247. ADHD, Food Fixation, & Binge Eating: What High-Performing Women Need to Know

What if your struggle with food was never about laziness, lack of discipline, or weak willpower?

In this episode of Embodied Writing Warrior, I’m joined by Christie Sousa for a powerful conversation about the link between ADHD, binge eating, food fixation, dopamine-seeking, and nervous system regulation. Christie shares her personal story of being diagnosed with ADHD twice, how food sensitivities and restrictive dieting shaped her relationship with food from a young age, and why so many neurodivergent women end up blaming themselves for patterns that make complete sense through the lens of brain wiring.

We talk about executive dysfunction, demand avoidance, all-or-nothing thinking, food hyperfixation, emotional regulation, and why traditional wellness advice often misses the mark for ADHD brains. Christie also shares practical tools that can help, including shorter experimentation windows, simplifying decisions, removing trigger foods, using accountability, and moving your body daily to support dopamine and emotional balance.

If you’ve ever felt like food had a charge around it, like you were locked in a cycle of obsession, shame, and “starting over,” this episode will help you understand your patterns with more compassion and a whole lot less self-blame.

In this episode, we cover:

•  The connection between ADHD and binge eating
•  Why food struggles are often not a discipline problem
•  Executive dysfunction, demand avoidance, and diet resistance 
•  Food fixation, hyperfocus, and dopamine-seeking 
•  Why moderation doesn’t work for everyone
•  The difference between emotional eating, food attachment, and food obsession 
•  How to make food choices feel simpler and safer 
•  Why movement can be a powerful tool for regulating ADHD brains

Links Mentioned:

• Connect with Christie Sausa on Medium 
• Check out Christie’s “Not Your Average Athlete” on Substack 
• Explore Christie’s ADHD Tarot on Substack
• Get Your Free Know Your Hungers Assessment

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to Embodied Writing Warrior, a show for women who refuse white metal wellness and crave food freedom built for real life, where your fire gets pain knocked in. Fall in lust with your own momentum and enjoy pleasure-led creativity. Because healing was never meant to be a full-time job. I'm Kayla, writer and help coach Gonro. Now let's make consistency feel like foreplay. Welcome back to Embodied Writing Warrior. Today's episode is going to be such an important one, especially for anyone who's ever felt like their struggles with food don't fully make sense through the usual wellness lens. There might be a reason for that. Because if you have ADHD or any kind of neurodivergence in the picture, which many creative, high-performing women do, food can hit very differently. So today we cover everything from dopamine, food fixation, executive dysfunction, emotional regulation, all or nothing thinking. And we also talk about why binge eating is so often misunderstood as a willpower problem when it is absolutely not that simple. Today I am joined by Christy from the ADHD tarot over on Substack. And she brings both lived experience and so much nuance and expertise to this conversation. So we talk about what happens when food becomes not only a coping tool, but also a hyperfocus, a source of stimulation, or even just the easiest way to regulate when your brain is overwhelmed. We also go into so many practical tools that can actually help, which include simplifying decisions, doing short-term experiments, using movement for regulation, and also talking about why moderation does not work for everyone. I loved this conversation so much. It has been compassionate, it's practical, and it's incredibly validating. So if food has ever felt charged or more emotional for you than the people around you seem to understand, I genuinely think this conversation is going to land and support you. And I am so excited to bring you today's guest. Let's get started. Hello, Christy, and welcome to the Embodied Writing Warrior podcast. Thanks for having me. Thank you for being here. So you are someone who covers a topic that is so important to address, especially through the lens of food freedom, binge eating, and just having a healthy relationship in the wellness arena. So can you share a little bit about your unique perspective?

