I want to talk about acne. Mostly because it’s pissing me off and if I complain to my friends, they just get mad. So I write in my diary instead. Aka, my blog.
Acne is stupid. And no, nothing has worked. I thought long and hard about going to a naturopath, but I just can’t afford that. I spent my money on more fun things, like trips to exotic places. Instead, I choose to try to ignore the acne since there seems to be nothing I can do about. The acne is all on my jaw line now, meaning it mostly has to do with my hormones. And since I stopped lifting heavy and CrossFitting multiple times a day, my hormones have started to calm down. I’ve lost weight, my body is remembering it’s feminine, and my cystic acne has calmed A BIT. I emphasize a bit, because it’s not much. I posted this picture below the other day and people thought my face looked great. Little do they know, I have makeup on that smudges off on EVERYTHING. Like, seriously, everything. It’s disgusting. I’m astonished I have a boyfriend that will put up with that. Poor man. But I wanted to show you that I still do have plenty of acne. I’ve obviously just good at makeup, good lighting, and well, contorting my face to look like I have none. Meaning, make myself look like an idiot.
It’s like a fun house up in here.
So in conclusion, my acne is not really getting better. I just wanted this to be clear since I haven’t talked about it as much anymore. I’m trying to put my energy of hatred for my skin into other things. Like, oh I don’t know, just being happy. And loving other people. And supporting my friends.
Speaking of supporting my friends, I need your help in supporting one of my blogging friends. If you haven’t read Nom Nom Paleo, I don’t know what you’ve been doing with your extra time. Michelle is awesome, has delicious recipes, and amazing pictures to boot. She also part of a contest for Cook Taste Eat. She is in 1st place right now, but her 2nd place contender is right behind her. So do me a favor and support this amazing paleo blogger. Please vote for her Mexican Pot de Crème recipe by March 8th! The steps are kinda weird, but you can’t fail if you follow these simple directions:
1) Click this link: http://bit.ly/14bhNU2
2) Click “Like” on the top right of Page (you can unlike after the whole process is done)
3) Click “Vote”
4) Install “Offerpop App” (you can easily uninstall after if you choose)
5) Click “Vote” again
6) Share this post with your pals
If you do this, you are getting the name of an amazing paleo blogger out there and supporting all of us. And then I’ll love you.
I think I’m going to make a dessert for tomorrow’s post. Michelle inspired me. And being that it’s Friday, that means it’s chocolate and wine day.
PS- my boyfriend thought these tortillas tasted like pancakes. Relationships are hard. Sometimes you just must agree to disagree. And that’s that.
Boneless Pork Short Rib Breakfast Tacos
- Yield: 2-4 1x
Ingredients
For the “tortillas”
- 3 eggs, whisked
- ½ cup canned coconut milk
- 2 tablespoonscoconut flour
- pinch of salt
For the shredded pork
- 2 pounds boneless pork short ribs
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup
- 2 teaspoons garlic powder
- salt, to taste
For the toppings
- 5–6 strips of bacon
- 1 (6-8 ounce) can of green chiles
- 2–3 tablespoons hot sauce (or your choice)
- chopped green onions
Instructions
- First, this recipe will start in the crockpot.
- Add short ribs to the crockpot. Pour maple syrup on top of them, along with garlic powder and salt. (I didn’t put any liquid in the crockpot because the fat will leak out and protect it from burning)
- Cook on low for 8-10 hours.
- When you wake up the next day, remove the pork ribs from the crockpot, shred them and pour some of the excess liquid from the crockpot over the shredded pork for extra flavor.
- Now make the tortillas. In a medium bowl, whisk together the tortilla ingredients until smooth.
- Place a large skilletover medium-high heat, pour ingredients into the pan to create a pancake size tortilla. I would pour on the liquid, pick up the skillet to roll it around and flatten out the tortilla even more. Cook on both sides for just about a minute per side.
- Once all your tortillas are done (this made about 8-10 tortillas for me), place bacon on the skillet or oven to cook on both sides, cool then roughly chop.
- Then mix together the green chiles and hot sauce in a bowl, place in microwave for 1:30-2:00 minutes or until hot. And then chop the green chiles.
- Now load up each tortilla. Shredded pork, green chiles, bacon, then green onions. Then eat it.
- Happy times.
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It’s always Taco Tuesday:
Slow Cooker Al Pastor Loaded Tacos
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Juli- I love your blog and recipes & appreciate your authenticity. Acne is a b!+@#. I wanted to tell you about Vitex (chaste berry). My hippy-nurse friend recommended it to me to settle my hormones after coming off bc and not getting anywhere near straightened out on my own (on for 13 yrs!). I’m just at the beginning of trying it, and think it might be helping. Do you follow Liz Wolfe aka Cave Girl Eats? She has a new thing: the “skintervention guide”. I’m going to get it. There is a possibility of needing more omega-6s for you… Also, if you have a birth & women’s center near you, I’d visit them & glean from their wisdom.
Anyway, I can’t wait to nosh on these spare-rib tacos. They look amazing! Plus, I’ve been really into tacos. If that’s the worst thing the weird hormone stuff brings is taco cravings, I can totally deal with it.
Hi Julie – I totally feel your pain with the acne. I’m almost 30 and still struggle with it, which is so frustrating! Anyways, I found a few things that have worked well for me recently and thought I would share because, hey, if you feel like I did, I would try anything.
1.) Dr. Brandt Pores No More Cleanser
2.) My mom got me a Clarisonic brush for Christmas. I know it’s spendy, but totally worth it. It has completely changed the way my skin looks and feels. My new best friend!
3.) Proactiv at night. If I use it more than once a day it dries me out.
Love your blog and recipes! You can definitely cheer me up when I’m having a bad day and the food is amazing. Has kept me paleo for 8 months now!
