Skin fasting isn’t a common practice but I think it’s a good one. In this post, I answer the question, why you should consider skin fasting – and how to do it to clear up acne and other skin inflammatory problems.
By now, we’ve all heard of the term intermittent fasting. It’s a system of balancing your eating patterns, allowing a time for eating, and a time for resting your digestive system. Intermittent fasting has become wildly popular and well researched, showing how beneficial it is to give your body a break.
Which got me thinking, what about our skin? Does it, too, need a break from the endless line-up of cleansers, moisturizers, and make-up we apply daily?
I’ve been digging into acne, why we get it, and what we can do about it. Because no one loves a breakout. What I’m finding is that we don’t have enough balance. Let me explain below.
it’s not what you think
Acne is often referred to as a hormonal problem, but I don’t believe that is the real problem – it just appears that way.
Acne is an immune problem.
Flare-ups often happen during hormonal changes due to the energy change away from our immune system and into our endocrine system. This leads to more breakouts during periods of menstruation, adolescents, and even menopause.
But your hormones aren’t the culprit – they’re just a byproduct – your immune system is the real culprit.
Which leads us to question how we can boost our immune system and clear our skin?
Three big takeaways
There are three big takeaways as it relates to your immune system and your skin that is important to note – as in everything.
- Balance the bacteria
- Reduce inflammatory agents
- Move your lymphatic flow
These aren’t just for the skin, but your entire body – working with it because your body does know best.
While I could talk about how to do each – they’re things we’ve heard over and over and over;
- Use natural products
- Eliminate inflammatory causing foods
- De-stress
- Get sleep
- Stay hydrated
- Move your body
- Jade roll your face
- Try dry brushing
These are all good and necessary, but I started questioning, is there something our body needs even more than this? What could we provide our body that would enhance its ability to restore?
That’s when I thought about the trend of intermittent fasting.
intermittent skin fasting
We know in research how valuable the art of fasting is on our bodies. Researchers have found it to be one of the only times rejuvenation happens in the body – taking health from a place of just trying to keep up to a place of total restoration.
So what if we take this same approach and apply it to our skin?
Maybe our skin needs the same kind of break from products that our body needs from food.
What would happen if you let your skin be, fresh, whole, without products for half the day?
That’s 12 hours product free – would we then create space for your body to heal the skin, rather than working to keep up with the product load?
Would your bacteria be able to breathe and balance out?
Would your sebaceous glands reset its oil production?
Would your internal immune system have time to cleanse out the inflammation in your skin?
Would you see a reduction in acne?
I think there is something to skin fast – not to say that you have to go make-up/product free for a prolonged period, but just some time at varying intervals every day.
If you think about it, what happens outside is no different than the inside, it’s all still your body, and your body loves periods of fasting.
would you try intermittent skin fasting?
This means no more night cream, or at least not every day.
Maybe even doing a few days make-up free, allowing the skin to be bare?
Like anything, I think it’s a personal thing – you have to try it out for yourself and see what you feel. I will encourage you that it takes roughly a week for your skin pH to even out – so if you’re going to try something, you have to commit to it for two-plus weeks before being the judge of if it helped or not.
For me, this looks like washing off my make-up after dinner {6:30 – 7:00 pm} and waiting to apply anything until the morning.
You can get a full view of my skincare routine here.
What would it look like for you, and do you think it would help?
not ready? start with baby steps
If this is too overwhelming for you, what if you went through a phase of simplifying your beauty routine. I say this only because I believe that over-cleansing and drying out your skin is one of the worst things on our natural skin flora. It kills the bacteria creating more imbalance than you started – which turns into dry skin or oily skin – leading to more breakouts.
If nothing, stop using so many products and keep a focus on dietary intermittent fasting. Oh, and don’t forget to move that lymphatic fluid.
