This is a guest post by Bobby Thomas, who shares everything that works for him in his goal towards clear skin over at Addicted Skin Care. He also hosts a new healthy habits challenge each month which you can join here.

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If you come here often I’m guessing you already know that diet can play a massive part in the health of your skin, but how far should you go for clear skin?

I am going to share my story on how far I went with my diet to try and achieve clear skin and what the results were.

Cutting Out Food

When I decided my diet needed to improve if I wanted to get clear skin, the first thing I did was cut out sweets, ice-cream & chips etc. All the really bad things.

At this point my diet consisted of meat, fish, fruits, everything really, except for sweets etc.

The problem was my skin was still getting worse, so I decided I needed to cut out more foods. 

Dairy, Wheat & Gluten

Everywhere I turned for advice online, cutting out dairy, wheat & gluten from my diet is what I would read – so that’s exactly what I did.

While this did improve my skin a little, it was still not where I wanted it to be so I decided to cut out more foods from my diet.

Meat & Fish

I had read on a few forums that meat and fish could cause acne, so I decided they would have to go.

At this point I had already cut out treats, dairy, wheat and gluten plus meat and fish.

You may be thinking – what the heck did you eat then?..

And the answer is not much. At this point I was down to a few cooked items, vegetables, nuts and fruit.

Did My Skin Look Awesome?

Nope!

There was some improvements but nothing special, really. At this point most people would have taken a different approach as this one obviously was not working too well. But me being me, I decided to go down the same path.

No More Cooking

I decided that because cooking food destroys vitamins and minerals etc, that I would no longer eat any food I had to cook.

I was now down to a all raw diet consisting of fruits, vegetables and nuts.

By now my skin surely looked amazing right?

Again nope!

I still had acne and not only that, by this stage it was impossible for me to socialise with my friends as I could not eat or drink anything they did, and you have to remember, I was only 18 at the time.

Not only did I stop seeing my friends, I also caused a lot of stress and arguments in my family.

Back then, I was so caught up in the whole diet and acne thing everything my family would say about how far I was going with my diet and how unhealthy it was went straight over my head.

When they were saying I really needed to start eating more foods because I was losing a lot of weight, I decided to go even further with my diet.

Organic Only Please

Because my skin still did not look how I wanted it to, I put it down to the chemicals that where in my food as it was not all organic, so from this point forward I decided I would only eat organic food.

Even if I could not afford organic food (which I couldn’t), or if it was not available I refused to eat anything else. It was all organic for me or nothing, end of story.

I was now eating an all raw organic diet.

So my skin should be glowing by now, surely?

And the answer is… no!

I was now down to basically nothing and my skin still did not look how I wanted it to. The last step was eating nothing at all, and I seriously did consider it, but thankfully looking back now I did not go that far.

Time For A Change

After a few months of eating a strictly organic raw diet with average results I decided it was time to start making changes to my diet.

By now it was not as easy as just adding things back in as it had gone much further than just improving my diet for clear skin.

Although I only had average results from the diet, I was paranoid that any food I added in would cause my acne to go back to how it was at it’s real worse.

However I slowly but surely added things back in such as cooked vegetables, cooked eggs and wheat free cereal bars. While adding these foods back into my diet may seem like nothing to most people, I felt it was a huge step in the right direction for me.

And while I would like to say that my diet is now in a good place where I can eat what I want, I cannot. The above foods are the only foods I have added back in for now, but I do hope that one day I can get back to where I can eat what I want, when I want.

I would still like to eat a healthy diet, but If I could eat healthy 80% of the time and then what I want 20% that would be awesome.

What About My Friends and Family?

I still do not see my friends but it’s no longer about the diet but because there has been such a gap between now and the last time I went out with them, but hopefully that will change soon.

As for family we still argue as any other family does, but it’s no longer over my diet.

How Is My Skin Looking Now?

It still isn’t clear, but it is much better than it was before when I was stressing over my diet all day long, everyday.

I would say in % terms it is around 80% clear now, with the 20% mainly consisting of acne marks.

A Lesson Learnt

What I learnt from my own story is everything is healthy in moderation. If you decide you want to clear up your diet to try and clear your skin give yourself a few days off where you can enjoy anything you want.

If you can see yourself going down the path I went down I highly recommend you take a step back and decide whether at this time in your life if what you are doing is for the right reasons and you are doing it correctly with the support of your family behind you.

I did not, and ended up in a really lonely place that I have still not fully found my way out of, put am getting there slowly.

Before I end this I just want to clarify that I am not against having a healthy diet to achieve clear skin, I actually think it’s extremely important, but just make sure it’s a “healthy diet” and not a diet that you hate but feel you have to do.

Have you taken your dieting too far, or in danger of going down the same path as Bobby?