Adulting is hard. There’s a total learning curve. I’m only 24, so it wasn’t too long ago that I had to go through this.
As much as I love my parents, and as much as they did teach me about the world, there was a lot that they didn’t teach me. I never did laundry, I never cooked dinner for the family, I never did the dishes… there were lots of ‘I never’s. I knew how to do all of this, but I had never done it, and knowing things in theory vs having practical experience is a big difference.
If I didn’t work at home, I don’t know how we’d get it all done. I don’t think I would be doing a lot of the things I do, like cooking from serious scratch or raising rabbits. There just wouldn’t be time for a lot of things.
But you’re here for updates, so I’ll get on with it.
I think I’ve finally figured out what’s making my skin be angry. Yes, springtime is definitely affecting it, but I can’t solely blame spring. All that spring is doing is showing off any non-ideal habits I have from winter.
For those that don’t know, I have eczema… It’s pretty bad actually, but in 2019 I finally said “enough is enough” and began treating my eczema with diet. I didn’t know you could do that, but the changes were remarkable.
I didn’t pay for a skin-coach or anything, but Michelle Mill’s videos on YouTube helped me immensely.
The worst foods for eczema are fried foods, refined sugar, eggs, dairy, and gluten. When I first began healing my skin with food, I restricted my diet a lot. Over the course of 2019, I eased up a bit as my skin got better. Many things weren’t a problem over the fall and winter, but spring 2020 has me cinching up my diet again.
I haven’t gone back to eggs, gluten, or fried foods. They really affect me no matter what time of year it is, but I did start eating dairy and refined sugar again back is the fall. These didn’t seem to affect me, so I went ahead and ate as much as I wanted.
When the springtime pollen came out, my body couldn’t deal with everything, and I kept wondering what could be happening. I knew my skin’s reaction wasn’t solely because of the tree sperm, but I didn’t know what was causing it. I cut out dairy a few weeks ago, which helped, but not enough.
Finally, two days ago, I bit the bullet and cut out refined sugar. It’s not a huge problem because there are other sweeteners, but refined sugar is definitely the cheapest.
Even though it’s barely been 48 hours, I’ve already noticed a huge difference in my skin. A few days ago my skin was weeping moisture, but that’s already stopped, and the patches of skin that broke out are looking less angry.
This means that I have to be very diligent about my diet every spring, and although I don’t like it, it’s better than having pizza sauce patches on my face and hands.
I keep having to remind myself of how much better my skin is, even now, than it was a year ago. Let’s be very real, I couldn’t wear a shirt for months in 2019 because my boobs had weeping eczema patches on them.
As much as having my eczema pop up in spots again, it’s not covering large portions of my body or scaring little children, and I’m so grateful for that. Seriously, I’m so glad I can wear a shirt. It’s nice.
Frugal Treehugger 