For a while now I have been contemplating doing an elimination diet–basically not eating anything that appears on any list of foods suspected to trigger or exacerbate migraines, headaches, depression, PMS or seizures. The problem–in addition to the fact that I don’t want to live without chocolate–is that just about every known food is a trigger of something or other. Add on top of this trying to “eat right for your type” (I’m what Dr. Joseph Mercola calls a “protein type,” but you may follow any one of myriad other nutritional types), and it becomes dizzyingly difficult to plan a meal, much less a grocery list for the whole family.
I know that my diet is not optimal. But a few things are making me lazy about changing it. I sense that I would most benefit by making huge changes–not just cutting back on sugar, for example, but really cleaning out the kitchen–and such changes usually require a significant event to get started. Even though pain avoidance is a stronger motivator than pleasure seeking, I’m so used to feeling perpetually bad that it often feels as if nothing I do would make any difference.
I had food sensitivity testing done 9 years ago. I don’t have the list anymore, but I remember being sensitive to wheat, oats, barley, rye, corn, and various herbs and spices. I was so fed up with having several migraines a week that I eliminated from my diet every food on my list plus chocolate. And it worked . . . for a while. For almost a year, my migraine frequency and severity were significantly decreased. Then the migraines started to return. I know that there is so much more involved than just food, but this was really distressing to me. I mean, I had given up chocolate!
After plateauing in regards to migraine frequency and severity, I slowly added back into my diet most of the items I had eliminated with no ill effects. Of course, one thing led to another, and my diet ended up as a free-for-all again–as it is now.
I don’t have a ton of hope that an elimination diet will “cure” me, but I think I’m almost desperate enough to try it again. At this point, the biggest obstacle will be convincing my family (husband, 13-yr old and 11-yr old daughters, and 20-month old son) to join me and convincing myself that I can live without brownies.
