Testimonial: Fatigue and Headaches Gone in 30 Days

As most of you know last month myself and Heather Petersen hosted a 30 day raw food challenge.  During that challenge I received so much positive feedback from those participating that I wanted to share some of them here to inspire and motivate you.  This one is from Stephanie who was kind enough to share here experience with all of us, it really inspired me so I couldn’t wait to share her experience with you.  Don’t forget to send her some love with your comments below!

Hello!

I took the 30 Day Raw Food Challenge!

I took the challenge because I have suffered from migraines for (coming up on) 20 years. Every month, I have a migraine the day my cycle starts and the second migraine is when I ovulate. About 12 years ago my husband and I started searching for a healthier lifestyle that would hopefully, cure me of the migraines. A friend told us about a raw food diet book, so we read it and we immediately were hooked! We emptied out our pantry and refrigerator and we re-filled the kitchen with fresh, raw food. We immediately lost weight, over 20lbs each, I felt better than ever, and my migraines went away. I started running and our life was very rich and full because of all the energy we had and the fact that I was well and could participate with the family made things perfect.

Well, my husband is military and we move a lot and I home-school our children. Gradually, I began to add things back to our diet as we moved around and time and stress became an issue. Then my migraines came back in full force and I went vegan, thinking I had so much carrot juice in the raw diet, that there was no way I could go back to that (from what we read in the raw diet book back then, carrot juice is ‘what’s for breakfast’ and I could not drink another drop). So, as a vegan I was able to control the migraines and their intensity was much less, then I lost weight and could run again! I really, really, love running ; )  Things were going well, and again, I started eating all cooked veggies and meats…do you see the pattern here? It seems like I would get it right, but…here’s why I didn’t just stick to raw from the beginning.

It seems like everyone I know can eat whatever they want and they don’t get sick~ So I think to myself, it can’t be food.

Even though our family stopped being raw, I still kept gluten, sugar, and dairy out of our diet~ So if I’m feeding them so well, it should work for me too, right?

Then I had a new problem. I started feeling fatigued, all day, every day and my head would hurt almost daily. This went on for 2 years. I felt hopeless. Tired and in pain daily, gained tons of weight, as usual, and my monthly migraines started running into each other because they were lasting so long.

Now, I’m not one to whine or complain. I am grateful daily for the blessings in my life, but the weight gain, fatigue, and pain finally took over all my understanding and I felt completely hopeless so I called my little sister and broke down. When we got off the phone, I grabbed my ipad and somehow, seriously, I have no idea how it happened, but I came across ‘Just Glowing With Health’. This was a Saturday night and the challenge would start on Monday. I knew I had to give it chance. I was in a lot of pain that night so my husband took the four kids out to eat and it was just me sitting there going over my food journey. I realized, every time I was doing well and not having the migraines, I had let doubt creep in and take over my food choices. I didn’t know how my husband and kids would take the news, and thankfully they were very encouraging so that made the challenge easier.

So how did I do on the challenge? I loved it, but I did have a four day, intense migraine at one point and after a few days of not being able to keep anything down ~ my husband brought me pita chips and they stayed down~

The day I woke up and the migraine was gone, I went right back to my raw foods.

So I still had a bad migraine on the challenge, but here’s what I did not have~

Fatigue completely gone

Daily headache gone

10 pounds, gone!!!!!!!!

Sadness gone

Mind clear for the first time in years and my spirit completely lifted!!!!!

So where do I go from here?

Well, our family is preparing to move. We have 5 moves in the next 3 years. I need to be healthy for my sake as well as the entire family, so I plan to eat raw for now on. I believe that if I continue eating raw, these migraines will end. What I learned from this challenge is that I am not alone in my food needs for optimal health and ‘Just Glowing With Health’ has so many recipes that I was able to see how fun, easy, and tasty raw can be!

Thank you!

Shortly after publishing this post Stephanie contacted me to let me know that in fact her migraines never came back and to say it in her words “ I’m doing so well I am completely amazed!”  If you know someone that is suffering from migraines please SHARE this post with them and perhaps they too can find true natural relief to such debilitating pain.