The Distractables - your ADHD friends

Hello. Welcome to the distractibles where we come together to chat about our ADHD journey, as well as practical ADHD tricks, and hacks to get through daily life. I'm your cohost, Marie Ong. I'm the founder of LamaLife, which is a routines app for ADHD, and I'm here with my co host Jesse J. Anderson.

Hey, I'm Jesse, I'm the author of Extra Focus, and I'm really excited for the topic we're going to dive into today.

Yeah, same here. So we're going to be talking about diet and nutrition. specifically for people with ADHD. And we're here with Rebecca King, who is a registered dietician nutritionist and a certified intuitive eating counselor from Charlotte, North Carolina. Becca, welcome. Thanks for having me. I'm super excited to chat with you guys today. We are so excited to have you here as well. I have so many questions about diet and you obviously have ADHD as well. Yes. And I guess maybe we should start with your ADHD journey. So, you know, what's your story? How did you get diagnosed and why are you kind of focusing on diet and nutrition?

Yeah.

So I, before I got diagnosed with ADHD, I actually had. an eating disorder, and then I didn't really connect any of that to ADHD at the time. Um, but then I got to college. I feel like a similar story to a lot of women that I know that have ADHD were like, I did well in school and high school and all of that.

And then I got to college and I, struggled in every area of my life and everything was way harder. And, um, my roommate, who's now my best friend had ADHD and we were like two peas in a pod. So like by my sophomore year of college, I brought it up to my, my therapist was like, I think we need to explore this because like I couldn't keep up with anything.

And I had to work way harder than everyone else. Like. I went to a big football school, um, in the South. So that's like a big thing here. And I would have to like miss football games cause I'd have to be in the library studying on the weekend and all these kinds of things. So I was like, this shouldn't be like this.

Um, and that's when I got diagnosed and then kind of my eating disorder kind of morphed from being anorexic to binge eating. And, um, and then I started to really see. Start noticing some of the connections between ADHD and food. And, um, I kind of got into this work accidentally, honestly, like I didn't think when I was like becoming a dietician that I would work with ADHDers

but then I was like starting to think about like my space and the intuitive eating world. I'm kind of in like two different niches of like intuitive eating and then ADHD stuff. And I was like, who, like, who's my like ideal client? Who do I want to work with? And I was like, Oh my gosh, there's this whole.

space of nutrition that is not being touched on, especially for adults with ADHD. And I was working with a really good friend who also had ADHD and she was struggling with like the same cycle I struggled with in grad school, which was like not eating enough and my meds and then binging at night when they would wear off.

And I was like, I'm going to be a dietitian. I need to figure this out. Um, and then I saw this pattern and my friend and Ben, a Facebook support group for women with ADHD. It was like, Hey, can I like do a poll, like a survey in your group just to kind of like see what other women with ADHD are struggling with.

And like every single person clicked binge eating on the survey that I did. And I was like, Wow. There is these huge overlaps between these things and nobody's really talking about it. And it was the beginning of the pandemic at the time. So I had a lot of free time to just like hyper focus and learn a lot more about ADHD and, beyond just my own personal experience.

And yeah, that's kind of how I got here.

As you were talking, Jesse and I just like nodding our heads. It's such a, it's such an interesting topic and I never made the connection between diet, binge eating and ADHD either. Um, when I was younger, I went through like a little phase of kind of binge eating as well.

It didn't develop into any sort of full blown disorder, but I definitely would come home from school and just binge eat. Just eat like, I don't know. It was just like crazy. Just eat junk food and then, and then just feel horrible afterwards. And, um, as an adult now, I don't do that as much, but I definitely have a thing where I'm too hyper focused and I just forget to eat.

Yeah. Um, I'm not on any ADHD meds at the moment. I used to be, but they don't really agree with me. So, but when I was on meds, I, yeah, I totally forgot to eat. I wasn't hungry. That's the, that's the problem. Like it just didn't, didn't have any appetite. Yeah. And, and on top of that, I was extra focused. Yeah.

You're like, I'm good. Like, I don't, I don't need to eat. Yeah. I'm feeling good. I'm getting dopamine. I'm feeling like I'm very productive. Like I just want to stay in this flow because who knows when I'll get it back. Yep. And yet taking care of myself and eating and even drinking water, it was just like a secondary thought going to the bathroom.

