Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are

The above quote is by Anthelme Brillat-Savarin.

I fully believe that healthy eating makes my TBI less severe. Let me rephrase that: healthy eating makes the effects of my TBI less severe, simply because I have much more energy and my head rarely feels like a metal bar has shot through it (which it does, when I am not eating and sleeping well).

Take last night, for example. I attended a potluck dinner, full of about 100+ unfamiliar people, who brought lots of food. Bottom-line, I ate too much. I ate too many salty tortilla chips (salty is operative word since sodium is a no-no for me, especially at night), and too many cookies. More specifically, the very last thing I ate for the evening – I say “last thing” because I ate it after I was already painfully full of not-good-for-me-stuff – was one of those store-bought, thick sugar cookies covered with a thick coat of icing and candy sprinkles. Needless to say, I didn’t sleep very well last night, and to add to my misery, some guy decided to snow-blow the sidewalks directly outside my window at 4:30 this morning.

Three nights ago, on the other hand, I slept almost like sleeping beauty. I didn’t even wake up to use the bathroom once, and I felt great all day. The difference is that night I didn’t eat sugar or salt in the evening. In fact, I don’t think I ate anything bad at any point during the day. I felt healthy, energized, and for lack of a better word, I felt normal.

What did I eat? Well, for one, I found a recipe in a Martha Stewart magazine called Protein Packed Breakfast.

Check out the recipe and please try it:

Ingredients:
1 large egg, plus 3 large egg whites
4 ounces soft silken tofu, drained
course salt and ground pepper
1 tsp olive oil
1 bell pepper (ribs and seeds removed), chopped
1 scallion, white and green parts separated and thinly sliced

1. In a bowl, whisk together egg, egg whites, and tofu; season with salt and pepper
2. In a small nonstick skillet, heat oil over medium-high; add bell pepper and scallion whites. Cook until scallion has browned, 3 to 5 minutes; transfer to a plate. Add egg mixture to skillet; cook, stirring occasionally with a rubber spatula, just until set. 2 to 3 minutes. Top with bell-pepper mixture and scallion greens. Serves 2