For all of you that suffer from chronic pain and argue that what you eat and drink doesn’t make a difference, I’m here to tell you - it does. I know you don’t want to hear that, because I didn’t want to either. For 30 years I wanted to prove that what I ate didn’t make a difference - mostly because I felt that preparing whole foods was just too much work. I was wrong about that too. But thanks to my stubborness, I suffered chronic headaches/migraines and extreme neck and shoulder pain for the majority of my life so far.
I went from doctor to doctor seeking relief. Once I realized that the meds caused me more grief than the migraines did, I started playing around with things on my own. I learned how to decode nutrition labels and had eliminated a lot of headache-triggering ingredients, so I thought I had things figured out. I was eating shredded wheat for breakfast - no artificial preservatives in that. I ate protein bars for lunch - I sit at a desk all day, so I wanted to watch what I ate so I wouldn’t gain weight.
“Planning and preparing does take some time, but when you start to feel better it motivates you to plan and prepare for success.”
I had my system down, I was settled into my routine, but the frustrating thing was: none of it was working for me. The daily headaches continued and the migraines got worse. I was at a point where I was taking 7 Aleve a day for my neck and shoulder pain. I was also taking 20 Midol pills a month for headaches because they worked better than Tylenol. I used 15-20 migraine pills a month, and pills for acid reflux to top it all off. Turns out, the acid reflux was caused by the medication I was taking combined with the crappy foods I was eating. And oh yeah, I was anemic too. My body was SCREAMING at me, but I wasn't wise enough to listen.
I just couldn’t figure out what I was doing wrong until IIN taught me how important whole foods are for our bodies. Now, I've traded my shredded wheat for Quinoa and my protein bars for vegetables. I've also discovered that preparing whole foods isn’t that difficult. Planning and preparing does take some time, but when you start to feel better it motivates you to plan and prepare for success.
Within four months, eating whole foods had created change! It’s now been a year and a half since I made drastic changes to my lifestyle and diet. I no longer take Aleve for my neck and shoulders, I've stopped taking Midol, my daily headaches are a thing of the past, and I haven’t had a migraine in the last three months! I've also lost 10lbs and I’m no longer anemic.
If you suffer daily from chronic pain, I encourage you to start creating a healthy sustainable lifestyle one step at a time. What you eat will either fuel the pain or relieve it. I started in the same place you did. If I can do it, you can too.