How did you eliminate your acne?
That's a question I get all the time,
and it's been kinda misconstrued,
as to the pathways I took to actually eliminate the acne.
A lot of people have been saying
that I'm claiming that the vegan diet
actually eliminated my acne from the beginning,
and that's not necessarily the truth for me,
so I just wanna lay out how I got through my acne,
and then what I've done since then to keep my acne at bay.
Real quick, my acne started when I was about 14 years old,
and it got worse and worse, just genetically,
but then I started lifting and I was eating tons
and tons of dairy and cheese.
Basically, I was having my (mumbles),
but I was having maybe about, I don't know,
I'd say about eight servings of cheese a day,
as well as just about 3/4 gallons of milk
every single day, and that just ramped up my acne
to a whole new level of cystic terribleness,
and I just didn't realize what I was doing.
I didn't realize that was what was causing it
so I just kept going because I didn't know any better,
and it just got extremely bad,
to the point that I actually had to hop on to Accutane.
So I believe, although correct me if I'm wrong,
I believe I started it when I was 19 years old.
I hopped on to Accutane after seeing a dermatologist.
She suggested that I try a couple other things.
Try to like doxycycline, minocycline,
all these different little antibiotics and stuff,
and they didn't do anything for me.
I did Proactiv and all these terrible other things
that just didn't do anything for me,
so he was like, "All right, we need to hop on
"to Accutane," my Accutane treatment actually lasted
for 75 weeks.
Starting at about 20 milligrams
and then I ramped up all the way up to 180 milligrams,
and then obviously came back down again
until I was at zero milligrams at the end of my treatment,
and that was what cured my acne entirely.
In my case, my acne was super severe.
Not only did I have a bunch of whiteheads,
I had tons of blackheads that riddled my face,
on the forehead, specifically,
but then I would also at least four cystic,
big, old, marbled beasts on my face
that would literally be marble size, and they were painful.
They pressured, and they just wouldn't go away.
There would always be at least three or four on my face
no matter what day it was, and yeah,
I realize, 75 weeks is crazy long.
The reason that it lasted so long
was because my acne was super severe,
it was gonna be a longer course anyways,
but also, I didn't realize that dairy
and whey protein were what was actually keeping the acne
in me, so even while I was dosing with Accutane,
my acne got through the initial breakout,
and that's what you're expecting.
It's supposed to get much worse
when you first start taking Accutane,
but then it's supposed to start getting better and better,
but it didn't get better.
It just kept getting worse and worse,
and it seemed like nothing was happening,
like we were stagnate in progress, and the reason why I was,
'cause I was still taking whey protein shakes,
I was still drinking tons of milk,
I was still having cheese and whatnot,
and my doctor eventually, it took him forever
to tell me this, but eventually,
he was, "Hey, have we told you not to take whey protein?"
And I was like, "No, I didn't know.
"Am I not supposed to do that?"
And they were like, "Oh, yeah, whey protein
"actually breaks out people pretty bad
"if you're predisposed to that,"
and then I took the whey out,
and Accutane started finally working.
I mean, granted, it took another 30 weeks.
I would think that was about 40 weeks in.
It took another 30, 35 weeks
until I was actually clear clear,
but it got a lot better after that,
and then Accutane started to actually take its role
and start drying up my face and getting me more clear.
So to be completely transparent,
to be completely honest with you,
because that's what I like to do.
I mean I would love to tell you
that this, this, or this completely cleared up my acne,
but it was nothing other than getting on Accutane
and taking the whey and the dairy out of my diet.
And if you want any more information
about Accutane, or if you wanna see more about my journey
that I went through, I actually documented every single week
in a series I call the Accutane Adventures,
and it goes from literally week one
all the way up until the last week I was on Accutane.
You can look at that.
It's on this channel.
You can just go in my oldest videos,
and just join on any week, and you can really see
what I was looking like, and kinda how my face transformed
over the weeks, and you can kinda see
how it got better, and how it got a lot better
towards the end, and you can also see
where I started from, things like that,
but if you want more information, go look back at that.
That's not what this video is about.
It's not necessarily about Accutane.
It's more just about telling you exactly what I did
and then also what I've done afterwards.
Now this video is titled How I Eliminated my Acne,
but to be honest with you, if you've ever had acne,
you'll never fully eliminate it
until you get older and then you aren't producing sebum
or you're not producing the acne and stuff,
but you'll never fully eliminate it
by treating the symptom or whatever.
It's gonna always be there in some fashion or other.
Even now, my face is, it's clear.
To me, my face could not be any better.
I am so happy and satisfied with this,
especially if you go back and you look where I came from,
but a lot of people could say, they could argue
that this is not clear.
I do have a few red, little pimples.
I have little whiteheads.
I have a couple blackheads, but for me,
this is so satisfactory.
I'm so happy with how my face is looking.
