Migraine Diet

I have had migraines for years now.  They kind of come and go in waves, sometimes worse and sometimes better.  Recently they've been pretty awful.  I was getting up to 3 a week--All while taking a prophylactic medication.  Once you start using abortive medications, like Imitrex, more than 9 times per month, you run the risk of getting rebound headaches.  These are headaches than can turn into a Chronic Daily Headache.  This happened to me after Abbie was born and I had a ton of migraines.  I was concerned about the number of headaches that I was getting again, so I decided that I needed to do something proactive.  I did some research about migraines and found that the most common triggers are food.  Dang it--I love food!  But because I have been having so many migraines, I am willing to do something drastic.

Here's what I have cut out of my diet:

1) Chocolate (One of the top three migraine triggers and one of my known triggers--I just hated to lose this one)

2) Citrus (Another one of the top three migraine triggers--I love oranges and I did drink diet lemon/lime soda when I drank soda)

3) Sharp Cheese (How can you live in WI and not eat Cheddar?  So sad)

4) Pineapple

5) Caffeine (I cut this out for a while, but then realized that it's not actually a trigger for me so I have added it back in on a limited basis--It's the other of the top three migraine triggers)

6)Nitrites (Deli meats, etc)

7) Preservatives

8) Anything with a ton of food coloring in it

9) Super-processed foods

I was a bit unsure of the results for the first few days, but today I am on DAY SIX MIGRAINE FREE.  It's really quite unbelievable to me.  I've even weened back to half the dose I was previously taking of my prophylactic medication.  I'm so happy that I have found a way to control these bloody migraines without medication.  I hope to be off the preventative medication within the next few weeks and relying solely on diet and exercise (a super-effective way to prevent migraines) to be headache-free.