I can't count like the number of times I've had to run to the bathroom because I'm just so desperate that I've forgotten to do it. Yeah that I just have to run there. Um. Did you have any similar experience jesse?

Yeah, I was gonna say like I was nodding along with all of that stuff because yeah like the The hyper focusing, forgetting everything , which includes all the like signals for my body.

Like, Hey, you should eat some food. Hey, you should drink some water. Should you go to the bathroom? Like, I don't hear any of that. And so that definitely becomes a problem. Suddenly it's like I come out of the haze. And then I'm like, Oh my gosh, all the alarm bells are going off in my body that I need to do all this stuff that I didn't realize was kind of building up.

And yeah, I'm, I'm not currently taking any medication, but when I was appetite suppressant is one of the most common side effects and that definitely was the case for me too. Hyper focus mixed with that little bit of appetite suppressant was like, I would have like no food at all.

And then the other problem happens kind of the binge eating. I'm, Oh my gosh. If, if I have like a bowl of candy in front of me, I'm just going to eat until there's nothing left in the bowl. You could put a giant popcorn bowl full of candy and I would eat it all day long until that bowl was empty.

Part of it is I think the. You know, the dopamine of like, Oh, it's fun. Little treat. Yeah. Little treat. Fun. Little treat. A little bit of dopamine because my brain is Constantly craving that dopamine. And so I find myself pulled to that big time, which is really hard because I, I like to have little bowls of candy.

Also the sugar. Um, so, so, so I'm a software developer and so is Jesse. And, um, sometimes when I'm coding. Like I get stuck and it gets really frustrating and I can't solve it. And I'm like, I need to take a break. So I'll go to the, I'll go to the pantry and I'll go get some candy. And I'll do exactly what you said, Jesse, I'll put a bowl of candy, like on my desk, and I've even got pictures of this on Twitter and I'll just keep eating it.

And the, and the problem is like, I get sugar, which helps me focus for a really short time and then I crash, but then I focus and then I solve the problem. And so I've started to associate whenever I can't solve something, I go and get an ice cream or , some candy and then I solve it. And I'm like, this is a really bad cycle because I know it's not sustainable, but I'm sort of desperate at that point.

And I'm like, I need to fix this problem. And like, what am I going to do? Yeah.

I see this in my clients, but in a different scenario that I'm sure some of the listeners can relate to of like, when you almost like learned conditioning of like, Oh, when I have this issue, right.

This is what I, like I have, and you associate those things together and. That happens a lot with my clients in like TV, like, Ooh, when I sit down to like watch TV, cause it's also not very stimulating for our brains. Like I get my fun little snack and then that just becomes like, Oh, I need the snack to be able to like watch TV.

It's just like, Oh, I need the snack to be able to fix it. It's the problem kind of thing. It feel or it feels like that. Um, I think finding other things and maybe it is like, Hey, maybe it is. I actually give myself the permission to take a break if you can and go do something else that's maybe like a little more fulfilling and that dopamine maybe is lasting a little bit longer than like, kind of just.

Giving yourself a little burst because I, I feel like sugar as like, almost like social media where it's like little bits of dopamine. Like when you're doom scrolling, it's like, cool, I'm getting a little bit of dopamine, a little bit of dopamine, but it's not. Once you stop doing it, it it's, it's not really there anymore.

And I think kind of, yeah, you finish it. Usually you finish like when I'm doom scrolling, like, what did, why? Like, why? And it's kind of the same thing with like, if you're binge eating, you're get done with it and you're like, why did I just do this and eat all of this food? And now I don't feel good. And it's kind of the same thing.

You like finished doom scrolling. You're like, I don't feel good from this either. It doesn't hit the spots. I think sometimes trying to find other things and sometimes they're not. They might not be quite the same. Um, cause I heard that from people over there. Like, I can't find anything else that's exactly like sugar.

And it's like, yeah, that might be the case. Um, so finding some other things, though, if it's like, Hey, maybe I take a five minute dance break and listen to a song I really like and dance in my office or whatever, um, or step out with the music.

Music is a good suggestion. Yeah. I have a playlist of uplifting, happy tunes or just stuff that, you know, Really gets the dopamine flowing.

