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Balsamic vinegar, $399 (Photo credit: bryanh)
I don’t typically rant on my blogs.
I don’t feel like it is productive and most of the time people sound totally crazy when they do it.
Prepare to read crazy. :)
I used to think that buying shoes was the worst thing in the world.
I’ve never been able to wear pretty, strappy, high-heeled things or Birkenstocks, etc. That ship sailed when I was in high school.
But I have to say, I have found something that is worse than shoe shopping and probably, today, could make me as nuts as going to the dentist.. okay, not quite.
So, with these migraines, they suggest staying away from a lot of things, especially when it comes to food.
No bacon, no cold cuts, no cheese, no vinegar, no pickles, no tuna fish, limit tomatoes and onions, no mushrooms, and the list goes on.
I think water is allowed. . . well, even encouraged but man or woman cannot live on water alone. . . I only wish I could.
SO…. I am so limited in what I can eat. It’s depressing. I get tired of eating the same foods again and again.
But it gets worse. I live in a rural town in IL … only because there was a decent paying job here.
And you would think that living in the midst of farms would mean healthy, fresh food.
But it does not.
It is no wonder that the whole town doesn’t have migraines. Or all kinds of other disease because of the crappy food that they have on the shelves.
The produce isn’t fresh and there isn’t much variety.
Most of the meat is processed with something or another… nitrates, autolyzed yeast extract, natural flavorings, etc.
It’s really depressing.
For almost four years, I would shop when I went to see my family or drive upwards of 45 minutes to a decent store and then I would stock up.
The problem with that, it seems, it that foods with tyramine in them have more tyramine the longer the food is in the fridge.
So if it is in your fridge for two days, throw it out or freeze it.
You know, it’s easy to shop every day or every other day when you are in a city and can stop by a Whole Foods or other stores.
It’s not as easy here.
I will often drive 15 miles to the store in the next town over and I’m not exactly a morning person.
By the time I get there, there is hardly anything in the produce department.
It doesn’t help that I often find things with expired dates on the shelves. . . milk, yogurt, etc that is out of date but there for all to buy.
And then there is the worst thing. . . .
What about all of the chemistry that lines the shelves in the middle of the store?
Guar Gum
Yeast Extract
BHT
Carrageenan
Aspartame
Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein
Sodium Caseinate
Soy
Whey Protein
It’s crazy. Why do we allow ourselves to be used as guinea pigs?
Why do we keep eating this nonsense?
I’m lucky, I have pain if I eat this stuff. And it keeps me from it.
Not everyone is so lucky.
I cannot believe that how we eat, what’s in our water supply, etc, etc, etc doesn’t kill us slowly . . . doesn’t lead to so much of the “badness” as they like to say at work.
I don’t blame anyone for a brain that can’t eat sharp cheddar cheese or beautiful Balsamic vinegar. That’s the way it is.
But I can blame us and the government for all of the nonsense that goes on at the FDA and the fat cats who are getting rich by feeding us nothing but chemicals that are making us obsess and very ill.
Oh, and if you are vegetarian or eat organic, don’t think that you are safe. You will find these things on packages in health food sections or stores. Don’t believe me? Check out packages of MorningStar “chicken” nuggets and other fine “healthy” processed foods.
So my bottom line to this rant is, When are we all going to be so sick and tired of being sick and tired that we do something about it??
I wish I could print this out and bring it to every member of my team.
I reblogged this here because I think our work environment can contribute or take away so much from our physical and spiritual health.
It's possible to follow your life philosophy and be happy and healthy.
Why wait?
Does this image look familiar?
It does for me. . . minus the full makeup, the smile, the perfect hair, and the spandex clothes.
I don’t even like to use the word headache anymore because I have dealt with my own migraine enough to understand that they are a whole-body dis-ease.
Today, I woke up at 4 am. I kept hitting my tooth that has a temporary crown on it. I slept off and on from 4 am to 7 am. I don’t think i had dreams, but I had a lot of “fretting” and it was not pleasant.
Before work, I scrambled some eggs and they sounded really unappetizing. All I wanted was plain toast.
I got to work at 8:30 and went right in to a meeting with a smoker . . .
By lunch time, I was nauseated and a bit dizzy.
Back to work, with an ice pack for good measure.
