Nourishing myself from the inside

I don't like to moan. I generally consider myself pretty darn fortunate: I have a home, money to pay the bills, I have a job (for the moment), a partner, family, I'm somewhat healthy.

Its that last bit that gets to me. Health. On the face of it, I'm a pretty healthy person. Aside from my constant illnesses last winter (which I put down to not having built an immunity to Vienna winters), I'm generally a picture of health. Sort of.

Apart from my skin, which seems to suggest that something else is going on. I've been suffering from really bad acne on my jawline and lower face for around 6 months now, and I've come to the conclusion through some fairly thorough internet research that it is caused by what is termed a 'leaky gut'. Which basically means my intestines are not doing their job properly. I also suspect this isn't the first time I've suffered from this. However, this most recent episode is by far the worst. According to the stuff I have read, a leaky gut can be triggered by all manner of things, such as antibiotics, a bout of illness such as flu, or just something really stressful. I've pretty much encountered all of those things this year, and whilst I think my previous acne was definitely linked to my contraception (given that my skin got so much better post Mirena removal), I think it is likely that the slow reemergence and increasing severity of my acne can possibly be attributed to the bout of flu I had in January.

With a bit of luck, it is going to be relatively straightforward to fix. Avoiding trigger foods such as sugar, dairy and grains, eating gut friendly foods such as sauerkraut, miso and coconut, taking probiotic and l-glutamine supplements, and trying my hardest to not stress. Sounds simple right? I need to keep to a fairly limited and strict diet for a minimum of two weeks, and I will probably try to go for a month. I also need to avoid alcohol and coffee, no easy feat in Austria! But just for the month, and then at the end of it I shall hopefully have gorgeous glowing skin to go to the Vienna Rock Ball with at the end of the month.

Tomorrow I will go and stock up on the supplements and do some shopping to feed myself back to health. It seems it is an imprecise science, but good nutrition is important whatever the reason, so I figure it can't be doing any harm.