And I sometimes put that on and then I'll find one song which really does it for me. And I'll play that like a hundred times. Repeat.

I need to hear that one again.

Yeah. Yeah. And then, and then one day I'll just be like, no, I can't listen to that song anymore and it's gone. It's dead to me. Um, I want to ask you about like the intuitive eating part.

Like, what does that mean? Like, does that, does that sort of tie into what we were just saying about trying to find something else to, to replace the food or is it just being more conscious of while you're

eating food? I would say part of it's being a little more conscious and aware of like, why we're eating things how food actually makes us feel um listening more to like our hunger and fullness cues rather than like relying on like calorie counting or macro tracking or like all those external things that don't necessarily align with like what your body might actually need in the moment.

So it's, they kind of describe it as like a self care framework for eating. Um, and I like to think of it as like removing the shoulds with eating. And I think that's why it's really helpful for, for ADHDers . Let's remove the neurotypical standards around feeding ourselves and figuring out like what works for you.

And that will look different for all of my clients, but I think it helps a lot with like removing some of the shame and overwhelm and things like that, that come with food. Um, cause so many people are like, oh, well I can't, I can't meal prep. I'm just a failure. And I'm like, you don't have to meal prep.

It's there if you want to. Amazing. Go for it. But the vast majority of my clients don't meal plan because it just doesn't work for them. And also from like a sensory perspective, I don't want to eat leftovers that I cooked on Sunday on Wednesday. Like that's gross. Oh my gosh.

Like, it's just gross. Anytime someone makes meal prep and they're like, I made my lunch for Monday through Friday. I'm like, you're really eating that on Friday? Like. Sorry, if you like that, that's so gross to me.

I don't mind leftovers, but Jesse, I think you have a thing, right? With leftovers.

Yeah.

It was actually early on. Um, when I first got married, uh, you know, within like a few weeks, it was like, my wife was, her family, they did leftovers all the time. In my family, probably, probably because we were all undiagnosed ADHD, we did not do leftovers. We made a meal and then after the meal we threw that out because it's not gonna be good the next day.

So that was kind of a source of conflict, you know, which there's always like early days of marriage, you're figuring stuff out with each other, but I was like, why, why did you remake this? This is gross. This is old food. What are you, what are you, what are you doing here? And so we kind of had to navigate that, how to figure out because leftovers to me, it was almost like a foreign concept. It was just like the idea of reusing food I think it was, yeah. Like the sensory issues, like the texture is all like quote unquote wrong now. And so like, how can I eat it when the texture is wrong?

Yeah. Or like if you microwave certain things, like I can't microwave chicken because it just doesn't work.

Like reheat it to reheat it. It just doesn't taste the same anymore. My brain is like, that's wrong. And it should not taste like that. I will use my air fryer to reheat food because it like, doesn't do the same thing. Um, but yeah, , there's some things it's like, I don't want to do that, but yeah, it's like kind of removing all of that stuff and kind of exploring with intuitive eating, like.

What's going to help me feel good, um, both mentally and physically, I think is the, the important part because a lot of, traditional diets that focus on, especially weight loss, usually don't really consider your mental health when you're, when you're losing weight. Like do all of these things.

And a lot of times it's at the expense of, of. You know, you're mental health. So, right. It's a, it's a big, big list of rules. Yeah. That has never worked well for me.

Yeah. And keeping up with all of them. And then if you do multiple diets and a lot of times they all have like conflicting rules and they're like, wait, am I supposed to do this?

Or am I supposed to do that? Or keeping up with like, like food journaling and things like that. I tell people, clients, I'm like, you're either like hyper focused on it and you might really like data and so you're tracking every single thing and sometimes to the point that it's a little bit of a disordered behavior or even feeding myself is a lot so the idea of stopping and writing down and measuring all of my food is just like not accessible to me and it.

that can usually for a lot of my clients, if they've done that in the past, there's a lot of shame there because they're like, you know, I couldn't do this. or somebody like that doesn't understand ADHD, they're just like, just do it. Like, you just, Just have to get over it and do it. And it's like, that doesn't work.

I was in a Facebook group and that came up. Yeah. I was in a Facebook group and I saw someone post something about this and it was literally, my dietitian said, I just, I just have to do it. And I'm like, what else can I do? And I was just like, ah, like, can I talk to your dietitian please?

