How to Keep your Skin Clear, Naturally

Tips for Keeping Skin Clear

I’m dedicating this post for my clients and those who have faced challenges in their quest to have clear, bright radiant skin!

Purposeful Skin Care With Nutrition

What I love most about being a skincare specialist, medical aesthetician, and holistic nutritionist, is that I have built long lasting relationships with you–my clients, and that we get to work together–to uncover the things that could be dulling your overall glow. I reach beyond what happens in the natural facial treatment room to what is happening in your kitchen everyday.

Keep in mind: Healthy and well-nourished skin requires less work.

How Does Diet Affect Your Skin?

Have you ever considered that perhaps, what you eat on a daily basis can have an effect on your skin?

Think of this scenario: you go to a birthday party and eat that delicious birthday cake, or indulge in a cheesy piece of lasagna, then  wake up the next day with a new blemish or rosacea flare up? The truth is that having clear skin may just lie in the food choices you make every day.

The body is always looking to achieve homeostasis. When our bodies are low on nutrients, exposed to allergens, and dehydrated, our skin can look sallow and dull. When we have an abundance of the right nutrients and ultimate hydration, our bodies function optimally and our skin will GLOW. Glowing skin is always smoother, brighter, with less wrinkles, less red rough patches, and less brown spots.

Lifestyle, food choices, overall hydration, and genetics all play a role on your complexion. Your skin, at the end of the day, is a reflection of your internal health.

I encourage you to eat whole, unrefined, and unprocessed foods that have all the vital nutrients in complete balance–which aids in proper assimilation and absorption. Your skin has a better chance looking smooth and radiant when removing the sludgy residue that junk food, trans fats, sugar, and conventional dairy leaves behind. When your digestive system is running smoothly with good quality foods and there are no food sensitives at play, you can usually get away with little indulgences. We all need to live a little right? ?

Top 10 Tips on How to Keep Your Skin Clear

Below, I give you tips on how to gain more control on your glow!

Hope you’re ready for the challenge. I have faith in you that you can make these adjustments to your daily life to see the results you deserve: clear, radiant skin!

  1. Eat more fresh veggies and fruit. This keeps your skin hydrated and provides antioxidants, minerals and vitamins–crucial for smooth radiant skin. Also, add foods that help correct acne problems such as turmeric, ginger, green tea, nuts, dark purple and red foods like grapes, berries, beets, carrots, and dark greens ?like kale and spinach. Check out my other article, Eat Like Your Skin Depends On It for more information on how to eat clean.
  2. Keep a food journal. If you bite it, you write it! ? Keeping track of everything you eat can assist you in recognizing what your body is reacting to. Write down what you eat, and also how you feel (stress level), skin reactions, and frequency of bowel movements. Sometimes it takes 24-48 hours for symptoms like pimples and rashes to surface. Looking back on your food journal will help provide insight and remind you of what you ate. One thing to note here is that stress shuts down the digestive system. Learning to manage stress and release one self from anxiety and worry can be a key to healing the body. Meditation and exercise can help with this.
  3. Elimination diet. Once you have an idea about what foods you react to, you can then eliminate them one by one from your diet and test out how you look and feel. Contact me for additional information on this process.
  4. Consider doing a liver cleanse. Spring time is wonderful time to this. The signs of an overloaded liver can show up on your face with acne, blotches, and eczema. I recommend CanPrev Detox-Pro caps or SISU Milk Thistle Complex supplements for a minimum of 3 weeks. Try these supplements and eat liver-supporting foods like broccoli, sprouts, garlic, artichoke, and beets. As well, see the benefits after eliminating sugar, gluten, alcohol, dairy, and caffeine from your daily diet.
  5. Watch your sugar consumption. For most people, the combination of refined wheat and white sugar can be the worst! Avoid cakes and pastries etc. if you want to have smooth, firm skin. Simple sugars spike blood sugar, increases insulin, and throws hormones off balance which can result in acne breakouts. Sugar is also the one thing that breaks down the skin structure as it hardens and snaps collagen peptides, resulting in loose, sagging skin.
  6. Stay away from dairy. It’s confirmed, dairy causes acne. Try cutting out ALL dairy (even in your morning coffee) for 2 weeks and discover the difference it has on your skin!
  7. Take digestive enzymes, especially when consuming foods in question or you know cause digestive upsets or breakouts. This will help to prevent excess stress on the digestive system, which translates into less stress that shows up on your face.
  8. Increase healthy anti-inflammatory fats like Omega-3 fish oil and  Evening Primrose oil which is high in Omega-6. I recommend Bend Skincare – the anti-aging formula will calm inflammation in the body and allow the healing process to begin. Then, as it heals itself, support its rebuilding by using Marine Collagen + Co-Factors for strengthening of collagen structures of your skin to improve its overall condition and tone. Contact me if you are interested in purchasing as these products are available in our clinic.
  9. Take acne fighting supplements like Evening Primrose Oil (1,000-1,500mg 2 x daily), Zinc Citrate (30mg daily), Vitamin A (25,000 IU a day,  *for only 3 months* and not while pregnant), Vitamin E mix tocopherols (400 IU daily, and *not alpha tocopherol*), Vitamin D (1,000 IU daily), and finally – probiotics, especially with Lactobacillus acidophilus (I recommend Perfect Probiotic 30 Billion with Prebiotic by Progressive Nutritional.
  10. Don’t touch or pick your face! This is where deep cleansing, natural facial treatments come in to play, ultimately helping to prevent scarring and manage clogging, so you don’t have to pick and dig at your own skin. Let the professionals take care of tricky extractions! Also, keep your cell phone clean by wiping it down with alcohol, wash your eyeglasses and sunglasses with dish soap everyday, and change your pillow cases often.

Trust the Process

This process can feel like it’s going to take forever to see the results, but trust me…good things will come with patience and persistence.

Taking this holistic approach to skin care is not a band-aid effect (like most conventional methods.) This is YOU getting to know your body and what it reacts to. You will gain the personal power of choice and be able to control what you expose your body to!

Feel free to boost your efforts with additional guidance from me, and drop a comment below! I’m here to help you through this whole process. I want to see you glow with confidence and beauty for many years to come. ✨

~Mei-Lana Chow RHN

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