So I had said I would do a no-honey challenge for the month of April. That meant no honey in my yogurt, no honey for sweets etc. I started off great, eating yogurt with fruit and making my SCD Truffles with dates (I think I prefer them this way now!). Then one day I just forgot and put some honey in my yogurt. I swear I didn’t mean to, it was just such an automatic step for me to grab the honey and add some. I decided to see if I can just limit myself to a small spoonful of honey (about 2 tsp) in my yogurt once a day. It seems I can somewhat control how much honey I eat and have been quite satisfied with that amount each day. So, the jar of yogurt that was about 2/3 full was almost empty 2 weeks later. That was also shared with my boyfriend who uses it in oatmeal and sometimes yogurt as well. While this wasn’t a total success in trying to go without sweeteners, I think it’s still a pretty good change. Maybe I have kicked the sweet-tooth a little bit? The rest of the month I pretty much had the same amount, just a bit of honey in my yogurt. I did make chocolate fudge for one night, but that was a special treat, not something I’m eating every day. I think I’ve bought honey once this month, about 500g worth, so that is a big improvement.

Now unfortunately the no-honey thing did nothing for my skin. My face was still breaking out like crazy. I turned to the BTVC-SCD Yahoo group and everyone who answered there kept saying they used oils on their face for acne. People had commented on my blog as well saying that. Some people were saying they rubbed the oil into their skin. That had me thinking, I’ve been putting oil on my skin very lightly. I never actually tried rubbing it in and then wiping the excess off.

I tried with coconut oil to start with. I rubbed a good chunk of it into my skin. I then showered and let the steam loosen up the oil a bit, wiped off the excess with a facecloth and then patted it dry with a towel. I’ve been doing this for a couple of weeks and it’s somewhat working. I think putting a thin coating of coconut oil was doing more harm than good, trapping dirt and bacteria in the pores. Rubbing the coconut oil in seems to moisturize it better and cleans a bit deeper. To help even more, I bought some tea tree oil and dab that on top of the coconut oil, let is sit for a while and then wipe off.  It’s not perfect yet but I’m having a lot less breakouts daily. I have also been taking cod liver oil a bit more regularly and some extra vitamin D, which others have said helped their acne. I have some red spots still that have to fade from having acne there and I think once that clears up my skin will look much better.

I know I mentioned going to China a while ago. I am still going, leaving in about 1 week! Very excited and not so nervous any more. I did fine eating rice for a short period and even had some soy sauce without problems. I did cut down on the rice because I was having joint problems that really seemed to get worse around the same time as the increase in rice/carbs consumption. I have heard from many other people that low carb helps with arthritis so it kinda makes sense. I had thought I might do ok with higher carb because I have a better balance of Omega6/3 fats and lots of anti-inflammatory foods in my diet. When I get back from China I’m going to look more into joint problems and how to deal them. Don’t think I have blogged about it before, but I have had joint problems off and on (knees, wrists, now hands) so I think it’s worth looking into. I’m also working on some info pages about good fats, Omega 6 and 3′s, nuts and how it all affects us on the SCDiet. (Hint – we eat way too many nuts on this diet)

So thankful to everyone for sharing their experiences with acne, hope I can get rid of this for good soon!

After my Skin Patch test showed a reaction to fragrances I decided to try either going without sunscreen or making my own. Well summer came about 2 months early this year and I didn’t have time to prepare so I just went without. The past 3 days were in the 20s (70-80F) with bright sunshine. Although the season is still early, I do normally burn in under 1 hour. In the mid summer sun it would be closer to 30 minutes. I usually would slather on 15 or 30 SPF sunscreen and reapply every 4 hours. I was very good at not burning.

The first sunny day, after puttering around the backyard for a while, I went out for a bike ride that I thought would probably be around an hour, so I didn’t bother covering up. Before heading out I took some cod liver oil. I wore a helmet but my face was exposed and I wore a sleeveless shirt. We were out for 2 hours around noon time in direct sunlight for most of it. I got home and later that night looked a tiny bit pink so I slathered on some coconut oil. I ate a lot of butter and fatty meat for dinner. I ate more butter and some coconut oil before bed. By the time I woke up I had the faintest hint of a tan.

Day two in the sun was a bit more of a challenge. I had been out a little bit in the morning puttering around the garden again. I took some cod liver oil again before leaving the house. I had a lot of butter with my eggs and bacon for breakfast. We went to the beach for 4 hours starting at 2pm. I wore a hat for about 1 hour but got tired of it and didn’t wear it after that. I was just wearing a pair of shorts and tank, with my shoulders completely uncovered for the 4 hours. I came home and ate more butter and some coconut oil. Again I slathered on the coconut oil covering my shoulders and face. The next morning I woke up and had a nice tan.

Day three in the sun was just around my house and a bit more controlled. It was cooler out so I had long sleeves on, with just my face and legs exposed. I only sat out for about 1 hour. I didn’t bother with cod liver oil but ate plenty of butter. I didn’t even get a tan.

This has never happened to me. I always burn if I don’t use sunscreen. And if I use sunscreen but miss a spot, that spot would be red. I don’t tan easily, it takes days and weeks of sitting out for just the right amount of time to not burn but get a bit of colour. I normally work very hard to build up a tan slowly as the summer goes on. Three days in the sun and I’m just as tanned as I would be by mid July. No burn, no pain, no peeling, nothing.

I credit a few things to my new sun tolerance. One, being off the birth control pill. The pill is notorious for causing photo-sensitivity. Two, eating lots of saturated fats. I was eating butter off a spoon and bacon each morning. Three, keeping Omega 6 and 3 fats in balance. I have cut down on nuts lately and eat wild salmon more frequently. I don’t need to bother with regular fish oil anymore. And four, applying coconut oil on my skin right after. I waited until the morning to shower to give my skin time to heal.