Cause like, there's so many other ways you could do things. Even just like taking a picture might be easier for someone than like, literally having to type every single thing in or write it down on a piece of paper and keep track of the piece of paper is a lot. And then remembering to bring it

if, if you like have to go into an office or whatever, um, to see, to see them as a lot of executive function that someone might not understand who doesn't, doesn't ADHD. Yeah.

I love that. It's kind of just figuring out what works for you and you don't have to fit in with. Yeah, just like all the, the neurotypical, like, here's how you lose weight or here's how you be healthy or here's how you measure stuff.

Yeah.

And I like what you said about taking the pictures because, and not counting macros. I don't know exactly what macros are, but I know it's something about like, Yeah, is it like calories or

like? Yeah, it's kind of like you're, you're kind of weighing things and you have like a distribution of like protein, carbs and fat.

It's a lot of math to be honest. And a lot of times what happens is people will just. End up eating things repetitively to the point they get really bored and then just say, screw it because then they don't have to do the math. Yeah. They're like, I don't have to do the math if I just eat the same foods every day.

But like, obviously that gets boring. And then eventually they're bad foods or the cheat foods that aren't on their diet plan come creeping back in because they're like, this is boring to eat the same things over and over again. So

I used to use this app where I would take pictures of the food and I would.

I wasn't doing it to lose weight or anything. I was just doing it to try and remember what I ate because it's, I have a, another friend who's a dietitian and she was saying to me the food needs to be colorful, like one easy way to figure out if it's, you've had a healthy days, like look at the color and make sure there's some greens and some reds and stuff.

And so I used to take the pictures of the food to do that. And, and it was really scary because like. Some days my whole thing would just be like beige in color, like so many carbs. And then I'd also notice like, I'm eating the same thing every day because I don't want to think about it. Yeah. And also sometimes I don't, I don't mind it.

Yeah. Like I'm like, I could eat that 10 days in a row. That's fine. And then a bit like the music on the 11th day, I'll be like, no, I can't look at that anymore. Yep. And I need something else. Yeah.

Yeah. I find pictures are nice. You can also get like a. A timestamp. And especially like if you have your location on, you can see where you were to, it like just kind of helps jog your memory of things of like, Oh, I noticed if I took pictures of breakfast at, you know, 8 AM and then my lunch isn't until 3 PM and then I maybe dinner at like six and then you're like, Oh, I'm binge eating at night.

I'm going to be like, yeah, that makes sense to me because there's some pretty big windows of time that like you're not eating. So at some point I call it the hunger monster that comes out in the evening when you haven't eaten during the day, whether you're medicated or not, but like once you get to that evening time and it's just like you start to relax and or your meds wear off and you're like, I just feel almost insatiable.

Um, and like, it feels like nothing, even if you're physically full, sometimes , I still feel like I need to eat and I can feed. It just can be a very frustrating. So I always like talk to my clients about like, we're trying to keep the hunger monster away. Like it, so it doesn't show up, um, kind of thing.

What, what do you think about fasting? Like, you know how, I think a few years ago, intermittent fasting, I guess it's still a thing, but a few years ago it was huge around like peak COVID was huge. And I actually tried it for a bit. And for me, it wasn't super strict. It was more like, okay, just don't eat after like eight o'clock at night.

And then just like, don't eat until the next morning, which is sort of 12, maybe 12 hours, or sometimes I'd go a bit longer and just wait till lunch. And for me, it actually was kind of good. I felt a bit more, I don't know, I guess I felt more even, like mentally. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. Do you have a, do you have a point of view on, on that?

I will say that, um, like if you do have a history of an eating disorder, that it is not recommended to do intermittent fasting. Um, cause that is like, Kind of feeding some of those behaviors. So if anyone's listening, it was like, I don't want to try that. But like you struggle with binge eating, I would not recommend trying it.

Um, but I think like a lot of dietitians will say that like your loose version of like, Hey, I'm not eating after a certain time generally, and Len. You know, especially if you're eating breakfast in the morning, we like to think of breakfast kind of like breaking the fast. Um, if you're not eating overnight, like you are, you know, if you're not waking up and getting food, you are fasting while you are sleeping.

