin either. I left feeling a little warm but now its like nothing happened. I’m worried that they didn’t have the laser set high enough. But I have to keep going back 5 more times over the next year and then its guranteed for 2 years. This costs 800 dollars but mom’s paying! Its not as much as I expected. I went to American Laser Center and they have clinics all over america. I recommend them. Hopefully it works. I don’t have that much hair to get rid of though. Some girl was there that was getting her entire legs done. That would be cool but it would take a long time.

My skin has been ‘good’. That is , it’s not ‘perfect’. But a lot better than it has been in the past. I could be more regimented. I have a consultation about hair removal friday. Hopefully it will help my skin too.

Well today I did go running and I need to keep that up. I still have that one zit on my forehead but I did skip my regimen saturday night because my boyfriend was over. Today I also looked into laser hair removal but it makes me nervous. I don’t know who to go to and how I will know if they are an expert. They all say they are. But the laser hair removal should make my skin even more clear so I should do it. I’m worried because now my skin is really dry and I don’t want them to mess it up or scar me with the laser. Well, I’ll wait and see when I can go in for a consultation. Right now I’m putting it off because I’m too nervous.

I’ll be ready to mark this goal as complete as soon as that one last pimple goes away on my forehead! My skin has been amazing ever since I forced myself to apply benzoyl peroxide twice a day, every day. I do have to put moistrizer ( I just use sun lotion ) on my neck and places my skin gets too dry but I have learned that the benzoyl peroxide does not JUST dry out your skin. It increases oxygen or something so even if you apply moistrizer on top of it, it still works fine.

I think I just always got bored with taking care of my skin and then it never really has time to heal. I’m sticking with it because of this goal and it seems to be working! I hope it gets perfect and its not just at a stand-still…

I’ve been using benzoyl peroxide twice a day and its working pretty well but my neck is getting flaky and dry. I bought a 10 dollar bottle of Oil of Olay hydrating moistrizer and guess what? It did nothing! So I returned it and today I tried sunscreen to moisturize and that worked a lot better.