Monday, September 26, 2011

21 Day Detox - A New Health Journey

The past few months have been very frustrating for me. After all my efforts of eating and living a clean, raw life for the past few years my #1 nemesis has returned with a vengeance. Acne. It's something I've dealt with since my teens but lately its gotten out of control. It started a year ago when I got off birth control pills. I had been on them for years for hormonal balance. I was missing periods for months at a time and then I would bleed for weeks. I was scared to get off of them when I went raw because my doctor told me the irregularity would just come back. I figured if I was giving my body the best diet in the world, it would work itself out. So after 3 years, I tossed my pills and let nature take its course. Happy to say everything is perfect, i.e. on time, like clockwork. Phew! The only bad thing is, every month since stopping the pill, my skin gets more and more oily. So oily, I have breakouts on my face, neck, chest and back. I've been taking probiotics religiously and eating fermented foods in order to get the good bacteria flourishing. I've been cutting out sugar to keep my blood sugar balanced and prevent candida overgrowth. I've tried liver cleanses, sauna, MSM, zinc, neem, bentonite clay, honey masks, not washing my face, not wearing makeup, colonics, green juice, DIM, myomin, parasite herbs, fulvic acid, zeolites, chlorella and a plethora of other supplements. One thing I've never done is a long juice fast. I've done a lot of 3-5-7 day juices but this one will be 14 days of juices and 7 days of easing out of it with soups and smoothies. I would go longer but I actually need to get cracking on recipe development so this is my only window of opportunity.

I would love to hear feedback from anyone else who is struggling with the same thing and if you've been successful. FYI I had severe acne while on the pill, as well, that was corrected by going raw. This is a whole new thing I'm dealing with which seems to be an overproduction of testosterone (or drop in estrogen?). I'll keep you posted how things are going. Here's a recap of yesterday.

Day 1
Juice of 1 lemon with water, stevia, MSM and cayenne
1 scoop vitamineral greens in 8 oz. water
1 1/2 quarts green veggie juice
1 cup miso soup
1 cup almond milk with scoop of Shaman Shack Shapeshifter
1 teaspoon coconut oil
Evening: bentonite clay/psyllium husk with 1 cup apple juice (from Blessed Herbs colon cleanse pack)

I wasn't very hungry and had trouble taking down all the green juice for some reason. I was sluggish and fell asleep for 3 hours in the afternoon.  

Day 2
Juice of 1 lemon with water, stevia, MSM and cayenne 
1 quart watermelon/fennel/cuke 
2 cups orange juice/almond milk/pumpkin pie spice 
3 cups coconut broth
1 teaspoon coconut oil 

Felt energized when I woke up. Started the day off with 1000 mg niacin, 10 minutes of rebounding and 40 minutes of sauna. I have more energy today but some brain fog. It's only 3pm so I'll have more green vegetable juice before the day ends.  

To make Coconut Broth: 
Place 1 cup shredded coconut and 2 cups hot water in a food processor and blend. Strain out pulp using a nut milk bag. 

Bring coconut water to a simmer with additional 1 cup water, 1/4 cup chopped onion, 1 clove minced garlic, chopped cilantro, basil and lemongrass. Let simmer then strain. Stir in 1 tablespoon of miso once it has cooled a bit.

15 comments:

Pure2raw twins said...

we struggle with acne too. one reason we went raw was to help our skin, but it did not. we eat fermented foods. we low sugar. we feel we do pretty good at a good diet and exercise regularly, but still struggle with bad skin. just recently read a new book called diet wise, which discusses hidden food allergies. we are thinking our skin is from food. we got our hormones checked and according to our doctor they are fine. but really is fine/? so we are trying to see what food or foods that could be causing us issues. we are still in the beginning stages but we are hoping to get answers.

best of luck to you! we look forward in seeing how you do.

bitt said...

i went 5 days of juice once and then tried to do smoothies but it felt all wrong. it was too sweet in comparison. maybe i would have felt better doing just soups but i just felt like eating again really. good luck!

Judita Wignall said...

Thanks ladies! I'm looking into allergy testing too to see if it could be related to my diet. Thank you for your support! xo

Anonymous said...

When I first went raw, my face cleared completely. A few weeks after it was worse than ever before. I'm sure it's a food sensitivity which I need to figure out, but it's so frustrating that the main reason for going raw turns out to make the skin worse. Hmpf. I don't have the time, money or resources to figure it all out, so I'm hoping you have some luck that we can all benefit from ;) Good Luck!