Only to find that there was a huge machine tearing up the driveway in front of my office. The noise was crazy and I could hardly concentrate.
Ugh. Calgon could not take me away. I had a report to write.
It does seem that I took my meds quick enough to stop the headache before it got worse and I could make it through the hot, humid, noisy afternoon.
But I came across this:
http://migraine.com/blog/doctor-patient-communication-set-up-your-own-migraine-summary-document/
I was happy and it was good timing. I go to a new headache clinic/neurologist tomorrow and this will help me prepare.
Soon I will post about the tracking method I now have and whether or not it helps going to the doctor or not.
Anyway, I hope this document helps you too!
Namaste, Jennifer
I thought this article was totally worth reposting. I found it off of Andrew Weil‘s post on Facebook today.
http://digg.com/newsbar/topnews/why_our_food_is_making_us_fat
The author, from the UK, discusses how food has changed since the 70s and how sugar is in so many things that we don’t even expect.
Look at the information out there on inflammation — it’s on sugar, gluten, etc — not fat as we have been led to believe.
Looking for good information out there? Check out Integrative Nutrition by Joshua Rosenthal. He gives a nice critique of “diets” out there. And he gives some good solid guidelines for eating healthy, rather than a diet.
Also, check out some of the new Paleo or caveman diets. . . I don’t know how much is hype and how much is real . . . they call for getting rid of wheat, dairy, and focuses on high healthy protein — and of course, non-processed foods. It’s worth a look.
If you are using anything like a Paleo diet to help with disease or weight loss, please post a comment and let us know how you are doing.
Problems related to gluten intolerance seem to be in the headlines more and more. . . well, not the national headlines but in the places that share honest news about health. Check out this post and see if gluten could be wrecking your life.
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I think one of the problems with successful migraine maintenance is that there can be many comorbid conditions that you are experiencing… take a look at this post:
http://www.migrainesurvival.com/related-conditions
Most people don’t tend to get that migraines are a biopsychosocialspiritual dis-ease that affects ALL aspects of our lives. . . from how we manage our career and schooling, to mates we pick, to whether or not we have the energy for any kind of relationshps, to mood, perception, digestion, etc. Look at the comorbid disorders. . . cardiovascular, metabolic, gastrointestinal, sleep, etc.
I am pretty convinced that my migraines started from some pretty drastic dietary changes I made and a sleep disorder that I helped to co-create. I do believe that I had a predisposition to them as both of my parents have had headache problems over the years and the entire time I was growing up in CT, I had “sinus” headaches all the time.
I found a great letter in a book for you to share with people in your life who just don’t get your migraines (and I bet there are similar ones out there for other chronic pain conditions). I’ve thought about sharing it at work but hesitate. (I will post it in a few days). My supervisor has made some slight changes simply because she knows that she needs to make reasonable accommodations despite the fact that I am not disabled.
But I get tired of odd looks when I don’t go into a meeting because at least one person is a smoker and 3 are wearing things that make my face flush and my sinuses inflamed within minutes. I get tired of snide remarks when I have to wear sunglasses or earplugs.
I get more tired that people continue to talk loud, let doors slam, and wear scents when they know that they have to meet with me.
I get annoyed that people think I’m just having a headache and they don’t get that simple things like light, smells, sounds are literally painful to me. That something as simple as a client’s dirty diaper left in a hot bathroom all day long in my hallway is enough to have me in my office with ice on my head for a good part of the day. Or that keeping my window open all winter helps the room stay cool and that helps with the inflammation that I experience.
At work, I hear some pseudo-supervisors make comments about people’s “so-called two-day headaches”. I got tired of getting into trouble for making it into work for all my meetings during the week instead of taking off and then crashing by Friday or over the weekend.
It’s a pattern when you take off Monday or Friday don’t you know?
If someone would just google the incidents of “letdown migraines” they would see that this is not uncommon.
So what to do? Well, I can’t change the system and right now I can’t get out of the system.
But what I can do is try to live a whole-life approach to health. . .
Right Sleep
Right Meditation
Right Stress Relief
Right Nutrition
Right Relationships
Right Exercise
Right Mindfulness
Right Gratitude.
No, this is not the 8-fold path of the Buddha. :) But maybe our biopsychosocialspiritual dis-eases and our living with them should have an 8-fold path. . .
