I’m mad. Like, really f*cking mad. Ok, that’s a lie, I don’t really get mad, I just get sad. So, I’m really f*cking sad. My face was finally getting better, finally looking like something was changing and my face was starting to play nice, but NO. No, no,no. It ain’t playin’ nice no mo’. My face has freaked out. Like OMG Ihateyousomuchjuli. Iwantyoutostaysingleforever. Andidefinitelydontwantanyonetofindyouattractive. Ever.
You, my face, are a straight up b*tch.
Ugh, I’m going to get so many emails about my dirty mouth now. I’ll save you the time…please don’t send them.
Anywho, I’m having one of those days of feeling absolutely hopeless. I don’t know what to do. I clean up my diet and it gets a little bit better, then it goes back to normal. I change up my face cleansing routine and it gets a little better, then goes back to normal. I get off birth control, I stay on birth control. I take fish oil, I don’t take fish oil. I eat more fat, I eat less fat. I don’t eat dark chocolate, I do eat dark chocolate. I get facials, I don’t get facials. You get what I’m throwin’ out? I try everything, but in the end my face has full control, and I am left staring in the mirror with tears in my eyes, choking back the egg of frustration that sits in my throat.
Just today, I started taking the probiotic saccharomyce boulardii which was recommended by Liz of Cave Girl Eats. I also am getting cod liver oil soon to start trying that as well. And making sure all sugar and nuts are cut from my diet. It’s just so annoying that my mind has to be filled with thoughts of how ugly I am or how I wish I could improve my skin. That’s dumb. It should be filled with cookbook thoughts, and Christmas gift thoughts, and food thoughts. But no, the face has won.
So here’s my question out of utter frustration and anguish…do I try acutane? Do I face the fact that I may be incredibly depressed, moody, and upset for months because of the drug? Do I face the fact that I may have to take the drug even though my face and other body parts will literally dry up and peel off? Do I face the fact that it may not even work? I don’t know what to do, but I’m obviously upset enough to blab all about it and want some of your advice. So, advise me.
On a more positive note, you NEED to try these muffins. They are DELICIOUS.
Morning Glory Muffins (nut free option)
- Yield: 9 1x
Ingredients
- 1 apple, peeled and cored, shredded
- 1 large carrot, peeled
- 1/2 cup sunflower seed butter
- 1 cup pepitas
- 3 eggs, whisked
- 1/2 cup coconut oil, melted
- 1/4 cup raisins
- 1/4 cup pecans, roughly chopped (optional for nut free version)
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon
- 1 tablespoon raw honey
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- pinch of salt
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
- Now add your pepitas to a small saucepan over medium heat with a tablespoon of fat. I used coconut oil.
- Cook for 3-5 minutes, moving around lots so they don’t burn and so they cook on all sides.
- While your pepitas are roasting, add your apple and carrot to your food processor with the shredding attachment. If you don’t have a food processor, use a grater to shred your apple and carrot.
- Add your apple and carrot to a bowl along with your sunflower seed butter and rinse out your food processor bowl.
- Then add your roasted pepitas to the food processor and puree until you get a flour/meal.
- Then add your pepita flour, eggs, coconut oil, honey, raisins, pecans, cinnamon, salt, and baking soda. Mix well.
- Pour your batter into 9 FULL muffin liners in your muffin tin. I lined my muffins tin with silicone muffin liners but paper would do just fine.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes until cooked through.
- Let cool slightly, but eat warm, because they are the best that way.
______________
More Nut Free Muffins:
Apple Cinnamon Muffins (nut free)
Chocolate Chip Protein Muffins (nut free)
______________
Click Here To Get All My PaleOMG Recipes Into Your Meal Planner With Real Plans!
