The One Week Skin Challange - Day 1 And We're Off!

That's it I said. I'm fed up. There's no way to disguise it. My skin is currently annoying the bejaysus out of me and I'm sick and tired of it. What am I going to do about it, you ask? The one week skin challenge of course!

What is this One Week Skin Challenge you speak of? Well, there's a few things to it.

The main point is that you perform this skin cleansing 'ritual' shall we call it. You have to do this each night for it to work and you cannot perform any of these steps throughout the day or else you'll just muck up the whole program. Here's the link to my 'ritual': http://www.wikihow.com/Get-Clear-Skin-in-1-Week, and here's just a brief overview of what I do:

1. Soak a towel in hot water and place it over your face. The steam and heat opens your pores.
2. Wash your hands properly to remove and dirt or anything that maybe on your hand (key for whenever you're washing your face so no dirt is transferred onto your face). Make a puddle with your hands and squeeze in the cleanser. Rub your hands together and cleanse. Rinse off with WARM water and whatever you do, start singing I Will Survive if you want, just whatever you do, DO NOT USE COLD WATER after as this will close the pores and everything else wont work. Pat dry but not completely dry.
3. Get 10 drops (I know seems like nothing but since it's acidic I wouldn't use any more). Smear all over you face and leave for 10 seconds. If it burns, leave on for no longer than 3 seconds. Rinse off with WARM water. This is your toner (it removes any bits of dirt your cleanser missed)
4. Next, mix 2 tablespoons of sugar and 2 tablespoons of water in a bowl (I'm thinking lukewarm water here so as not to close the pores but not to melt the sugar) so that it forms a thin paste. Add another tablespoon of sugar and mix again. Then pour out just a little bit of the water. Scoop up a bit of the mix onto one cheek. Scoop some more onto the same one. Rub in circular motions for 60 seconds (Seems long, I know but just wait until you feel your skin after!) then rinse off. Repeat on the other cheek, then forehead (I also did my nose and my chin). This is your exfoliator .
5. Last but definitely not least, splash your face with cold water. "Hot water unlocks, cold water locks". This will close your pores. I then moisturised within the '10 Minute Rule' as I am calling it. This means that you apply your moisturiser no longer than 10 mins after washing.

This took me 30 mins to do on my first try last night, but trust me the results are worth it. Straight after my skin felt baby soft. It looked a bit red but that was natural from my skin after washing anyway. I wasn't so sure if I'd notice any difference in the morning but I was pleasantly surprised. There was no redness and already I was noticing less spots, especially on my forehead. I washed my face again this morning using a daily exfoilator and finished off with cold water and then my moisturiser.

Now there is a few things that I am choosing to add after research on the internet to help this along, but not only will this be great for your skin on the outside it is also great for the inside too.
- Drink lots and lots of water. At least eight glasses a day.
- Eat either 2 apples or one large orange BEFORE breakfast.
- Exercise between at least 30 mins-1hour a day (I've started pilates at home as there are some great tutorial videos online)
- Eat larger meals so that you don't snack inbetween. This is to, er, 'get the bowels moving' if you get me there.
- If you decide to eat things such as pasta and bread, make sure they're wholegrain. If you must eat bread try keep it to a minimum and even try wheat free bread.
- This is one most people know anyway but avoid the gungy food i.e. chocolate sweets, pastries, I think you can see where this is heading...
- Get 15 mins of natural sunlight a day. This is why people get more spots in winter, 'cause they to cool fo' the cold!
- Make sure you get at least 8 hrs sleep a night.
- Some foods that really help are walnuts, green tea, green veg, oils like olive oil or flaxseed oil, whole grains, fish, purple and deep red foods, lean meats and lean turkey.

There just some key pointers as I say, but I think to really maintain your skin this may be what you have to do. I'm actually enjoying it, I really feel better in myself already!

So maybe it sounds a bit crazy, I know but I'm willing to try it! Will report back tomorrow,

 Gabriella x

P.S. Follow me on twitter @gabriella678 to see how I'm getting on!
UPDATE: Want to get involved? Just use #oneweekskinchallenge at the end of any tweets!