I totally understand about the acne and I’m SO sorry you’re having to deal with it. Not that you want to hear my sob story, but back in September I switched over to the oil cleansing method and was met with severe cystic acne unlike anything I had ever experienced (and I’ve had acne since I was nine). I kept thinking “This is natural! This IS going to work for me!” but finally in December I just had to stop. Within a week the cysts were better. For about two to three weeks I basically used all manner of unnatural products and stripped my skin. Sucky but I guess it helped. The past month I’ve been able to get back into a 90% all natural skin routine, but I definitely won’t be going back to the oil method. It was an incredibly traumatic experience! I hope yours clears ASAP!
Get a hormone blood panel done!! Could be that you have high testosterone levels and that the heavy lifting is making it worse!!! See an endocrinologist and find an OB/gyn that does bio-identical hormone replacement!!! Good luck and thanks for all the great recipes!! Keep em coming!!!
Watch your vitamins and shampoo too. Too much zinc can worsen acne. Need to avoid shampoos with too much crap like Johoba (sp?) and D/C conditioners altogether. I sympathize. I went from acne to wrinkles and still have occasional acne at 38! Talk about annoying.
Proactiv really works, its a bit harsh, but it works.
Hey, just discovered your website and love your blog! These tacos look yummy too! I normally don’t do this and don’t wish to spam you but I wanted to interject about your acne. I sell adult skincare developed by the dermatologists who invented Proactiv (Rodan + Fields). Sometimes Proactiv stops working on adult skin (I have seen this many times) plus Proactiv can be somewhat drying to adult skin. Their Unblemish line is developed specifically to address adult acne and is not drying. I have seen it work for several people who discovered that Proactiv was no longer working. I know it is not exactly Paleo but I have seen great results from it. Here is my website if you want more information: https://heatherallen.myrandf.com/Shop/Unblemish. Sorry don’t mean to spam but I hope it might help someone out there who struggles with adult acne. Thanks!
ESTRIUM by Metagenics. I’m not sure if you’re on the pill, but I used Estrium after I went off of it (1.5 scoops/day) and my acne has cleared by miles! (Mine was on my jawline, too!)
P.S. recipe looks awesome!
P.P.S. There are a ton of not-so-paleo ingredients in the Estrium but neither are antibiotics, right? I figure if it works….
It’s prolly not the most ideal treatment for many, but I finally broke down after many many years of adult acne (the kind with painful cysts), and took accutane for 7 months. After the first month ALL of my acne was gone and it stopped permanently. The horrible side effects are ultra dry skin, cracked lips, and possible bleeding (minimal) from scratching the surface of the skin. Now I treat occasional cysts (once every other month and it may be just one or 2), with prescription Retina .1%. I know this is not organic, but I can’t fathom having to deal with one more day of acne. It’s not natural! The problem with adult acne is that no matter how one treats it, everyone’s cure is different. I’ve tried everything from Oxy clean, to rubbing potatoes, dotting the cysts with lemon juice or toothpaste to try up. But they kept coming back. The problem is bad oils are created in the liver which causes the cysts to produce. Accutane works from the inside out. It’s a sucky process but it WORKS! Good luck Juli! I love your website and your recipes kick ass! you’re beautiful inside and out. We all adore you!!!!
Hi Juli,
I really can relate to what you are going through. I’m now 41 and a half, but from the time I turned 13 to until I was 40, I struggled with cystic acne particularly on my back and on my jawline.
I tried EVERYTHING- oral antibotics (tetracycline, monocin, etc.), topical antibiotics, differin, retin-A, facials, scrubs, AHAs, acid peels, microdermabrasion, two rounds of Accutane. And it would ALWAYS get better for a little while and then came back. The only thing that worked for a while was birth control pills, and then I had to stop taking them when I found out I was one of the select group of women who get blood clots from the Pill. And then when I went off the pill at age 39 so that I wouldn’t get blood clots anymore, my skin freaked out AGAIN, and was bumpy all over my face, chest and back for about nine months.
And then, about a year ago, everything seemed to calm down slowly to the point that I would have only one or two zits at a time. Then, about six months, I went Paleo and my skin almost completely cleared up – and I’m eating very little dairy and not adding any sugar (no honey, no maple sugar, only fruit.)
I really don’t have much wisdom here, except to say, I had to wait until I was 40 to have the skin I wanted when I was 25!! But it’s interesting that I have better skin now, very few deep wrinkles and smooth, then many of my peers at my same age who didn’t suffer from acne when they were younger. I’m considering that a silver lining.
My own two cents is that stress and diet has to be a big part of it – my intuition tells me that cortisol plays a part in an interaction with female hormones. But that’s all I got.
Have faith that it will get better!! And you are awesome no matter what’s going on with your skin!
A) Boyfriend, what? Where have I been?!
B) I fail to see how tortillas that taste like pancakes is a bad thing.
C) If you go 100% Paleo, does your acne disappear?
haha yes ma’am, boyfriend. pancakes, tortillas…aren’t they the same thing 😉 and no it does not sadly.
Well, congrats on the boytoy, I hope he knows how lucky he is!
And that’s crapsticks on the Paleo/still acne. One trigger that helped me pinpoint was that a food causing digestive issues typically also led to acne. Not always, but often enough to become a symptom FASTER than acne that I could look for.
I have been able to eliminate mine at ~90-95% Paleo and any time I do have a reaction (usually when eating out, as fucking soy is fucking EVERYWHERE) it quickly destroys my mental place. Acne sucks balls.
I wish you luck. You’re certainly gorgeous either way, but as someone who used to lay on concealer before joining buds for a weekend run, I absolutely know how you feel. Did I mention acne sucks balls?