Welcome to the Group

Welcome! We would love get to know you, so please tell us a little bit about yourself. You can choose any format you'd like, but most of us here share some or all of the following details:

1. History with weight loss:
2. History with Calorie Count:
3. Reason for joining this group:
4. Some interesting details about yourself, such as your job, your family, your pets and your interests:

And now just go ahead and make that first post!

Hi,

I'm 46, married, kids, 1 hamster.  I've been with Calorie Count for over a year but have stretches where I haven't used it.  I am watching what I eat just to avoid middle age creep at the waistline and to control cholesterol and blood pressure. 

Last year I had an onset of daily headache that lasted 3 months. It resolved but then re-occurred again for a little over 3 months.  I had a bunch of tests done thinking it was an infection or something but nothing turned up.  I had some treatment with migraine medication which helped so the provisional diagnosis was a type of cluster headache or migraine. When I've got it it just wears me out, interrupts my exercising, and generally I start to gain some weight.

I'm pretty active and exercise with weights and on the bike. I hike and have started mountain climbing.  I swim and used to be in a swim club. I enjoy tennis and camping.

The funny thing about my headache bouts is that I've now had two episode when it's been brought on by overexertion.  One time I went downhill skiing and really wore myself out. The next two days I wasn't sleeping well and boom, the headache was back for several weeks.  Just recently I went climbing on a hot day and came back exhausted (though I did make the summit): legs sore and went through 4 litres of water.  Couldn't sleep several nights and now the head ache is back

Well, that's my story :)

Mr. Neville

Hi everone,

I'm 56, married, empty nestor.  I retired last year.  I'm enjoying my time now.  I thought after getting away from a 9 hour desk job and being exhausted all the time, that I would lose weight almost automatically.  I was walking a lot more and I was just more active.  To my surprise, after I joined a fitness club in June and weighed in, I had gained 12 pounds.  I guess my jeans weren't shrinking and the sizes in the store weren't getting smaller, it was my waist that had been steadily growing.  Ouch!  Well with that wake up call, I have doubled my efforts, tracking my calories on this website, (glad I found it) and I am working steadily harder at the fitness center.  I'm not looking to lose 12 pounds overnight, I just want to get more physically fit and be more comfortable in the clothes that I have.

I joined this group as I have recently begun to get migraine headaches, again.  I had a lot of these in my 20's and they subsided in my 30's with only a few here and there over then next 25 years, but now they seem to be almost weekly.  I can't understand why they have returned and I am hoping they will go away again.  Seems like I lose a day each time.  Oh well.

I am basically happy.  I'm weighing myself each Friday.  I'm hoping tomorrow will bring me some good news.

That's where I am. 

Barb

HI

I am a 47 y/o married mom of 2.  I didn't have migraines until after the birth of my youngest.  I joined cc in March of 07 and rapidly began to loose weight.  In June of 07, I went to a neurologist and they told me to cut out many of the foods I was eating...processed foods, citrus, vinegar, chocolate....

I went on maintenance to adjust to the new forbidden foods.   I  have gained back about 12 pounds and am trying to get back down to where I was. 

 I joined this group to see what works for everyone else.  I haven't found anything that works.  Drugs don't work and cutting out foods hasn't helped. 

I binge right before I get migraines so that is always a huge setback.

I work out of my home.  I have a beautiful 4 y/o golden retriever.  I love photography, cooking, and writing. 

Patti

 

Hi

I am a 32 y/o married mom of 1 son and 1 daughter. I just started using cc this week and love it, I have tried WW, south beach, Abs diet all with some success but not long term. like beach walker I began having migraines after the birth of my daughter , went to Dr he put me on topamax (which caused a kidney stone), the I stopped smoking and cut out caffeine drinks and they went away. I still get them before/ after my cycle but they are monthly now instead of daily.now I use zomig when I get one and that help alot.  I am a massage therapist and starting nursing school in about 2 weeks , I have one Chesapeake bay retriever, married to a wonder man of 8 years now, and my interests are exercise, shooting, archery, and learning new things.  Nice to meet all of you.

