AUBREY KINCH

Monday.... it either seems to be amazing or it's just dragging on. Today for me was a dragger. It was so hard waking up this morning on mom duty and getting Drake to school and even harder planting myself in front of the computer getting back to emails. It will be a crazy couple weeks as I gear up leaving the church. So much stuff to get in order to whoever takes over my position and a lot of wine to get me through the crazy stress it's already inflicting. Oye!

I am going to be boring today and update on the good ole migraines happening in my life. I did hit the doctor again before Christmas with an obnoxiously long list of side effects and how I felt like I'm not myself basically. He sort of laughed because half my list made complete sense as the other has nothing to do with weaning off my medications. So he pretty much said I'm weird... okay not really, but I'm sure he was thinking that.

To name a few I had nausea, excessive eating, no sleep, shakes, anxiety and the list goes on! Totally weird. Not to mention, I have never in my life been late for my girl stuff and was 8 days late. Who knew? He said my hormones are adjusting and I'm going to be going through this phase of unknown side effects for about another 3 weeks. Yay!...not.

That being said, I have still been pretty miserable on the migraine front. He decided to pull some Vicodin to save the day and I will be treating with that for pain. I do still get nauseous when I have them so I've reverted to some preggers anecdotes with ginger tea and little hard candy treats that help. Otherwise, we're surviving. Still a lot of sleepless nights but I'm thinking positively as I'll be able to adjust my schedule much more freely in 2 weeks.... I can do it!

On another note, I hit 5k on instagram last week! That is so very exciting to me and can't thank you guys enough who do follow along. It's my obsession kind of so I'm happy so many people seem to like it also. You can follow along here if you aren't already | @aubreykinch.

It's been quite a rough couple weeks and I thought it's about time to share it here. If you've followed the blog for a while, you know I suffer with chronic migraines and have for about 11 years. It's something I learned to just deal with and move about life pretending like I'm not in pain and I've been okay for the most part because I've been on a daily medication for about 10 years preventing them. I still have the normal migraine about once a week but that's manageable from when I used to have them for a couple months straight.

A couple weeks ago I decided it was time to stop all medications having to do with migraines. I've been wanting to take this step for a couple years but was completely scared by the outcome and how I'd be extremely vulnerable to struggling while my body adjusted to nothing. Well I've been proven right because it's been one constant migraine along with the most severe side effects with vomiting, dizzy spells, lack of sleep, shaking and being completely out of it at times. I feel like I'm not very present in life going about my business because it's a fog of pain but we're managing... trucking through as best I can.

Why am I denying medication? It's become something I'm immune to and even the strongest pain killers aren't making a dent. Breaking it down, I was on a daily preventative, two onset pills, nausea medicine, vicodin and the occasional percocet. You can only imagine when my body is subjected to this extreme at least once a week, it would be in shock cutting it out, ha! Altogether, I want to find a place where I can manage this without being completely zonked on meds or miserable without them. I'm trying to find a good balance as well as natural remedies to help for this time being.

As this year closes, I find myself becoming busier as we all do during this season but I have to force myself to say no to those additional projects right now because I just can't function. With the exception of two nights, my average sleep schedule is about 4 hours a night because I'm up vomiting so frequently and it really doesn't help that both of my jobs are with me planted in front of a computer all day. The joys of social media!

All in all, I'm trying to keep up blogging as time and wellness permits but I so appreciate your grace if there are larger leaves of absence on the blog! As always, you babes have my heart and I can't thank you enough for your support!

Let's talk about organic foods.

If you've been around here a while, you know I struggle with migraines and along with that I have some particular foods I have to steer clear of. You can read about that, here.

Recently, I've dipped back into eating whatever I felt and granted it was healthy but I've been suffering from quite to spout of pain lately. Hubs came to me over the weekend saying he was ready to hop on board with eating as I normally do, organic foods and all. To say I was elated is an understatement.

I've battled back and forth trying to make our household healthy, organic and clean eating all the time and it's been tough getting him to say no to his Monsters, pop and all the delicious sweets in between. He grew up with a home that always had those goodies and still do so when we go over there, we're each bound to gain at least 5 pounds a visit.

Him coming to me had me bursting and I spent my next day revamping our grocery list and a whole afternoon buried in Sprouts and Whole Foods. I'm excited because not only is he going to be eating better with me and that can only support a healthy life for him, but we can be dependent on each other now! No more fighting the temptation of ice cream or drooling over his butter smeared muffins. We're in this together and that only lightens my heart.

I've been trying to find sweet alternatives to help those cravings we have, and lately these are my go-to snacks:

Simple snacks that conquer the sweet juices and they're better alternatives. Win win, right? Other times you can find me munching on spicy roasted hummus with carrots or celery, avocado on toasted ezekiel bread or edamame.

What are some of your favorite, organic, clean snacks?