Hello, everybody. Welcome back. So today I want to talk about what I have as my method for weight loss with ADHD. And I call it the CALM method. And I don't have an app. I'm not the app. I don't have like, peaceful music and sounds. And I don't have Harry Styles reading very... That bedtime stories. Although my daughter would love that.
So I really hope they're not going to like sue me or something, but I do call it my calm method for weight loss with ADHD. So I just wanted to give a quick overview of this and the four sort of main components. But I want to take a deep dive into each one of them in future episodes. So this is just going to be a really surface level of the way that I work with people and what I suggest that they focus on in order to C.
Successful weight loss. So calm. C A L M. And the first one of those is creative planning. So what I mean by this is part of being successful with your weight loss is planning out what you're going to eat how are you going to strategize for this type of stuff. And everybody is different in how they want to do this.
And that's why I call it creative, because you have to find the way to do this that fits in with your lifestyle, with your way of operating, the way that your brain works, and that type of thing. So I know a lot of people. Like to just make like a 24 hour plan to say, okay, I'm going to eat this for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
I'm going to have these snacks but not everybody has to do it that way. And some people might prefer to use an app to track these types of things or to plot out these types of things of what they're going to have. I know for myself, like what really works is just to do a weekly plan. So on Sunday, Sundays work best for me to just kind of go through the fridge, the freezer, the pantry, to see what we have on hand and then try to determine what I want to eat and then map out dinners for the week and what do I want to have on hand for breakfast and lunches.
I'm happy eating a lot of the same stuff. I don't know about you guys, but you know, if I just have one or two different types of breakfast, I'm, I'm honestly happy to eat those. And it makes things simple. And that's actually been statistically proven to be one of the ways that a lot of people see success and weight losses by keeping things simple and repetitive.
But anyways, that's not for everybody. You don't have to do it that way. But this just means that with regards to creative planning is finding out the ways that work for you in order to plan out what you want to do. Because getting ahead of the game is so important. Because we can't just be reactive, we can't just be impulsive with our food choices and so taking the time to plan out what you're going to do and how are you going to assess it, because I think assessing it is so important too because that's another thing that's shown people to be successful is to have some type of food journal it could just be writing down what you ate, for some people they like to use apps if they're interested in, you know, more important, not important, more data like, you know, calories or macronutrients or that type of thing.
But it could just be taking pictures of your food. I know that's a great thing. There's apps out there for that that work really well for a lot of people. But that also is a way for you to see what worked for you and what didn't. You know, maybe you would notice if you assessed, Oh, you know what? I had this for breakfast, but I was really hungry.
really soon after that. So maybe it's not a satisfying meal for you. Or maybe you realized you didn't plan things out properly in terms of having something taken out of the freezer or whatever. But assessment is so important so that you have information going forward and how you can plan in a way that might suit you better.
And again, everybody is different. There is no one right way to do this. So creative planning, everybody get on board, do that for yourselves. So that's the first step. And the other, the next one is A, and that is for awareness. So we've talked before about proprioception and, and our body's recognition of the messages that it's sending, like hunger, satiety, thirst, all those types of things.
When I talk about awareness, I am talking about So learning ways that you can become more in tune to recognize that type of stuff and what, what are the cues, what are the messages that you're receiving from your body? Because you can't just rely on, you know, somehow magically noticing these things if you're not built in a way to naturally notice them.
So awareness... And so I'm going to talk a little bit about what it means to be aware of your So awareness is, in that regard, for sure, for starting to find a way to pick up on those cues. But it also revolves around other things too, like I've talked before about the importance of thought work and, and becoming aware of your feelings and your emotions, and what are the things that you're thinking that are driving your behaviors.
And so, awareness also speaks to turning inward and recognizing, what am I really feeling? When I... You know, find myself deep in a bag of chips, what it could be as simple as noticing like, Hey, I wonder why that happened? And not judging yourself, not saying like, Oh, I'm so bad. Why did I do this? Or, you know, I can't control myself.
It's nothing to do with that. It's to do with saying like to yourself. I wonder what happened that made me have the desire to go do that. So this could be things like journaling. I know for a lot of people that's uncomfortable or it might be awkward or weird at first, but it even just committing to a minute, a minute or two of doing that at the end of the day.
of just kind of doing a little brain dump and seeing what kind of things was I feeling today or, or what was I thinking about before I did that thing? Or yeah, so it's just a matter of having awareness, physical awareness, but also emotional awareness. And then not only that, but in a, in a really positive way, it's developing an awareness of what do you actually like?
Like what foods do you really enjoy? What are the foods that make you feel so good? So you can. You know, be proactive about working those into your creative planning. So yeah, the awareness covers so many different aspects of this. And again, we'll cover this in a future episode, but that's just a really, really, really important part of weight loss when you have ADHD.
The third thing is lifestyle. So there's so much more that goes into weight loss than just food. I mean, when I talk about lifestyle, this covers a lot of different things, but one of them is sleep, for sure. And we've talked about that before as well, like, sleep is a bit of a challenge for people with ADHD, but it is such a big part of living a healthy life and being able to successfully lose weight for sure.
Ahem. Ahem. Water, getting enough water I mean, that helps you, that helps with your brain working properly. That helps with those hunger hormones. So many different things. I, I, I find for myself that it really affects my energy. Like when I'm not drinking enough water, I feel super tired. I feel, yeah, I just feel like lethargic.