SPEAKER_00 3:34

So I was diagnosed with ADHD twice. And the first time was when I was 11. And the reason I didn't fully remember that is because I also got diagnosed with food sensitivities and basically had to remove my favorite foods from my diet overnight, which was dairy and gluten and sugar. And I did that. I did an elimination diet. I lost 30 pounds in six months. And I immediately like, you know, my focus improved. People were asking my mom, like, what did you do to this child? She's totally different. She can focus. She pays attention. And, you know, I it worked so well. I didn't remember my ADHD diagnosis. I never chose medication because I have a lot of sensitivities around that. So, you know, it was like something I totally forgot about. And then I got rediagnosed when I was 31, which was a couple of years ago now. And, you know, I had always had this issue with food. And I always thought it was just me being weak and not having willpower. And all the women in my family have diabetes. So there's like these complicated feelings around food and enjoying food, because it's always the implication like if you enjoy food too much, you're going to get diabetes. And, you know, I sort of internalize that. And all my favorite foods were removed from my diet. And of course, that's what I wanted. So I developed like this binge eating habit. And actually at Sarah, when I was really young, I was like seven. The first time I binged, I actually ate all the chocolate out of my advent calendar and closed all the doors and pretended I didn't. And that worked for about a day. But I kept having these instances. And I realized, like in 2023, I think it was, I read a National Geographic article that basically said, is there a link between binge eating and ADHD? And I was like, wow, okay. So this explains my entire life basically. And from there, I've just had to approach eating differently and approach dieting and approach like everything about food differently. And I'm still evolving now. Like I just changed yet another way I'm doing things the other day. So it's been a journey.

SPEAKER_01 5:50

Absolutely. And you touched on something that is so important that people need to hear again and again is that this is not a willpower thing. This is not a discipline thing, especially if there is ADHD or neurodivergent divergence in the picture. So can you talk a little bit more about how people who have ADHD or neurodivergence actually have a different way that their brains respond to food, diets, the entire journey altogether? I would just love for you to break that down.

SPEAKER_00 6:26

So basically, one of the biggest challenges is our executive function, which basically means the planning, the organizing, the following through. And with diets, like most diets have a lot of rules. And we also don't like rules. And a lot of us have like this tendency to have demand avoidance. And again, this is still one of those things in the community that is debated whether it's just autism or if it's ADHDers and autistic folks. But like demand avoidance is there's pathological demand avoidance, which basically means everything you're asked to do, your brain sees it as a threat to your autonomy. And that's why a lot of folks with ADHD or autism growing up were also diagnosed with oppositional defiant disorder, which I was also diagnosed with, is, you know, basically we don't like rules. And we don't like rules even if we make them for ourselves. And like the biggest thing is, in my opinion, is our constant quest for dopamine because we're always looking for novelty. We're always looking for flavor and fun. And food is a really powerful way to get that. Like, think of all your favorite memories, birthdays, like almost everything has a food component. So for me, food is such a safe place. Like it's my emotional regulation mechanism. And that's another thing it does. A lot of us develop these coping mechanisms. And for me, it was food because food is easy. You grab it, you have whatever thing that you're craving. For me, it's usually salty or sweet foods. You know, your brain is like, okay, good. This helps me regulate. I don't have to think about all the things I'm going through. I just stuff the food and that's it. So it's like there's multiple parts to it. And I think that's one of the things that makes it complicated, is you kind of have to see what parts of your brain are responding at any given moment and how can you give it what it needs so that you're not either self-sabotaging yourself or making yourself crazy over whatever diet you happen to be on. Because a lot of us also have gut issues. Like gut issues are higher probability with neurodivergent folks. And so a lot of us have to be on restrictive diets. And the key is figuring out ways to do that without driving ourselves crazy. And that's something I'm working on myself too. So, you know, there is that component. I think the biggest thing with ADHD in food is, you know, realizing you can have a more normal quote unquote eating pattern and way of dealing with food if you just figure out what your triggers are and what you can do to make your brain feel safe. Because your brain ultimately wants to feel safe. And that's like the bottom line, I think, is figuring out what you can do for you to make yourself cope better.

SPEAKER_01 9:13

So one thing I love that you touched on is this is not a single solution thing to approach. There are multiple reasons someone might turn to food, especially with ADHD. So in your own lived experience, is there an order of operations you might look to? For example, you mentioned regulation and dopamine. Would you first kind of check in and ask, okay, do I need regulation? And if the answer is no, then you would be like, Am I looking for dopamine? Is there sort of a way people can track their own code? Is kind of the thing that's coming to mind.

