I Don’t Brain Good, But I Can Food

Last year I suffered a pretty significant head injury. The immediate side-effects were severe, but short-lived–a few weeks of drastic mood swings, sensitivity to light/stimuli, dizziness, nausea. But, the long-term side-effects, however mild by comparison, were nagging and constant: consistent, daily headaches and a foul mood. I developed a little habit of multiple-times-daily Advil consumption, sometimes taking 12 capsules or more per day. (Aside: For those who have experienced TBI, don’t worry! I only took Tylenol in the few months immediately following the injury, switching to Advil much later because my stomach didn’t tolerate Tylenol well.)

I will happily admit that, as habits go, downing a bunch of Advil every day is probably not the worst, but, for me, it was unusual.

So, it was on one of these “or more” days when I fell down a Google rabbit hole and discovered the ketogenic diet. In fact, it was this old Reddit post in particular that piqued my interest. I looked at research. I read some articles. I felt very badly for a bunch of male rats who were given traumatic brain injuries. And, I decided to give keto a try.

That was about four weeks ago. In those four weeks, I have taken Advil exactly twice–once after a particularly bad day of epic crying and dehydration, and the next day after searching for fucks to give but only finding cupcakes.

What’s more, my energy levels are insane now. Seriously. Weird and probably annoyingly high levels of omg omg omg yay yay yay. I don’t feel tired, despite sleeping less. I skip around the house singing songs and suddenly, randomly building furniture. And, I’ve lost 14 lbs.

One thing I’ve done with all this excess energy and time is start learning to cook. I’ve been documenting my meals occasionally on my Instagram. Here are some now.

Per the suggestion of the wonderful and lovely Candace Honey Kennedy, I’m going to start posting all this nonsense here with the inclusion of, you know, like, recipes and instructions. This whole keto thing has been terrific for me. Maybe it will help some other folks, too.

See you around, clowns!

Marie