Hoping that Getting Worse Means Getting Better
It was a rough week for my new relationship guys, I’m not gonna lie. Half way through the week my breakouts had almost doubled and I made the all-too-common mistake of trying to take my coverup off with an Oxy pad — which was a horrible idea. My already sensitive skin flared up and turned my breakouts into what looked like burn spots all across my face. All I could think was ‘great time to decide to flaunt your sh*t, Sam.’ Admittedly, I gave my skin (and my ego) some time to recover before I jumping back into the throws of socializing last week. Which actually worked out pretty well for me, because last week was Valentine’s Day and as we all know, the LOMFL is right here at home.
People always ask me why I don’t date more and my answer is always the same: I’m not looking for someone else to complete me, I’m working on becoming the perfect person for myself — and it’s a long process. Now, I don’t believe that clearing up my acne is going to solve all my problems or magically make me the person I want to become. But my life has been a perpetual cycle of working around the clock and burning out and trying to stay sane by counterbalancing the workaholic in me with going out and partying 4–5 nights a week. I don’t think anyone is surprised to hear that after leaving advertising to find a more sustainable way of living, I finally understand my body needs to heal from the inside out. It took 10 years of changing jobs and burning out for me to finally realize this. And obviously, knowing you need to change your lifestyle is always easier than actually doing it. Which is exactly why I decided to make my acne challenge 8 weeks long — I need a lot of time to make mistakes and I know it. And let’s be honest, I’m going to make a lot of them because listening to my body this way is a totally new experience for me. It’s going to take some serious time for us to get on the same page, let alone speak the same language so I can even understand what the signs are telling me. Here’s how it went last week….
More bone broth, please.
For the last 8 months, in addition to my morning ACV detox tea I religiously take my Seed Daily Synbiotics, Ritual multi-vitamins and Ancient Apothecary Fermented Multi Mushroom supplements — which have all helped bring my body back to a more balanced state, though my acne is holding strong and I clearly have a long way to go. I started this week with 8 oz. of bone broth per day, and increased it to 16 oz. per day after I fried all of the breakouts scattered across my face. None of them have completely healed but I am in this for the long haul and I’ve got 7 weeks to go!
Being bad always feels so good.
One of my major lessons this week was when the liver gets congested it causes your body to release toxins in other ways — like your pores. Aside from drinking, the most obvious reason for imbalance, eating refined sugars, dairy and processed carbs can also cause issues. I always try to ‘eat clean’ and I’d love to say that I immediately reacted to my breakouts by refining my diet, but I was never good at lying. Nope, I went out drinking and partying with friends all weekend, and I even topped it off with a Margarita pizza. Seems my week of reclusive recovery had me feeling a little stir crazy so I went out and lit a few fires. Surely I will see the reflections of this choice reflected on my skin very soon.
I’m justifying my decision to go out and party as a way of relieving stress and cultivating strong relationships (see what I did there?!), so any guilt I had for treating my body poorly has basically flown out the window. But I’m in this relationship for the long haul and every day is a new day to start fresh. So this week it’s all home cooked, fresh and organic meals to pair with my daily dose of bone broth. And some form of activity every day, because it’s good to be in shape, but let’s get real — we all know the best way to cleanse any toxins from your body is to sweat them out. So here’s to week 1, admittedly a rough start to my love affair, but every good relationship takes time and effort, right?
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