So how does the work-trade-live agreement work exactly? Is there a formal network?
Also, I agree that living overseas doesn't have to be expensive. I lived for four months in Europe, Turkey and Greece for less than $2,000. I didn't go hungry and still saw the sights.
The hubby and I are hoping we can make arrangements to live in Europe for two months this summer, with our baby, who would be about a year and change by then.
Many people are unaware how often they rest their chins in their hand. Germs on hands transfer to chin. Also, the compression factor must be considered, i.e., pressure of head on hand can contribute to clogged pores.
Another thing, and this won't be everyone's cup of tea (but don't shoot the messenger!), Louise Hay's book, Heal Your Body, lists a cause for pimples as "little bursts of anger." The solution is to try for more serenity in one's life. This is touched on by Andrea when she noted, 'nothing seemed to have any effect on my angry skin.' Many people are now acknowledging that one's skin is a reflection of one's emotional state.
'The mind-skin connection makes all the sense in the world to Shelley Sekula-Gibbs, MD, clinical assistant professor of dermatology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.
[During development in the womb], the brain and skin are derived from the same cells, so there is a connection," she says. "And the other immediate relationship is that when people experience stress in life, quite frequently, their skin becomes a reflection of the stresses."' http://www.webmd.com/skin-problems-and-treatments/acne/features/effects-...
"Psychodermatology is a field that addresses the impact of an individual's emotion as it relates to the skin," says Karen Mallin, PsyD, an instructor in the departments of psychiatry & behavioral sciences and dermatology & cutaneous surgery of the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami. http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=52328
That's a pretty good total, Nora. I know when we did our six month deal, it cost us about 15,000 USD total for the two of us. However, we were racking up plane tickets left and right and knew that if we had stayed on the road we were going to do more of the stay in one place for a while and house sit like we did for a few weeks in Jordan. That really helps, along with the kitchen access.
Congratulations on a frugal year of fantastic travel!
That's amazingly cheap - mind you, Nora, it helps that you are resourceful, friendly, and not lazy. I'm pretty sure it would cost me 20k a month, just in room service. :)
I've tried everything over three decades, and nothing worked. (Well, I didn't do Accutane.) Finally a young dermatologist told me about an off-label use for a diuretic that was having some success with some patients with deep, cystic acne. Tried it. Loved it. Can't live without it. It's spironolactone. It doesn't cause weight loss/gain. It will affect mood swings if you don't take it regularly. To me, it's a miracle, and I'll never live without it again. 50 mg a day (half in morning, half at night).
$10,000 or even $14,000 per person per year travelling full time is impressive. Wow. And you get to see the world too. Envy....and i want to do the same too when my children grows up.
I went to law school and I was a teacher before that because these were safe choices. I delayed for years my true dream because it was risky.... my husband supports me in quitting my job as an attorney and pursuing my dream and yet I am fearful. This article comforted me. Thank you and good luck to you (well its been a year since this was written so hope it worked out)
This is a great post on how to find your goals for life. Without knowing these goals life remains without purpose and it is hard to motivate yourself for something.
I have a blog on time management and wrote more 200 posts with practical time saving ideas on how to gain an extra hour every day. One of the most popular posts is how to set your goals for life.
If you don't know what you want to achieve in life - what is the benefit of time management?
Great article! Pro Activ actually worked for me, but my skin began to dry out, so I resorted to using it only twice a week.
I actually blogged about a solution to this today over at my blog. Drinking a glass of lukewarm water with a few drops of lemon in it every morning (have to keep consistent) will reduce acne TREMENDOUSLY. Very cheap remedy. Also has numerous other benefits I discuss in my post.
Also, drink plenty of water and keep active. Move out and about, get some fresh air, and keep your hands clean. It's also essential to get enough sleep.
It usually takes two or three passes through the still to remove all the impurities from the alcohol. One pass may not be enough to create a safe batch.? is this true?
I really didn't have much acne as a teenager but in my twenties I began having pimples show up on my chin. Took me a while to figure out....the cause was coming from my office telephone. I would hold it in the crock of my neck while I was typing. The mouth piece of the phone was touching my chin. Started cleaning my phone mouthpiece more often and it cleared up.