Um, so you could kind of think about it that way. And for some people. I often find, especially if you're skipping breakfast and waiting really late in the day to eat and you've got this like short eating window, it kind of becomes like a gamified version of like, I can eat as much food as I want.

It's kind of, it's in this time period. And then it's like, yeah, it's not. Really it, but our brains do like to be fed regularly throughout the day. Like that can help with our brain function, especially like eating carbs regularly throughout the day. Cause that's what our brains use for energy. So it's like, yeah, we should, you know, if, if intermittent fasting works for you.

Great. I think of it too, as like, is this. Practical and doable for me in the longterm, um, kind of thing, because it, um, because it's like, for me personally, I wouldn't want to do it because , I love breakfast. So it would be really hard for me to like skip breakfast or like go to get brunch with my friends and I'm like sitting there sipping black coffee and watching all my friends eat food and I probably would not be a very happy camper.

Um, so I think like, Thinking about like, is this practical and makes sense for me? Um know, cause , I don't have to think as much about food in some of this capacity. So, um, but if it's something that you feel like it's not sustainable or you notice like, Hey, I'm, this is turning into me like not eating and then binge eating at night.

Cause that kind of mirrors a little bit of that cycle. Um, yeah. And then from a weight loss perspective it's not really any different from like traditional. calorie restriction and both are not particularly sustainable for most people longterm. Um, so if that's the method you wanted to choose and go down that weight loss path, go for it.

But like, it's not really different than, than other, um, methods that people use in terms of effectiveness.

Yeah. Earlier you kind of talked a little bit about , the shoulds, like, Oh, I should be doing this or should be And just sort of like the shame, which I think is such a huge part of ADHD, like, especially undiagnosed, but even if you were diagnosed young, there's just so much years and years of shame of hearing how you should be doing things.

And that's not how your brain works. So you didn't do it the way that everyone thought you should do it. And it just kind of like becomes know, this weight that's built up over decades of your life. And so I'd love to hear maybe a little bit more of how you've like talked with your clients about shame and maybe how that plays into some of the stuff with nutrition and things like that.

I think some of the shoulds, I will say that I help my clients like navigate through is like, I call them shortcuts, but like processed foods, I should be able to like cook everything from scratch. And it's like, that might, that's probably, you know, if you want to do that for every meal, go for it.

But if you, if that's not a reality for you, that's also okay. Like I use a lot of things like 90 second pouches of rice and rotisserie chicken, and like, even like the individual cups of Greek yogurt, because sometimes just getting the bowl out and the And the spoon, and getting the big container of yogurt out, and having to scoop it in the bowl, and then having to clean the bowl is too many steps.

But if I can just open the container and eat it and throw it away, I'm getting in that food versus having to throw out a whole tub of yogurt because it went bad before I ever got to it. So I think, like, learning, like, what parts of the cooking process do I find more challenging than others? And can we find ways to, like, simplify those things or delegate it?

Like, hey, let's order groceries. If going to the grocery store, Is too overwhelming for you and you don't enjoy that experience. Like let's order your groceries, you know, find things like that. And that can really help just, giving people permission to not do what everyone else has told them helps remove some of that shame.

Like, yeah, it's okay that I do things differently. Um, And I'm feeding myself. That's the most important part. Like I'm getting fed and that's what matters. Um, and I think a lot of times I love,

yeah, I love what you just said there because like the main thing is that you're getting the nutrition and you're getting food in and the way you do that is different for everyone and sometimes it might cost more.

In a way, but it costs more, but you save more, if that makes sense. The example that you used with the yogurt, you're buying individual tubs of yogurt, which is more expensive than buying a big tub, but you're actually, like, if you bought a big tub, you might just end up throwing that away and also not eating it.

So that's wasted. Whereas you've paid a little bit more for the smaller tubs, but you're actually eating it. So you, you are actually getting more for your, your money that way. Yeah. And. I have an example with just like the ordering as well. So I find it super overwhelming to go to the supermarket. I really don't enjoy it at all.

Um, I just get massive like fog when I go in and I'm like, I don't know what to do. And I'm like, super stressful for me. So I started, um, paying for delivery and it's the best thing ever because. Like it costs me to get it delivered, but I end up buying more food that's nutritious that I'm actually eating.