I may be compensated through my affiliate links in this post, but all opinions are my own. This compensation helps with expenses to keep this blog up and running!
hi juli! i was surfing the paleo web for a muffin recipe and landed on you first (i’ve used a number of your recipes, btw, LOVE). i was compelled to comment today because i know very well the pain of what you suffer from – personally. i know this post is a few months old but i want to share what has finally worked for me. stop using every facial product as you know it! seriously. i now wash with just a sprinkling of baking soda mixed with water. i occasionally moisturize with vitamin e mixed with a few drops tea tree oil. sometimes i switch out and wash with just coconut oil, which really moisturizes. i also have a re-purposed mustard bottle that i fill with one cup of filtered water, two drops lavender, one drop tea tree oil, and one tablespoon vinegar. sometimes i’ll soak a cotton ball and rub that all over my face as either a cleanser or a follow up to the baking soda if my skin is feeling a bit tacky. i’m 31 and for the first time in my life i can say i am acne free. i’ve also stopped using conventional shampoos and conditioners, and do a similar routine for my hair, so maybe that has helped to. go paleo on your hygiene and don’t look back!
Hi! So I know most people are telling you not to do accutane but YOU SHOULD!! I did it about two years ago and it honestly changed my life! I know exactly how you are feeling and I battled that for yearssss. It is two years later (from when I finished accutane) and my face looks more amazing than it has since I was 15 (I’m 23 now). I highly, highly reccommend it. For me it was a pretty easy process. I was a little dry but nothing too crazy, had no mood changes, no personality changes, really just a ton of bloodwork you have to keep up on and not drinking was hard but TOTALLY WORTH IT! Please email me back if you have any questions at all. I never comment on blog posts, but though you needed to know, that shows how strongly I feel about accutane and how much it posistively effected my life.
If you haven’t already checked out thepaleomom.com you might wish to do so. She has an Autoimmune Protocol that has improved her life. It is a stricter version of paleo. She includes pictures of foods that she eats. And the recipes are sight and taste worthy as well. Good luck!
Hey Julie. So, 360 comments means a lot of advice. I wouldn’t bother adding this except I can’t find it above, and because I can empathise. Take it or leave it.
I stopped using soap – any soap, ever – and my skin has cleared, including most of the cystic stuff. Inflammation and redness went down first, then my pores shrank and my normal pimples started to disappear. I stopped eating fructose and all processed food and my skin got calmer still (you’re already doing a bit of this). Now my face is calm enough that I can pick the foods I react to clearly – if this works for you I’m sure you’ll be unique, but mine are any kind of casien and certain brands of dark chocolate. I have also gone back to eating fruit and honey, and some processed products without incident. I can go without makeup now most days for the first time since I was nine.
To put it in context, my acne hit when I was seven, I spent all of school and uni tearing by back open accidentally with my bag and hiding my face. I will always have dimples which aren’t dimples, but scars from the cysts that I used to get either side of my mouth. I can’t go sleeveless because of the damage to my back. I’ve tried every cleanser 15 years of therapists could throw at me, dermabrasion, microdermabrasion, facials, hormones, probiotics, cutting out everything under the sun. I’ve been gluten and wheat free since I was an infant and organic and largely processed-free my entire life. My mum spent forty years struggling with the same condition (until she hit menopause).
I only tried not using soap because I was in Cambodia, and I ran out! Skipping soap has not only helped my face, but has eliminated skin problems on my back as well. Instead I wash with warm water and a soft scrubber, and dry vigorously with a towel. I actually used the black soap mentioned above for a while before I stopped using soap, and it improved my skin slightly. My therapist suggests this is because its not very soapy – it leaves your skin’s natural flora intact. Needless to say, no soap seems to work better.
If your system is throwing this curve ball at you, its probably because its a bit vulnerable for some reason. Throwing drugs in the mix, which may or may not help, is at best a big risk for an unpredictable outcome. You could try not using soap for a while and see how it goes. I have a sneaking feeling these things are more individual than we know, but it might be worth a shot. Also, sorry to throw the 361st ‘I know what you should do with your life’ into the mix – I know how it feels to get advice from all and sundry (occasionally aggravating). However, I couldn’t not say something, given that I wish I could tell my younger self to stop using soap and save myself a decade of anguish and the self-esteem damage that goes with.
