Much has changed and evolved into further investigations and suddenly I’ve found myself turning almost vegan. I say Almost, because there’s no way I’m stopping eating fish, shellfish, eggs and chicken, but I am considering reducing my intake.
This week I want to lift up the subject of Diet and anything surrounding it, but let’s start from the beginning shall we?
Going Dairy-Free
After reading about the affects of dairy and gluten has on the skin, I tried going dairy and gluten-free to test if it would maybe help with my acne.
The first month didn’t go too well; I still ate yoghurt, cream cheese and other dairy but substituted it for lactose-free. As we all know, Lactose-free is still milk, and milk is what I was supposed avoid. I also struggled with my cooking; I usually would prepare any type of pasta-dish with something creamy, something containing milk in other words. So when I couldn’t use that, my cooking became awfully tasteless and dry, I did not know what to substitute it with. I still don’t know, so I’ve completely stopped making food that needs any kind of creamy sauce to it. There are times where I do treat myself, but that is rarely, especially now that I am trying to deal with my acne and seeing is anything I cut out from my diet can help. I still drink coffee at times though! I was always looking into trying new flavours and brands, so I would look up things like Where to buy JoeFroyo or new coffee flavours of the year. Plus, I do have coffee that is gluten and lactose free, so I guess that’s a start.
About three weeks ago I ate my last yoghurt breakfast, and with that I felt I could be more strict with my diet ’cause now we didn’t have any dairy in our home. First week felt dry, I went from eating a fresh bowl of fruits and yoghurt to suddenly nibble on a dry crisp bread (gluten free) with avocado and caviar, which I usually otherwise would eat with the fruit bowl. Then I just felt like doing intermittent fasting every morning and just wait for lunch.
Although, after getting comfortable without dairy I started eating my bowl of fruits again, just raw, with my crisp bread. At the time I bought a blender, so now I sometimes drink a smoothie for breakfast, but I have to say that I like chewing my fruits more.
There was and still kind of is another problem, we do eat lunch out most days. Since I can’t really control what’s serving I basically had to avoid dishes that sounded like they were having any type of sauce to it.
Going Gluten-Free
Gluten was kind of an easier story. My main addiction was bread and pasta, but I quickly found alternatives to that. I even started baking my own bread and cookies just to have when the sugar craving comes. Although it does kind of suck if you’re going out to eat, unless you come across somewhere like this gluten free bakery boulder establishment that has a wide array of goods and meals to try. When you don’t have that option though, you really have to look at the INCI when buying stuff, the same with dairy, it’s almost in everything! Hiding in names that sounds good but aren’t. It’s a lesson, and you will sometimes come home to only find out that you can’t eat it.
Peter has been utterly supportive of my restricted diet journey, or it’s more Our restricted diet journey. He suffers from acne too so I’m hoping this diet will benefit his skin. I’ve been looking on websites like letsdisco.com to see if there are any male skincare products that he might like but I haven’t bought anything yet. I just want an acne-free life for both of us! He even makes me more passionate to find other alternatives, and I see ourselves grow more and more towards a healthier lifestyle where lots of fruits and vegetables are included. It’s sad to say this but before all of this I didn’t eat much fruits, and almost never any vegetables! And who knows maybe my skin problem has something to do with the lack of color. By any means, I wouldn’t say we ate bad , but it lacked the proper amount of greens and fruits. Especially Peter, the only colorful thing he ate was a green apple in the morning and canned pineapple for lunch (which I introduced him to). Although, I must input that he’s got some fruit allergies like red apples, bananas and other.
The thing is that the more I go into this restricted-diet-world I find my self eating more things Raw and Vegetarian, which is kind of funny with my past diet that were LCHF inspired, where I would eat much meat and any kind of fat and very little carbs. My body felt fine on that diet, but I never even considering that maybe it wasn’t the best for my skin. Because this last past month where I’ve become more strict has really paid off. I think it’s a combo of the B5 with a healthier diet, but it may also include my new skincare routine. But you know, skincare is such a small part in your overall skin health, much is due to diet. I won’t get cocky and go off B5, not for at least a year. But what I’m hoping is that a more Raw based diet on fruits and veggies can replace supplements completely for a healthy body, mind and soul.
Lessons to take for your own food journey:
- Concentrate on what you can eat and not on what you can’t.
- Don’t beat yourself up if you’ve mistakingly eaten ot bought something that includes the things you’re trying to avoid. It’s a process and you’ll learn; just don’t buy it again.
- Research and find substitutes.
- Learn new recipes.
- Buy foods that doesn’t have to explain themselves – don’t need and INCI.
- Considering eating home more and cooking from scratch.