Anonymous said...

You know, you should check out the blog CrunchyBetty.com! She has all sorts of awesome skincare recipes that use food and oils. She just finished her book that is specifically for oily and acne prone skin. I don't have acne but I use her blog to make lotion, facial scrubs, etc. Its really worth looking into. You might find a solution there. Good luck!

Anonymous said...

Sorry to hear about the acne. So frustrating when you eat such a clean and healthy diet I had exactly the same problem for 4 years, which was only resolved when I started taking probiotics with 30 billion plus bacteria per pill, did regular 3-4 day juice cleanses per month to keep all the sludge moving through my system, and then had a series of colonics. I also have to keep an eye on any kind of healthy sugar consumption - too much fruit or dried fruit makes the pimples raise their ugly little heads again. I would also recommend French green clay masks as a great skin balancer and cleanser. Good Luck. I hope you find a solution soon.

RawyoginiMaddy said...

This might be old news for you but Kundalini yoga sets specifically for hormonal balance and glandular balance really help me a LOT when I find I'm having random breakouts. Mine are all about hormones, but for some reason that method of healing/cleansing works like nothing else for me. But I know how frustrating that is, your juice/smoothie break sounds wonderful!

Judita Wignall said...

Thanks for the great feedback!

Chef Amber Shea said...

Judita, I'm actually starting a fast myself tomorrow. (I'm not sure yet if I'm going to talk about it on my blog, but I admire your courage and commitment to broadcast it like this!) My last few months of recipe writing and testing have = CONSTANT eating, or it least it feels that way. Even though it's all raw, I've still gained weight, and these last couple weeks, I just feel crappy, clogged, run-down, depressive, blah. I need to hit the reset button in a very serious way. I too have only this three-week window of time - I turn in my manuscript Monday, and then I have to travel again on 10/21, so it's now or never. I'm taking three days to ease in and three to ease with, with 14 days on the actual fast in between. I've never done one this long, so I'm nervous and somewhat afraid of failure, I'll admit. But wish me luck; I wish you luck on completing yours! :)

Chef Amber Shea said...

*and three to ease out,
rather.

Judita Wignall said...

Amber, I gained weight writing my book as well. Sometimes because the food was so good and sometimes because I was so stressed I would end up binging. Good luck on your cleanse!!

Jocelyn said...

Hi Judita, I know this isn't a raw food solution but I take spironolactone for my acne. I too struggle with hormonal acne. Despite being a VERY healthy vegan for the past 8 years, my acne continued to come back right around my period. Birth control pills wouldn't help, only regulated the acne breakouts to a certain week every month! I tried to avoid all medications, and did follow a religious holistic skin regime ( still do - I LOVE Evan Healy products BTW), but finally resorted to the spironolactone, after understanding my acne to be hormone-related. FINALLY something worked. Spironolactone is usually prescribed for blood pressure regulation, but doctors do occasionally prescribe it for acne. Your gynecologist would probably be familiar with the drug. It not only got rid of my terrible acne COMPLETELY but also reduced my facial hair. There are very few side effects, (I have not noticed any personally), and I have been on it for about 2 years. Again, I know it's not a raw solution, but to compensate, I try to follow a healthy vegan/raw diet as much as possible, supplemented by superfoods and vitamins. Good luck!! - Jocelyn

Judita Wignall said...

Great info, Jocelyn! Thank you! Have you experienced any side effects from it?

Jocelyn said...

No, I haven't actually! One of the side effects is having to urinate more frequently, so they recommend taking the medication in the morning and not at night, but I personally never had this issue.

One my skin started to clear up from the medication, I could REALLY see the effects of my insanely healthy diet (completely vegan, a mixture of macrobiotic and raw, all whole foods and superfoods) and holistic skin regime (evan healy). Whenever I do get a tiny breakout my skin clears up very quickly, and I know this is because of my strong immune system. Again, I hate having to take a medication and hope to one day wean off, but it really made the world of difference to me. I'll continue to look for foods that can help with hormonal imbalance as that was the source of my acne issues.

Love reading about your detox - super inspiring!

Linda Wagner - Nutrition to Invigorate Mind, Body and Spirit said...

I cut out ALL sugar and grains. LOTS of green juice and weekly colonics. This was over the course of about 3-4 months and that seemed to do the trick!! Also ADP Oregano Oil caps worked wonders in addition. I took 3 caps twice daily. Hope that helps!

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