Posts by jessiep

Hm, well I guess that's where I went wrong in all this: I'm agnostic. I'm kidding of course, I really am agnostic but God wouldn't punish me with zits right? I don't recall that plague............ : )

For the record, I do agree with what you're saying. People are so obsessed with their appearance and (sometimes imagined) health concerns that we'll jump into anything without doing the required research. Then when it's damaging or we don't get the immediate, ideal results we blame the dr or clinic or internet forum that it came from. All along it's our own ignorance about our bodies and how they work! The complete misuse of antibiotics has created what you've called Super Bugs, ie: MRSA a nasty staph infection that is completely resistant to antibiotics because the patient has taken almostall of the Rx or has lied about the recurrence of the problem or the Dr recklessly prescribed it when he/she shouldn't have to ease a patients mind, many causes and most are avoidable.

Head lice, sadly, is the same sadly. The OTC brands rarely work because the treatments aren't performed properly in order to rid the body of the parasite, thus developing a resistance. Again, this is all ignorance and laziness. Well to be fair a lot of these problems could be partially blamed on commercialism. An ad for a Rx that doesn't tell you what it treats? Way to develop and encourage a society of hypochondriacs who are now 'able' to self diagnose huh?

The human body is capable of healing and preventing a lot of things, but not everything. For instance I have medullary sponge kidney disease which is congenial and nothing my body can mend alone. However, the kidney stones that arise from this can be and have been treated homeopathically with a lot of success. Not totally gone, but as good as it could get via any treatment.

My point is that I agree with you that we under estimate our own bodies ability to care for itself. If we could only trust that in some circumstances our body does know best and use that as a guideline when we seek treatment, we'd all be a lot better off. It's a balancing act all in all.

Also, against the Dr's advice I've continued to use plain vitamin E as a moisturizer and it's working great. The retinol is a bit too drying so I've cut it down to a couple times a week. For me it's a mix of science and common sense just knowing what works for me to make my skin happy.

Alright I visited the dermatologist this afternoon and this is what he had to say about this method:

He warned me against using any kind of olive oil EVER on my skin, not just because I have dry skin. Apparently the only 'cleansing' you get is from the massaging, which isn't a bad thing either. It sloughs the dead skin cells off, but you can do the same thing with plain water and not risk the break out. The actual massage can irritate, burst and even tear any little thing in your pores causing breakouts (that's me) and lead to infection (that puss stuff that builds up), of course this is with aggressive massaging for your skin type and condition. Not good, and using a wash rag to massage is even worse for the tearing factor.

Like Jewels warned it's very difficult to get bacteria out of these things when you've got oil wrapped around the bacteria kind of protecting it. Bacteria live and breed rapidly in warm, moist, dark areas, like your laundry basket, then you wash them and if the temp of the h2o and dryer aren't high enough for long enough, you haven't killed the germs. Then you use this rag to wash your face with open pores and whammo, introducing infection in the form of a zit. I always wash my towels in hot bleach water, takes the fun out of color coordinating when all the towels are white, but it kills the bacteria.

He also said that lavender, vitamin E (dang it I love that stuff!!), linseed oil/extract, coconut oil, grape seed oil, sesame oil and mink oil not only induce acne, white heads and black heads, but over 75% of people DEVELOPE an allergy to them! So even if you've never had a problem for years, your skin can suddenly disagree with these substances and have a horrible reaction or just stop responding to it at all. 75%!!! I found that interesting and yet scary. There's a whole list of compounds to avoid in make up and facial products, email me and I'll send you a copy if you're interested. Almay is usually a good bet.

He did highly, highly recommend mineral oil use all over your body as a moisturizer! I was surprised by this after his reaction to the OCM question. He suggests using it after your shower on damp skin and massaging until absorbed. A little goes a long way. I guess it's the safest and cheapest thing to use and great for any and all skin types.

I'm apprehensive but on board. Then they put me on antibiotics 2/day, mineral oil in the AM and retinol at night. I'm going to try this for 2-3 months and if it's working I'll stick with it and also switch to yaz for my BC, they also recommend that. After having acne for almost 15 years (it's not terrible but it's irritating and makes me self-conscious) I think this visit was long overdue and I have no reason not to follow his advice. I'll be 26 in a couple weeks and adult acne sucks, I should be worried about wrinkles, not pimples.

To be honest, I'm super jealous of you chicks who've found relief with OCM! I wish my face would be less stubborn. Please be careful with that evoo though, maybe try safflower or something else so that you don't end up worse off than you started. I say that if it's working for you, run with it! But run with caution, these dr visits are spendy and embarrassing.

I don't think my reaction was an allergic one nor was it hives. Ibelieve that the mix of castor and tea tree oils was just far too drying. Tea tree oil is harsh stuff to start with, at least for my sensitive/dry skin, so to add castor to it was too much. Then when I'd break out a little I'd go into overdrive trying to clear them up, which just made it worse. My downfall was a combination of user error and being uninformed.

Like Liz, I'm going to wait for this to clear and then use an EVOO/vitamin E/mineral oil mix once or twice a week, no tea tree or castor for me! I did have good results for the first few days, lots of gunk coming out that I never knew was there. Unfortunately, after a few too many uses it stripped all my naturally occurring oils leaving me too dry. The hot cloth soaks also dissolve the good oils produced by your skin, not just the ones you've introduced. Another good way to dry it out and leave it unprotected.

I told a good friend about this method and when I started having problems I warned her too. So far she's not had to stop.

That happened to me too. I've been doing this for just about 2 weeks and I broke out in odd places a few days in. I wanted to give up on it because I was so mad and irritated, but suffered through it and it's clearing very quickly. I lengthened the amount of time I spend massaging (I park it on the couch for about 10-15 minutes), I've had little things come out of my skin in spots where there was no angry pimple. Must be doing something right. I also spend more time with the washcloth, soaking and gently buffing my face. I get up early to do this twice a day rather than just once.

