Adult ADHD Healthy Eating - Get Excited About Food!

When you think about healthy eating, the word “exciting” probably doesn’t spring to mind. But for me healthy eating IS exciting, and here’s why.

It’s well known that those of us with ADHD wiring experience the world more intensely than the average person. Our heightened response to sights, sounds, and other stimuli is often at the root of our challenges with distraction, emotional overwhelm, impulsive choices, etc.

It was a huge revelation for me when I realized that I also have intense sensory responses, both positive and negative, to food. In my new ADHD Brain Food e-book, I share the full story of how I came to this realization after witnessing the dietary journey of one of my clients and conducting my own explorations.

The gist is that brain-healthy eating transformed my life. After many years of educating myself and counseling others with ADHD traits, I was already doing pretty well at managing my wiring, but developing my awareness around food gave me a whole new level of control.

Here are just a few examples:

Improving Sleep. I used to have a problem with waking up at 2 or 3am and struggling to get back to sleep. I learned that eating foods high in the amino acid L-tyrosine at dinnertime helped me sleep more soundly and adding an Omega-3 supplement helped even more.
Smoothing Out “Yo-Yo” Energy. If I don’t eat consistently, my blood sugar crashes. I get shaky and my brain turns to mush. In the past, it was all too common for me to get preoccupied, forget to eat, and then grab a starchy or sugary snack when I started to feel crappy — which of course led to feeling even worse later. Now I’m more proactive about avoiding blood sugar fluctuations, and I almost always have nutritious snacks on hand to get me back on track when necessary. My mood and energy are way more consistent.
Interest and Curiosity. Like most ADHDers, I tune out when I get bored. But the more I learn, the more food becomes exciting. I don’t want to just shovel the easiest thing into my mouth. My awareness is attuned to how much better I feel when I eat good food (calmer, more able to focus, happier) — and how much I regret it when I make poor choices. I’m interested and curious because I’m engaged in an ongoing experiment with myself as the test subject.

How to Get Excited About Food

I know it’s easy to see healthy eating as a chore. A painful regimen that you probably won’t be able to maintain. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

I challenge you to get excited about food. Because of our sensitivity, ADHDers are primed to experience big results with small changes. I’m willing to bet that you could see significant improvements in your mood, energy, or focus by making just one or two small changes in what you eat or don’t eat.

And once you experience that, I hope you’ll get hooked and continue the experiment!