When Manchester fitness fanatic Sarah Hutchinson had a sudden acne breakout earlier this year, it wrecked her self-confidence. The painful rash covered both her cheeks and ran from her eyes to her neck – leaving her too embarrassed to go outside.
The spots were so lumpy the personal trainer couldn’t even hide them with makeup. The 28-year-old quit teaching exercise classes online after a participant commented on her appearance - even colouring her hair blue to distract people from looking at her face.
In desperation, Sarah tried a diet recommended to her online, and her spots began to fade immediately, she says. Sarah – who ate six sandwiches a day - ditched her ham-and-mayo sarnies and stopped putting sugar in her tea.
She replaced them with brown carbs and alternative breads that made for what she felt was a less satisfying butty, but the results were amazing and her skin was clear again within six weeks.
“I miss white bread so much, but this is one-hundred percent worth it,” she said. “It’s amazing to get my confidence back and feel comfortable again.
“I was distraught. My face was ruined. I felt like a monster. It tore me apart. It was horrible, like lumps in my skin with spots on top, and it was very, very sore, so it brought me to tears.
“It hurt if I touched it and when I put my face on my pillow so it was hard to rest. It got me very, very down. Now I feel incredibly lucky I don’t have more scars."
Sarah thought she’d had an allergic reaction to something when a couple of spots turned into a full-on rash after just a week. A dermatologist diagnosed acne, and three separate creams, plus hydro treatment didn’t help.
She took to social media to talk about her problem and got a message on Instagram from a woman who explained a low-glycemic-index diet had cured her of spots. Sarah began her new diet at the end of June, and explained her skin was spot free by mid-August.
Now she says a few spots start appearing if she tucks into a longed-for sandwich, pizza or other refined-carb favourites. Sarah, who trains six days a week, and lives and works with her partner Charlotte Taundry, a nutritionist, said: “It was very, very bad.
“My confidence plummeted and I became very introverted. I felt there was nothing I could do about it. I wondered how I would manage it for the rest of my life.
“I’m used to looking good - I take care of myself - but it was impossible to feel sexy with my face like that. I can only imagine it was something hormonal.
“The diet is like a stabiliser - it avoids sugar spikes because they have such an effect on your hormones. People don’t realise how common acne is, or that it can just appear, even in adulthood, and for men as well as women."
READ MORE:
- Brave young mum-of-two, 24, feels 'let down by the system' following devastating diagnosis
- Strangeways prisoner who died in cell may have survived if staff had responded faster, inquest hears
- The award-winning 'hobbit house' you can visit in North Wales
- Despair, 'disrespect' and £2,500 to give up your room... inside Manchester's fresher housing crisis
- Woman mocked as 'Jabba the Hutt' in WhatsApp group which included Labour councillors and MP caseworkers, leaked messages show
