As you may know if you read this blog my husband, Josh was suffering from weekly migraines. They had gotten progressively worse over the course of about 7 years. We had tried so many alternative treatments and food elimination plans, but nothing had given him any relief. So at the beginning of November we decided to embark on a juice fast.
The first week of the juice fast was rough. It was a big adjustment for Josh and me both. He doesn’t like a lot of veggies that I love. For instance he will tell you that he likes vegetables and then I will say “not really.” He doesn’t like squash unless it’s grilled and in small doses. He hates sweet potatoes. I’ve tried beets so many different ways I can’t tell you. Not a huge fan of brussels sprouts. Basically this leaves you with broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, and salad greens, which meant that we couldn’t follow the Reboot plan at all. So the first 5 days looked like this.
Breakfast: Baked Apples
Mid Morning: Green Juice
Lunch: Date, Banana, Homemade Almond Milk and some Almond Butter Smoothie
Mid Day: Root Juice
Dinner: Salad and a Green Juice
Then we did 3 days of juice only.
Breakfast: Green Juice
Mid Morning: Root Juice
Lunch: Green Juice
Mid Day: Coconut Water
Dinner: Green Juice
Josh got his migraine right on schedule in the middle of this. It sucked. I felt completely desperate. We had gotten rid of everything he could possibly be reacting to and he was still getting his gut symptoms and migraine. I wanted to cry. Plus he was starving and I had gained 4 pounds. No bueno.
I called Colleen and asked her what she thought about switching to GAPS (gut and psychology syndrome) in the middle of this. I had done some hasty reading on it and some of what Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride was saying about other gut related issues made sense when it came to Josh. He seemed up to it so we started.
The first day I made the homemade chicken stock and I didn’t know you could have much more than that because like I said I had been a hasty reader. I handed Josh a bowl of broth and he moaned with delight. He acted as if I had just given him a cup of gelato, not chicken broth.
We went through the intro diet quickly. We did most of the stages a day each and are now on the full diet. I will post on what we ate for the intro week. I couldn’t have done it without being able to call Colleen (she has been studying the diet and had followed it for awhile) to ask questions.
Since we have been doing this Josh has had one hint of a migraine in 4 weeks. He seems so much better. I’ll keep you updated on the progress. side note: after the first week of not getting a migraine I was so excited but I had this thought right away “let’s not start sucking each other’s d*cks yet fellas.” -pulp fiction. I’ve kept this in mind when I get too cocky thinking this is solved. I know health is ever evolving and not always a done deal;)
image via: anthony burrill
4 Comments
Katie//salt+pine
December 6, 2011 at 9:20 PMWow…I'm really intrigued with this diet and will be interested to hear how it all works out. But so far it sounds pretty great! I don't have migraines but have family members that do and I'd love to pass on the info. And the Pulp Fiction reference made me laugh–totally using that from now on. 🙂
Colleen
December 7, 2011 at 10:45 AMI am so excited for you & Josh! I think if you stick to the probiotic foods and stay away from grains/ gluten for a while he will stay healed. I'm going to try the intro for myself in January. You are such an amazing, supportive wifey and friend.
180|360
December 16, 2011 at 12:41 PMThanks for sharing all of this. I really hope you will tell us if he relapses or not. Fingers crossed he doesn't!
Taking the long way – Modernist | Desi McKinnon
November 11, 2015 at 5:01 PM[…] had mostly cut grains out of my diet since Josh and I had done GAPS, but I decided to try a completely paleo plan and that’s when I did the Whole30. I lost […]