The top picture of me is from Fall 2006, and the bottom picture from this last December. You can see that my skin isn't as even or hydrated in the first picture. There is blotchiness around my mouth area, and a lot of reddish inflammation as well. Granted, I've also lost about 35 lbs between these pictures, but the difference in skin quality is still visible. At the time of the first picture, I had been vegan for nearly a year, but still ate a lot of cooked oils, breads, sugar and vegan junk food. I was about 50% raw.
I posted on the subject of skin health a little over a year ago, but I wanted to revisit it again and add some more tidbits to it.
Now, I am almost all raw and have been for over 3.5 years, except for in the winter, when I occasionally have quinoa that I've cooked at a fairly low temperature over a long period of time, occasionally a vegan soup that isn't all raw, or something similar. Above all else, the consistent, day-to-day dietary choices I make are the biggest component for my skin health.
Here are some of the other major points, after diet, of having great skin:
Greens
Eat fresh greens and sprouts every day. Whether that is in the form of fresh green juice, green smoothies, or salads, get as close to 1 lb of greens in each day, if you can. The fresher, the better. If you can grow your own and/or have wild greens, that's even better! You want the freshest, most recently harvested, highest mineral greens and sprouts you can get. I feel that green juice is a particularly important way to get your greens because you're more likely to absorb everything from it because it takes such minimal digestive energy compared even with a salad. It's a way to get lots of greens worth of minerals and chlorophyll in your body without getting full because of the fiber. Most days, I drink 32 oz. of green juice (greens, cucumber and celery) and a decent sized salad.Water
Drink the best water you can find. The best is spring water, straight from the earth. Consult www.FindaSpring.com to find one near you. If you don't have a spring, just be sure your water is really clean. Test it if you can. Gabriel Cousens, M.D. recommends drinking enough water such that you urinate every 1-2 hours. Since all of our bodies require different amounts of water, this is a good system to use to be sure your body is hydrated. You can also increase the quality of your drinking water by adding products to it such as minerals (like Polar Mins), Crystal Energy, and a little high quality salt.
Sleep
The body rebuilds between 10am and 2am, with the hours of 10-12 being particularly important. I feel that getting to sleep early and allowing for a full night's rest, most if not all of the time, is crucial for skin health. I generally go to bed between 9:00 and 10:30 p.m.
Other Practices
There are many other helpful practices for radiant skin. Here are some of them:
- Regular fasting - fasting is the ultimate anti-ager. Obviously, anti-aging is good for the skin ;)
- Colon Cleansing - the health of the skin is very much affected by the health of the colon. The fastest way to clean the colon is to juice fast or Juice Feast and do enemas every single day or colonics every other day.
- Liver Cleansing - the liver health also affects the skin radiance. I recommend both Gabriel Cousens' 3 or 6 week protocol and also the protocol at MyLiverCleanse.com.
- MSM - MSM is a form of sulfur which occurs naturally in nature. It helps to build the skin,
hair and nails. - Beauty Foods - examples of these are aloe vera, watercress and durian. For more information, please read the book 'Eating for Beauty' by David Wolfe.
- Meditation, yoga, and other relaxation activities - studies have confirmed that regular meditation can correlate to better skin, partially due its supporting of youthing mechanisms in the body.
- Spirulina - My skin has definitely improved by eating spirulina. I would guess Chlorella can have similar benefits. I eat 1-3 tablespoons per day (note - my body tends to need more protein)
- Dry Skin Brushing -dry skin brushing stimulates circulation, moves the lymphatic system, and sloughs off old, dead skin layers.
- Infrared Sauna - sweating out toxicity is a great way to detoxify, which always leads to younger looking skin, but also, it allows for the skin to shed off its outer dead layers more easily. Best thing ever? Skin brush while you're in the sauna, and/or afterwards.
- Simple stuff - Don't touch your face. Never sleep with makeup on.
- Laughing - do it often, every day, multiple times per day :)
Why darling, your skin is as gorgeous as a baby's bum,
Courtney