And the initial clear up from where I was
back in the day, with my face just being covered,
is thanks to Accutane.
After Accutane, I'm sure you guys wanna know
what I've done to kind of keep the acne at bay
because a lot of times, acne will come back
and basically, you relapse, and acne will come back.
You'll start getting the cysts or the whiteheads,
blackheads, and I've gotten those.
I've gotten more whiteheads and little bumps and whatnot
than I was originally when I came off of acne,
Accutane for the first three or four months,
but what I would say is that now,
I'm more of kind of a regular person.
That's what I've always kind of put it as,
is regular people get a couple bumps,
instead of getting tons of bumps,
so right after I got off of Accutane,
it's almost like I was supercharged.
I was like a superhero 'cause I had the drug in me, right?
So I didn't have anything, I was super clear,
but I'm actually really satisfied
with the drug wearing off, and now,
I'm seeing that this is what my normal self is.
This is my status quo is a couple bumps
with a little bit of blackheads,
and I'm actually really happy about it.
What I've done to keep the acne away
as far as after seeing the whiteheads
actually be able to come back up and stuff,
I've been very wary of what I'm putting into my body,
so one of the things that I've done
since I've gotten off of Accutane
is really watch how much processed food I've eaten,
so really sugary things, really junky food,
fast food, things that are packages and whatnot,
and you've seen me a little bit more of that nowadays
because I'm bulking, and when I get to a certain point
in my bulk, I really just need to get the calories in,
so I understand that by eating a little bit more processed
or fast food or junky, I'm going to break out a little bit,
but now that I've seen how I break out,
I'm sort of okay with the amount
that's going to come up, and then when I'm cutting,
it's gonna go away a little bit more,
but yeah, processed food
was definitely one of the biggest sources of acne.
That out helped a lot, especially with the sugars.
A lot of people react to sugar really bad.
Another one that's helped a lot,
but it really was never a problem for me, is drinking water.
A lot of people seem to not drink enough water
and that's been a source of a lot of people's acne.
When I drink a lot of water, it definitely helps,
I guess, flush my body, maybe,
but I just feel like I break out a lot less
when I'm drinking a lot more water
rather than when I'm dehydrated.
Another one that's really, really big,
probably one of the biggest ones,
is increasing the amount of vegetables that I'm eating.
'Cause I remember when I was a kid, no vegetables, man.
When I started bodybuilding, not really a vegetable person.
I kinda like mixing them in here or there,
but I wasn't getting the amount of vegetables
that I needed, but then I started super-dosing vegetables.
Around the time of the last YouTube house actually,
season one, and I started having eight
to 12 servings of vegetables, and I usually would put it
in a stir-fry.
That way, I could just knock it back,
and doing that helped so much.
I mean, I wish I would've tried that before Accutane,
just to see if it would've helped me at all,
but if you guys are having any acne problems,
try super-dosing vegetables.
Have way more than you usually would.
Instead of having one serving of broccoli,
have eight servings of broccoli with your dinner,
and just, I know it's kinda hard
to put that much vegetables down at one time,
but just try it, man.
You're gonna love the way it hits you.
And this brings me to the vegan discussion.
A lot of people have been saying
that I'm claiming that the vegan diet is what cured my acne.
I'm saying that the vegan diet
is likely a great diet for people
who are prone to acne, because you're eliminating a lot
of the processed sugars, a lot of the junky food.
You're also taking away two of the biggest factors
for me, personally.
Dairy and whey protein, or supplements of any sort.
Those were the things that were just killing me.
I was having so, so much milk, cheese, and products.
I was having so many bars, protein bars,
and protein powders, and those things
were just breaking me out.
So by switching over to a vegan diet
after I got off Accutane,
I think it was maybe about five months after,
four, five months afterwards,
and it's helped me a lot to keep the acne at bay
because I've been super-dosing my vegetables
like I've been telling you,
but I've also been absolutely staying away
from the milk and dairy, and I'm not sure,
relatively, whether meat was making me break out,
but I'm assuming that it could make a lot
of people break out more than you regularly would
just because of the amount of hormones,
and just the way that it's all processed and whatnot.
I imagine that having those extra chemicals
in your body could make people break out more.
So that's actually why I jumped on a vegan diet
originally, was just to help keep my acne at bay,
and I saw really positive results from it.
My face was feeling a lot more smooth and glowing,
and I just felt like there was lot less acne in total,
and then I just got into the vegan diet,
and now I just really like it because it's a fun thing
to do, it's good for the environment,
it's great for the whole animal cruelty thing.
I won't get into that too much,
but just, that's why I got into it.
It was just to kind of keep my acne at bay.
Another few tips that I use to keep my acne at bay
is when I'm sleeping in my bed,
I always change the sheets every two, three,
maybe four days if I'm being really lazy,
but the pillowcases, every single day.
If you're like me, and you work out all the time,
which I definitely do six times a week,
this is a huge tip for you.
