Perricone 3-Day Skin Clear Diet

After a period of having relatively good skin, I began getting lots of acne spots on my face, neck, back, etc.  After examining my facial and body products, I came to the conclusion that it might be what I am eating that is affecting my skin.  I have not been very good about what I eat lately and often turn to convenience food for lack of time.  I went on over to the trusty Caroline Hirons blog and read her cheat sheets on skincare and found that she uses the Perricone 3-Day Skin Clear Diet when her skin is not behaving, so I decided to try it for myself.

The diet consists of lots of salmon, nuts, and berries (you can view the diet here.)  One thing that I found odd about the diet is that he has you eating dairy in the form of yogurt.  Dairy is a controversial food that many say is bad for your skin because it is inflammatory and thus causes acne.  The Perricone diet is based around the philosophy that eating anti-inflammatory foods will clear the skin from the inside-out.  Over the past couple of months I have been trying to cut dairy out of my diet, with mixed results.  While I did not see a dramatic improvement, I do notice that I get more spots when I eat certain things like cheese, coffee, and sugar.  Since the diet does not specifically include any of these I felt it was okay to try it anyway.

One strange thing that happened is that the first time I looked at this diet I had followed the link from Caroline Hirons blog and I used that as my shopping list. However, when I got home and tried to pull up the website it crashed so I had to re-look up the diet (using the mobile sight is just ugh) and found the link above which shows a somewhat different diet/method/ingredients.  So, I adjusted the diet a little to fit what I purchased.

I started the diet on a weekend because I am constantly waking up late and rushing to get out the door on weekdays and I did not want to be rushing myself through a new routine.  Since I wake up late on the weekends, I only ate two meals instead of the three listed.  I would eat Breakfast OR Lunch, Dinner and the snacks.  Here is what I ate:

Wake-up:

12 oz. water

Breakfast:

3-egg omelet with 1/4 cup cheese, pepper to taste
1/2 cup steel-cut oatmeal with blueberries
1/4 slice of a hybrid of a cantaloupe and a honeydew melon, let's call it melon-lope (it's all they had at Trader Joe's)
10 oz. mint tea

Snack:

1 kiwi fruit
handful of mixed nuts (almonds, hazelnuts, and walnuts/all raw, unsulfured and unsalted)
12 oz. water

Dinner:

baked salmon with dill weed to taste over a bed of mesclun greens topped with Italian dressing, a squeeze of lemon juice, and pepper to taste (I used Italian dressing because I thought I was out of extra virgin olive oil)
1/2 cup of steamed asparagus with butter, salt and pepper to taste
1/4 slice of melon-lope
handful of blueberries
12 oz. of water

By this time of the night, I was full but not really satisfied.  I felt a massive craving for sugar and I finally broke and had two pieces of my mom's Dove Dark Chocolate bites.  It was too late to eat a snack so I went without.

Wake-up

12 oz. water

Lunch:

baked salmon with dill weed to taste over a bed of mesclun greens topped with extra virgin olive oil and a squeeze of lemon juice with pepper to taste
1/4 slice of melon-lope
handful of blueberries
10 oz. mint tea with a slice of lemon

Snack:

1 kiwi fruit
handful of mixed nuts
12 oz. water

While I was out running errands I felt really sleepy and I was even starting to nod off behind the wheel so I decided I needed something with caffeine to perk me up.  Normally I do not drink coffee because it give me the shakes.  I got a grande iced chai tea latte with coconut milk at Starbucks (I usually stick with the chai tea drinks because they don't have as much caffeine.)

Dinner:

baked salmon with dill weed to taste over a bed of mesclun greens topped with extra virgin olive oil and a squeeze of lemon juice with pepper to taste
1/2 cup of steamed broccoli florets with butter, salt and pepper to taste
1/4 slice of melon-lope
handful of blueberries
12 oz. of water

Again, I was seriously craving sugar so I ate two Dove Dark Chocolate bites.

Snack:

1 Fage Greek Yogurt cup with blueberries
12 oz. water

Wake-up:

12 oz. water

Breakfast:

2-egg omelet with 1/4 cup cheese topped with about a teaspoon of Sriracha
1/2 cup steel-cut oatmeal with blueberries topped and a splash of maple syrup
1/4 slice of melon-lope
10 oz. black tea

Snack:

1 kiwi fruit
handful of mixed nuts
1 Fage Greek Yogurt cup with blueberries
12 oz. water

I pretty much spread the snacks out throughout the day instead of eating Lunch.

Dinner:

baked salmon with dill weed to taste over a bed of mesclun greens topped with Italian dressing and pepper to taste
1/2 cup of steamed broccoli florets with butter, salt and pepper to taste
1/4 slice of melon-lope
handful of blueberries
12 oz. of water

Snack:

two Dove Dark Chocolate bites

After three days on this diet here is what I can say about my experience:

Even though I like salmon, it was a commitment to eat it everyday.  Also, I am used to lots of seasonings and I found the foods to be pretty bland and tasteless without them, which is why by day three I gave up and used them anyway.  One thing that was confusing was how to prepare the omelets;  there were no instructions so I just made a simple omelet with cheese because I did not want to eat an egg only omelet.

During the diet I I felt tired and irritable, probably from the lack of fats and sugars (withdrawal ugh.)  By day two my skin looked good, I did not have any new spots and my skin felt a hydrated.  On day three, I woke up with about four new spots on my face, presumably from the iced chai tea latte (thanks Starbucks!)  I felt slightly less tired on day three, but I did have maple syrup and Sriracha so it could be that the added sugar kept my withdrawal symptoms at bay.

Through this diet I have definitely found healthier ways to snack that I can incorporate easily into my everyday diet.  I would probably switch out the omelet for scrambled eggs (to remove the need for cheese.)  I do feel that this diet would have improved my skin more had I not sabotaged myself with sugars and caffeine.  I may do as Caroline Hirons suggests and only use this particular diet during that time of the month when acne spots are more prevalent.