Starting when I was about 15 I always had bad acne.  I remember going to my GP who tried all sorts of different antibiotics and creams, and none of them would clear up my acne.  So I was referred to Dr. Rademaker at Tristram Clinic who I got to know quite well over the few years after that.  He prescribed me Roaccutane, which he warned was quite a severe drug but would clear up my skin.

It sure did clear up my skin, but there was a huge list of side-effects, and I experienced just about every single one of them.  Conjunctivitis, fragile skin, dry and cracked lips, dry mouth, dry nose, itching, joint pains, nosebleed, delay in wound healing, depression, fatigue, headache, nausea, peeling palms or soles, sunburn-sensitive skin, thinning hair.  But ultimately, I decided, it was worth it.

The best bit was the cost, the dermatologist appointment was about NZ$120 but the tablets themselves were of negligible cost (perhaps $10-15).  Thing is, every time I finished the course of tablets, the acne would be back again a few months down the line.

So I kept taking them on and off until I was 25 and moved to England.  Over here in England, this medicine is not subsidised for private clients, and a three month course of the stuff was £2,000.  You could get it free on the NHS, but you had to be quite a severe case for that.

So I thought I’d give it time and see what happened.  In 2007 my skin was spotty on and off, it was particularly bad after a big night of drinking but never as bad as when I was a teenager.  In 2008, my GP put me on a course of Trimethoprim, a general antibiotic.  I was on it for 12 months and I convinced myself that it was working, even though I wasn’t sure it was.  Trimethoprim wasn’t generally presecribed for acne and when other doctors found out that I was on it they would look at me quizzically.

When Mum came to visit me in June 2009, she suggested that all the chocolate and junk food I was eating probably wasn’t helping.  I said that when I was 15, I tried eating healthy and it didn’t help (but when I thought longer about it, I was 15 back in 1995!).  So I thought it wouldn’t hurt to try it again.

I cut all chocolate, crisps, sweets and cakes out of my diet.  And that wasn’t easy – I can eat a lot of chocolate – a lot. In a chocolate eating contest, I would always win.

The point of this story is… that cutting all this rubbish out of my diet cleared my skin up in just over a week… it was incredible.  I’ve eaten almost no chocolate and sweets now for nearly 5 weeks and I feel so much better for it.  My skin is clearer, and I even lost 2.5kg.

So I’d just like to preach about the wonders of healthy eating and exercise.  It’s amazing what it can do for you.  Having clear skin and feeling healthy is almost (note… almost) worth never eating chocolate again.

I think the Sweet Chariot in Liverpool Street Station may have suffered a big drop in their sales since

I’m starting the Velocity Diet on Sunday, I’m not sure what’s going to happen to me after that.

Well, this Sunday 26 July 09 I’ve decided to start the Velocity Diet:
http://www.tmuscle.com/…/velocity_diet_30

I’ve always been particularly self-conscious with how I look, and I feel like I have looked the same since I was 21 (in 2001).  After reading the reviews online it seems like something I can do.

Basically, it involves nothing but protein shakes, milled flaxseed, natural nut butter, and a weird variety of supplements, none of which I have heard of.  Oh, and you get a healthy solid meal (HSM) once a week.

Three or four times before, I’ve done a “Juice Diet” where you drink nothing but Juice.  The longest I ever managed to do that for was 13 days in a row.  I think the Velocity Diet should be a bit easier since there’s actually a solid meal to look forward to once a week, and I love the taste of the protein powder that I have at home.

Being in the UK, the ingredients aren’t as readily available as they are in the USA.  I’ve used my favourite brand of Protein Powder – Scitec – but I’ve bought Biotest Surge, Biotest Flameout and Biotest Performance Superfood off eBay.

I can’t find the Biotest Leucine anywhere, so I’ve gone for Maxx Essentials Leucine 6000 Maxx.  It arrived from eBay today with packaging that’s all in French… which is a nice touch.  Doesn’t matter, I don’t know what the heck Leucine is anyway.

I’ve never had problems with eating the same thing for days and days on end.  I’ve never been good lifting weights though… I just can’t find the motivation.  In addition, I’m not the gym type, so I’m going to have to use the weights and weight bench I have at home.

Boy the Superfood is expensive – £34.95 for a tiny 140g (4.94 oz) container (plus the cost to send it to me!).  But… it’s got extract of Wild Blueberry, Orange, Raspberry, Strawberry, Acai Berry, Coffee Berry, Goji Berry, Pomegranate, Broccoli, Kale, Spinach, Wasabi, Wild Yam, Green Tea, Apple, Mango, Passion Fruit, and Watermelon.  Crikey.  It also has an Orac Factor of 5,000.  I wonder what that is.

The diet also involves Milled Flaxseed.  I bought it but am too scared to try it just yet.

It’s going to be hard not going out and having a drink or two with friends, or even a meal, so I’m potentially going to be a hermit for 28 days.  I’m not sure how well that’s going to go.

I’m quite nervous about all this, but I think it was in the “Body-for-life” book (something else I tried many years ago) where it said “if you do the things you always done, you’ll look and feel like you always have”.  Or something like that. 

So it’s only 28 days out of my life for this, and if I don’t try it, I’ll spend much longer than that wondering what the result would have been like.