Getting fit despite (to spite) my migraines.

A recent problem I have noticed is that I seem to get migraines after vigorous exercise.

To often to ignore, my vision will flick into the classic migraine aura roughly two hours after staggering back through the front door post a hard cardio effort.

Worse than that, I have found that the threat of getting a migraine has put me off exercising at all. A bit too convenient for a self professed couch potato.

Not now aura, I've got my burn on!

This can't go on for ever, or I will become one of those individuals that has to get a crane in to pry their body out of their bedroom to transport them to hospital.

You guessed it, I have found something else to change in my daily approach!

It seems to me that joining a gym or the like might be counter productive as well as (for me anyway) boring. Most classes offered would be out of the question as they (rightly) push participants well into the huffy puffy zone.
I have decided rather to incorporate incidental exercise into my life, aiming for a minimum of 30 minutes of incidental exercise a day. With a bit of planning this is a target that I should be able to blast through (at a steady pace) on a daily basis.
Walking the kids to school, riding my bike to the shops, squats and lunges on my bosu, mowing the lawn, dancing around to boppy songs. These are all options I enjoy and can be incorporated into my day with no real impact to either my schedule or my head.
The genius who discovered that incidental exercise minutes are as effective as block exercises, is now my new official hero.

The Migraine Zombie

I have recently developed a very 'under the radar' kind of obsession with Zombie books. I love the way Zombies aren't at all appealing, have no sex or sex appeal and cannot be brought over to the good side.
They are the epitome of the 'lost cause'. There is nothing romantic or glamorous about them, they just run around moaning and groaning and gnawing on the odd bit of human flesh.
Aside from the human flesh bit, I think I might relate a bit the poor maligned Zombie. I know what it is like to not be able to communicate because the words won't form properly on my tongue. I also can relate to the whole wandering around moaning and groaning bit, often with the odd stumble thrown in as my fine and gross motor bit is way off.
I do not refer (obviously I hope) to my everyday experience, but to the 'migraine days', days where I definitely have NO good side. Just a nasty temper to match my nasty head.
My Zombie empathy has no useful purpose in terms of a wise and effective way to get less migraines, I am just entertaining myself with the thought of a world overrun with moaning and groaning migraine sufferers.
Maybe workplace and pharmaceutical companies would start taking our ailment seriously? Perhaps our sudden power base would generate respect and concern?
Or perhaps in the way of the great Zombie reads, the unaffected would triumph eventually and we would still be left out in the cold?

If you are also a Zombie fan, here is a list of my favourite Zombie reads, nothing like a bit of escapist reading to perk you up! Plus another upside, stories where the hero triumphs over really really bad odds can motivate you to succeed against your own really really bad odds:

The Remaining, By D J Molles
The Remaining: Aftermath
The Remaining: Refugees
Apocalypse Z: The Beginning of the end By Manel Loureiro
No Easy Hope (Surviving the Dead) by James Cook
This Shattered Land (Surviving the Dead)

Closing the Accountability Gap

Lack of Accountability will shipwreck your change...

Have you ever noticed that when you are feeling your least energetic and the most confused about the way forward (which happens on a disturbingly regular basis to me anyway) there is always a BIG disconnect between the way you have decided to live and your actual life.

Hence the confusion. Your own mind and body does not know whether to trust you. 

But the mind and body are not helpless children, they are constantly sending messages, questioning lifestyle and life choices.

Usually, subtly like, WTF are you doing? We are going to shut you down until you start making sense!
Believe me, they follow through! Depression, lethargy, confusion and even physical ills such as stomach upsets, headaches and nausea
So how to trump the sneaky mind and even sneakier body when they are wielding powers you did not even know they had?
Win back their trust, be accountable for your word. If you say you are doing something, make sure you are. If you are talking the talk, make sure you ARE walking that walk.
You will be surprised how quickly your mind and body will get on board when you hold yourself accountable for your own choices.
Here are some quick accountability tools:

• Enlist a buddy who knows what you are doing and will call you on your progress.
• Break down your change into little steps. There are so many cliches around this one I will leave you to fill in the blanks.
• If you slip up and step outside your area of accountability, don't torture yourself about it. Just get back on that track (and Walk that Walk).
• Acknowledge that when you lie in bed at night you feel so much better having been accountable for your life.

Good luck, you know you are.

Trying is for suckers.

