lovin right now

Lovin right now... bath time edition!  Long overdue if you ask me!

Do we really take enough time out of our day or evening to enjoy a good soak in the tub?  

Well, last night I did!  These four things, along with some good music, candle light and a butler (Shaun) refilling my wine glass, are favorites and must haves when it comes to enjoying a good long dose of me time. 

My sister Tracy introduced me to Schick Intuition razors a month ago and I am loving it!  It has the soap already there for you so no shaving cream is needed.  The shave is good and close and the sensitive skin version seen here is what I use and what is needed, apparently, for my ever sensitive psoriasis skin.  So far it hasn't bothered them a bit!  Much thanks to you sister Tracy!

Mad Housewife, Sweet Red wine.... preferably chilled.  Aaaahh what a nice edition and something sweet and cool to sip on.  Pairs nicely with Pepperidge Farms chocolate hazelnut Pirouette wafer cookies which are my guilty pleasure for sure!  Sometimes I pretend they are cigars (nerd!).  

Lastly, my bath wouldn't be complete without my homemade bath oils.  Of course I have to give my tub a wipe down with Dawn after my bath but it is so worth it.  Using oils and herbal oils, I don't even have to use lotion when I get out.  You can use a tad of olive oil added to the water and a couple of drops of lavender essential oil and you'll be just fine.  I also enjoy a sprinkling Epsom salt that is combined with lavender flowers that float in the water yet leave a wonderful scent.  

Here's my personal recipe for bath oil.  Mind you, I have psoriasis and have studied different herbs that help with my skin condition.  You can add them or not, but if you have excessively dry skin, eczema or psoriasis, this combination will surely help.  I have steered more towards taking baths than showers and incorporating my bath oil specifically for my skin.  Showers, even though we have a filter on ours, tend to dry my skin out much worse than a bath and with the addition of oils I don't even use commercial lotions at all.  It has truly made a difference for me.  I know it contains a few odd ingredients to some.  If you only had a few, I would recommend the almond and jojoba oils, vitamin E oil and comfrey oil and maybe the lavender for relaxation.

As far as my scalp,itching and dry skin around my hair line goes, I recommend Paul Mitchell, tea tree shampoo and using it at least every other wash for mild itching and dryness or every wash until the itching and flaking is under control.  If it continues once you have backed off the tea tree you may want to consider the shampoo that you are using in the mean time as part of the culprit for dryness.

I am not any kind of a skin doctor... just a skin sufferer and one who has tried so many products until I have come to a semi-comfortable place.

Eating Journal

Ever tried to figure out what foods or drinks are triggering an allergic reaction?  I have spent the past several years of my life trying to figure the cause of my skin condition.  This year I decided to look to the inside for clues.  I have seen a nutritionist GP that got me started and have read and read and even had some food allergy testing done of which I showed allergies to so many things.  It is hard to change my way of eating and take out certain elements that I have been used to my whole life.

When I was in my twenties I kept getting mouths sores inside my mouth like ulcers.  They hurt and bothered me whenever I ate anything.  I decided I needed to cut some things out to figure out what was causing them.  I changed my toothpaste, stopped drinking coffee and orange juice, cut out berries and all sorts of things.  I decided to cut out all soft drinks completely and to my surprise my sores went away.  I gradually added the other things back over a few weeks and didn't get another sore.  One day I drank a Coke... nothing.  I started feeling silly until another day I had a Pepsi to drink.  Within just a few minutes I could feel a tingling in my mouth and knew that a sore was coming on.  I haven't drank a Pepsi since and luckily haven't had a mouth ulcer since either.  Something in the chemical make up of that soft drink triggered the allergic reaction.

So why not my skin?  Something is bound to be causing my breakouts.  And I know they say that psoriasis is an auto immune disorder and people who suffer from it know it will never go away.  But!  Since my diet changes and herbal detox from my doctor, I do feel better.  My skin isn't as aggravated and mean feeling as it has been and patches on my arms and torso have gone away, just leaving white "scars".  My main problem is patience and sticking with my diet changes.  I assume it is like any diet you go on.  But my cravings are still there for junk food.  Junk food meaning simply things that are or contain items that I have "cut out" and showed allergies to.