Susan

hi im lucy im 33 with 4 children, im starting treatment in just over a week for anorexia, and im really scared, im also going through a break up, which is a bit nasty at the moment

i started getting migrains when i was 6yrs old, i used to be able to stop them with a med called migrrlief pink, but they dont work as well now only stop me from being sick, as ive got older they have got worse, i go half blind in both eyes, for about 10 minutes, then i get zig zags in front of both eyes that last for hours, i also go numb starting in my hands and then going all over my body even my mouth and tounge go numb, and i cant move, its very scarey, also i forget what some words are, what they mean and so on, like one time i had the word egg stuck in my head, but for life of me i couldnt remember what it was or what it looked liked, does anyone suffer from this? the last one i had was bout 4 weeks ago, having anorexia doesnt help as one of my triggers is when i dont get regulaly, also i cant eat chocolate, cheese or have anything with caffine in, but at the moment im craving chocolate very bad because of the lack of food im eating, i  will prob get a migrain very soon as last night i had a bite of a chocolate bar i couldnt stop myself, even the smallest bit of chocolate gives me migrains.

lucy xx

Lucy,

It almost sounds like a stroke or something. I assume you're under doctor's care for this. It sounds quite scary.

Mr. Neville

Hello everyone.

I'm a 43 year old man, married with two kids in college and I have suffered from migraines for as long as I can remember.  One of my big triggers is the weather, so when a storm blows through my area, I can be assured to feel it.  I have been on CC for about a year now and since starting my weight loss plan have lost 118 pounds.  The only things that work for relieving my migraines are time and fiorinal 3, which is a combination drug that includes butalbital, caffeine, aspirin, and codeine.  Pretty powerful stuff with addiction risks.  I have tried just about every other OTC and prescription medicine for migraine and none of them work.  I have learned to live with the pain for the most part and unless I am actively throwing up, I just do my best to go about my day.  If I let the pain slow me down, I wouldn't have a life.

Hi - I'm Emily, 31 yrs old, no kids, just cats and a long time boyfriend. Just joined CC after repeated urgings from an exercise pal. I started with some type of headache about 3 years ago - it would start out as an achy pressure in my forehead, and then concentrate to a small spot in my left temple by the end of the day. This went on for months.

One neurologist told me it was a viral form of meningitis, and that it would go away on its own. 6 weeks later and 3 trips to the ER to get relief through some heavy duty anti-inflammatories, I was sent to another specialist. I went through the whole test regimen - CT and CAT scans, MMR, MMA, LP, and lots more that are just a jumble of letters. All that was detected was a slight higher than normal spinal fluid pressure and a slight swelling of the tissues in my left eye around the optic nerve.  His diagnosis was a very rare disorder called Pseudo Tumor Cerebra - where your body thinks there's some foreign growth in your spinal canal, causing an overproduction of fluid and the resulting pressure headache.

While I am overweight, i have been completely healthy my whole life and this news really got to me. There is no cure, just management through medications (that make your nose and chin go numb, so odd) and of course recommended weight loss.

I'm now seeing a third neuro guy, and have settled on the diagnosis of migraines. Of course weight loss is recommended as well more attention paid to triggers like caffeine and inclement weather.  So far so good managing these with a daily dose of an anti inflammatory (naproxen) and the occasional maxalt when things act up.

I try to stay active teaching and playing tennis, an am very involved in my job that analyzes and consults with non profits on their fund raising techniques.

I'm curious if anyone has seen a reduction in headaches with weight loss? or has seen them increase with air travel?

Hi all, my name is Pam and I am 26 years old. No kids just a spoiled cat and I am getting married Sept. 2009 to the man of my dreams. I have been suffering frome migraines for a little over two years now, it started as a slight headache that just would not go away and progressivly got worse and never went away. I went to the er and many different doctors who tried every pain killer, anti inflamatory, and prescription med. and nothing was working. I went to a new doctor and she put me on Depakote ER which is mainly used for paitients with bi polar but it relaxes the blood vessels in your brain which releives your migraines. I have been on it since Feb. and had only had 2 slight migraines since and take Relpax to relieve them. I noctice that if I don't get enough sleep I get migraines and I also learned that processed sugar is a trigger for my headaches so I have completly cut that out of my diet and just recently learned I have a severe wheat intolerence so that's out to now. I joined calorie count in Jan. to lose the weight I have put on while dealing with the migraines and since then have lost 70 pounds. In my free time I enjoy planning my wedding, shopping, and spending time with family and friends. Good luck to everyone:)

Hi, I am Magan, woman 62. I have also been successfull participant of CC. I am short 5'1" and overweight was always my challenge. Every time I let it go, I have gained and I have learned that it always hapens when I don't use CC. My highest weight was 222 lb about 7 years ago and  now I am 135lb. Even though my goal is 125 lb, I find it difficult to retain it, even after reaching it number of times.....Of course, when I reached it, I gave up on entering everything I eat into CC and the next time I checked, my scale was showing I am far from my goal again.....so struggle goes on. What works is not particular diet, just weighing my food, entering it into CC and aiming for A and nutritional ballance of Fat 30%, Protein 20% and Carbohydrates 50%.  I also take once-a-day multiple vitamins/minerals.

