My ADD / ADHD Blog

Favorite ADD / ADHD Tips

Many of my blog readers know that last year I contribited to the book 365 ways to succeed with ADHD: A Full Year of Valuable Tips and Strategies From the World's Best Coaches and Experts. Just like the title says the book has HUNDREDS of tips.

For those of you who have the book:

Which tips have you found the most helpful?

Which tips have you applied your own life?

Overcome Chronic Overwhelm!

Last month we took time off at ADDClasses.com from our FREE Teleseminars for the ADHD Awareness Expo. I am happy to say that we back to offering our FREE Teleseminars again. My friend and colleague Jennifer Koretsky will be joining us at ADDClasses.com to lead the FREE Teleseminar Overcoming the Chronic Overwhelm Associated with ADD / ADHD on Tuesday November 8, at 9:00 pm EST. As always, if you register before the start of the Teleseminar you will be able to listen to the replay for 1 full week.

Healthy Eating and ADD / ADHD

This week my guest on ADHD Support Talk Radio was ADD Success Coach Dana Rayburn. Dana and I discussed the problems, challenges and solutions to eating healthy when you have ADD / ADHD. If you missed the live show Healthy Eating and ADD / ADHD you can listen to anytime in the ADHD Support Talk Radio archives and on iTunes. We been hearing from people saying that they've already begun implementing some of the tips that Dana talked about on the show.

Are you Drinking Enough Water?

There was an interesting discussion over on Twitter recently about ADD / ADHD and drinking water. This Tweet: Drink water and see if you feel more focused by Laura Rolands sparked up some interesting discussion. Becca Colao brought up the point that sometimes water can be over done. I have to say I agree with Laura Rolands on this one. People with ADD / ADHD do often tend to forget to drink water. This can lead to decreased focus because of dehydration.

Often times people with ADD / ADHD don't even realize their bodies are calling out for water. Often they will realize their body needs something though. They may reach for something like food or coffee instead of water! So, I'll add on to Laura's Tweet - Try drinking some water when you need to focus or your body is craving something and you aren't quite sure what.

Feeling Hopeless

This past week I was joined by my friend and colleague Jennifer Koretsky on ADHD Support Talk Radio. The topic for this show was Hopelessness and ADD / ADHD and we hoped that this topic would be helpful to many of the ADHD Support Talk Radio listeners. So far we have been getting some great feedback including this comment below.

Just listened to the show. Was having one of those hopeless kind of days yesterday, so this was very timely for me. Thanks!

Take a listen to Hopelessness and ADD / ADHD and let is know what you think!

Grateful for Positive Feedback

I just sent out an issue of my Support for ADD E-news. I always get nervous sending them out because I know I make typos and other errors. As many times as I check and double check I know there are some errors in there that I've missed. However, I choose not get stuck in the perfectionism mode and to send them out because I know they help my readers.

I often question whether or not my articles are "good enough" or if they really do help my readers though. I am always grateful when readers like this one send me unsolicited feedback telling me I did help them!

 If your newsletter is the first one, or if I've just begun to receive them for the first time, I just want to say THANK YOU for a short and informative little coaching session! Simple, and it sounds effective to me...... I'm sure going to try it right away. I've seen similar but this was the most concise and this one will work for me. I love having the "choice" - that darned timer always gets the best of me - it's both my enemy (when I'm in flow), and my friend (when I'm doing something I don't want to do ).

Have printed it off on paper,  to put right under my nose - or literally to carry around with me until it becomes a "habit".   And thanks for all the other info, too. 

 

 

 

The Zen and Acceptance of ADD / ADHD

Wow, I can't believe it's August already can you? Last month I took a couple of weeks off from ADHD Support Talk Radio. I am back and excited to return to the weekly format again this month. I started out today by having Dr. Roberto Olivardia a a returning guest on ADHD Support Talk Radio. We talked about the Zen and Acceptance of ADD / ADHD. This was a great show and Dr. Olivardia was a fun and enlighting guest. I invite you to take listen to Zen and Acceptance of ADD / ADHD.