Just kind of like a sloth. No offense to sloths, they're very cute. But yeah, so, yeah, sleep, water your environment, like that's part of, to me, is part of your lifestyle as well. I am so affected by my environment, like if things are messy, if there's too much stuff, if it's very cluttered, and this can be an issue for ADHDers because it's such a catch 22.
We're so affected by the environment, but also like to actually do something about it is a huge struggle. And so I think this, I mean, all these pieces work together, but awareness becomes part of that with regards to your environment is just noticing, like, huh, I don't feel so great when I'm in this part of the house because it's super cluttered.
Or with regards to your environment, like your kitchen, are you set up for success in the kitchen? Like, do you have all the things that you need or maybe you're not making use of all the stuff that you do have, or, you know, making sure that. Something as simple as, like, putting the dishwasher on before you go to bed so that in the morning you have some clean dishes to use to prepare yourself the food that you want for the day.
It can be other things, too, like yeah, how, how your environment is affecting you, but even, like, people, right? Surrounding yourself with people that you know, not necessarily that they make you feel good, but that are... Did they just, the people around you just have an impact and that's part of your lifestyle as well.
I mean, we can't, can't always choose the people that are around us, but again, just having an awareness of that you know, maybe how do your friends, like, do you, if you have friends, I don't know, not everybody has friends, but are just choosing to spend your time with people that. I don't know, just make you feel the way that you want to feel just something to consider.
But yeah, so that's just a matter of your lifestyle being conducive to setting yourself up for success in the areas that you want success in. And again, we'll go into this further in another episode, but the last factor is the M and that's for movement and meditation. And I. Bye. I know not everybody likes meditation, and it can be a struggle for people with ADHD, but just hear me out with this one.
So we'll start with movement. Movement is so integral. And it doesn't, I'm not saying you have to go and like get a gym membership and start spending an hour a day at the gym, because I for sure I'm not doing that. I like short and sweet. I don't do well with You know, long periods of time on that kind of stuff, but movement is so important.
And it's not like, I'm not saying it in a way of like, you've got to go like, slave away on some workout machine in order to lose weight. That's not at all what I'm saying, but for, for our brains, man, does it have a difference or make a difference in, you know, your emotional regulation? in how your executive function is working.
Like, I feel so clear, I love walking, and that counts too, but I love to go for a walk in the morning. Like, the timing makes a difference, and this is something that this can tie into how you feel about yourself for the rest of the day, too, if you're doing it in the morning. This is kind of a sidebar, but let me just talk about this.
If you... Get a workout in in the morning, and it doesn't matter if it's like 10 minutes. It's just something. And you've made this commitment to yourself. Not only are you going to feel so great about yourself for the rest of the day, because you're like, I followed through on what I said I was going to do, but it's going to increase your energy levels.
It's going to increase your alertness, it's going to help with your focus and concentration. But also you're going to have that in mind for the rest of the day when you get to those times where you have to make decisions about food. Like, if you know that you've already like, put in this effort, and had your workout in the morning, you're just naturally more likely to make good choices that continue to help you to feel good.
So yeah, so that can have an impact. And that's not just me talking from my own experience, although that has been my experience. But I, this was another thing that a doctor was talking about that I heard recently is that in these like big studies of people that have been successful with weight loss, morning workouts.
We're actually a big part of it for those different reasons. But anyways, I digress movement. Yeah, it just, it helps with The weight loss, for sure, but that is not the reason why I say it elevates your dopamine, which we all know is a problem for us, you're more alert, you're more able to be consistent and consistency, I know consistency is, is a lot of It, it really contributes to success with these things, but consistency and ADHD do not really go hand in hand.
So anything that's going to increase your ability to have consistency in your life naturally is, is pretty great. So yeah, and movement can be whatever. It's so important for you to find something that you love to do. So and the other part is mindfulness, which yes, can be a real challenge for those with ADHD.
And it's not just a matter of sitting down and clearing your mind. Like that's not even what it is. But you can do it in any way that you want. You know, for some people it's, it's sitting down and knitting. For some people it's, yeah, walking without, you know, a podcast in, which is kind of hard for me.
I love to listen to podcasts when I'm walking, but you know, it, and it could be an actual sit down and meditate, but it just, this is one way for you to learn how to observe yourself. And that really contributes to the awareness that we talked about before. And it's just an opportunity for you to learn to be less reactive and just to be a more proactive person because when you have that awareness and, you know, just have a better understanding of yourself, it's really, really helpful any way you cut it.
Yeah, so that's those four components that I talked, talk about and we'll dive deeper into each one of them later. But just to recap, it's creative planning, awareness, lifestyle, and movement and meditation. So yeah, thanks for listening today. And yeah, you can look forward to future episodes where we'll take a deeper dive into all of those things.
Thanks. So. I know I always say this, but please feel free to reach out to me if there's anything in particular that you guys want to hear about, or if you just want to let me know about your own experiences with any of these things. I would love to hear it. You can just reach out to me on my Instagram at jenniferwatts.
ca or you can email me too, jennifer at jenniferwatts. ca. That's another great way to get ahold of me, but thanks for listening and I will talk to you soon.