And like it's spending money, but I'm saving as well because I'm not, I'm, I'm saving stress. Like I'm not having to go through that. And also if I go to the supermarket, I'll end up just buying stuff I don't need. Like, I'll just be like. Oh, oh, that

aisle, it's got something when there's two things in that aisle.

Oh, that's on sale that now. Yeah, like my impulse purchases are definitely so much lower when I buy online because I can see the cart adding up and I'm like Let's go through this and see. And like, we can pick a couple of fun things to add to the list, but like, we don't need all of these, especially sometimes if I'm ordering late at night, I'm like, you don't need all of like the next, I won't order it, then I'll wait till the next morning to like click order.

And I'm like, let's just double check that. Like what's on this list is, is what we really need. And sometimes you find you have more energy to actually like do some of the prep pieces, if that's something you do, or it's like, Hey, I might actually have the energy. When the groceries get delivered to wash my vegetables and fruit or, you know, do those kinds of things instead of getting home from the grocery store and you're like, That was so awful, and I'm so worn out, and now I, like, just want to sit on the couch the rest of the day and, and order food, probably.

Yeah, I'm like, I'm just gonna order takeout, too, because that was way too much. Oh my god. Yeah, so it's like, why do I, like, but if you get it delivered, you might actually be able to, like, Cook that meal that you bought the ingredients for. And, you know, so I think this like figuring out where you can kind of like save some spoons, um, in the process makes such a big difference.

Vegetables are amazing as well. Like, so I used to buy fresh stuff and I always had to throw it out and now I buy frozen. And it's pretty good. Like I, I'm fine with it, you know, like, and I always have a bag of, you know, carrots, peas and, um, corn, like just, and it's all, it's already done. Like I don't have to do anything to it.

I just chuck it in the microwave for a minute and it's good. It's, it's so helpful. I have so much frozen stuff.

And the, um, fun little nutrition point is that it is like frozen fruits and veggies sometimes can be even more nutritious than fresh fruits and vegetables because they're like flash frozen at the peak of their nutrition.

And then. They're frozen when they travel to the grocery store versus fresh produce. And sometimes produce travels really far is losing its nutrition, you know, as it travels. So I think people always think like, Oh, frozen food and things like that are bad. And it's like, actually, like I might be even getting more nutrition from my frozen fruits and vegetables and I'm not wasting them, which is even better.

So, um, and they're usually a little bit less expensive. I find too, which is, it's great. And I cut you off, Jesse.

No, I was just gonna say, uh, the other thing I was gonna mention, uh, Casey Davis talks about like rearranging your refrigerator or whatever to sort of like bring the foods you normally that like sit in a drawer and then you don't see them and they disappear and then when you open that drawer, they're gone.

you know, two weeks later, you're like, Oh, those, that went bad because it's hidden down here in the corner. Yeah, exactly. The produce graveyard. And so her suggestion is to like, put it up in the very visible areas. And so like, if you, if you, if you have soda in your house, put that in the veggie drawer, you can hide that because when you want soda, you're going to go dig and look for it.

You'll be, that'll be fine. You're not going to forget about the soda, but the, the veggies you want. That sort of thing out and open and it's like, yeah, sure. Maybe it won't last as long there versus the drawer or whatever, but you're going to see it and actually like use it. And that's kind of a lot more important for that stuff.

Cause it's the out of sight, out of mind, which is so huge for ADHD. Like I don't see it. I'm never going to remember it. Oh yeah, all my like snacks are eye level in my refrigerator. So they're like, when it's snack time, , I don't have to really think they're right there. And I just grabbed them where I have like a bin in my pantry of like my quick snacks.

So there's like, there's not a whole lot of thought that it has to go into it. And I also find putting a whiteboard on your fridge too, of like, Things you need to like use up or remember to use or even like what meals if you do plan or like, you know, pick a couple meals you might make throughout the week.

I don't pick a day for mine, but I'll write like, Hey, here's the three meals I'm going to, you know, I bought ingredients for, and then I can like pick and I don't have to like open my fridge and be like, I got that chicken. What was the chicken going with? I can, you know, like just be like, Oh yeah.

