I just finished up a full month of strength training… I did the 4 week online “mass building” program with Fitness Blender.
It’s 5 days a week of approximately 30 minutes of exercise, using heavy weights to build health, strength and create shapely muscle and tone (just a reminder – if you are a woman that doesn’t mean bulky man muscles!)
Strength training is also super great for balancing hormones, and therefore helping you to clear your skin. Much better than just doing cardio workouts.
It was tough, but I was super proud of myself for sticking to it entirely. Except for the last day haha … ohh.. minor fail but mostly success! (which is what I’m focusing on). I felt so strong and powerful by the end of it!
I like doing these different fitness challenges. Recently I also did a 30 day yoga challenge. I did yoga every day, combination of online videos and going to classes. I find mixing it up and giving myself a challenge goal helps me stay committed and interested.
I particularly like Fitness Blender for fitness videos, because they seem like really down to earth people, but most importantly – they strongly emphasize that the most important thing about fitness is about health FIRST… and looking good second. If you focus primarily on being strong and healthy, the side effect of that is that you’re going to look better.
So many fitness companies and instructors focus only on the killer abs and the beach body, and hardly even mention health as a reason to exercise.
However, I feel like when you are only exercising for the looks alone, you’re trying to force your body into a particular outcome, and it may not come as quickly or as exactly as you are hoping. This is what leads down the slippery slope to eating disorders, over exercising, and body hate, as you try to control this outcome.
Where as, if you focus on health first and looks as a pleasant side effect, it’s much easier to avoid these pitfalls and build a much happier relationship with yourself…. and just simply enjoy your life a whole lot more!
It was this reason that I chose not to take before and after pictures for my 4 week mass building challenge. Because I honestly didn’t really care.
I’ve always been more on the skinny side and have many times wished I had a curvier body that fit the mould of conventional beauty … but I feel like in recent years I’ve come to love and accept myself so much more than I did before.
I’ve come to realize that it doesn’t matter. My body is my body, and I’m never going to fit the mould, because the mould is a joke. We are all different shapes. We aren’t photoshops. Even if my body fills out a little, I’m not going to have big boobs, so the picture never be complete. My body is awesome, as it is, right now.
So I went in this mass building challenge not thinking about my looks, but instead that all I wanted was to feel good, build health, and get strong! … and, hey, maybe that would be cool if I saw some changes in my body from this too. If I looked a little curvier after… right on. But if I don’t, I don’t mind.
I noticed how easy this mindset came to me. As I said, I’ve always wished for a curvier body…. but in truth, I’ve never had a terribly bad relationship with my body overall. It’s been more like a slight annoyance than a soul destroying longing.
My skin, of course, is a different story. And I’ve noticed that there are about a million parallels between “body image” and “skin image”.
And it’s the exact same thing when we start on our journey to clear our acne holistically. We want to be focusing on health first – on loving and nourishing our bodies. And as a lovely side effect, our skin will heal and we will look better.
If we are ONLY doing this for the outcome of clear skin and don’t really give two hoots about ourselves & our health, then it’s a very easy slide into mega controlling behaviours, orthorexia, and food fear.
Because my skin is much more emotional for me than my body, I definitely fell prey to this in the beginning of my skin journey. I wanted to control EVERYTHING in order to get that clear skin outcome, especially my food. As a result, I made myself scared and miserable, because you can never control everything.
Since then, I’ve had a long road to learn to love and accept myself as I am, however my skin is right now, and focus on health first – keeping up healthy habits for ME, and not for my skin alone.
This is how I’ve managed to keep my skin pretty darn clear all these years, while living a happy, free life… free of anxiety, and free of pain and emotional suffering when I do get a pimple every now and again! (because, hey, I’m human).
Life is much better these days, since I decided to focus on health first. Much, much happier. And my skin is happy too.
If you want to learn about how to clear your skin naturally, while also learning to create a positive skin & self image, check out my Naturally Clear Skin Bootcamp program.
