How I Lost 131 Pounds and Cured My Migraines

As Joanne Raymond and her husband made their way down the aisle of the airplane and found their seats, Joanne sat down and desperately tried to suck in her stomach so she could fasten her seat belt. This is humiliating, she thought. Something has to change now.

Overweight since she was a teenager, Joanne had lost and regained 100 pounds two separate times over the years. “I was always a yo-yo dieter. I would deprive myself, eat the wrong foods, and eat to cope with stress,” Joanne explains. “I knew that if I didn’t do something about my weight that was realistic and lasting, I wouldn’t be alive to see my grandchildren.”

Joanne also suffered from fatigue, migraines, and knee pain. “I went for so many tests, and they always came back negative, until my doctor told me they were all weight-related. I was so mad at myself. I didn’t want to hear what he was saying, but I knew he was right. I spent a few weeks feeling sorry for myself, until I looked in the mirror and broke down crying. This is my last chance, I told myself.

“I had tried low-carb diets before, but they left me feeling hungry,” she says. “It just wasn’t sustainable.” Determined to find a plan that would deliver lasting results, Joanne decided to follow a ketogenic-style diet that incorporated more alkaline vegetables and healthy fats, including avocado, coconut oil, and sesame oil.

Each morning, she drank water with fresh lemon and 100 percent organic apple cider vinegar to eliminate the cravings that had derailed her diets in the past. During the day, she drank lemon water and protein shakes with kale, spinach, and protein powder. To lower her levels of the stress hormone cortisol, Joanne walked outside, reminded herself to “just breathe,” and used daily positive affirmations like “I’m good.”

Within 11 months, Joanne lost 100 pounds, and the rest of the weight melted off in six months. She went from a size 24 to a size 2. “My headaches and knee pain vanished, and my energy soared!

Today, Joanne is living life to the fullest, spending time with her first grandchild and traveling with her husband. “Now, instead of trying to squeeze into an airplane seat,” she says, “I have room to spare!”

How Healthy Fats Work on Migraines

Avoiding harmful fats like processed vegetable oil can dramatically reduce the number of severe headaches you experience. That’s the word from investigators with the National Institutes of Health.

In their study, migraine sufferers who removed unhealthy processed fats from their diet and increased their intake of healthy omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids from whole-food sources including flaxseed and fatty fish suffered 80 fewer headaches after 12 weeks.

“What was especially interesting is that the reduction of symptoms accelerated after nine weeks, which suggests a positive feedback cycle,” notes Catherine Shanahan, M.D. “If the study duration were longer than 12 weeks, we may have seen even greater improvements — and perhaps zero migraines in some of the study participants.”

This article originally appeared in our special print edition, Keto Over 50. You can purchase the magazine in full on Amazon, $12.87.