I'm back - and propably ready to take the next step.

I haven't been here since December. Maybe quitting coffee and sugars together was too much for me. It's weird how scary this is. Anyway, I think I can do the sugars now. I went through this thread and it had some great tips I can use.

I haven't had any coffee in months. Nobody believes me when I tell them, because I was the biggest caffeine addict they have known. I sometimes have taheebo tea but I feel like I don't need teas anymore.

I've stopped showering every day and shower once a week. I never thought this was possible. My skin is much less irritated. Also, spring is coming so my skin feels a lot better because of that. I excercise a lot and cannot tell anyone that I don't shower after workout. I just change into clean, dry clothes.

Also found this really interesting page:
http://naturescureforeczemaallergies.weebly.com/index.html

Okay, on with quitting processed sugar. Small steps (that feel like HUGE steps).

From gentlest to most powerful you can try chamomile, passionflower or valerian. They are all actually pretty gentle - nothing like taking a prescription or anything. They just calm the nerves a bit and are actually good for the nervous system.

Valerian is great - I sometimes have trouble sleeping or feel restless in the evening and it makes me feel relaxed. Combined with lemon balm it makes me fall asleep instantly.

Update on quitting coffee: I'm starting to feel better.

It's still hard to stay awake and hard to sleep at night but the headache is almost gone. I think I'll survive this. Just have to keep in mind not to start drinking coffee again. Propably next week I'll be fine and then after that I hope to notice some positive effects. I have to quit drinking green tea at some point and move to herbal teas. I already bought more licorice tea and also ginseng, thanks Dorothy.

Btw licorice has helped a lot. I think I feel so bad partly because my blood pressure drops when not having coffee. Besides the tea I also eat licorice root extract, it's hard, kind of like candy but better.

I'm surprised how easy it was to switch processed sugar to fruit. Today is my biggest test: I usually have sweets on Friday (and Saturday, and Sunday). Maybe I'll have raw chocolate and dried fruit instead. It might not be that much healthier but mentally it's important for me to keep eating the good stuff, not junk.

My skin is in a bad condition but it hasn't gotten worse so guess that's a plus. I try not to think about it too much - focusing on other things makes me forget about the pain and itching. I stopped using soap and have washed my hair and body with honey instead. I have no idea if that's smart but honey is a good cleaner and doesn't make my skin dry. Right now I can't stand oils at all, they make my skin itch like crazy. It feels much better with just sea salt.

I ordered some products and still waiting for them to arrive. Liquid zinc is a lifesaver but I'm all out now. Help is on the way and hopefully coming here soon. I also bought oregano oil and some other stuff I haven't tried yet, can't even remember it all.

Personally I believe vitamin D might have benefits. All other vitamins sups I believe are unnecessary at best and quite possibly hurtfull.

D is the only one I take because other vitamins I can get from food.

Great job on the quitting coffee! You are motivating me to throw out my 1 cup a day. I'm not really addicted to it and don't notice anything like headaches if I don't drink any. But I quite like to have that one little thing I can consume with my colleagues at work. Social pressure... its a bitch.

Well quitting should be easy then! Could you drink somethin else while others have coffee? Or just enjoy their company without drinking anything? I used to smoke and really miss the socializing on tobacco breaks, so I usually just go out with everyone else. Today someone asked me if I could give her a gicarette and was really surprised when I told her I don't smoke. She hadn't noticed I just stand there, talking.

I only drank one cup a day and it definitely did something to my brain chemistry. This feels just like quitting antidepressants.

I would definitely start having breakfast! It really kicks in your metabolism, ends catabolism(resulting from an 10hr or so fast during the night) and re-initiates anabolism which you need to heal anything. Breakfast is king.

I'll try that tomorrow. With the coffee, I was never hungry before afternoon. Hunger feels great because I haven't had much appetite lately. Maybe this will eventually cheer me up and I won't feel as tired anymore.

Maybe raw eggs for breakfast.

If you don't like the Idea of using animal fat as a skin treatment, try coconut oil. I have used both and find that animal fat works but its kind of pasty, while coconut oil has a perfect consistency. Coconut oil also has anti bacterial properties.

Yes, I use coconut oil already.

I am real weary of any artificial vitamin D. Its a steroid like compound that was never meant to be ingested in large amounts. Our digestive tracts were never designed to take much of it in. I think some synthetic forms of vitamin D actually cause more harm than good.

This sounds weird but I will read the link you sent me.