I heard from other people on SCD and GAPS that this can happen, becoming more tolerant of the sun and burning less. I really didn’t think it would happen to me, but very glad it did. No more fussing with sunscreen.

I’m joining in a Refined-Sweetener-Free Challenge for the month of April. Cara over at Health, Home, & Happiness has done GAPS before and since going off it has been noticing she’s eating too much sugar. I haven’t gone off SCD, but find I’m doing the same thing with honey. I have done low-carb SCD before for short periods of time if symptoms have flared up. Now that I’m feeling much better, I seem to handle dried fruits and honey quite well. I have even added in cocoa to my diet. Why would I give them up if I feel good? Well, I know that I don’t do well with sugar. I know that it makes me not sleep as well, makes my face break out, makes me anxious, etc. All of these things have been problems lately, so even though digestion is good, that doesn’t necessarily mean that I should be eating sugar. So, I will be doing without ANY honey for 1 month. That is the only sweetener I use, so I will be sweetener-free. I will not be going low carb as I don’t think it’s necessary at this point in my healing. I will be getting plenty of good carbs from squashes, carrots, fruits, dried fruits and sweet potato (not SCD legal). Yes I’m keeping in some dried fruit, mainly because I use dried cranberries in my liver recipe, and eating liver is important!

I’m really hoping this helps clear up my skin. For most of being on SCD my skin was doing fairly well (ok, besides all the rash episodes) but since going off the pill it has been constant outbreak. Every morning I wake up with 5 or 6 new spots and they seem to be taking forever to go away. It’s not so much how it looks that is bothering me, but the uncomfortable itchiness that comes along with it. I realize sugar may not be the only culprit, but maybe if I have less sugar I’ll be replacing those calories with something more nutritious. I plan to try and get more minerals in my diet, especially zinc which is known to be helpful for acne. I recently had cooked oysters and really liked them. Oysters are a great source of iron, zinc and selenium so these will definitely be making a regular appearance in my dinners!

I know I’m doing this right after starting cocoa and that might seem a little odd. I can finally have chocolate but oh wait, nope I’ll stop having it because of sugar! Honestly I think I can go without too much cocoa for 1 month. I am not eating it every day anyways. I plan to make my SCD Truffles as a nice dessert, ‘sweetened’ with dates and coated with cocoa. So I’ll have a hint of cocoa in my life still. I will have honey again after this month is over. Hopefully I won’t overindulge in it. I plan to start eating honey again when the local farmer’s markets are open and I can get some really good quality stuff. That will be motivation enough to hold off until then!

I’m also motivated to figure out different snack ideas. Gotta think outside the box on this one…

PS – I just Googled oysters and zinc. It seems *raw* oysters are the best source of zinc. Might have to work on that one…

PPS – That photo up top? I’ve been going through almost a 1kg jar of honey per week. Yeah, that’s a bit much!

**This post is part of a Kitchen Stewardship’s Spring Cleaning Carnival: Get the Refined Sugar Out, this week hosted by Donielle at Naturally Knocked Up

Ok, so I just had another test done in trying to figure out the rash episodes. For a history of that see Post 1, Post 2 and Post 3. I haven’t had it since October but went through with the visits to the Dermatologist anyway. I didn’t expect to get anything from this test since every single test I have had for anything has always come up as negative (nothing) or inconclusive. That includes tests for Celiac, Dermatitis Herpetiformis, inflammatory markers, abdominal ultrasound, liver enzyme tests, thyroid tests, hormonal tests, cortisol tests, etc etc. So the test I had done was called a Skin Patch Test. They stick strips of tape onto your back with a bunch of little circles of allergens on them. You leave that on for over 48 hours (no showering) then remove the tape. Another 24 hours later you have a look to see which (if any) caused reactions. I initially didn’t have any reactions when the nurse took the tape off, but she assured me this meant nothing. She said once the skin is exposed to oxygen the reactions can appear. One girl she saw had no reactions at first but the next day showed 21 of 30 something allergens reacting.

I went home and didn’t think anything would happen. Later that night I felt a crazy itchy spot and sure enough there were 3 spots of red on my back. The next morning I went in to see the Dermatologist and he told me which allergens they were. One was topical antibiotics, but we could rule that out as being the cause of the rash because I haven’t used any. One was dyes he said mostly dark blues and blacks. This could be interesting. I normally wear white tank tops or t shirts under my shirts but also have some blue or black ones. This could be a cause for sure, since it is an infrequent habit. The other was fragrances including cinnamon and cloves. I eat cinnamon very infrequently and he said it’s also in commercial toothpaste which I use infrequently. I will be cutting this out for a while to see if it helps. I will also be figuring out a homemade toothpaste to avoid these kinds of problems. I’m also going to look for a fragrance-free natural sunscreen. I don’t have any other sources of fragrances since I only use basic soap, coconut oil, baking soda, yogurt, apple cider vinegar, or an egg for cleaning my hair and body. See my post on How to Clean (SCD Legally) in the Tips and Tricks section.

So I’m kinda glad I did this test and it’s really the first time I have something constructive to work with. Should be neat to see if this makes a difference at all. I’m also hoping this is completely unrelated to Dermatitis Herpetiformis and that I don’t have Celiac Disease. Who knows, time will tell I guess.

Oh, and I didn’t shower for almost 3 days in order to complete this test. Did I smell? Nope, I used coconut oil and baking soda as a deodorant and that worked ridiculously well. Thanks to Sarah for that tip!