The break outs I did get were soothed and healed quickly, try some vitamin E oil to speed this process as well. You could also try a gentle sugar scrub. I use regular white sugar on a damp face and go very lightly over my skin. No more than once a week and you have to be careful not to scrub hard or you'll irritate and tear your skin which leads to a chance of infection. Not pretty.

The way I see it, my old cleansers (there were a lot of them) didn't do any good and I used them for a long time. Why give up after a short attempt? My plan is to give it a month, get through the hormonal changes and let my skin adapt and heal. If that doesn't work I'll trash it.

I don't know if it's a purging process or maybe I wasn't getting all of the oil out of my pores, but the changes I made really helped. Hope it helps you too!

It's funny you say MJ, I pulled out some old school Thriller and Smooth Criminal. I have some harder metal like stuff that my hubby listens to and even though it's not my style, you're right that it has a good tempo which helps a lot. Oh, I checked out that chromeo this weekend too, nice, really good beats.

I didn't realize castor oil was so drying, that expains some stuff. I usually use an exfoliating wash in the morning shower and a cream cleanser, like neutrogena, in the evening. I get the typical monthly breakouts so I use an on the spot treatment for those. Once they start to dry up or drain I use vitamin E oil to speed the healing. This is a constant cycle and it's getting old. My face looks tired all the time, probably due to the abuse it's been subjected to. I've stopped wearing foundation completely, even to hide blemishes. I'm down to just a swipe of mascara because I'm so paranoid.

I'm going to try the 80/20 combo and see what it does. What's better: sunflower oil or tea tree oil or a mix of the two?

newmoon2, I'm confused now which doesn't happen often, ha ha! If I use my wrist to gauge my frame size, well my fingers more than over lap by a whole knuckle. Then I tried my elbow and they're almost 2 inches from even touching. What does that mean? I'm 5'3 so I wouldn't think that there would be so much of a difference! I tried that web site but I think they're undergoing construction or something.

If you ate and then within 5 hours worked out, your body isn't even capable of using the food in your stomach and intestines as fuel. Sorry, but it hasn't metabolized it yet so it's going to use the energy stores already in your system to fuel you. Your body is not like a vehicle using only what's in the 'tank' to propell it. Unfortunately, if you run or jog or do anything cardio with a full belly, not only will you be slightly lathargic but you're probably going to cramp up which will lead to you cutting your workout time short. That's about it.

Sugar, feeling guilty about your food is only going to make your emotional stress worse. Give yourself some time to recoup and go at it again when you're better. This is very common and completely understandable. Just be careful not to let it get too bad.

I agree with nasuoni, it's not silly to turn to strangers (I met my husband of 5 years online by accident). They give unbias opinions and the caring human soul transmits via email as well as in person. Don't forget that the way you meet friends isn't nearly as important as the relationship you build with them and the support you offer one another. That's part of why these type of sites are so successful, mutual support.

You can find just about every recipe imaginable at www.allrecipes.com. This is one of my favorite sites. If you click on the advanced options tab you can customize your search to include/exclude any ingredients or search by a specific type of cuisine. It has these options where you can just search for low cal, dairy free, wheat free, low carb, etc. So useful. I've made an entire book filled with just stuff I've found here. And it's free! I love it. Most of the time they include to nutrition info as well and you can print it right on with the recipe. Hope you like it!

Those are all really good ideas. We do a lot of similar things, so I guess I didn't realize how much exercise I was getting without even trying! ha ha, maybe it's all in how you look at it!

My girls LOVE to do yoga with me. For the most part my youngest just crawls around on me and her sisters, but it's instilling good habits all the same which is equally as important to me. I really never noticed how much exercise one could get just playing with the kids. I'm heading to the store to find some of those mats tonight, that's such a good idea! Thank you!

I don't think so, but you might try plugging those numbers in the activity search and see how they compare. You might also try biking, it burns more calories per hour than walking.

you can go to their websites and check the nutritional value of everything on the menu. this is really informative and lessens the chance of over do-ing it when you get there

Men aren't always as bright and well-spoken as we'd hope they could be. Odds are that he didn't mean that she was fat so much as she was just bigger than the other girls. Let's be real, the chicks on that show are in no way a realistic example of the average woman. So when you put any normal female in the same room of course she's going to look larger. That's not a bad thing because even as beautiful as some of those girls on that show are, they really don't look so good.

You can be sure that if he's not able to hold his tongue about some chick on the tube, then he'd tell you if he had any bad views of your body. Men don't think like women, trust me. I've been in recovery for a little while and my husband says some of the most retarded stuff. The best advice I can give you is this: Ask him about it. I know it causes anxiety to even think about it, but if you really want to know if he meant what he said then you have to ask. Do yourself a favor and tell him that he made you feel crappy with what he said too. Sometimes others don't know that what they say effects you unless you tell them. I'm sure he'll behave much better in the future if you tell him.  

I'm going to fully agree with everything portugueselove said.  I'd have stood up and called him on it right there. If that's not your style, cool, but do ask about it.

And you know what else? Forget America's Next Top Model! I used to love that show because of the photography aspect. But it became a trigger for me and other's that I know with any self esteem issues so I just cut it out of my tv time. 

Salt causes dehydration. Once your body has a high level of sodium it will hang on to any bit of water it can to dilute it. A higher intake of water tells your body that you are not dehydrated and it will chill out and rebalance your nutrients. However, like maddprofessor said, too much water is a problem as well. Your body begins dumping essential nutrients as it passes the water. Thus the clear color most people *mistakenly* believe their urine should be.