Laura Lushington of Alberta, Canada offers some advice for living life with Chronic Migraine.

Practice health habits on a daily basis
“You have to be on top of your migraine game every day — it’s not something you can lapse on,” emphasizes Laura. “When you lapse on it, that’s when you can get into poor patterns and cycles.” Her top wellness tips include avoiding her trigger foods and managing stress by keeping a positive outlook. “Since migraines are encompassing of your entire body, it’s important to take care of yourself from head to toe — inside and out.”

Limit the sweetness in your diet
Once she realized that eating sugar makes her more prone to migraines, Laura cut her intake — even opting for less sugary fruits, such as raspberries and blackberries. “It required a whole kitchen clean up because sugar is in everything, even salad dressings,” she states. If a recipe calls for one cup of sugar, for example, she’s found that 1/3 cup works just fine. “I’ve also investigated healthier sugar substitutes and that’s been a fun journey,” says Laura, who lists coconut sugar and dates as two of her favorites and shares her recipes on her blog, alushlife.ca.

Change your language
“The moment I realized migraines were just a piece of me and not all of me was a big turning point in my life,” explains Laura, who has been suffering from Chronic Migraine for 10 years. Today, instead of saying, “my migraines,” she now refers to them simply as “migraines.” “It’s a tiny shift, but taking that power away from migraines made such a difference,” she continues. “I felt in control again. When you’re managing a chronic health condition it’s important to remind yourself that there are so many other components to who you are other than your disease.”