The best way to get started of course is to either have one working partner support the business owner (which is what we did) and/or do the new business on the side of a day job (which we also did). We also run a low overhead, services-based company (Web technology, targeting government and government funded organizations), so we have no inventory.
I was pretty disillusioned when I investigated business loans - not fabulous rates, with a tremendous amount of work developing a business plan, for a collateral based loan. No thanks. We do have a line of credit for cashflow.
I personally think owning my own business (through which we get our health insurance) is a much safer situation for my family than working for another company which could let me go with no notice. It is definitely not easier, though, but I do feel more in control of our destiny. We are also lucky that contracting is always an option for us.
Since getting a HDTV we watch no other channels. The quality is unmatched and not available via the internet. A Blu-Ray DVD player also makes movie watching fantastic, much better picture than in theaters. We easily made up most of the costs by getting rid of our landline telephones and never going to the movies.
Paula Begoun's book "Don't go to the cosmetics counter without me" (or maybe it's makeup counter) is great for getting facts about several different kinds of skin conditions and reviews of thousands of products and whether they do what they claim.
I have personally found one of the most effective things for my acne to be washing my face with baking soda, and nothing else. I do use some anti-acne lotion but I have given up on expensive cleansers.
I spent years as well trying to find something, mostly grocery store attempts, I refuse to go to a Clinque counter. My acne has never been bad enough but I have only found one thing that works as well and that's a $10 a tube Clearasil Ultra... and I have become cheap!
[much in part thanks to wisebread!]
So, I tried the baking soda suggested by alot of people, and I am blessed enough, that it works most of the time.
I still have breakouts here and there... but not as bad!
Hi, Juliette. That's so funny about exfoliating - it's one of the only things that prevents me from breaking out in smaller acne. It just goes to show that there's a different solution for everyone!
Valid point about picking - one of my only New Year's resolutions is not to do that anymore, or at least to severely limit my poking and prodding.
I got a Nano (8gb) for Christmas, and while I was pleased to get it, I had no idea how thrilled I'd be within 24 hours. It took that long for me to realize I could download shows onto my iPod, then plug my iPod into my TV. (It cost $50 for the Griffin brand cable.)
I'm giving serious thought to breaking up with my cable provider. And this time for good!
Where I live, the cheapest cable package is just $15. So I'm debating whether or not I'll actually save money if I'm buying programs (and season passes for my fave shows) on iTunes. Then again, it's pretty nice to be able to watch Grey's Anatomy whenever I want.
Great post! No singular practice or purchase solved the problem I had with my skin.
It's been a year since my skin really cleared up and I found that changing to a less stressful job, using a mineral-based makeup with a built-in sunscreen (bought at a boutique), washing my face with a gentle product only twice a day, skipping toner completely, using a good quality moisturizer (bought at Target, a Johnson and Johnson product), and spot treating the areas really helped. Washing my face before I worked out also helped, even after I switched to good quality makeup.
Surprisingly, I believe it really helped when I stopped exfoliating daily. I know there's this rumor that acne is caused by dead skin sloughing off and clogging pours, but that clearly wasn't my problem. I rarely exfoliate now, letting that "dead" layer protect my sensitive skin from the windy, dry climate of the Intermountain West.
Plenty have said "don't pick" the pimples. But we do it anyway. It's totally illogical, so if you're going to do it, be smart about it: Wash your hands, wash your face and prep the area to be picked with a warm washcloth or chamomile tea bag, the heat of which will bring the gunk closer to the surface. Then push on either side, gently, avoiding nails and other devices. When you see the gunk, wipe it away and leave it alone. If you can't stop then, you'll only bleed, and that's just a way to convert your blemish into a wound. So stop when you see the gunk, and place the warm washcloth or whatever back on top of the blemish for a minute or so.
Someone else posted about their success with tea tree oil, and I agree. It's far better than Seabreeze. As for diet, I saw no benefit from avoiding sugar, which I tended to do anyway, or white flour (I'm a wholegrains girl on most things), but I did notice that drinking water was really helpful (and cheap!).