It is best obtained through the skin , generated by UV rays.
Try to oil yourself up and lay out in the sun, or even use a tanning bed for some really amazing health benefits. I swear by it.

This would be fun but possible only in summer for about two months. Yesterday we had a little sunshine and it really hurt my eyes because I'm so used to the darkness. Next time we have enough sunshine to make skin produce vitamin D is in May.

I start taking vitamin D in September and stop when it starts to get warm and sunny again. But still there's eight months every year when I really don't have a choice.

One side thing - stevia is a ground up plant - not artificial - so it makes a great substitute for people addicted to sugar which is even more artificial. I hate the stuff myself though. D-mannose is the isolated sugar from cranberries - so also is just a better choice than isolated sugar cane.

Ok, that cleared things up. Still I don't feel like I need any sweeteners though. But if I need them at some point I'll try D-mannose.

If you are on a pot or two of coffee and try to come off it too fast you can even pass out. If you get a headache it's because the arteries in your brain are starting to open again as coffee close them down and restrict them. Why people would want less blood to their brains ones they realize this is beyond me.

Interesting. I didn't know this and had to do more research. It's weird how coffee changes the brain. And it starts to look really weird people are drinking it.

You can do this! Just remember, you are dealing with addiction. Be kind to yourself. Set yourself up for success any way you can. One day at a time as they say.

Thanks again! I feel a lot better about this after reading your posts.

Dorothy, thank you so much for helping me! I really feel like I'm on the right track now.

The best one so far I have come across is licorice tea and you can mix this with other teas for a lovely sweetness.

I think I have some licorice tea at home. I usually drink it when I'm sick and it helps, especially if I feel tired and have to do something. I also have low blood pressure sometimes. I love licorice candy so this will be a good alternative for sweets!

Also, eating cinnamon helps a lot.

I love cinnamon! Any ideas on how to use it? As tea also?

Stevia leaf is a sweetener that will help with our blood sugars and can be temporary substitute when working on rebalancing blood sugars. I would not suggest honey at first because that will still add to big sugar swings. D-mannose is a kind of sweetener that is not absorbed by the body but prevents urinary tract infections. These all can be very useful at the beginning stages because you can add them to your tea to balance yourself a bit.

I don't really like the idea of bringing artificial sweeteners into my diet. I don't like the taste of stevia at all. I don't add sugar to tea so sweetening it propably isn't necessary. I try to avoid the sugar swings by eating honey just a little after a meal. I add cream and coconut oil to my coffee (and I am down to one cup a day).

Teas like mate are great.

I love green tea but mate makes me feel kind of nauseous for some reason.

Another energy giving and balancing tea is ginseng.

Ginseng sounds interesting! I have to see if they sell it somewhere.

Man, there are so many! I'm blanking out. I'll add more when they come to me.

Tons of info already. Thanks!

Getting off refined sugar and caffeine is vitally important. If you have to first go to whole grain rice to keep the carb thing going until you get off of the poison and then make the next step to raw paleo afterwards - do it.

That's how I think also. I can't eat whole grains because they make my stomach hurt and I don't really use that much grains anyway. I'll try to move to healthier carbs like vegetables and fruit.

Eat and do whatever you have to to clean up the extremely bad things you are doing to yourself and all the rest will be easier.

Hope so! Thank you for encouraging me.

Cold turkey can be really hard. Eating sugar and drinking coffee - it would take a will of steel to go cold turkey. The best number one step is get your blood sugars more balanced or you will be craving carbs like there's no tomorrow. I wouldn't even go off coffee and sugar cold turkey.

Yeah I have noticed that. I've tried to quit so many times without much success. I'm going to take it slow this time and try not to be too hard on myself if I slip. I know sugar and coffee are my worst problems and I'm working on those now. I don't have to eat 100 % raw paloe right away, if ever.

Best of luck!

Thanks!

Yesterday, after opening this thread, I went to the expensive grocery store and bought some quality foods. I had a banana with coconut oil, raw meat, raw cheese, fermented cabbage and some good honey. I also noticed that bone marrow is really cheap! I love the taste, it's kind of gross but the texture is great and there's really nothing that tastes as rich, except maybe freshly picked blueberries. I also had some cooked food but not as much as usually.

I used the not-so-good honey I had to wash my skin and hair with and my skin feels really soft now. Hope it won't give me candida or something. I was also thinking of using bone marrow on my skin, but I'm not really sure about the smell. Honey leaves a nice soft scent.

