Since 2000 I have suffered with Psoriasis on my skin and tried almost every type of ointment, cream or remedy to get rid of it permanently and have normal looking skin. I have seen several Naturopaths, Homeopaths, GP's, Skin Specialists, Chinese Medicine practitioners, you name it, I have seen them all. And no matter what I did nothing seemed to work. Then in 2011 I decided enough was enough and I wanted to really find out what I can do myself to find the answers to my problem. I had devoted my career and my life to helping people become healthy, lose weight and improve fitness but I was really struggling to find the answer to my own health problem. One of the things that has really built my business and my reputation as a great trainer is my ability to try and test everything on myself. My own body and the results from my sporting activities was living proof that my programs with weight loss, running, cycling, weight training, tennis, basketball all worked. I was calling myself a Holistic Lifestyle Coach yet I could not find the answer to this one thing I had had for so long. So I started researching endlessly with books and different experts in the fields of skin problems. And I came across some interesting facts with regards to digestion, toxicity from modern foods and how stress can significantly affect the skin. So I put together a plan to rid myself of this problem by the end of the year.

My First Successful Attempt At Clearing My Skin

Step One I eliminated all grains from my diet which seemed to help a little bit, I eliminated fungal type foods like mushrooms, cheese etc and lastly most fruits I stopped eating. This was mainly after reading the books by Doug Kaufman called "The Fungus Link" which I highly recommend to anyone with skin condition. Other books I read that helped were "How To Eat Move & Be Healthy" by Paul Chek, and the Food Intolerance Institute by Deborah Manners. The information and new knowledge about how the body reacts to what I call a "caution food" was invaluable for me to make good decisions moving forward. I tried Yeast free diets, Gluten Free diets, I went off red meat and completely eliminated sugar.

Step two was to find something I could do to reduce my stress. Many of the books and information about Psoriasis emphasized that stress was playing a big part. So I enrolled in a Tai Chi course and began to educate myself in meditation and Chinese medicine strategies to reduce my stress, or at least help me deal with it  better. I also bought a book called "Control Stress" by Paul McKenna that was something simple I could use to repattern my  subconscious mind to reduce my stress. I also came across a very interesting book called "Skin Fitness" by Hugh Molloy and Gary Eggar that looked at the affect that overheating from air conditioners, ducted heating and various temperature stress was having on the body. They found from their studies and research that doona covers were one of the biggest contributors to skin problems. So I got rid of my doona and began using a sheet with a cotton blanket. At first I was shivering and freezing cold every night but after about 2 weeks my thermostat changed and I realized just how hot my body really was when I used a doona. I still use the cotton blanket to this day. I also had to have a good look at my exercise program. Up to this point I was doing ridiculous amount of exercise, I was fit, there was no doubt about that but I was really pushing the limits so much that my body needed a break. I had become the stereotype exercise junkie, I was addicted to all forms of exercise and could not stop. I needed to use exercise that was going to provide my body with an anabolic response as opposed to a catabolic response. I will expand more on this later. Here are some of the books I referred to.

Here is a video of me doing some Tai Chi in the gym

Step three was the big one. I decided to try a 7 day fast using the Sonnes 7 Day Cleansing Program. This was quite a severe and extreme measure to take but I felt I really needed to give it a try as it came with loads of testimonials, it had stood the test of time ( 70 years it had been used for ) and I felt deep down that this would be it. And I was right it worked alright. By day 3 I was vomiting non stop for hours and it was coming out just as fast at the other end! I could not believe the amount of stuff coming out considering I had not eaten for 3 days. Without giving you too much description, the colour of the  stuff coming out was dark black, sort of like something being scraped off the bottom of an oven! This Detox left me sick as a dog for nearly 5 months as all the toxins were making a steady exit from my body. But the good news was my skin cleared up almost instantly. I maintained my new diet strategy although not as strict and tried to stay on top of my stress. It was September 2011 and my skin had pretty much cleared up entirely. I had achieved my goal 3 months ahead of schedule. I was very happy. All was good for a few months before I decided I was going to make a massive life changing and career changing moment and little did I know this was going to bring it back worse than ever before ......