One more thing: I deeply regret I spent nearly 10 years in a very public profession battling my complexion so awkwardly. I wish I'd just gotten over my insane idea that going to the dermatologist was arrogant. Not going was a way of reinforcing for me that I didn't deserve to be pretty. So if you haven't solved the problem on your own in a few months, go see someone. Afterall, your OTC remedies and old wives tales might actually be part of the problem (but stop exfoliating and see if that helps at all :) first!).
Thanks, Andrea - this is a great article! I had a similar experience, and was really really embarrassed about getting treatment for it in my late 20s when it became a problem. I'd tried pretty much everything mentioned above before I finally overcame my embarrassment (and unease about taking medication for something that seemed vain and trivial).
I had no luck with antibiotics (and hated taking them, anyway), but I switched doctors and my new dermatologist prescribed Spironolactone for me. It's only an option for women, as it (among other things) interferes with androgen (a male hormone). However, for me, it's been a miracle drug.
My point, I guess, is that different things work for different people, but that it totally and completely worth it to look, and keep looking. If I had just continued to treat my acne topically, I would have continued to have major problems. I look - and feel! - so much better now that my face isn't distorted by gigantic cystic acne.
I too started having problems with my skin once I hit my mid-twenties. I tried a lot of things, but I found that alternative medicine was the only thing that helped.
However, I completely agree with the point that grabbing a product off the shelf (holistic or not) is bound to met with disaster. It's hit and miss, and the misses get to be expensive. In my case, I went to see a practitioner (a fully qualified and licensed one -- I did some research before I went).
She helped me identify specific triggers (allergies and food intolerances that I didn't know I had) and recommended treatment. I now use natural products that are better for the environment and less toxic for me.
While this worked for me, I know it's not for everyone. I totally agree that people should see a specialist -- whether it's a dermatologist or alternative practitioner -- to get the right course of treatment. It saves a lot of time and money.
The last place people should get acne help is at the store counter, these people work on commission, stay away.
I suffered for many years with serious acne too and thank God I finally found good scientific info at cosmeticscop.com. You can also get the cosmetic review books by Paula Begoun on what products to avoid, surprisingly a lot of products meant for acne actually will make it worse.
I keep forgetting that birth control is occasionally prescribed to clear up acne! People are always shocked when I tell them that birth control caused mine - but it didn't cause mild acne vulgaris. It either caused, or contributed to, painful cystic acne. Who knows - it might have been birth control in combination with other medicines that caused the acne, rather than birth control on its own.
Although this isn't directly on-topic, I should mention that birth control also gave me massive mood swings. I was suffering from constant depression, crying jags, and anger control issues until I quit taking birth control. I felt like a new person once I was off of it. I know it does great things for a lot of women, including reducing cramps and acne, but for me, it was a horrible experience. This doesn't necessarily mean that it's the culprit for other people, though - it just happened to be the case for me.
Tea tree oil! That was the other one - again, another natural remedy that does nothing for my breakouts. I'm glad that some people find a cure in it, though, but for me, it didn't do a thing.
I don't believe that refined sugars are enough to cause acne in and of themselves. They might contribute to conditions that allow it to occur. My diet has never been high in refined sugar, as I'm diabetic, and yet I broke out like crazy.
I've read recently about a few people who are completely cutting out tv for a year. I don't know that I could go that far - but it should would open my eyes to what else life has to offer!
I had really bad acne thru part of high school. Then i got rid of it. Only had to do 2 things!
1. Stop, (or make an effort to reduce as much as you can/are willing to) eating sugar, white flour, and high fructose corn syrup.
2. Take zinc supplements. Seriously. Google acne and zinc. It totally worked for me.
If your not sure about #1. do a reverse test, wait till your acne is not so bad, then eat a ton of candy/cake/coke and wait 24 hours. You should see the difference.
So how does the work-trade-live agreement work exactly? Is there a formal network?
Also, I agree that living overseas doesn't have to be expensive. I lived for four months in Europe, Turkey and Greece for less than $2,000. I didn't go hungry and still saw the sights.
