chronic pain

Quite often I find myself disagreeing with the prevailing views and popular articles when it comes to “quitting sugar”. I think part of the reason is because our motives tend to be quite different from the motives of other people.

Sure, lots of people want to lose weight – maybe you do, too. Or be healthier in general. Or attain to some kind of athletic achievement. But for someone with chronic headaches, the motivation is something called “PAIN”. We would like to get rid of it, along with the other horrible symptoms that tend to come with it.

So keeping in mind that – sure, we would like to be a healthy weight. We want to be healthy in general. But we really do have a more immediate goal. And that often changes the way in which we do things.

So for those who want to cut down on their migraine/headache attacks, I would like to share a few thoughts about quitting sugar, just for you.

Where are we going?

What exactly is our goal here? To never let another sugar granule enter our bodies forever? Well, not necessarily. But let’s face it, there is an increasing amount of evidence that…

1. Most people are simply eating way too much sugar.
2. Refined sugar is not doing you much good, but it is doing a lot of bad.
3. Artificial sweeteners by and large are also often unhealthy, they also go hand in hand with sugar as migraine triggers.

So I suggest that our goal should be this – cut out virtually all sugar and sweeteners for a significant amount of time (several months). Beyond this time of experimentation (what’s happening to my symptoms?) and adjustment (it will take your body time to adjust – this is a significant change), you may want to introduce very small amounts of sweeteners (including sugar) into your life on rare occasions.

Some people will tell you it’s just impossible or unreasonable to completely cut sugar and sweeteners. It’s not. It’s a challenge that you need to prepare for, yes. But it can be done, and for many it may completely transform your life.

“Cutting down” is one of the great banes of diets. “I don’t each much of that…” “But today is a cheat day…” And the truth is, you are either trying to measure everything (frustrating!) or you really have no idea how much “bad food” you’re eating. Because you think you’re “cutting down” you feel a little better about yourself (until you cheat), but you really don’t get any results.

So, commit yourself to a drastic change. This is not a diet. You’re going to change how you eat. But this is not necessarily a forever commitment. How about 6 months? Then you can evaluate how you’re doing and how things have changed.

Prepare…

It does help to prepare before you jump in. Here are a few tips.

1. Cut out the sugary drinks. This is a simply step you can take ahead of time to help your body start to adjust before you go all in. You know your doctor will agree that sugary drinks are the easiest and fastest way to get a whole lot of unhealthy sugar into your body. And guess what? This is not just soda pop – this is juice too. Try the wonderful invention of water. Or get some fancy teas or coffees. Just get rid of the drinks with sugar.
2. Make it fun. You’re going to do some cooking, let’s face it. How can you make it easier, or more fun? How about a new kitchen appliance, like an Instant Pot? Or a good meat thermometer? A spiralizer (seriously, everyone needs a spirilizer to make healthy food fun!)? Treat yourself as you start on this new adventure!
3. Find a buddy. It will help a lot if you have a friend or family member who will do this with you. Even if their motivations are different, they still might be excited to join you!
4. Observe, and start to think about what you will eat. Actually, we’ll talk more about this next time. But it’s time to start thinking about how you’re going to eat in the future. First, observe – you’ll start reading labels, or noticing how often you add sugar to food, or how often you eat sauces with lots of sugar in them (one is commonly called “ketchup”). Then you’ll start thinking – if I don’t eat that sugary cereal for breakfast, what will I eat? What, no double mocha coffee espresso late? What about that snack I always get at 2pm? at 10pm?

Many people are getting angry enough with migraine to turn away from drugs, and instead start making serious changes. And as I’ve said for many years, diet is one of the most powerful tools you have.

We’ll look more at this topic soon as we seriously investigate the option of quitting sugar.