It's Back And This Time It Is Worse

At the end of 2011 I decided to make a massive life changing and career changing decision that was very risky and would be very stressful. I opened my own training studio, walking away from a very good business with little stress and easy to manage. The timing was not quite right but it never is, but I knew with a bit of hard work I would be able to make it work. Unfortunately it was more than a bit of hard work and the stress really mounted up on me I did not even notice that my skin started to go back to it's old ways very quickly. It always started to come back on my elbows and knees but this time I started to get new ones in places I had never had it before. I ended up getting a massive one on my back and several small ones on my stomach and my scalp. I could feel it starting to get out of control even though I was eating almost the same as before. After 2 years of watching it spread and get on top of me I decided I would try the Sonnes again. Just the thought of it made me sick but I thought I have to do this before the Psoriasis takes a real hold of me. So in March this year I started it again and only lasted 2 days before I could feel myself about to explode with vomit again. I stopped this time as I did not want to go through with the pain like last time. My skin did not change at all which left me lost as to what to do.

This is when I looked up lots of experts again as I decided I needed a new approach. And I booked a time to go and see the Psoriasis Skin Clinic in Frankston. I was very skeptical of going here as I had seen probably 10 different specialists by now so I doubted that they could help me. But I was at a loss by this stage and this is what I would have told one of my clients to do. Anyway I was impressed with their method of assessing me and they did not just rely on skin creams and medication. I had lengthy discussion about my nutrition and found there were certain foods I was eating that would potentially aggravate my skin. Things like tomato, spices, and various other vegetables I had to eliminate. I had actually been eating a lot of vegetables at this point believeing they were all pretty good for me. So this was something new that I had not heard of. But the most important thing I found out after my 3rd consult was that we established what my trigger was - STRESS! For many people would have already had great results with the strategies used at the start from the nutrition changes, but I was pretty much the same. Each time I had a stronger cream and stronger supplements to try and kickstart the process. I even had to start wrapping my body in glad wrap before going to bed to really let the skin cream get into my skin. And after tracing back all the times it had flared up in life, there was a stressful event tied to it. I sort of knew this but I had been mainly putting my efforts into changing my nutrition and  food choices, not really reducing my stress levels. 

Time To Change My Strategy

I went back to some of the information I had on stress and watched the Fungal & Parasite DVD program from Paul Chek which outlined simple strategies for allowing your body's immune system to prevent getting an infection. I bought several other books about stress like "Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers" and started to look at ways of changing my lifestyle. I continued using the cream and making all the dietary modifications.

I also stated drinking Vegetable Juices a lot. I used Doug Kauffman's favourite juice for eliminating fungus and added some of the ingredients from my Sonnes kit to it to help eliminate any bad stuff from my intestines and digestive system. I still do this 2-3 times per week now and feel great for doing it. If you have any type of skin problem or digestive issue I encourage you to drink this as often as you can. This is what is in my juice at the moment

• Celery
• Green Apple
• Ginger
• Beetroot
• Cucumber
• Carrot
• Apple Cider Vinegar
• Tablespoon of Betonite Clay
• Teaspoon of intestinal cleanser

As for my exercise program I needed to stop running and cycling so much. A normal week for me would consist of 5 weights sessions plus 3 running sessions of 10-15km plus 2-3 cycling sessions of 1-3 hours depending on the weather and the amount of time I had. This was just way too much and I knew it. The problem was that I was good at it and I loved it but deep down I knew I was sacraficing health in order to become fit! Which is crazy when you read it like that. I dramatically cut back my cardio training and began concentrating more on strength training that involved me becoming more flexibile and not so tiring. It was all about choosing the right type of exercise. The Functional Training techniques that I had spent so much time learning were perfect for me to use as I could remain strong but not stress my body too much like traditional weight training does. I still would run and cycle a bit but kept it to a mininal level.

This Is My Skin Results Now

I still have a long way to go but I now have a much better more sustainable plan on how to prevent my Psoriasis from flaring up again.

Back From March                                                          Back From July

R Elbow From March                                                R Elbow From July

L Elbow From March                                               L Elbow From July

If you would like to know more about our Nutrition and Lifestyle Coaching Program fill in the form below and I will get in touch with you within 24 hours. Like I tell all of my clients, I will not ask you to do anything I cannot do and my own body is proof of the results from our program. I doubt anyone in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne can offer the in depth coaching program for Health & Fitness that we can provide. That is not meant to be a bragging statement but I honestly believe that we really do look at the whole picture just like I had to do for myself.