Lost 115 lbs & no more migraines!!

[Shanana2326]

I'm not sure why it's taken me so long to post this, but I just have to share how much Whole 30 has changed my life. I did my first Whole 30 in Jan 2019. I was having terrible migraines up to 3 times/week. I was on tons of meds for my headaches. I was even having to take meds to offset the side effects of my migraine meds. I was miserable. I was extremely overweight. I had no energy. I was having gastrointestinal issues. I desperately needed to make a change but didn't know what to do. I went for my annual exam with a new Dr in Dec 2018. I was talking to her about my migraines & other health issues. Every Dr I'd ever been to in the past would just throw meds at me for my various health conditions. But this appointment was different. Instead of suggesting more meds, she did the exact opposite. She told me I needed to remove the most inflammatory foods from my diet- grains, sugar, & dairy. And she said I needed to wean myself off all the meds I was taking. I mulled this over for a month, not sure I could remove so many foods from my diet. Then my Jan 2019 issue of Clean Eating Magazine came out. The entire issue was dedicated to the Whole 30 diet. After reading thru the magazine I realized that Whole 30 diet removed all the inflammatory causing foods my Dr recommended. I was so desperate to make my migraines go away I was willing to try anything. So I did a Whole 45 with my husband. I had no idea at the time that I was embarking on a journey that would change my life forever. It has been 1 year since my first whole 30. I am down to 137 lbs. At my highest I weighed 250 lbs. My migraines are GONE! I have been off all my meds for 11 months. My GI issues have long since resolved. I have more energy than I've had in my entire life. I go to hot yoga every day & am walking a minimum of 20,000 steps (approx 9 miles) a day. My relationship with food has completely changed. My mood is more stable. I wish so much someone would have told me to clean up my diet years ago. I never understood the correlation between the food you eat & how you feel until I started putting clean foods in my body. I had no idea I could feel this good! Thank you so much Melissa & Clean Eating Magazine. I am forever grateful for you and Whole 30. I just had my 38th birthday last month. I'm embarking on my 2nd Whole 30 tomorrow- 1 year since my first Whole 30. I'm feeling more amazing than I've ever felt in my entire life. And I couldn't have done it without you.

[SchrodingersCat]

Such an amazing story to read, congratulations!! You should be so darn proud!

The first part of your post could have been written by me! Jan 2019 I was 250lbs, and about to give up full time work due to chronic vertigo caused by vestibular migraines. I had MRIs and so many different meds without results, and was just a shell of myself, then tried W30 out of desperation. BOOM migraines gone by week 3.

I did lose a good 50lbs, but then fell off the horse late last year, gained about about 30 of them back, and the vertigo came back. So here I am, a week into Round 3, and celebrating my first vertigo free day in a few weeks. This time, it's a permanent change (allowing for life to happen on occasion) because I can't go back to how it was.

So thank you so much for sharing, you give me reassurance that it can be done AND it is worth it. 

[Shanana2326]

I want you to know that it is still a daily struggle for me to make good food choices & I fell off the horse & still fall off the horse all the time. But I don't beat myself up about it anymore. I just keep moving forward. I make sure I keep walking & going to hot yoga every day which keeps my head in the game for the most part. I don't want to undo all my hard work by making bad food choices. Late nights are extremely difficult for me. I'm tired, stressed, my willpower is gone after making good choices all day... so I try to plan out & prepare my evening snack knowing that after that I'm done eating until breakfast. That has seemed to help me alot. I am not a slave to my scale anymore but I do weigh myself from time to time to make sure I'm still on track. And when I feel like things are getting out of control I start following the Whole 30 diet for a few days/weeks until I feel in control again. That is how I lost all the weight & how I will keep it off. I am super motivated to put clean food in my body because I know how amazing it makes me feel & I know how awful I feel when I'm not eating that way. Find a form of exercise you love to do. For me it's hiking in the woods, hot vinyasa yoga, & barre classes. I walk/hike my 20,000 steps outdoors every day no matter the weather. I lost all this weight once and gained it all back about 10 years ago following a different unsustainable unhealthy diet. Weighing in every week watching the scale go down was super motivating. But once I got to my goal weight and I no longer had the excitement of seeing the weight loss every week I was left feeling like "Hmm... what now???" And I thought, " I did it! That's it! I can go back to eating all the things I love!" I definitely learned my lesson from my first experience losing the weight. But my mindset is totally different now than it was then. I know now that losing the weight is just 1 (BIG) step of the journey. Maintaining (for me) is even harder than losing the weight because I don't have the excitement of the scale going down to motivate me anymore. But the difference now is that I am motivated to put clean food in my body because it makes me feel amazing which gives me the energy to exercise which makes me feel even more amazing. But I never would have known how amazing I could feel if I wouldn't have found Whole 30. I have struggled with emotional eating my entire life. And I always will. But I know I can return to the Whole 30 whenever I'm feeling like things are getting out of control. Now I have the power over the food instead of the food controlling me. 

[Amy_Michigan]

I love this!  Thanks for sharing.  That is where I want to be January 2021   I'm doing a whole30 now and at the end of December I was at my highest weight ever, 240 lb.  I lost about 10 pounds before starting my whole 30, and after I make it all 30 days, I plan to use your strategy of going back to whole30 to keep me on track.  I'm guessing that will be at least every other month.  I better keep my house stocked up with lots of these healthy ingredients!

[BabyBear]

@Shanana2326  thank you for sharing your story.  It touched a nerve and made me cry.  Perhaps because it gives me hope that I can live in food freedom and I can heal and restore my body by simply being kind to it and giving it clean energy and nutrients.  I completed my first Whole 30 in January and I am navigating reintroduction of the unknown foods.  Some days it feels too easy like how can eating ALL this food ALL the time possibly work, but other days it’s hard really hard and it helps to see others success great or small.  It’s like a beacon of hope out on the ever changing sea of emotions.