Yes, my cognitive functioning degrades when I get hungry too.

My doctor recommends high protein, low fat snacks to help the brain to recover. Interestingly enough, I was craving protein like never before since the accident I was in!

I've found that they helped me the most in the first 20 months or so. I'm craving less protein now, and I take that as a sign that my brain doesn't need it as much as it did in the first 20 months - which is a great sign to me.

Beef Jerky, Turkey Jerky, unsalted roasted cashews and other nuts, salami, summer sausage, pepperoni, etc.

All those quick proteins sound great, but I can only do the nuts portion.... I eat fish and seafood but no meat.

My accident was in early Feb. I was in bed for the first month, unable to walk by myself. Now I am walking more, yet struggle to walk to the end of our driveway (about a city block). It is frustrating because before the accident I was running at least 3 miles a day and working out for an additional hour each day...Muscle atrophy and Weight gain!!

Anyway, what the docs told me I will repeat, focus on getting your brain better. Weight does not matter right now.

Oh, and yes, I notice the low blood sugar thing now too!

Yes, me too... I find I am constantly hungry, like ALL the time! I'm trying to make better choices, but it's difficult since DH (whose metabolism is better than mine, esp now!) has a huge sweet tooth!

I totally hear you on this one! I was running 2 miles a day for the police academy and now I also am just barely surviving a gentle 15 minute walk. SO hard...it is good to know that it is not in my head (ha ha what a contradiction, right?). Going up 2 sizes in 5 months is not fun. I didn't gain weight, per se, but going up the sizes baffles me. Guess I'm not as toned. GRRR. anyway, I wish you continued luck!
-K.-

Oh...quick question, how do you get your history at the bottom of each of your posts? I would like to do that! thanks!

My Dr. gave me the same advice for about the first 18 months; that I needed my brain to recover more than my body for the time being. Then after I started showing more cognitive improvement - that's when I got the advice I posted above about trying to keep the weight down. It's a fine line, because I wasn't able to be active and it still can give me a major setback, like it did just about ten days ago, but I definitely need to lose weight.

And I was very active before the injury I sustained too - so I have a proclivity to push myself when I am being just a little active. It was really hard to remember to pull back and pace myself after experiencing 33 years of pushing very hard while dealing with so many cognitive deficits. I still have trouble with it sometimes, but my cognitive functioning is better and with practice and the reminder of so many awful setbacks, it's easier
to remember now than it was.

I guess everything is getting easier for me than it's been since the accident; but it's all still so hard when compared to how easy it was before the accident!