So, let’s explore this together…
Yes, I think this is something that we will start looking at and I will kindly and compassionately challenge you to look at it and perhaps live it. I know when I incorporate more healthy living in my life, there is more health. I can’t cure it, but I can have much better quality of life.
Let’s touch base with each other and see what we come up with.
With deep compassion and gratitude,
~~ Jennifer
Don’t let up when you find a protocol that seems to help!
I’ve seen this for years with people on psych meds… they take them, get to a good place and think, I’m fine. I don’t need those meds.
I’ve seen it with people struggling with addiction… I’ve changed people, places, and things. I’ve had some time. Maybe it wasn’t as bad as I thought. I can go to happy hour with the gang from work and drink club soda. . .
I’ve seen it with AIDS patients… I’m feeling great… I can let up on the cocktail of drugs. I already have AIDS, I can have unprotected sex.
And I’ve seen these very same people have rebound depression from stopping meds too quickly, have relapses from the slippery slope of that one drink, that one old using friend, and I have seen. . . well, people die from thinking they have outsmart AIDS.
Magical thinking doesn’t just go away when we reach a certain age like grade school age. We still think we have magical powers. Guess what, what we have is responsibility for our actions, thoughts, and words, not magic.
I’m writing this after having come from the doctor’s office. I let my guard down and feel like I’m paying the price. I started a new med that the doctor had suggested without going to “THE google” first.
I didn’t pay attention to the signs like dramatic shift in my thinking and behavior.
I didn’t listen to a friend when she said, “What the hell are you doing rolling the dice”…
So, I’ve had a migraine since Tuesday, on the heels of some stress at work, with really humid, crazy-shifting barometric pressures, and after bending the rules while taking my mom to brunch for her birthday.
I haven’t had a migraine this bad since I first got diagnosed 8 years ago. Well, this intense that I thought about an ER visit. I had a few years where I had daily migraines and thought a stray bus running over me was the only thing that would put me out of my misery. Mind you, I didn’t want jump in front of it, but if one happened into my dreams, while I was trying to sleep and could end it all, especially the pain, well, so be it.
But that was a dark night of the soul and I’ve worked hard to get to where I am.
You can’t stop the biofeedback.
Let me be more honest than that…
I can’t stop the biofeedback.
I can’t stop the mindful diet of foods that don’t create inflammation.
I can’t stop second guessing the doctors who don’t know enough about migraines or pain.
There are no holidays for good health.
There is learning from ill-fated decisions though.
A long time ago, I was a trainer for weight watchers and I learned a valuable lesson… when you screw up, don’t think, I can screw up all day today, the day is wasted… I can start over tomorrow.
B.S.
You start with that moment and make a better decision.
You make that day still count.
You can turn things around at any moment and get back to healing.
You need a plan.
You need friends to support you.
You need experts who you can trust.
You need love and compassion for yourself.
For me, this means making sure there is healthy food in the house — ie, high quality protein and lots of veggies with a few healthy grains like brown rice.
For me, this means being honest with friends so they can call me on my “stinking thinking” — to use a phrase from the 12-step tradition.
For me, it’s about making the time to manage stress by doing things I love.
For me, it’s about making sure I find mindful moments every day, every where, and in every aspect of my life.
For me, ultimately, it’s about walking the middle path, the road of balance and I’m lucky that I have something like the Eight-fold path to help me. . . as well as the Dharma, Sangha, and Buddha.
So, let’s get back to basics.
Let’s get on the cushion today, even if I have to sit there with ice on my head.
Let’s mindfully wash the dishes even if it’s one plate and then laying down for an hour to rest.
Let’s be gentle, honest, compassionate, and real with thinking and feeling.
Let’s start with that compassion and the breath. Let me, today, remember that it starts with being compassionate for myself and finding that connection with everyone else who is in that same place so that the armoring can melt and I can get in touch with the raw achy heart of the warrior.
And I have to remember, I have choices all along the path.
I let my guard down. But, I’m in pain and there is no reason who add shame, guilt, or anger onto what already is.
It’s time to remember what’s important, healing, and pertinent in this very moment… that would be health, breath, compassion, love, and connection.
So, at 12pm, I intend to turn the day around, even if it is only in very small ways… with every breath, I have that chance.
I hope you remember you do to.
~~ With lovingkindness