SPEAKER_00 9:52

I think the biggest thing is learning to slow down. And this is really hard because we have patience issues, we are very impulsive and we just want the thing and we want it. But the biggest thing we have to do is like really check in, find a way to pull yourself back. I actually have an AI project for this in my own personal AI platform where I just have it ask me a bunch of questions. And usually by the time I'm halfway through, I'm like, I'm done with this. I don't want it anymore. Because it's just like it makes you see what you really are wanting. But I also realize that's hard to do and you might not be able to do that. And that's where acceptance comes in and sort of having this hindsight look at it and saying, okay, well, why did I do that? What was going on in my life? And like I've gotten really good at this. Like I'll see myself. For example, I love lattes. I love going to the coffee shop. And it's not the worst thing I could be eating, but it's also added calories and it's really not that great for me at this point in my like health journey. So I say to myself, okay, what is the deal? And I realize it was two-pronged. It was, I'm stressed about my mom because she has health stuff going on and I'm bored and I want something to take my mind off how bored I am. And, you know, once you see that pattern, you still might tend to do that, but you have a little more awareness around it and could say, okay, what else can I do? So if I'm bored, I tend to see that as restlessness. And I'll go exercise or I'll go walk or I'll go do something using my brain. And if it's something emotional regulation, like I try to feel the emotion and say, okay, I acknowledge I'm stressed about my mom, but eating or drinking this thing isn't really gonna solve anything. And ultimately, I think that's what it is. It's realizing, you know, the things you think are gonna fix things for you aren't necessarily gonna fix it. All you could do is find ways to cope that are a little better for you. And like you said, it's not one thing is gonna solve everything. It's always an evolution. And it's the same with any productivity tools, like they work for a while, then they don't. So you gotta find what works for you right now and then find ways to adjust it as you go to suit your needs better.

SPEAKER_01 12:12

You touched on so many powerful things. There one is I love that you've created your own AI with like your own customized questions, because I think that's a powerful tool for people to build for themselves is what questions do I need to ask myself in those hard moments? And if you are already using AI, that's such a great go-to. And then the second thing you touched on was like that grace after the fact. Because I think that I'm not sure if this is an ADHD thing or just a high performing creative person thing, but there's such a tendency to bait yourself up after you make the mistake, after you eat the thing you didn't plan. And then what can often happen is there's this emotional shame and guilt that comes in, and you don't want to feel that. So then you tend to make another choice, and it can become this spiral. So that grace and also the slowing down those two things, I imagine are such powerful tools. So I love that you touch on that, and also just the permission to let your support systems evolve over time. And you did mention there's like a new change that you've made recently. Are you comfortable sharing what that was and how you find it supporting you in this season?

SPEAKER_00 13:36

So I don't know if you follow ADHD or Russ of ADHD Big Brother. He has a podcast too, and he's also on Substack. And we had a conversation the other day on live on Substack, and you know, we were talking about food, and he was saying, I just can't do moderation. Like moderation doesn't work for me. And we were talking about, like my grandmother used to always say to me, everything in moderation, and I'd be like, What's that? Moderation doesn't exist. It's either I'm diving headfirst in the cookies and they're all gone, or I don't have the cookies anywhere near me. So the thing that I realized after I talked to him, and we challenged each other to give up one thing for a week, was I have to like go cold turkey on the things that are bothering me. And the only way I could do that is literally taking them all out of my house. I had a little bit of a snack area that I would, you know, whenever I felt like I needed something sweet, it was like my substitutes. So I had like cashew nuts, I have maple syrup on them and chocolate covered nuts. And it wasn't the worst thing again, like they were all organic, they were all low sugar, but just having that crutch there let me go after that. You know, every day I was always having something sugar. So I said to him, I'm doing no sugar for a week and I'm doing no coffee drinks for a week. And so last night I packed up all the stuff and I'm giving them to a friend of mine who eats the same way I do and loves organic and gluten-free. I'm basically just going cold turkey and I'm saying, for a week, I'm not having these things. And the reason it works is because your brain finds it easier to remove one thing than to add a bunch of things. Like if you add all these parameters and all these loopholes and I'll have coffee on Tuesday or on Thursday or whenever I go out, like before you know it, you're doing it all the time. So it's almost easier for me to say, I'm not doing it for a week. And I know once I get past that week, I'm not gonna have the need to anymore because that little dopamine thing is gone. And, you know, I also want to lose some weight because I got injured a couple of years ago and I'm an athlete. So like I'm really not that overweight. Most people say, What's your problem? You're fine. But for an athlete, I am, and I can't train to my fullest if I'm overweight. So there's like that motivation component that I want to do this for this reason, and I'm totally removing this thing that really helps me because again, it's a lot easier to take stuff away than it is to just pile more stuff on your plate.

