Starting a Food Diary Saved My Skin (Part 1)

Welcome back Good Girls!

I took a hiatus from writing, but I'm back with a reflection on my skin journey. If you know me, you know I can be long winded lol So I decided to break this blog post into two parts. (Don't forget to let me know your feedback over in the comment section on IG!)

First, let me start off by saying I am nobody’s doctor, esthetician, or dermatologist!

Everyone's skin is different, as well as our body chemistries. So, although I believe in my personal theories, you ultimately have to figure out what works best for you. But hopefully my story will help!

Ok now that I made that disclaimer, let's get into my skin journey....

Growing up, and as a young adult, I always had clear skin for the most part (aside from the occasional menstrual breakout or random allergic reactions).

This is a pic from my MySpace days lol I was 18 here, and as you can see...not a bump in site! (or eyebrows.....WHEW...Thank God for growth!)

This is a pic I remember taking a few months before my 27th birthday. Again, you can see that my skin was super clear, outside of a few scars around my chin (those are my usual spots from menstrual breakouts).

So one day, literally out of no where, I started to get a lot of red and white-head pimples. Then shortly after that, I developed deep cystic acne. That was waaaaay worse than the regular pimples, because the cystic bumps were super painful, inflamed, and couldn't just be extracted from the surface.

I was devastated! Aside from work, I didn't go out because I hated having people stare at my bumps and even worse, experience people asking "What happened to your skin?!"

I even remember one of my students saying "Ms. Moss, you must drink a lot of soda" (ya'll know kids have no filter!) Mind you.....I don't even drink soda! UGH! I was so over it at this point and ended up obsessively doing researching online, about what I could do to fix my skin.

My first step in seeking help was seeing a dermatologist. Little did I know, this would become an extremely long, depressing journey of hearing a bunch of opinions and hypotheses but no REAL results.

Over the course of 6 months, I saw 4 different specialists, and tried every treatment you can possibly think of (even shots injected directly into my face!)

Then one day, while listening to a podcast, I heard a nutritionist/health coach (by the name of Gessie Thompson) speak about how important it was to detox.

She helped women cure their fibroids through holistic healing, and even though that wasn’t my condition, I was moved by all the insightful information she was providing.

She broke down the negative affects our diet can have on pretty much any part of our bodies. I didn’t know if doing a detox and changing my diet would really help, but I figured what the heck did I have to lose?!

I decided to start this experiment out by doing a liquid detox. I completed a 3-day juice cleanse, where I drank nothing but water and fruit/veggie juices I made from scratch.

To make it easier on myself, I started it on a Friday (when I knew I would be off of work) and completed the fast over the weekend. I also decided to create a food diary!

Moving forward, I was going to focus on exactly what I was putting INTO my body, so I could attempt to heal it from the inside out.

By the following Monday morning, I started seeing some of the inflammation in my skin had already gone down!!! So of course that encouraged me to keep going…..

Stay tuned for PART TWO of my skin journey coming soon. (Be sure to subscribe below to receive updates of new posts!)