Lets Talk About Skin

Lets talk about skin shall we? For the past 5 years I have been in an up hill battle with my skin. It wasn't until I was married & on birth control that I got acne!! Whats up with that? I was no longer a teenager & I was on acne fighting meds & thats when my skin breaks out! Oh the irony. So recently I have been on a journey to get this whole situation sorted out & I am happy to say that my skin is now clearer then its been in years! In this photo I am wearing nothing on my skin (I only have lipstick, eye liner & mascara on), thats right no need for foundation or cover-up every day! Here is what I have done to get my skin better:

• I got off of birth control! Think about it, if people take BC to fix their skin, it can have the reverse effect on some. When your dealing with hormones, everyone is effected differently & it played a big role in my breakouts. It took a few months to get it out of my system, but once it was out I could tell a huge difference.
• I stopped using harsh cleansers every time I washed my face. I have combination skin, which means it starts out dry & ends up oily by the end of the day. Every time I would wash my face (morning & night) my skin would be oily, so I would use a strong cleanser to remove the oil. What I learned is that I don't need to remove all the oil! Completely removing all the oil just forced my skin to reproduce more oil and kept the combination skin circle going. Every time you wash your skin you don't need to completely strip it of everything with a strong cleanser. What I did was switch up my usual regimen: at night I wash my face with a acne fighting cleanser that cleans all the dirt off from the day & in the morning I use gentle face wipes to remove a little bit of the oil & refresh my skin (its not like you are profusely sweating or sleeping in the dirt at night, so no need to do an intense clean). 
• Cut out dairy. Alot of different research has shown that high sugar & diary diets can lead to acne prone skin, so I have cut out a majority of diary out of my diet. I switched to almond milk in my cereal, smoothies & baking, I don't add cheese to everything like I was :) & I switched to a non-diary creamer. Just making these easy changes has eliminated 95% of my diary consumption but my food still tastes scrumptious. The only thing I do miss is a big glass of milk with  fresh baked cookies, yum! 
• Juicing! Yep, I have become a juicer. I am one of those people who drinks the weird looking green drinks & I love it! Ever since I have incorporated drinking 1-2 juices a day into my diet my skin & sleep has improved significantly. I am now able to get so many more vitamins, nutrients, antioxidants & amino acids into my diet then I was getting before. Packing in more veggies & fruits into my diet has helped my complexion leaps & bounds. Juicing can be simple too! I juice every morning & create two juices for the day & I am set. If you don't want to whip out the juicer every morning you can always buy juices already made (no I am not talking about Welch's from concentrate - I mean real fresh juice with no added sugar!). If you live in Nashville like I do, there is a fabulous company called Juice Nashville that is a great option for ready-to-drink options. If you don't live in the Nashville area, google & search your city, there are juice bars to be found! When in doubt, hit the grocery store & search out some good juices to pick up. 

Those are the 4 major changes I have made & I have seen a huge difference is my skin & just all around health through these switches. Now I am no health care professional but these are just a few tips that have worked for me! I have hunted down answers for 5 years now & I just want to save people time, money & sanity. If you have any skin care tips that have worked for you I would love to hear them! Please leave a comment below!

Have a great day!

*I am by no means a medical doctor, these are tips based purely off of my research & personal experience.