Transformation

A while back, a relative came over to visit for Chinese New Year. She saw a photo of me 10 years ago vs now and commented that she could not recognise me at all. She asked if I did plastic surgery.

While I didn’t do plastic surgery, here’s what I gathered looking back at the past 10 years of my life that caused this major change.

1. Emotions

Your emotions affect how you feel about yourself and your overall outlook.

I grew up in a toxic environment with controlling parents who were critique with every of my actions. I was a no confidence person and always in tears.

Due to self-abasement, I didn’t feel I deserve any respect and allowed people to treat me the way they wanted. At the same time, I wanted to feel validated and often threw temper at my friends.

Now I allow myself to feel my emotions. When I am sad, I will take a deep breath and tell myself this shall pass and give myself some space.

2. Lifestyle habits

I turn to food whenever I was unhappy. I was eating several big meals a day and using emotional eating to suppress my feeling of sadness and unfairness. Food high in sugar and fat became my best friend since it was cheap and easily available. Sugar destroys collagen and my skin was constantly breaking out. My weight once shot up to 70Kg (I am 158cm) and I was feeling sluggish all the time.

Now I don’t turn to food when I sad. Instead, I listen to music and take walks to clear my mind.

3. Invisalign

I have imperfect teeth growing up. They were crooked and it affected my confidence to even open my mouth. I was constantly worried about what my friends would think about my teeth each time I speak.

I am glad I made the decision to go for invisalign. It helped remodel my face shape and regained my confidence to smile and speak.

4. Mindset

I used to wallow in self pity and didn’t realise the energy I was bringing to myself and others was draining everyone’s energy.

Over the years, I have learnt to accept my situation and let go of my unhappy childhood. I take things as they come and stop spending time worrying. I just want to treat the people who love me well and be the best version of myself.

5. Self love

Over the last decade, I have learnt to accept my imperfections and embrace for who I am. There will be people who will not like me, but that’s ok. I have friends and family who love me for who I am.

Practicing self love has allowed me to put myself first and make choices that bring the best of me.

6. Gua Sha

One of the things that greatly attributed to the change of my face shape is by doing Gua Sha. I have been consistently doing Gua Sha for a year and the effects are evident.

There are many meridian points on our face. They each represent a certain organ in our body. Gua Sha is an ancient Chinese technique that involves massaging these meridian points to scrape the toxins off and improve blood circulation. When our blood circulation improves, our overall face will look radiant naturally.

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Acne re-appeared in my mid-30s,something I totally didn’t expect.

I had my 2^nd dose of Covid-19 vaccine at the end of August 2021. Unfortunately, in September 2021, my face started breaking out (particularly at the jawline and neck area).

The pimples were red, inflamed with pus. They were itchy and painful when you touch them. Occasionally, they bleed.

I have not had acne since my teenage days, so it came as a surprise for me. I didn’t think much about it initially and applied some pimple cream.

It worsened as time passed by. I went to see a Chinese doctor for TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) therapy.

2 different TCM doctors with different approaches for the cure. One suggested a prescription to supress the pimples while the other suggested a prescription to let it all out.

Had a month of medication each, which unfortunately did not clear my acne.

I decided to see a dermatologist who introduced me to Nimegen.

My skin journey with Nimegen

My dermatologist offered me a few options on what we can do to treat this serve acne, including antibiotics, oral contraceptives, or Isotretinoin.

I chose Isotretinoin because it seemed to be a more effective solution compared to the other 2.

Nimegen (Isotretinoin) is a form of oral Vitamin A. It reduces sebum (oil) production by up to 80% and reduce inflammation.

It also comes with its side effects, such as dryness on the skin, increase cholesterol, and liver issues.

It is Not suitable for people who are looking to have a baby as it may cause deformities.

The dosage is dependent on how severe the acne is and the individual’s body weight and lifestyle.

I started with 20mg (2 capules) per day.

After 9 days of Nimegen (on the morning before taking Covid-19 booster):

Side effects from Nimegen after 9 days

My lips were so dry that it didn’t feel they were mine. The skin was chapped and you can literally feel the stretch even just pursing your lips.

That was the main side effect for me. I continued to keep my face moisturized so that wasn’t an issue. Thankfully, I didn’t experience any dry eyes or rashes.

It has been about 1.5 months since taking the Covid 19 booster shot in February 2022 and about 2 months into my medication. I recently reduced the dosage to 10mg per day as I felt pain at the sides of my abdomen.

My skin rarely breaks out now (fingers crossed) and now what is left is acne scars.