E for Eating anti-inflammatory foods
Healing acronym hEadache (part 2) & an update
There’s been A LOT developing behind the scenes at Warrior Within. I intended to share these posts (on the healing acronym) more often but due to book publishing revelations and other projects, things have slowed right down. More on this at the end.
Last month we began with H for taking a Health first approach.
When I shared my mini podcast on the second letter of the acronym, E - E for eating anti-inflammatory foods and drinks - I was 4 years in to making this kind of change.
Today, I’m 6.5 years in and last year I’d never experienced such low levels of inflammation in my body. It was also a time where I no longer felt dis-ease in my body, only relative un-ease a few days each month (peaking at 8 last summer and back down to as low as 3 days). Otherwise known as remission in the medical field.
Early on in my research journey, I learned that migraine disease was an inflammatory condition. In the absence of any medical support or interest, it made sense to me that an area of focus with an inflammatory condition would be to reduce inflammation in my body.
Reducing inflammation in my body quickly became my goal.
I wanted to reduce the frequency of attacks, severity, symptoms, duration and improve my health. I wanted to get well.
I first began with eliminating alcohol. Not because I had suddenly realised the part this was playing in my ill health but because I could physically no longer drink. It’s only now I look back that I realise I was in denial for the 20 years I was binge-drinking. Nearly every weekend episode would induce migraine hangover. Drinking had become a coping mechanism, a way to numb out, relax and have fun. I didn’t realise the ramifications this would later have on ill health.
A typical migraine hangover would see me puking into a bin by the side of my bed 6-12 times, unable to get out of bed. I had no recognition that this was not health or that this was my body’s way of trying to tell me something.
By the time I stopped drinking, my health had deteriorated to such an extent, the pain so severe, agonising and debilitating - not just for several hours at a time but several days at a time - that stopping drinking made no obvious difference at all in the early stages.
I made the decision at my lowest ebb to make this long-lasting, permanent change for the benefit of my future health, irrespective of the fact it didn’t appear to be working straight away. The same went for caffeine.
Some weeks before, I’d also heard about cutting out gluten. Someone I vaguely knew had done it, never had a migraine attack again. When I spoke to my neurologist and asked the question “I’ve heard cutting out gluten can help, will it help if I make any dietary changes?” his response was “no I wouldn’t bother”.
At the time, it felt like I left that appointment with little other than another migraine attack. That, and a disbelief that I was incurable. With a deep inner knowing that there had to be something more to this that didn’t involve me staying this way.
As I grappled around for desperately needed support and research, I was recommended the book “The Migraine Miracle”. In this book, the number one change that we can make to reduce inflammation in our body is to cut out gluten and sugar.
The way the book introduced the relevance of what we eat, sharing how our ancestors used to eat - as well as breaking it down into simple steps - meant I didn’t feel like I had to make all the changes at once or overhaul my diet overnight.
I intuitively knew making all the changes at once would feel impossible and would only lead on to triggering further attacks. My intention was to reduce inflammation in my body and what I wanted was to get well.
I’d already started trying to keep an eye out for gluten free foods as I shopped and with the first month of reading this book, I started to investigate going sugar free too. It was surprising to find sugar in baked beans, bread and crisps.
Where I’d overlooked the obvious cakes, sweets and chocolate, I went easy on myself, ate what was in my cupboards and planned not to buy that item again.
This was the very start of my journey towards adopting an anti-inflammatory way of eating, drinking and living. It might sound surprising to find that cutting out sugar made no visible difference to my skin that was still dull, grey and spotty. I lost no weight at all.
I’ve since come to realise that signs of ill health are not always visible and chronic illness is completely invisible (or made invisible as
puts it in her recent post We Aren’t Invisible We Are Made Invisible).It has become clearer to me now that just as the illness is happening behind the scenes so to speak, so too is the healing. And that perhaps, the way we’ve been looking at health and our expectations around the changes we make may not be conducive with what it takes to heal.
It was only once I’d completely removed sugar and most of the gluten from my diet over a period of a few months that I broke the chronic pain cycle. I also lost 10 pounds overnight. I went to bed one night and my clothes fit – the next morning they were hanging off me!
I was asked the question a lot “what do you eat?”. I didn’t focus on what I couldn’t eat and only focussed on what I could. I allowed myself to eat as much of that as I wanted. One friend even asked “surely, it can’t be that simple?”.
It is worth noting that I had made several additional changes in what was a 6-month period, including:
Making big decisions about my health and my life
Changes to my environment
Upgrading my belief system
Reversing some of my thought patterns
Tuning into my own inner knowing
Getting clear on my needs and what it was I wanted
I do believe it was all of these changes combined that enabled me to turn the chronic pain element of the condition around. Though it was only after cutting out gluten and sugar together that this happened.
It was a deep inner knowing that had led me to see that research and making changes were what was needed and what it was going to take.
Though it has not been limited to and in many respects was a door opener, following an anti-inflammatory way of eating and drinking has been a layer of healing that has brought about surprise benefits:
Food tastes so much better!
No longer craving sugar and junk/processed food
Feeling fuller for longer
Feeling more satisfied by the foods eaten
Breaking the sugar rush cycle
Reduced anxiety (I only felt a heightened level of anxiety once last year)
Once my body had healed on the inside, my skin healed on the outside. The 10lbs lost was later followed by another 10lbs and a further 4lb.
I’ve since made many other dietary changes as I’ve gone along, adopting the same principle of the least amount of pressure and stress to go with it. Always meeting myself where I’m at, doing what I can when I can, eating what I want when I want (as long as it meets my goal of reducing inflammation in my body and is in alignment with what I want; to get well).
You might remember that I wrote a 5 part series on adopting an anti-inflammatory way of eating with way more insight and information, along with prompts at the end for you to reflect on.
For now this piece is to conclude the E in healing acronym hEadache and contributes to my 3rd chapter of the year in
12 Chapters Club.In undertaking this challenge, alongside being in the process of publishing my second book, I’ve realised that this acronym is to go in my 2nd book (not the 3rd) and that both 2nd and 3rd books will be combined. Creating an action guide and journal with memoir. It is this book that Hay House expressed an interest in. And it’s been over 5 years since I put “international best seller” on my vision board. It is here. It is happening. Celebrate with me?
Further reading / listening
Original mini podcast E for Eating Anti-inflammatory Foods & Drinks
Last month’s H for Health First post
- ’s article We Aren’t Invisible We Are Made Invisible
Publisher feedback on my 2nd book, celebrate with me?
5 part series on Adopting an Anti-Inflammatory Way of Eating, start here.
At my worst I did a gluten free diet, but we’ve got to be careful making this change. Not to think gluten free products are healthy (as they’re designed for celiacs and can just be junk food without gluten). That w not cutting a whole food group as that will have nutrients we need.
Since then I paid a dietician and I’ve learnt it’s not the gluten that causes the inflammation but the type of grain and how it’s processed. Sour dough and whole grains are great for the body and aren’t inflammatory if you consume it within a diet full of veg. Even changing the grain from wheat to things like rye for added nutritional value!