Simple Foods to Have on Hand

My previous post Planning to Eat and Remembering to Eat had a lot of comments from readers who related to what I wrote about. Many of my readers have challenges when it comes to planning and preparing food. So what are some solutions to this?

One would be to work with and ADHD Coach who can help you develop systems to plan and prepare food and to actually remember to eat. An ADHD Coach could help you become aware of all the small and often over looked steps to eating healthy. Once you are aware of the sometimes overlooked and forgotten steps you could develop a system to get these things done.

If you're like me and hate to cook and shop you might need some short cuts. For the days when I for numerous reason can't, won't or don't want to prepare healthy food, I have some quick easy and healthy food on hand.

Here are my short cut foods I like to have on hand:

Hard Boiled Eggs - Unless you can find a store that sells already cooked hard boiled eggs you need to do some prep work. Yes, some stores do sell them! Once or Twice a week you will need to boil some eggs and then put them in your fridge. No, it doesn't seem hard but I get distracted on my way to boil eggs.

Low Sodium V8 - I know it shouldn't be hard to cook or even eat raw vegetable. There are days where it just doesn't happen. I'm still not crazy about the taste of V8 Juice but it does the job. I drink the Low Sodium V8 because it's also high in potassium.

Boost Glucose Control - I came across Boost Glucose Control when I was looking for something on the idea of Slim Fast. I wanted something that was high in protein and lower in carbs. Interestingly enough the Boost Glucose Control has more protein than the Boost High Protein Drink.

Oatmeal and Raw Almonds are a couple of other foods which I have found helpful for me to have around the house. The Raw almonds are actually a food I have in my car. I've come to realize that nothing good will ever come from going through a Drive-Thru. Having the raw almonds in my car can hold me over so I can choose a heathly option to drive to.

With these type of foods on hand it can be as simple as setting an alarm to go and eat (or drink).

Planning to Eat and Remembering to Eat

Like Sleeping, eating is also a very important part of self-care. Also like sleeping, many people with ADD / ADHD have challenges when it comes to eating. Eating healthy takes planning which doesn't always come natural to those of us with ADD / ADHD. When we fail to plan we tend to make poor food choices or even forget to eat.

As an ADHD Coach I ask and remind my clients about self-care. Forgeting to eat and not planning to eat are HUGE issues for many of my clients.  For some just choosing and scheduling time to eat can make a world of difference to many of my ADHD Coaching Clients. Alarms and reminders are also very helpful!

I can relate to this too! This morning I made an appointment to be out of my house earlier than most days. I am not a morning person, don't function well in the morning, and really don't do too well making ANY decisions in the morning. Of course what do you think I forgot about this morning? Yes, you guessed it BREAKFAST.

After doing my final check before leaving I walked out the door and realized I forgot to eat. Luckily for me I had some quick and healthily foods on hand. I've learned that I don't always make good food choices and have trouble making decisions. It's important for me to have some healthy and ready to eat food choices on hand.

What about you? What do you do to make better food choices? How do you remember to eat and eat healthly foods?

ADD / ADHD and Sleep Resources

Here are some great resources for ADD / ADHD and Sleep:

Earlier this year Dr. Roberto Olivardia joined me on ADHD Support Talk Radio to talk about Sleep Problems and ADD/ ADHD. This was one of our most popular ADHD Support Talk Radio Shows. Dr. Olivardia also presented a Teleseminar at ADDClasses.com about ADD / ADHD and Sleep. If you missed the live Teleseminar The Relationship Between Sleep and ADHD you can purchase the mp3 recording or subscribe to the ADD Audio Library.

 

In addition to my blog post Dealing with a Bad Night's Sleep there are a few more about ADD / ADHD and sleep that's I want to recommend.

• Exhausted? Out of Control? ADD / ADHD Adults need to get enough sleep
• Why is it so hard for ADD folks to get up in the morning?
• Are ADD / ADHD Symptoms Worse Without Enough Sleep?
• How Can I Sleep With All That Noise In My Head?