Well, I was doing a low-carb, higher protein diet until about a week ago when I noticed that my trigeminal neuralgia wasn't acting up at all. So I Googled it and found out that these kinds of diets, but even more ketogenic diets (all protein, no carb or extremely low carb) diets are known to help people with epilepsy and neuralgia.
Ahah.
I went out and researched Atkins and a diet plan that is new to the US but has been in Europe for about 10 years, the Dukan diet. Dukan is French and apparently, French people have loved it for 10 years. He didn't publish over here because apparently we scared him or something.
Anyway, his book was published in the states about a year ago.
You eat all lean proteins and fat free dairy for a certain number of days, in the "attack" phase, then start alternating all protein days with protein and vegetable days. You gradually re-introduce all foods in different phases until you're at the holding pattern, where you eat all protein one or two days a week and just try to eat sensibly the rest of the time.
I decided I liked Dukan better than Atkins or any of the bodybuilder's plans I found online. I didn't want to go to another dietician. I researched and the negatives were mainly naysayers - the only actual, real studies about low-carb diets I could find didn't support the hype I'd always believed about how bad low carb is. And, if it could cure my facial pain, I was all for it.
I'm eating in the attack phase right now - all proteins and fat free dairy (with a little low-fat dairy and maybe a bite or two of real goat cheese and blue cheese). It's been raining since I started and normally, no matter what, I am popping 6 or 8 ibuprofen a day.
I haven't needed to take a single one.
Now, what I did NOT expect was how fast weight is falling off me. I've lost about 5 lbs. My love handles are dissappearing rapidly. At this rate, I will be out of my "fat" pants by August.
You aren't supposed to stay in the "attack" phase for more than a few days, but I'm going to hang out here as long it keeps on raining. I'm enjoying not being in pain too much to quit! Quite frankly, I don't care if I'm not learning how to eat healthily or to maintain my weight loss. I. DON'T. HURT.