The diet. Again.

[lrcutter]

Okay, this is likely to be a longish post, so stay with me.

For those following along at home, you may or may not recall that I’ve been suffering from a bunch of migraines. I have successfully done a couple things to reduce them:

1. Doubled my thyroid medication. This got rid of a bunch of migraines. At this point, I only get menstrual migraines. Which means I have migraines for 1-2 weeks a month, then the rest of the time, I’m fine. Not even a headache.
2. Changed my diet to include more leafy greens, like kale and lettuce. This reduced the severity of my migraines to the point that 95% of the time I need to ask myself if I’m just having a headache or if I’m having secondary symptoms, which means it’s actually a migraine. The amount of pain is no longer an indication. (Secondary symptoms include: sensitivity to light, noise, and smells; ears ringing; difficulty concentrating, etc.)

Since changing my diet helped my migraines significantly, I’m now doing more tweaks for the next three months to see if I can finally reduce the frequency of my migraines.

The diet I plan on following? The Wahl’s Paleo Plus diet. (http://terrywahls.com/) I’ve been doing low carb for quite some time (since 2009). This diet is very low carb, while having many more veggies and varying my meats.

In addition, I’m eliminating some things from my diet for the time being, just to see how I do.

1. Eggs. There’s always been a chance that I have some level of sensitivity to eggs. I react horribly to flu shots, which are cultured in egg protein. If you are allergic to eggs, you don’t get flu shots. So I’m cutting them out for three months, just to see if they’re affecting my migraines.
2. Dairy. I’ve tried taking dairy out of my diet before, for a month. I didn’t see any change. This was before I’d upped my thyroid medication, however. In addition, 80% of those who test as sensitive to gluten also test as sensitive to dairy. So I’m going to do without for three months, and see if it makes a difference.
   1. Nightshades. I’ve always reacted badly to eggplant. 20 minutes after I eat it, all around my lips and the inside of my mouth gets covered in sores. The same thing happens (though to a lesser extent) with I eat too many raw tomatoes. I’ve never noticed a problem with potatoes. However, I’m cutting all of them, along with green peppers and sweet peppers, for three months.`

Things I’m adding to my diet?

1. More organ meat. 12oz a week. Tonight, cooked up a bunch of bacon and chicken gizzards, and tomorrow, will fry up some chicken liver. I have calf liver in the freezer that I’ll use for pate next week. This last week I’ve been eating cow tongue.
2. More fish. Again, 12oz a week. Gosh, that means pickled herring. And salmon. And sashimi.
3. More veggies. 2-3 cups of leafy greens a day. 2-3 cups of sulphur veggies. 2-3 cups of “colorful” veggies. And more.
4. More fat. Lots of coconut milk, coconut oil, and bacon fat.

The official diet wants me to eat just twice a day. I’m not ready to do that yet. I’m not used to eating as much as they’d like for me to eat for breakfast. Will have to work up to that. (My usual schedule is a medium breakfast, a large lunch, and a smallish dinner.)

I actually started the “diet” last week. Took about a week for my body to get used to few carbs. But am feeling good now. Will report in now and again. Hope that all is well in your world!
Crossposted from my website. If you'd like to comment, you can do so here or there.