I am giving up trying. I have decided trying does not work for me.
As soon as I start to try and make a change, it seems every personal demon in my head which would make the endeavour difficult leaps into action.
Case in point, I have been trying to alter my eating habits to embrace a Primal lifestyle. No additive sugars, processed foods, or things that were not available to our ancestors from the deep dark past.
As my 'trying attempts' usually go, I got off to a very positive start with this process. Did the shop, ate the food, felt the satisfaction.
Then, as per the script, I fell off the wagon into a block of chocolate and a bottle of coke zero.
Feeling very discouraged I have been consoling myself with more of the same. In fact I have been eating a less wholesome diet than I would have been were I not TRYING to go primal.
See, trying, does. not. work.
So what are my alternatives? If I have given up trying have I also given up endeavouring to improve my health and decrease the hold migraines have on my life?
Nope, I have decided to play a tricky mind game with myself. Instead of trying I am taking up doing.
This week I am not going to try and go Primal, I am just going to be Primal. I am going to think about it less, but do it more.
I am sure this is what the original cave people would have done....
Stay tuned to see if I am successful in my trickery.

Who is watching you?

As a part of my quest to get deeper into the issues affecting those with chronic migraines, I have joined a migraine sufferers groups on facebook.

One thing I have discovered I have in common with many members of this group, is the concern about how our children perceive us  because we 'always' get migraines.

Some members have even gone so far as to pretend they are doing something else to avoid letting their children know that they are dealing with ANOTHER migraine.

This got me thinking, how do I deal with this worry? Could I be doing better to help my boys understand what is going on with Mum? Am I setting them up to be able to deal well with their own and other people difficulties?

Out of the mouths of babes.

Earlier this month, I found myself lying on the couch in our lounge area while my four year old played in front of me with some lego. I was still in the aura phase of a migraine and was unable to look at what he was doing because opening my eyes made me want to chuck.
 'I'm sorry I've got a migraine' I said, 'I know it is annoying'.
Little Dude replied, 'You don't have to say sorry Mum, you're not being rude'.
So what am I telling my son through this exchange? Nothing good. Luckily he is smarter than me and didn't buy into the underlying messages of;

1. I am being annoying because I am sick again.
2. It is my fault.
3. You have a right to be cranky with me because I am sick.
4. I feel guilty because I have a migraine.

These are all completely unhelpful lessons to be teaching my children, and I am sure that this language from me is NOT isolated.

I know it is hard to be switched on mentally when suffering from a migraine, so I need to think in advance what I will say to them when they occur. 

I don't want to send the above messages, and I don't want them to see my illness as limiting me and what I can achieve. 

Problem is I am so mired in actually believing the messages I am sending I am having trouble thinking up alternate conversations. I need your help.

What do you say to your family? How does this help them to understand and appreciate how migraines work?

The 'Kick me in the pants' list

Rise above: 

Do you ever have those days where you just need that little bit of extra motivation, a kick in the pants if you will.
Do you sometimes need a hand up when things are really tough? It is tiring dealing with real life and then trying to do your best through periods of frequent migraines. Sometimes it all seems too difficult to manage.

I have decided to create for myself a list of messages to read on just those sort of days, it goes something a little like this.

• Remember, this too will pass.
• Draw a line and step over it.
• What do you need to do?
• Why?
• Work Hard.
• Admit that you work hard.
• Look one year past. Look now. Do you see progress?
• Look one year forwards. Imagine the progress you want.
• Put some music on.
• Plan your work.
• Work your plan (that one's from my Dad)
• Be who you want to be.
• Create your life.
• Don't listen to the bull shit. Especially from yourself.
• Smile, now get on with it!
• Let yourself be a bit proud when you do.

Everyone's kick in the pants list would be different I imagine and in mine, to be honest, the order doesn't matter. Just the sentiment. Be proactive. Live deliberately. Be kind to yourself. 

I would love to hear other migraine sufferers lists, what gets you going when the going gets tough?

Migraines can be Depressing

What, I ask you, could possibly be depressing about having chronic and debilitating migraine pain? It's hard to see isn't it?
While a link between depression and migraine seems almost silly, researchers in Canada have found just that, a link! Astonishing!
Sarcasm aside, it is a little worrying to read that, according to the study undertaken at the University of Calgary, people who suffer from migraines, are up to 20% more likely to also suffer from depression. Darn. That's depressing.

The researchers were unable to determine whether the participants who had both migraines and depression, were depressed because they had migraines or had migraines because they were depressed. Which was the chicken and which was the egg so to speak. I have my own theories on that.

The good news to take out of this story, is that this discovery may open up different avenues for researchers to look into eliminating migraines.
In the mean time, at our level, what does this mean? Is this anything other than a rather obvious observation, for the many of us that have been lucky enough to hit the migraine and depression double?
I think there might be.
In the first instance, at least migraineurs now know there are legitimate reasons to be on the look out for signs of depression when suffering from migraines. A little bit of awareness, especially when family and friends are also in the know, can lead to earlier detection of depression symptoms and therefore earlier and more effective treatment.
In the second instance, perhaps for those stuck in the mire of depression and migraines, some hope can be gleaned from the link. Beating one may have double the benefits, work hard on ridding yourself of migraines may make life lighter and brighter as well.

Details for this post were sourced from  Reuters.