I said, we're having chicken fajitas. Then I can just grab those things and make it versus like, let me try and remember what I said I was making and what ingredients go with it. So it makes it a little bit,

bit easier. Do you set aside time during the week to do that? Or is it just more when you have the thought, you just go scribble it on the whiteboard and go, okay, chicken fajitas.

I usually, We'll do it Sunday or Monday. Like if I go to the grocery store, I'll try and pick like three meals. I don't do it every week, but like most weeks I'll try and pick like three meals that I'm going to make. And I do kind of do leftovers, but like for me, I'm like, I can make something and have it like the next day as leftovers.

I just can't like. Prep one thing and eat the same thing over and over again. And that's just, unless I'm hyper fixated on something and then I'm not prepping it. I'm making it every day. Um, like you said, Marie, until you're like that 11th day and I'm done, like, I'll get on a kick of something where I'm like, I want a Buffalo chicken, you know, wrap every single day.

And then one day I'm like, I don't want Buffalo for a while. Um, so yeah, it's just kind of, I'm not like a super, um, rigid meal planner. Cause I. My parents never really meal planned. I was like thinking about that the other day. I was like, my parents never really meal planned. So like, I just don't feel like I need to, especially cause I work from home.

I can kind of just like, Adapt things and I it's just me so I don't need to like Worry about making sure my kids are fed or my partner or any of that So it's like that it makes it a little bit easier. I think having an idea though of what you're going to eat um can help and having like a Stocked pantry and freezer I would say not necessarily fridge but like frozen items like frozen veggies I even get like frozen bags of rice or like Um chicken nuggets are a great one or i'll get um frozen burger patties things like that that I can just easily heat up and then I have a lot of like canned things and like sauces and like rice pouches and things in the pantry so that way if I haven't planned anything.

There's usually something in my, between my pantry and freezer that like I can kind of pull together to make a meal that's nourishing. Um, but usually it does not take more than 15 minutes because unless I'm really in the mood to cook, like not spending more than 15, 20 minutes in the kitchen. You mentioned having your eye level snacks. I'm just curious. What, what are some of your go to snacks?

Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, cheese sticks, those little like fruit squeeze pouches, um, would be some of my refrigerated ones. Um, I like a lot of granola bars, nuts.

Trying to think what else I put in there in my little snack thing. Sometimes some chips, pretzels. I really like pretzels. Um, Trader Joe's

pretzels are big in our house too. I love pretzels, popcorn. Anything crunchy? Wait, when you

say pretzels, are they like little pretzels or the big ones? Because, like, you know the, like, the tiny, yeah, yeah, like the size of a couple of coins.

Yeah.

A little bigger than a quarter or something. Yeah. Okay, yeah, yeah.

Because sometimes people say pretzels, they mean like the big soft ones, right? Like the soft ones. Yeah. We're talking about like the crunchy ones, right? Yeah. Okay, yeah, yeah, cool.

So, yeah, those are like, um, tortilla chips. Because I like to dip.

I like dips. Dips are also, I would say dips are in that, that snack, that snack place too. I'm a big dip person. And like carrots and apples would be another. Anything crunchy.

That's, that's one of those things. I,, I love like dipping, dipping carrot in some sort of like, um, I don't know, like ranch or, um,, hummus or something like that is like great.

I just never think to actually have that. And so I just grabbed Doritos and say, not so, not so great, but yeah, I wonder, like, that's something I should take my own advice of putting like carrots, eye level sort of things. I do the thing of, yeah, opening the fridge and scanning it.

And then I'm not seeing the stuff that maybe would You know that maybe I would prefer later that I had eaten.

Yeah, but it's just not kind of what I see in the moment Yeah, and that's where

that whiteboard can come into or some of my clients will write like yeah

Great. I love the snacks we bought this week that I want to eat eat or try to eat more of and that can at least when you go to Open the fridge you're like, oh carrots and hummus.

Oh, that's in here instead of being like Scanning the fridge and you're like, you might see the carrots and the hummus, but it just doesn't quite like connect, connect in your brain. And you're like,

you cut, you cut like the carrots up beforehand. Like say, cause for me, a barrier, like a point of friction would be like, I have to go grab the carrot, cut it up.

