What I Don't Regret

11:25 PM

I ran outside again today, at a more relaxed pace compared to a few days ago, my third time running this week. My endurance has already improved a little bit since then, considering that on Monday, I went all out, running and sprinting, and my mile time was slower than today, when I just ran at a relaxed pace the whole time. I could have sprinted today, and I should have, but I didn't.

Maybe it's due to no longer eating 0 sodium, and no longer drinking dandelion root tea, but I'm not noticing anymore water retention draining from my face. I think everything was already drained out on Monday, in just 15 minutes of running and sprinting.

2:42 AM (of Friday, June 13th, 2025)

My mile time today (Thursday), was around 10 minutes running smoothly. On Monday, it was like 11 minutes sprinting and running as fast as I could, my heart rate was 171 bpm on average on Monday, today it was more around 150 bpm. I know both are really slow times, but it was a long time since I ran, many months since I last ran, and even then probably over a year since my last-last time.

It's fun improving endurance. People say that there is something called "runner's face" where runners supposedly look a lot older and are wrinklier, and I don't think that is true. Even looking up images of runner's face, they don't look bad at all to me.

I am someone that has gone through considerable facial damage, so to me, so many people are beautiful without even trying since they don't have the same flaws and never went through the problems I did, and although a lot of my issues have resolved I'm still going through recovery even now. It's very subtle, but my facial skin has lost a lot of elasticity, firmness, thickness, and turgor (the ability for the skin to snap back into place). At first I blamed it on fasting for 5 days, which is true that this did lead to thinner skin, but from looking at past photos and recalling my memory, I was already experiencing this issue prior, as a result of minoxidil damage. This is the last issue I'm facing from minoxidil damage and that I want to resolve. I'm not sure it is even possible to resolve, but I've said this about every issue that has been resolved so far.

It's weird that this issue isn't visible depending on the lighting. From the before/after smiling photos on March 27th and June 11th, it's hard to tell the issue is there, because the creases are only slightly deeper, but it is there. I've highlighted this issue in other photos where the smiling creases are just so much deeper. Even with all my effort, I am not able to copy the shallow level of the folds prior to minoxidil.

It's not really only the smile, that's just where this issue is visibly most obvious, but my entire lower face area has this lower elasticity effect and feel. It's hard to describe in words, but even making subtle expressions now create creases, where it didn't before. I am not able to move my mouth in any way, even in the slightest way, without creating creases and movement all around. Even when I talk or make any kind of mouth movement, it creates deep creases and looks so weird. This never used to happen before. I used to be able to smirk or make slight grin expressions, without creasing the areas around my mouth much, and now if I make these same expressions, there are major creases all around.

Looking online, I am not able to find a single case of anyone anywhere experiencing anything similar. Maybe other people going through minoxidil damage have experienced it, but they haven't been observant enough to see it. I've checked fasting circles as well, and people didn't experience this. I have fasted 14 days 3 times, and I have not experienced it there, so I think this was more to do with minoxidil than fasting. Again, in before / after photos, it's really hard to even see, but this issue does exist, I can feel it, I can see it, and from comparing past photos and videos, this exists. To me too, my smile is no longer what it was before, it's such a weirder smile to me now.

So, I am very unsure if there is any solution to this or if recovery from this is even possible. From my own knowledge and reading though, this issue is resolvable, it will just take months, as that's how long it takes for damaged collagen and elastin to rebuild itself. Every other issue and damage that I've experienced have been resolved, so I think I will be able to resolve this one as well, but of course, I can only hope.

Anyway, what don't I regret? Positive actions. Even though today I wanted to skip running, it's good that I did run outside again today, because I don't regret it at all. It's the same for doing any exercises or cleaning or other positive actions. I never have regret doing positive things.

Anyway, that was my day today.