The hubby and I are hoping we can make arrangements to live in Europe for two months this summer, with our baby, who would be about a year and change by then.
Many people are unaware how often they rest their chins in their hand. Germs on hands transfer to chin. Also, the compression factor must be considered, i.e., pressure of head on hand can contribute to clogged pores.
Another thing, and this won't be everyone's cup of tea (but don't shoot the messenger!), Louise Hay's book, Heal Your Body, lists a cause for pimples as "little bursts of anger." The solution is to try for more serenity in one's life. This is touched on by Andrea when she noted, 'nothing seemed to have any effect on my angry skin.' Many people are now acknowledging that one's skin is a reflection of one's emotional state.
'The mind-skin connection makes all the sense in the world to Shelley Sekula-Gibbs, MD, clinical assistant professor of dermatology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.
[During development in the womb], the brain and skin are derived from the same cells, so there is a connection," she says. "And the other immediate relationship is that when people experience stress in life, quite frequently, their skin becomes a reflection of the stresses."'
http://www.webmd.com/skin-problems-and-treatments/acne/features/effects-...
"Psychodermatology is a field that addresses the impact of an individual's emotion as it relates to the skin," says Karen Mallin, PsyD, an instructor in the departments of psychiatry & behavioral sciences and dermatology & cutaneous surgery of the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami.
http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=52328
That's a pretty good total, Nora. I know when we did our six month deal, it cost us about 15,000 USD total for the two of us. However, we were racking up plane tickets left and right and knew that if we had stayed on the road we were going to do more of the stay in one place for a while and house sit like we did for a few weeks in Jordan. That really helps, along with the kitchen access.
Congratulations on a frugal year of fantastic travel!
That's amazingly cheap - mind you, Nora, it helps that you are resourceful, friendly, and not lazy. I'm pretty sure it would cost me 20k a month, just in room service. :)
I've tried everything over three decades, and nothing worked. (Well, I didn't do Accutane.) Finally a young dermatologist told me about an off-label use for a diuretic that was having some success with some patients with deep, cystic acne. Tried it. Loved it. Can't live without it. It's spironolactone. It doesn't cause weight loss/gain. It will affect mood swings if you don't take it regularly. To me, it's a miracle, and I'll never live without it again. 50 mg a day (half in morning, half at night).
$10,000 or even $14,000 per person per year travelling full time is impressive. Wow. And you get to see the world too. Envy....and i want to do the same too when my children grows up.
I went to law school and I was a teacher before that because these were safe choices. I delayed for years my true dream because it was risky.... my husband supports me in quitting my job as an attorney and pursuing my dream and yet I am fearful. This article comforted me. Thank you and good luck to you (well its been a year since this was written so hope it worked out)
This is a great post on how to find your goals for life. Without knowing these goals life remains without purpose and it is hard to motivate yourself for something.
I have a blog on time management and wrote more 200 posts with practical time saving ideas on how to gain an extra hour every day. One of the most popular posts is how to set your goals for life.
If you don't know what you want to achieve in life - what is the benefit of time management?
Great article! Pro Activ actually worked for me, but my skin began to dry out, so I resorted to using it only twice a week.
I actually blogged about a solution to this today over at my blog. Drinking a glass of lukewarm water with a few drops of lemon in it every morning (have to keep consistent) will reduce acne TREMENDOUSLY. Very cheap remedy. Also has numerous other benefits I discuss in my post.
Also, drink plenty of water and keep active. Move out and about, get some fresh air, and keep your hands clean. It's also essential to get enough sleep.
It usually takes two or three passes through the still to remove all the impurities from the alcohol. One pass may not be enough to create a safe batch.? is this true?
I really didn't have much acne as a teenager but in my twenties I began having pimples show up on my chin. Took me a while to figure out....the cause was coming from my office telephone. I would hold it in the crock of my neck while I was typing. The mouth piece of the phone was touching my chin. Started cleaning my phone mouthpiece more often and it cleared up.
I recommend the book "art of the start" (http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2006/06/the_art_of_the_.html) which has a chapter on Bootstrapping your business.