I had sufferend with Migraine since my 20' and it was not getting better. I do not drink alkohol in hope that if certain kinds of alkohol trigger Migraine at least I will not have to cope with that. Through the years I noticed that there are certain foods/ingredients which will trigger Migraine for sure, but list is still not complete. I hope that we can share our triggers. Others can test them and see if they also trigger their Migraine. We can help each other to find out what our triggers are to be able to avoid them. Using CC to enter all food is great help in tracing food/ingredients which are causing Migraine.

I will try to start new tread with topic: Migraine triggers and ask members to share theirs and start testing new ideas.

 

Hi.

I have been having migraines and other headaches for the last 20 years or so... Most of them have been something that I can deal with. I get them once or twice a week at the very least. Most of the time the migraines/headaches are resolved with some tylenol but I have recently taken some migraine specific medications like maxal (spelling?) Have ha a couple of times where the migraines were so bad that I would not be able to continue to work at job. That's the short version of it all.

CC has been where I log on to track my weight since sometime in April, I guess.

I own a dumptruck, but I don't drive it.

I just started on calorie count yesterday.  I am 63 and have had migraines most of my adult life.  I have a stessful job and life so am a stress overeater!  I have been going to a neurologist for about 12 years.  I take several migraine suppressing drugs (Topomax, Lexapro, Inderal) and also take Imitrex when I have migraines.  I always take a pain reliever like Ibuprophen with the Imitrex. Many people only take Imitrex, but that is only a vaso-constrictor.  It does not treat pain.  Interestingly, the co. that makes Imitrex has now come out with a pill that combines Imitrex with naproxen and it is great!

I know I have to lose my extra 64 lbs of weight and get more exercise or I will start having more severe health problems.  I believe that if I record my food intake, I will eat less and will lose weight.  Exercise will probably be the key to reducing migraines.  Has anyone had success with that? 

I am sure that one migraine trigger for me is alcohol.  I never drink for fear of getting a headache.  I have recently read a book called "Heal your Headache, The 1,2,3 Program for taking charge of your pain".  It is written by a Dr. Bucholtz and he has an interesting theory about migraine thresholds and recommends a diet that cuts out all possible triggers.  It is crazy what he says are possible triggers:  Citrus fruit, cured meat, coffee, caffeine, cheese, yogurt, vinegar, alcohol, wine, chocolate (of course), msg, avocados, and a long list of other foods.   I find that I can't cut out all of that but have tried to limit some of it.   His idea about thresholds helps us to see why we might get a headache from a trigger one time and not another.  The way I understand his theory is that our headaches might be influenced by atmospheric conditions and stress and certain foods.  If the atmospheric contitions are not bothersome and our stress is low, the foods might not cause a headache, but if all our triggers are at a high level, the food trigger might push us over the threshold and cause a headache. 

Hello there! I am Nikki, 26 years old, living in central California. I just started a new job in the IT field, and hope to move up to Oregon closer to my family in the next couple of years. I've been a member of Calorie Count for 2 years now. I started at 170 lbs. (I'm only 5'1") when I joined, got down to 150 in about 6 months, then over the course of the next 1.5 years just gained it all back. Ug.

I am now engaged and my want to lose weight is reinvigorated. Plus, my dad just got diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes (on both sides of my family), so that's another reason I want to get in shape. Plus, I'd like to be more fit for my wedding day. Mostly though, it's just a general want to get fit. My goal is to weight about 120-130 lbs. and not feel so icky in a swimsuit.

I joined this group because I have suffered from migraines for years. I've tried practically every medication (both quick fix and daily preventative) with no long term results. I recently cut out caffeine completely (though I never thought that was a trigger). The migraines the first two weeks were horrid! But now I am feeling a lot better on a daily basis. So, I recommend trying it!