And guess what? It also includes an entire body-positive 6 week video workout program lead by yours truly! And Fitness Blender‘s got your back after that 🙂
12 Responses
I’m a huge proponent of working out and being fit and I see people in the gym all day long that care only about how they look rather than their health. One guy goes outside and smokes after his sets! Duh….
It seems like you’re doing a lot of work with anxiety, self acceptance and spiritual/emotional work with acne. That’s so cool! 🙂
Way to go for putting health first Justin! 🙂 Yes I think healing the emotional and self acceptance part of acne is equally as important as the acne itself! Otherwise you’re never going to be as happy as you think getting rid of acne is going to make you!
Hi Tracy! 🙂 I want to know where i can purchase the guide to female hormonal acne e-guide package?
xxx
Hi Destiny 🙂 the hormonal acne book is only available in the Naturally Clear Skin Academy package: https://thelovevitamin.com/naturally-clear-skin-academy/
After 30 days of the caveman, do you have to wash your skin??
Thanks,
x
You don’t have to, but your skin is probably unbearably flakey now?
No, it isn’t I am teen (not stroppy though i hope!) so my skin probably will heal faster and different parts of my face were dry at different times so it is going through the oily phase at the moment. When you were doing it did you get lots of zits without heads on upper cheeks?? What about blotchy skin on chin, looking very red and infamed, the rest of my skin is glowing though, I love the C. regimen.
Sam
Hi Tracy!
I really like your post! I like to work out for how good I feel afterward, not to get any result. I am pretty much happy with my body, except for my face :).
I have a question for you regarding your journey to clear skin. I turn to all natural face products (oils and everything) more than 8 months ago. I had no pimple at the time, but I know I wanna to quit de pill and I knew that my face would probably go crazy if I just quit without changing anything in my skin care routine. I was at the time using dermatologist products with low percentage of AHA-BHA and a cleanser. So I decided to turn to oils and natural regimen, supplements, etc. The months passed and I started to have clogged pores on my chin and forehead. Many times, I wanna to quite and go back to my old routine cause it was working at the time… but I didn’t. But then last week I totally had a panic reaction, then use AHA-BHA cream on my chin for 5 days. I feel like I have relasp or someting (mind as weel laugh about it). I have stop it because I started to have little pimples on my chin and yesterday one more bigger and painful. So then I realized that I have sliped and felt ashamed that my urge to get clear skin fast got me. Please I don’t want to hear things like “you shouldn’t have done this”… I know. The person where I am buying my products and oils already told me this… She told me things like that I could have more bad reactions later on, that I have backstepped too far, basically that I was now a lost cause, that there is nothing more to do for my skin because I put some other lotion on my chin as a test…. So I already feel guilty enough…. And with what that person has said to me I am now scared to wake up tomorrow with my face swollen red and painfull.
Reality is, I have a couple of spots fading away and this bigger zit, a little more painful. But is it very the lotion? It could, but it also could be because I have start my period today (this zit have appeared yesterday). It could also be because I quit the pill in april, and that I am starting to see some effect on my skin….
So my question (sorry for the long intro) did you ever slip in your journey to natural clear skin? Did it had a bad outcome on your skin or did it go back to what it was before your slip? I am searching for light of hope here I guess.
Thank you Tracy, it is always a pleasure to following your blog.
Please no focusing on a little slip up Lily-Rose! Whoever made you feel bad about it is an idiot. You can always move forward… no little slip is going to send you back to square one. If you want to make sure your skin clears up and stays that way, make sure not to just rely on skin care as it won’t do the whole job. Are you also working through changing your lifestyle to a healthier one?
Thank you Tracy for your understanding. Yes I do have changed my lifestyle, I am taking a couple of supplements like Vitex, estrobock, vit B, zinc, Mg and Calcium, I only drink water and herbal tea, I eat mostly healthy food like veggies, fruits, organic grains, organic meat as much as possible, I practice yoga. Basically, I have make a lot of change in my life in the last 3 years.
Tracy,
The rest of my skin is pretty much perfection apart from my forehead congestion and my chin which has 4 zits and inflamed skin whith blocked pores, what can i eat, exercise, whatever to clear my chin.
I am on day 32 of the Caveman Regimen.
Thanks