The best way to get started of course is to either have one working partner support the business owner (which is what we did) and/or do the new business on the side of a day job (which we also did). We also run a low overhead, services-based company (Web technology, targeting government and government funded organizations), so we have no inventory.
I was pretty disillusioned when I investigated business loans - not fabulous rates, with a tremendous amount of work developing a business plan, for a collateral based loan. No thanks. We do have a line of credit for cashflow.
I personally think owning my own business (through which we get our health insurance) is a much safer situation for my family than working for another company which could let me go with no notice. It is definitely not easier, though, but I do feel more in control of our destiny. We are also lucky that contracting is always an option for us.
Since getting a HDTV we watch no other channels. The quality is unmatched and not available via the internet. A Blu-Ray DVD player also makes movie watching fantastic, much better picture than in theaters. We easily made up most of the costs by getting rid of our landline telephones and never going to the movies.
Paula Begoun's book "Don't go to the cosmetics counter without me" (or maybe it's makeup counter) is great for getting facts about several different kinds of skin conditions and reviews of thousands of products and whether they do what they claim.
Great article. :)
I have personally found one of the most effective things for my acne to be washing my face with baking soda, and nothing else. I do use some anti-acne lotion but I have given up on expensive cleansers.
I spent years as well trying to find something, mostly grocery store attempts, I refuse to go to a Clinque counter. My acne has never been bad enough but I have only found one thing that works as well and that's a $10 a tube Clearasil Ultra... and I have become cheap!
[much in part thanks to wisebread!]
So, I tried the baking soda suggested by alot of people, and I am blessed enough, that it works most of the time.
I still have breakouts here and there... but not as bad!
Hi, Juliette. That's so funny about exfoliating - it's one of the only things that prevents me from breaking out in smaller acne. It just goes to show that there's a different solution for everyone!
Valid point about picking - one of my only New Year's resolutions is not to do that anymore, or at least to severely limit my poking and prodding.
I got a Nano (8gb) for Christmas, and while I was pleased to get it, I had no idea how thrilled I'd be within 24 hours. It took that long for me to realize I could download shows onto my iPod, then plug my iPod into my TV. (It cost $50 for the Griffin brand cable.)
I'm giving serious thought to breaking up with my cable provider. And this time for good!
Where I live, the cheapest cable package is just $15. So I'm debating whether or not I'll actually save money if I'm buying programs (and season passes for my fave shows) on iTunes. Then again, it's pretty nice to be able to watch Grey's Anatomy whenever I want.
my question is....do you have to have a converter box to watch the over the air stations....or will a hdtv antenna work alone?
Great post! No singular practice or purchase solved the problem I had with my skin.
It's been a year since my skin really cleared up and I found that changing to a less stressful job, using a mineral-based makeup with a built-in sunscreen (bought at a boutique), washing my face with a gentle product only twice a day, skipping toner completely, using a good quality moisturizer (bought at Target, a Johnson and Johnson product), and spot treating the areas really helped. Washing my face before I worked out also helped, even after I switched to good quality makeup.
Surprisingly, I believe it really helped when I stopped exfoliating daily. I know there's this rumor that acne is caused by dead skin sloughing off and clogging pours, but that clearly wasn't my problem. I rarely exfoliate now, letting that "dead" layer protect my sensitive skin from the windy, dry climate of the Intermountain West.
Plenty have said "don't pick" the pimples. But we do it anyway. It's totally illogical, so if you're going to do it, be smart about it: Wash your hands, wash your face and prep the area to be picked with a warm washcloth or chamomile tea bag, the heat of which will bring the gunk closer to the surface. Then push on either side, gently, avoiding nails and other devices. When you see the gunk, wipe it away and leave it alone. If you can't stop then, you'll only bleed, and that's just a way to convert your blemish into a wound. So stop when you see the gunk, and place the warm washcloth or whatever back on top of the blemish for a minute or so.
Someone else posted about their success with tea tree oil, and I agree. It's far better than Seabreeze. As for diet, I saw no benefit from avoiding sugar, which I tended to do anyway, or white flour (I'm a wholegrains girl on most things), but I did notice that drinking water was really helpful (and cheap!).