Good luck sorting it out.
hi! I just came across your blog as i was googling “paleo muffins”.
I had skin problems ALL my life. I too, tried everything. The ONLY thing that worked for me was a product called “METRIN”. It is pricey, but it worked.
Good luck. Looking forward to trying this recipe
I’m really super late to the party here but I am also on paleo and still break out occasionally (hormonal imbalances and all). The ONLY thing that has worked for me is a product by Genuine Health called Perfect Skin. I know its is just fish oil with some antioxidants and minerals but man does it WORK! I take extra omega 3 on top of that and honestly it is incredible. I can also recommend a face cream that will help by NeoStrata. Sometimes coconut can make you break out, and definitely the birth control pills. I have a background in nutrition and natural medicine.
Have you tried drinking Green Glowing Smoothies from Kim Snyder?
I don’t know that you will see this w so many comments – but I thought I’d pitch in anyway.
I am 40. Saturday last week was the first day in my adult memory that I had zero zits on my face. Hallelujah! I had give up hope 🙂 Of course – one came back on Tuesday – but one, not 25.
I think that it has been due to a combination of diet and a specific product regiment.
1) My acne seems to be worsened by dairy and sugar (I am trying paleo diet, but not so successful 🙁 I have tested allergic to cow dairy so that could be part of it.).
2) My doctor had me read The Acne Cure by Terry Dubrow and Brenda Adderly. They explain the scientific rationale for each step. I am not even still doing all their recommendations, but I’m doing a subset of them. Their full regime (as I remember it is):
a) *Morning wash with salicylic acid cleanser
b) *Morning 2nd wash with 10% glycolic acid cleaner. I had to find online and I’ve been using Be Natural Organics AHA Facial Wash
c) *Morning SPF 15 moisturizer
d) *Evening wash with salicylic acid cleaner
e) Then, Rub ice cube over skin to cool it down and reduce inflammation.
f) *Then, use benzoyle peroxide that you keep stored in fridge. They recommend a certain percentage of ben per, but I forget what it was..
g) Use ice pack on face for 10 minutes.
(They say that by using the cold to reduce inflammation that you are allowing medicine to penetrate pores better.)
I did all steps for like 7 days and gave up. I continue to do the steps with the asterisks and my skin keeps getting better. I don’t use the BP every day because I get too dry. I still have back acne and I don’t have the energy to do the regimen on my back, but my back seems to be clearing as I am longer on a cleaner diet.
Accutane scares me.
hi juli,
i just came across your blog and don’t know anything about you other than what is written in this post, but my face cleared up when i stopped drinking coffee. my mom told me to quit and i kept telling her it wasn’t the coffee because i only drink one cup a day and all the aestheticians and doctors i spoke to said it wasn’t because of coffee. regardless, i committed to abstaining from coffee for 2 months just to get her off my back. i hate when she is right, but it worked. what a difference. if you’re not a coffee-drinker, then nevermind.
I have been having similar problems and have found an amazing cure that is SO SIMPLE!
Wash your face with a paste made of baking soda and water.
Seriously.
The baking soda kills bacteria and exfoliates(so don’t rub vigorously).
Mixing it with olive oil is also helpful, even though putting oil on already oily, acne prone skin sounds counterintuitive. It actually nourishes and protects the skin AND HELPS CLEAR UP ACNE AND BLACKHEADS.
Weird, right?! But it works! Put the mixture on face once a day and leave it for as long as you can(10 min?). Wash off and put a thin coat of olive oil on afterward. Wash with olive oil at night. It made a difference in my red, irritated, broken out face after ONE APPLICATION. I had previously been using three different prescription medications, to no avail.
Yea natural(and inexpensive)remedies!