Based on what I’ve seen in the eczema healing community of late, I want to recap on the importance of exercise, and exactly what role I see it playing in your overall healing process.
The first thing I want to point out, is how good the skin is of your average athlete. Watch some close up footage they do at the start of races for the Olympics or the World Championship athletics - what you see is pretty flawless skin. You don't tend to see acne or even blotchy skin.
So what is the reason for this? Well, firstly, athletes really have strict diet regimens that they follow in order to keep their performance and recovery high. They are likely to have put themselves into situations where they have good access to high quality, organic foods. They are also likely to steer clear of processed foods.
But in addition to this, the throughput of food in their bodies is outstanding. They are burning everything up quickly, pumping the lymphatic system daily, maintaining a really strong metabolism. Nothing is hanging around in their bodies for too long, because of how many calories they're burning consistently.
I would encourage you to adopt this athlete-style outlook on the body. Think about fuelling your body to perform, and for some of you this could be quite a paradigm shift. I've had conversations with people who consider themselves active, but really aren't training enough that it would have a profound effect on their skin.
I cycle around 200km per week, as my main form of activity, and for some of you that might seem a lot. To some, that might not seem like much, however, I feel this is a good amount that provides me with essential sweating, lymphatic pumping, and burning up of the less clean calories I've eaten. I don't eat quite as cleanly now as I was doing at the start of my healing journey, but with the amount of throughput I have in my body, and the amount I'm drinking consistently, it's flushing and cleansing me through every day.
Now, if you're in the midst of a healing crisis, you're really broken out and lacking in excess energy, that's fine. It's best you don't train during these times, because your body is going to need all the energy it can get just to continue detoxifying your system.
However, if you're plateauing a bit with your healing, or feeling like things are not moving along as you'd like, adopt this athlete mindset, relative to where you are right now. Take advantage of that high sweat rate, fast throughput of food through your body. Your skin will thank you for it.