And then by that time, I'm like, I'll just grab something else. But if all, if it was already cut up into sticks or you could buy a bag that's cut up, like that would be so much easier. We have baby

carrots in the States and carrot match. Carrots. And then there's also these like crinkly, um, carrots or like coins and they have a fun little texture to them.

Oh yeah.

Oh yeah.

I think I can. They're sliced. You mean they're already sliced and they've got their crinkle texture? Yep. Okay. And then it just makes it like a chip. Yeah. It's almost like describing.

Yeah. That's exactly. Yeah.

Yeah. We have one of my clients, I think, yeah, one of my clients, she came to visit.

She was really excited because she came. Yeah. Uh, from a different country to the States. And she was like, I got to try baby carrots finally. Cause she was so excited cause they don't have them in her country. And I was like, that's so cute. Um, but yeah, I wonder if I'm going to look out for them next time.

Cause I don't remember seeing them, but I'm like,

I'm pretty sure they're just normal carrots that are cut to look like they're really little carrots, but the illusion works for me. So

I did, you mean like the top, the tips off, they're like rounded. Yeah. They're like little cylinders. Oh, we do have them. Yeah. Yeah. They're a little like a little, yeah, cylinder sort of like a finger.

It looks like kind of that size. Yeah. Yeah. It's

kind of a finger shape. Yeah.

Yeah. We do have them. Okay. I'm going to, I'm going to get those.

That's a good idea. They're just so much easier. In 2020, I decided I didn't want to buy baby carrots anymore. And I would buy the big bags of carrots and peel them.

But then. The peeling stuff would get everywhere. And I would usually be like in a rush to make a snack. So I would just leave a bunch of carrots, like peeled carrots in my kitchen. I was like, this is way too messy. We can just buy, we can just buy baby carrots. It's going to be

okay. Yeah. Like, well, I'll draw the line here.

Baby carrots. I'm going to do that to save the mess and save the hassle and just be like, I'm going to be eating the carrots hopefully instead of the Doritos. Yeah.

Like, cause I. Eat a lot of carrots. So I was like, I'll buy the, with the whole carrots. Cause it's, you know, it's a little bit cheaper.

It's like, you're saving 1. And then in the grand scheme of things, I think we can, you know, probably save that time and use it for something else that it takes you to peel and chop up. Baby carrots to eat them.

This was such an interesting conversation and I've got so many tips already to walk away with buying baby carrots is one of them, but also just sort of organizing the shelf is another big sort of takeaway for me, but I think the thing I loved the most was, um, just the intuitive eating part.

So just being super self aware, I guess, and conscious about what's working for me and not sort of doing what works for everybody else and kind of just changing it up depending on how I'm feeling. I really love that, that idea. Yeah. Um, but yeah, thank you so much for joining us today. This has been such a great chat.

Um, so much for being here. Where can we, where can people find you on, on socials if they want to follow your work?

Instagram would be the best place, at ADHD. nutritionist. I'm also on Facebook and threads, um, and you can chat with me there too. I'm on Tik TOK, but I don't really use it. So if you find me there, you won't really see any content.

I was gonna say, thank you so much for having me and talking about this topic.

Cause I think, um, it's really important. And it just kind of, sometimes it gets overlooked a little bit. I feel like, or people just don't think about it in the context of ADHD. They're like, it's. You know, school and organization and doing my job. And it's like, it's literally every part of our lives, including, including food.

Yeah, totally. Awesome. This is, yeah, it was great to chat with you. Um, Marie, how about you? How about where can people find you online?

Um, so you can find me on Twitter. I'm at three hour coffee spelled out the words three hour coffee on Twitter and llama life at llama life. co. And where can they find you, Jesse?

Uh, yeah, well, first I just want to remind you that Twitter does not exist anymore. It's been a couple of years. I

refuse to call it X. As so many people refuse to call it X. I

didn't even want to change it on our website. I was saying to the guys like, Oh, let's just keep it as Twitter. But we, we ended up changing it.

Um, you can follow me on, I'm on all the places that ADHD, Jesse, um, mostly probably threads and Instagram is where I'm most kind of active, but pretty much if there's a social network, I probably have that handle on it. So you can follow me there. And then my newsletter is at extra focus. com. Um, yeah.

Awesome. Thanks again, Becca. This is great.