TGIF! I don’t know about you, but this week has been absolutely crazy for me. Have you ever crossed one thing off your to-do list, only to add on three more? I feel like I’m being pulled in a million directions, and while I do enjoy being busy, it’s getting to be a bit much. Thankfully, I have my relaxing, plan-free weekend ahead of me—I just have to get there!

With all of this stress in my life right now, I’ve been mentally preparing myself for the skin breakout I thought would inevitably happen. So far, I’ve been lucky (knock on wood) and don’t have any pimples camped out on my face. Since I’ve been paying such close attention to my skin this weekend, however, I noticed something: my skin is much clearer than it was two or three weeks ago.

Hmmmm… Why is that? I haven’t really been doing anything differently…

Then it hit me: sugar! It’s been about three and a half weeks since I cut sugar out of my diet, so the timing made perfect sense. What an awesome surprise! When I made the decision to give sugar up for Lent, my goal was to gain freedom from my addiction to the white stuff (no, not crack) and become more in tune with what triggered my cravings for it in the first place. Clearing up my skin was not something I expected, but I’m not complaining!

Not wanting to mislead you, I will say that my skin isn’t completely clear… At least not yet. Though I’ve been doing better than I expected with my sugar detox, seeing the effects of eliminating it from my diet definitely gave me some motivation to keep pushing to the end of Lent! I can’t say I’ll never have refined sugar again, but I will make a strong effort to avoid it for the rest of my life. After all, my cravings are weaker, my skin is clearer and I’m just much happier—who needs a better reason than the last one, anyway!?

Have you ever noticed how your diet affects your skin? What food(s) cause you to breakout?