I've struggled with weight loss since I was 16 years old (I'm now 42). Last year I started using a medical weight loss group as a last effort to loose weight on my own.  I was seriously considering surgery, but since I've already lost 53 pounds, and I'm hoping to loose 60 more, I don't think I'll need the surgery.  I started using CC to help me log my food/drink etc, much easier than using a paper journal.  Just over a year ago my chronic, lifelong headaches became horrendous migraine headaches.  I average one a month.  My family doctor was not having much luck controlling/preventing my headaches so he sent me to a neurologist that specializes in headaches.  The neurologist is great!  He took me off the ambian (a anti-depressent that can, sometimes, prevent migraines) because it was not working and the side effects (dry mouth, extreme weight gain, memory loss) were not worth it.  I just saw him last week, so I'm not sure how the new meds will work, but I have a lot of confidence in him.  If some of you have tried things that have helped with headaches, I would love to hear about it!  A little about me, I’m recently (4 years) married for the first time.  My husband also has never been married before.  We do not have any children and do not plan on any (my health prevents pregnancy and we do not wish to adopt).  I work in the Oncology field and my spouse is an architect.  I love landscaping, gardening, reading, movies, and I’m enjoying remodeling our home (but I also look forward to the day that is complete!).  We have 3 small dogs and a cat (who is larger than the dogs!  Ha!).

Wow...we have quite a wide spectrum of people in this group.

I'm Jesse. I've had migraines for 9 years (Im 27). After all that time, last year a neurologist finally discovered what he thought was the trigger to my migraines (thank god!!!). I was in an accident the same year the migraines started. My car was spun out of control and did a 360 before landing in a ditch. Though, at the time, they only found a urinary tract infection (haha, too bad I couldn't blame that on the accident) and they sent me on my way. My neurologist claims that the accident twisted or damaged a large muscle in my neck causing it to similtaneously spasm. If it gets irritated or overworked (or it gets bored), I get a migraine. I always know when Im getting one because of the huge pressure in my neck, followed by everything else. Just in the last few months I started getting the nausea with my migraines...thats terrific!! I have taken every pill in the book (currently maxalt) as well as preventatives (currently nortriptaline). I was also prescribed a muscle relaxer (robaxin) to help calm the muscle down but it just makes me sicker. I now get migraines 3 - 4 times a week and as everyone with migrianes knows, the day after a migraine, you feel kinda blah from the battle with it and the meds taken. So every day I am dealing with a migraine or its affects.

I have a couple months before graduating college (omg!! finally!!!) with an accounting degree (yes...accounting. I would blame that for the migraines!). I then plan on working with a regional or national accounting firm (with great healthcare). I was married for 7 years before finally getting a divorce this past May. I am currently dating (its soo weird) and am madly in love...once again. I also have 2 furry boys, Lova Boy and Big Daddy (Blue tip siamese and main coon). The Lova Boy is 11 lbs (fatest siamese ever!) and Big Daddy is 18 lbs. They are on a diet as well. :)

I currently weigh 138.5 lbs at a height of 5'7". I am hoping to get down to 120 lbs by December (graduation...and new career) and be a tone bunny. haha. I just started Calorie Counter today and absolutely love it! I am definitely impressed with what they offer. I am hoping to get help with the migraines from this group because sometimes its easier to get advice from people who suffer than people who are told how we feel.

Good luck to all with the weight loss and migraine bashing!

Finding the trigger is great news!  What do they recommend? Could you get a script for neck rubs :)

Sue

They just gave me a muscle relaxer to help the muscle itself...but it just makes me sick.

A prescription for neck rubs would be GREAT!!! May take a bit to get that one. ;)

My boss suggested accupuncture (probably totally spelled wrong) but I am sooo afraid of needles. I always have tears in my eyes when I get a shot and I always get a sucker. :) (low fat, lets hope)

At my weight management clinic, they suggested 'pressure point therapy'.  I found a good book at the library and I'm reading up on it now.  Basically, the idea is that an injured muscle in your neck can cause referred pain somewhere else.  Or a stressed muscle in your leg could cause foot pain, etc.  I'll get the info on the book if you are interested.  I've already used the technique on my husband's foot pain and, after just 2 days, he states he has 50% less pain.  One of the best parts of this therapy is you can do it at home, by yourself or with a friend.

sue

I'll try to remember to ask him when I see him next. Thanks for the info. :)

Hey everyone! I am 32 yrs old and have been trying to loose weight for the past 6 years.  I have yo-yoed on every diet know to man, but my fitness instructor suggested this site so I thought "why not, I have tried everything else?" So here I am.  I deally I need to loose about 55 pounds.  My biggest issue is I am really motivated to start something, but then loose motivation to finish.  If I don't see result with in the first few months I get bored and give up.  What I thought were migraines for 5 years actually turned out to be symptoms of MS.  Well now at least I know!

Well that is a little about me.