My Beauty Challenge – THE CONCLUSION!

** To view the related post ‘My Beauty Challenge’ click here **

Ok so it’s been a few weeks since I set my challenge. I promised to cut back on sugar/sugary foods, stop using facial scrubs/cleansers/anything that would irritate my skin, drink a lot more water, and increase the amount of fruit and veg I eat.

I could tell you that the whole thing was a breeze, and that two days in I was blemish free and will never need to touch a spot treatment cream again. I could tell you that sticking to the rules was easy, and I am now 98% water and spinach. But then I’d be lying.

Not using a facial scrub/cleanser went against everything I’ve learnt about my skin over the last five years, so within a few days I was back to my Clearsil facial scrub and Body Shop Seaweed cleanser. I didn’t then break out, so I don’t think that facial cleansers were the problem, although I have limited the facial scrubs I use, because that can definitely irritate skin.

I’ve never done anything like this before, so sticking to the food diet was really tricky. I admit, I didn’t enjoy eating a carrot instead of the occasional chocy biscuit, but I did feel healthier so thats a win 🙂

However – I have found what I can only describe as the miracle diet. In the space of two days, the majority of spots had cleared, and my whole body felt healthier. It’s… The Detox diet! Let me explain:

I don’t bother with diets because I’m not particularly fat and I.. well I’m lazy when it comes to health. But recently I’ve had a problem with my stomach which meant that I was producing too much hydrochloric stomach acid and it was irritating my stomach lining – VERY painful. So when I came across the detox diet, it sounded perfect. It means only eating foods high in antitoxins for a short two day period. Antitoxins are what help the ‘flush out’ the impurities in your body, which helps the kidney. Many people claimed it helped with similar stomach problems so I decided to give it a go.

It was very strict – a diet of antitoxins? Thats basically fruit, veg and  A LOT of herbal tea. there are health sites which can explain this 986520x better than me, and have easy meal plans you can follow, but you get the gist.

By the end of the two day period (Its very important it is for a short amount of time – This diet doesn’t include carbohydrates or protein so that your stomach doesn’t digest anything heavy. So its not balanced for a full time diet!) my skin had cleared up dramatically! I was drinking lots of the Herbal Tea ‘Pukka’ in ‘Cleanse’. This was said to have an effect on cleaning skin and tasted like fennel and marshmallow. I really think this had an effect on my skin so I’m definitely purchasing it again.

Overall I think the challenge has been a success! I’ve found a healthy short term diet that can clear my skin, whilst being healthier too. 😀

** To view the related post ‘My Beauty Challenge’ click here **

P.S. Do you like these sort of posts? I realise they’re a bit long winded and a bit less… well.. fashoin/product-y but wanted to try something new!

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My beauty challenge…

This week I’ve been moping around the house feeling really ill. I was very weak so I slipped out of my normal skin-care routine. I avoided the mirror I case I had broken out in disgusting spots or blackheads. But to my supprise, when I faced my reflection I was greeted with a clear(ish) face which seemed (confusingly) healthy. This is definitely a rare occasion for me because even at my best you can still find a few little blemishes on my T-Zone and it always seems slightly tired, but for some reason I have had better skin than I’ve had for a very long time.

The illness definately wasn’t causing it, so that could be ticked off. Then there was the considerably minimal amount of sugary folds I was eating, the betrayal of my skin care routine and the increase in sleep I was getting. So I’ve decided to set myself a challenge.

There is no way I want to return to my horrible teen complexion so I am going to make sure I change my old routines and habits to benifit my skin. So I am going to pick out the main things I think may have helped clear my skin, and try my hardest to stick to tweek for two weeks, updating the blog letting you know of my theory works!

So, I have decided I am only allowed one very small sugary thing a day. (This includes limiting biscuits, chocolate, any sweet or toffee, sugary drink or cakes.) There have been many links found between sugar and the effect it has on your skin, and seeing as my skin has improved and I haven’t had anything sugary, I might as well try it!

I will try to drink a lot more water. My mum was made sure I drank litres and litres of water/squash because your body gets dehydrated when your ill. This could be a factor so I’m adding that too.

I will eat healthier. I was also eating a large amount of fruit and veg to boost my vitamin levels. This without a doubt helped keep my skin healthy and clear so I’m definitely going to try this.

I didn’t use any facial cleaner, not even a warm flannel – just a baby wipe over my face roughly once a day. I’ve done this before when I’ve run out of facial cleansers and I find that normal baby wiped have actually had a real improvement on my skin, probably because its not irritated as much as it is when I use my facial scrubs and cleaners. So for the next two weeks I can only use facial wipes, once a day at a maximum.

I also had a considerably longer sleep every day, although this is going to be really hard to fit into my day because I have to get up early for school but go to sleep late to make sure I stay on top of homework! So for now I am going to stick to my normal sleeping pattern.

There we go! The challenge is set! I have to drink plenty water, eat healthy, cut back on sugary foods, stop using facial cleansers and only use baby wipes when needed! To be honest I’m quite anxious because I’m scared that if the facial cleanser theory is wrong, I’ll break out stop spots which will completely ruin my week! But if any of the others isn’t a factor after all, I’ll stick to it anyway because it will benifit my health anyway!