You know, I love my products, but there is an unwavering truth about beauty starting from within.

I had a fun week of going out and entertaining friends over the Chinese New Year period but my body reached a point where it protested, “Enough is enough.” My skin was breaking out and I felt extremely heavy in a water-retentive way.

So I’ve been obsessed with the Raw Food Diet. I began reading about it late last year but only with an intellectual interest — I viewed it as an extreme way of living, but I gradually changed my mind the deeper I got into it, particularly after my recent binge on rich food and alcohol.

I also wrote a freelance article about the importance of enzymes in raw fruit and vegetables, and cooking them for more than two minutes kills off about 70 to 80 per cent of their nutrients. So your food is almost dead.

This bothered me a little, so I introduced more raw vegetables to my diet. For example, I used to cook everything when I threw together a pesto pasta dish, but after writing that piece, I left the capsicum and mushrooms raw.

Anyway, the raw diet not only helps you lose weight but it detoxes your body inside out. If you look at raw foodists, they look ageless and have skin of fairies and other non-existent nubile creatures. I was completely intrigued.

I experimented with raw recipes by Karen Knowler, aka The Raw Food Coach, this past week and I was hesitant to try the green smoothie because of the way it looks.

Chunky, green slush — ew. But trust me, it tasted divine. She used a large mango and spinach in her demo video, but I switched to mandarin oranges because I have so many. It’s easy to make and you’ve got to try it to believe it.

You can use any leafy greens combined with a sweet, citrus fruit and I’ve got all these awesome ideas in my head right now. Celery is also fantastic for your skin. I saw an ex-colleague, whom I worked with at an online music company, transform her skin from pimple-ridden to being clear within a month of drinking pineapple and celery juice with her lunch daily.

I never knew green smoothies could taste so yum and I’m going to have one everyday. Spinach is a good place to start because it’s naturally sweet so your smoothie won’t be bitter.

Right now, my philosophy is not to spend exorbitant amounts of cash on expensive creams to achieve supple, clear skin, and I believe that if you treat your body well, it will reflect that on the outside. Wish me luck on my raw journey!

Photo: Westcoast Weezie

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