Ideas For Adopting A Healthy Eating Plan For ADHD
Is your energy low?
Are you having a hard time focusing? Do you feel disorganized and scattered all the time? These are not great feelings to have and if you have them every day, it can really get in the way of your quality of life.
One last question…
Do you really know how important your daily diet is in taking care of your ADHD?
Eating a cleaner diet and less processed food, will help manage your ADHD symptoms. It will help with focus, mood, and energy levels.
I know first hand the challenges in getting started with diet change, like cost and time. It’s been a couple of years now since I took a really hard look at my own family's diet.
After doing some research and watching a few documentaries, I quickly realized that something needed to change. I wouldn’t say we were terrible eaters, but we ate too much processed food and ate out more than we should.
So we made a few changes, I started buying more organic foods and started preparing more meals. This change came with a higher grocery bill.
Here were a few things I did before going to the grocery store to reduce costs:
Researched what foods were better to buy organic. I found a list of the most important fruits and vegetables to buy organic on the Environmental Working Group's website.
Learned to eat seasonally. Here is a great chart to help guide you through each season.
Got into the habit of regular meal planning. This was a crucial step in saving money. When we plan, we only buy what we need.
Considered what meals could be turned into two meals. I can usually plan to have one night be a leftover night, which helps cut down costs.
The other big change I noticed when we switched how we ate, is the time it takes. There is no doubt about it, if you want to eat more at home, you have to be willing to prepare the meals. If I no longer want to buy packaged cookies for my kids, I need to be willing to take an hour or two a week and make them homemade. But to me it’s worth time because it’s important enough to me that I know what they are eating and it doesn't include a bunch of ingredients I can’t pronounce.
But don’t get me wrong, I still make very simple and easy meals that really don’t take much longer to make. Maybe on the weekends, I will try a new recipe that is more detailed. But for the most part I have our list of favorite meals and that is what I go off of. I can’t say that we never eat out, I have adopted an 80/20 rule - if I know 80% of the time we are eating healthy, then the other 20% can certainly be left to getting a pizza one night or enjoying a meal out.
To give you a head start on adopting a healthy plan, here are a few additional resources:
Take Control ADHD Pinterest Board - ADHD and Nutrition
Dinner Tonight: Quick and Healthy Menus in 45 Minutes or Less
20 Healthy Easy Meals for Families
For more information on meal planning, I encourage you to check our ADHD-Friendly Meal Planning Kit!
Thank you for your time and attention!
Take Care,
Nikki