One more thing: I deeply regret I spent nearly 10 years in a very public profession battling my complexion so awkwardly. I wish I'd just gotten over my insane idea that going to the dermatologist was arrogant. Not going was a way of reinforcing for me that I didn't deserve to be pretty. So if you haven't solved the problem on your own in a few months, go see someone. Afterall, your OTC remedies and old wives tales might actually be part of the problem (but stop exfoliating and see if that helps at all :) first!).
Thanks, Andrea - this is a great article! I had a similar experience, and was really really embarrassed about getting treatment for it in my late 20s when it became a problem. I'd tried pretty much everything mentioned above before I finally overcame my embarrassment (and unease about taking medication for something that seemed vain and trivial).
I had no luck with antibiotics (and hated taking them, anyway), but I switched doctors and my new dermatologist prescribed Spironolactone for me. It's only an option for women, as it (among other things) interferes with androgen (a male hormone). However, for me, it's been a miracle drug.
My point, I guess, is that different things work for different people, but that it totally and completely worth it to look, and keep looking. If I had just continued to treat my acne topically, I would have continued to have major problems. I look - and feel! - so much better now that my face isn't distorted by gigantic cystic acne.
I too started having problems with my skin once I hit my mid-twenties. I tried a lot of things, but I found that alternative medicine was the only thing that helped.
However, I completely agree with the point that grabbing a product off the shelf (holistic or not) is bound to met with disaster. It's hit and miss, and the misses get to be expensive. In my case, I went to see a practitioner (a fully qualified and licensed one -- I did some research before I went).
She helped me identify specific triggers (allergies and food intolerances that I didn't know I had) and recommended treatment. I now use natural products that are better for the environment and less toxic for me.
While this worked for me, I know it's not for everyone. I totally agree that people should see a specialist -- whether it's a dermatologist or alternative practitioner -- to get the right course of treatment. It saves a lot of time and money.
The last place people should get acne help is at the store counter, these people work on commission, stay away.
I suffered for many years with serious acne too and thank God I finally found good scientific info at cosmeticscop.com. You can also get the cosmetic review books by Paula Begoun on what products to avoid, surprisingly a lot of products meant for acne actually will make it worse.
I keep forgetting that birth control is occasionally prescribed to clear up acne! People are always shocked when I tell them that birth control caused mine - but it didn't cause mild acne vulgaris. It either caused, or contributed to, painful cystic acne. Who knows - it might have been birth control in combination with other medicines that caused the acne, rather than birth control on its own.
Although this isn't directly on-topic, I should mention that birth control also gave me massive mood swings. I was suffering from constant depression, crying jags, and anger control issues until I quit taking birth control. I felt like a new person once I was off of it. I know it does great things for a lot of women, including reducing cramps and acne, but for me, it was a horrible experience. This doesn't necessarily mean that it's the culprit for other people, though - it just happened to be the case for me.
Tea tree oil! That was the other one - again, another natural remedy that does nothing for my breakouts. I'm glad that some people find a cure in it, though, but for me, it didn't do a thing.
I don't believe that refined sugars are enough to cause acne in and of themselves. They might contribute to conditions that allow it to occur. My diet has never been high in refined sugar, as I'm diabetic, and yet I broke out like crazy.
I wrote a post on this topic last month and there are a few other resources you can find online. Check out my post for other links and ideas like RedBox!
I've read recently about a few people who are completely cutting out tv for a year. I don't know that I could go that far - but it should would open my eyes to what else life has to offer!
I had really bad acne thru part of high school. Then i got rid of it. Only had to do 2 things!
1. Stop, (or make an effort to reduce as much as you can/are willing to) eating sugar, white flour, and high fructose corn syrup.
2. Take zinc supplements. Seriously. Google acne and zinc. It totally worked for me.
If your not sure about #1. do a reverse test, wait till your acne is not so bad, then eat a ton of candy/cake/coke and wait 24 hours. You should see the difference.
Best of luck!