Right after you work out, don't let your face dry
with the sweat on it.
Go straight to the locker room.
Either put your face under the water,
or even better than just washing your face,
go straight into a shower.
Just wash your entirety, because you're gonna have sweat
and oil and all sorts of weird stuff in your hair,
and I don't know, I just feel like when you get all off you
in the shower, it's a lot better,
but also, if you can handle this,
take your shower however temperature you like.
If you like it warm, then take a warm shower,
but at the very end of it, right before you get out,
turn it all the way to cold, maybe stick your body out
'cause it might be pretty cold for you.
If you can handle it, you can just stay in the water,
but take your body out of the water,
and push your head into the water,
and just let the cold water go over your hair,
go over your face, and let it cool your face down.
I feel like when your face is warm,
your pores are more open,
so then you walk around the locker room,
maybe touch your face and maybe, I don't know,
there's poo particles in the air, something,
maybe old men been pooping, gassing around.
I don't know, I don't know the science of it,
to be honest, but I feel like,
when you leave the shower warm,
you get a lot more acne than if you cool your face down,
close your pores down, and then just move on.
So to kinda summarize this whole thing,
if you're someone who's facing really bad acne,
and you've tried Proactiv,
and you've tried benzoyl peroxide,
all those things actually made my acne worse.
They didn't help at all.
They actually aggravated it.
So if you're one of those people
that those things aren't working for you,
and people are always telling you,
"Have you tried Proactiv yet?"
And you're like, "Yes, I've done it a million times
"and it just doesn't work for me."
If you're one of those people,
then what I would suggest is before you start Accutane,
before you go talk to your dermatologist
about Accutane, before you consider that at all,
try overdosing on vegetables, and just have eight
to 12 servings of vegetables.
You might actually see an improvement in your skin.
Try to up your water, make sure you're taking cold showers
at the end of your showers, and make sure
that you're changing your sheets all the time.
That's a huge one.
That was one that caused a lot of acne for me.
And if none of that stuff actually improves your acne,
then go see a dermatologist, and what they're gonna do
is they're gonna first try you on minocycline
or doxycycline, and those are two antibiotics,
and for some people, they work really well.
You're immediately clearing up,
and you're like, "Oh, I don't even need
"to do the more extreme version," which is Accutane.
And then after you take those antibiotics,
then they'll try something called Retin-A,
and it's basically topical treatments
like a ointment that you put on your face,
and it's basically vitamin A that you put on your face,
and then if that still doesn't work,
then you can talk to your dermatologist about Accutane,
and Accutane is essentially just,
it's vitamin A that it's like at a super dose,
and you actually ingest it orally into your stomach,
and then it starts building up over time.
Once you build up a cumulative dose
of vitamin A in your body enough,
your face will start clearing up,
or your body acne, whatever acne it is.
It'll start clearing up and then you'll be in a better place
as far as acne goes.
Do be aware of the risks, the pros and the cons,
so do some studying 'cause there are some people
who have faced very severe depression.
There's people who have faced all sorts
of different things like really dry skin,
people who have had erectile dysfunction,
all sorts of different things.
Me, personally, I think I was one of the best cases
of Accutane because I didn't experience, really,
any of those things.
I experienced a little bit of loss of strength,
a little bit of joint pain, sometimes a little bit
of sleep loss, but really nothing severe,
but again, like I said, you should be aware
of the pros and the cons before you consider that.
Of course, also talk to your dermatologist.
So there you have it guys.
I just wanted to explain to you really quickly,
a topic and a question that has been brought up a lot
in the comments lately.
Just how I originally got rid of my acne.
A lot of people have been kind of attributing it
to different factors, so I just wanted to put it out there,
and explain exactly how my journey went personally.
I know a lot of you guys have already heard this,
so I'm sorry if this is kind of a repeat video for you,
but I just wanted to get the information out there
for people to see what pathways you can take
to kind of experiment to see if it'll improve your skin,
and then what you can do as the ultimate treatment,
the most severe thing that you can do
if you need to get to that point,
and like I said, there's all sorts
of information about this.
You can search all over the Internet for Accutane.
You can also watch my series, which I've put up,
all 75 weeks, and hopefully, you can kinda learn
some informational things, and kinda see
how I was dealing with it and how it kinda dealt with me
and what kind of acne I was dealing with,
as compared to what you're dealing with,
and kinda see if it's the right choice for you.
But there you go, guys.
I hope you enjoyed this video.
I hope it served its purpose that I was intending
to serve, and I really appreciate you guys supporting me,
always showing love, always telling me,
my face is glowing and stuff like that.
That is so cool of you guys.
Give me a thumbs up if you've enjoyed this video.
Leave me a comment, let me know what you thought.
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Team Beyond the Weak.
See T.
- Lift heavy or die mirin' motherfucker. (growls)
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