I made myself a little journal the other day, tailored to my needs, thinking that if I made myself write down it might be easier to stick to.  Also, I have an area where I log how my skin looked and felt that day and how I felt that day.  This part stemmed from making a casserole Sunday night that included beef and lots of dairy and my skin feeling like it was on fire the next day.  I'm just a few days in and already I feel better and a little proud of myself for taking action and forcing discipline on myself which isn't easy to do.  I am the first one to say "awe... that delicious casserole isn't going to hurt you that bad!" but it did.

It's a work in progress.  My skin problems didn't come up over night therefore will not go away over night!

Seriously... if you like the way my journal looks and thought to yourself "now that's what I need"... message me and we will create one for you.  It's simple really and I was able to print four days on one sheet of paper and simply fold and string them together with a piece of card stock as the cover.  Mine has enough room for 28 days.

I modeled my journal pages after the one I found HERE.

If you really want to read more about my skin you may do so HERE , and a little bit on my diet changes HERE.

literally on the library hold shelf

some of these books i am on the waiting list for and others are waiting on me.  in my quest to eat healthier and overcome my autoimmune disorder, psoriasis, i check out lots of books on eating healthy and a more plant based diet.   i have to realize that these things take time.  my psoriasis did not come up over night therefore will not go away over night.  but with studying, learning and a bit of creativity i feel i have a symptom free future.  

learn to let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food  ~Hippocrates

this does not mean getting the low fat stuff.  it is a whole diet change and a tough one to stick to.  i already feel better.  i am more conscious of what goes in to my body, i am becoming a label reader, i am a daily green smoothie drinker, i sprinkle flax seed on my whole grain cereal.  this may not sound strange to some but it is strange to the way i learned to eat.  not that it is wrong, it is just hard to get away from.  i don't know where i will land, be it vegan, vegetarian or raw.  there is a difference you know between vegan and vegetarian.  i didn't know that before... see how much i'm learning?

anyone else have a total change in eating?  do you want to or need to?  

a support system wouldn't be bad either.  i will be yours if you will be mine!

also another really good book on smoothies that i also checked out from the library is 

365 vegan smoothies

by Kathy Patalsky of Healthy-Happy-Life.com

this book not only has tons of smoothie recipes, it also gives you the low down on different ingredients further than oranges are full of vitamin c.  awesome book.

i am also wondering, can you freeze smoothies for later? like a couple of days later? like if you were going camping you could stick the frozen smoothie in a cooler later?

In This Skin

Me and my spotted skin... here we go.  I live with psoriasis.  My psoriasis is called Guttate Psoriasis.  Red spots form on my skin anywhere they want to, without reason or timing or cause from anything I am doing.  The cells in my skin produce at a more rapid rate than they should.  I have been dealing with the red spots for about six years.  Before that I dealt with white spots or areas of my skin turning into white splotches which happened mainly when I would tan and mainly on my torso.  It was like my tan would peel off. This I can remember starting in my late teens to early twenties.  Whether the white spots are related to the red spots I don't know.  Doctor after dermatologist can't make it go away.  Items help and sometimes make it lighter but never go away completely.  I feel that I am in a lucky stage right now because the red spots are mainly on my shins, the white spots remain everywhere. 

 

The sad part to me is that this is the first year that I have actually thought about hiding it from people.  When you go from long pants and jeans, because of warmer weather, to shorts and skirts and the kids at day care ask about my owees and does it hurt.  The truth is that it does hurt at times and it does itch and I do want to hide it.  The good thing is that I do have ways to make it feel better and please believe me that I have tried remedy after remedy over the years.  When you have something like this, that is visible to everyone, you try everything from tar to vitamins to teas to sunlight to lotions to medicines.  One tube of cream from the pharmacy had a retail price of $860.00.  Yeah.. that is what I said... and it doesn't work... for me anyway. 

 

So there is my confession and here is what it looks like and what I use to calm it down and the best lotion that I have found to use.  I wanted to share because I know I am not the only one and you may have it or may know someone who is at their whits end and maybe something I show you that I use may help flare ups or itching.  Or maybe you have a suggestion for me that worked for someone you know. 

 

 

 

And what I use.

 

 

ugh this is as big as the picture gets.  If you can't see something let me know and I will help you find it.  I didn't include links to the products and for that I apologize.  I feel as if I have said enough.  Sometimes I let people in on the blog here before I would ever let anyone in in person.

And by the way, psoriasis is hereditary and supposedly can go into remission.  Here's hoping!