I was going to buy sweets today but decided to get some raw chocolate and brazil nuts instead. I'm not as tired today so that's definitely a big bonus. I'm thinking about the coffee - maybe I could try to have just one cup a day, a smaller cup perhaps. I could drink green tea instead and then later move to herbal teas.

It's really dark now, even in daytime. It's kind of comforting. Like there's a huge grey blanket pulled over everything.

And I'm off to work.

Your antibacteria regime seems very harsh to me! The skin has a protecting layer of "good" bacteria. They literally work by crowding out the bad ones. This is a very strong mechanism to protect the skin. I would give up the antibacterial soap and instead try to build up that layer of good bacteria. I can imagine that your regime of antibiotics and antibacterial soap has disturbed the natural balance of skin bacteria.

I use black soap or tea tree & lemongrass, that's what I meant by antibacterial. Is that also bad for the good bacteria? I'm afraid to stop because I used to have horrible bacterial infections and those are now gone.

I sometimes use raw milk real kefir(made with grains) on my skin. It's very soothing and the good bacteria from the kefir combat any bad bacteria. The fats/proteins in it also feed the skin.

How do you use kefir on skin? They don't sell it in Finland but I've eaten some when travelling abroad and can't really imagine how to use it.

I also really like butter on my skin but it does smell a bit after a while.

Just regular butter applied on skin? Sounds weird but I'm willing to try anything.

Thank you for the info! It would be great to hear more about how you take care of your skin. Do you have atopic skin also or other issues?

Okay I'm back!

I spent a lot of time on this forum at some point but went back eating "normal" food after a while. It was too hard for me to jump into raw paleo cold turkey, so now I'm trying to do it slowly. I've been eating raw meat all this time now and then (because after I had tasted raw beef, the same stuff cooked started to taste somewhat "ruined"). I have noticed I often crave raw meat and also find this diet somehow appealing because I keep coming back.

I no longer wait to be cured immediately. I have atopic skin and it's quite bad. Now I can manage if I take good care of it. And by that I don't mean the same thing as doctors, who keep telling me I need tons of cream and cortison and antibiotics. My method is to shower every day using antibacterial soap and sea salt after shower. Later I put coconut oil on my skin and if it feels itchy (which is often) I use liquid zinc. And never see a doctor again.

I live in Finland so the air is very cold and dry most of the time. There is enough sunlight only in summertime, so I take killer doses of vitamin D every day. I also use air humidifier at home.

I've tried eating low-carb and paleo, but haven't noticed any difference.

Other problem I have is hypothyroidism. I don't take any medication, because there is still some action left. If my thyroid still produces hormones, I want to do everything I can to help it. I do fine in summertime but right now, in November, I feel terribly tired. I use kelp and coconut oil, but I'm not sure if the amounts I use are enough. I have kelp powder and it says on the packet I should take 1/4 teaspoon per day (which I am taking but it doesn't seem to help me). I have probably one tablespoon of coconut oil every day but maybe I should take more? If someone has info on this please share.

Okay, what now?

I'm really addicted to sugar and caffeine. I'm not ready to anything drastic right now, but I'll try adding more raw foods into my diet and limiting coffee intake to one or two cups a day (for now).

Tips & comments welcome!

Hello!

I've forgotten what I was searching when I ended up here. I've read your posts for two hours straight and I think I'll continue reading them for another two hours or so. And then, when I wake up in the morning, I'll open my laptop and read some more.

I feel like finally I have found a diet that makes sense.

I don't really eat grains and I try to avoid processed sugar. I eat mostly low-carb stuff: meat, cheese, berries and vegetables. I've tried ketogenic diet, paleo without any milk products, warrior diet and so on but no matter what I eat I still suffer from allergies and atopic skin.

Then I found raw food diets. Most guides out there are for vegans and for most people raw food diet means raw vegan diet. Nobody talks about eating meat or eggs. It's not even an option. I've tried all-raw diet for a week or so eating mostly fruit, but I feel really bad and my teeth start to hurt.

So why not combine these two?

I'm so excited about this! I must have figured this out by myself a long time ago but pushed the thought away and now I really can't see why. Raw paleo seems to be the most natural way of eating. I'm going to try this right now, I'm going to do it cold turkey and see how it goes. I have no idea what to expect, but guess I'll just jump into this and enjoy the ride.

But first, I'm going to read some more.

(And after I'm done I can tell you something about myself. Right now I'm busy!)