SPEAKER_01 16:10

So, first, the moderator versus the abstainer perspective, like that is huge. So we'll start there because I am very much the same way. It's easier to abstain than to try to moderate. It feels simpler, it feels easier, and it actually doesn't feel restrictive. And I have once heard that 100% is easier than 99% because it's just a very clear boundary. So would you say that's very common across most people with ADHD, or does that still var person?

SPEAKER_00 16:46

I mean, I think it it's both. I think it varies. I think everyone has their own comfort level with boundaries and with, you know, all or nothing. But I think a lot of us are all or nothing thinkers. And that's both good and bad, right? Like in some ways it's bad because it makes us sort of see things in a very binary way, but in other ways it's good because it's like, okay, I either have this or I don't have this. And if I have that boundary with myself, like I took all these things out of my house, I don't have them anymore. So my brain isn't at war with me every day saying, oh, why don't you just have a little bit of that or why don't you have a little bit of this? Now I'm like, okay, I don't have it. I can't do that at all. And I think, you know, the black and white all or nothing thinking is very common with ADHDers and certainly with autistic folks or people with both. And I think that's why it works because we're working with our natural tendencies instead of trying to have this neurotypical like strategy or structure. And, you know, there's nothing wrong with trying to do different things. And you could certainly do that. But for me, it's so much simpler because I don't have that executive function in the game. I don't have all these decisions to make. It's like, okay, I don't have it, so I'm not going to eat it. And every time in my life that I've done something like that, whether it was when I was 11 and lost all that weight, or when I was 27 and started CrossFit and totally gave up sugar because the teacher said, Oh, you know, you should do this and give stop all the sugar. Like it's always been extremes. And for a while, I was encouraging people to have a more moderate approach and like find ways to swing out of extremes. Like I had this really cool analogy between a scale and like a pendulum. So pendulum keeps swinging, it doesn't stop any one place for too long. And a scale is like black or white. And I think, you know, at the time I thought that's harmful. But in this context, I think it actually works for us because it gives you that clear boundary. It doesn't require executive dysfunction or executive function. And it's just it's easier. And I think that's the big thing. If it's easy, you're gonna do it. If it's not easy, you're not gonna do it. And I think it all comes down to making things simpler, not harder for yourself.

SPEAKER_01 19:03

And there's a few things there as well that are so powerful. The first one is that you're inviting people to experiment and find the ways to bring in that simplicity because what might be extreme or rigid for one person is gonna be simple and stress-relieving for another. So really looking at what does work for a person. And another thing that you mentioned that I absolutely love, that I'd love for you to dive more into is you set this challenge for seven days, not for the rest of your life, not for oops, not for a month, not for 90 days. You're like, yeah, I'm gonna take this seven days at a time and see how it goes. Because I know you also mentioned that rules can be a little bit problematic. So does giving smaller experimental windows tend to help?

SPEAKER_00 19:55

Yeah, definitely. So I like to think you need that endpoint. And this is something that I always think of Jerry Seinfeld because he said this about writing. If you know you're gonna write for 30 minutes and have a timer, it's a lot easier than if you just sit down with a pat and paper and say, I'm gonna write and I'm gonna do this great thing and I don't know when I'm gonna end because your brain freaks out. Your brain doesn't like ambiguity, your brain likes structure. Even ADHDs, like as much as we say we hate structure, we actually need structure because if we don't have it, there's like no parameters and no boundaries. And it's just a little bit more like ambiguity that we have to wrestle with. So it's better to say, I'm doing this for a short amount of time, and I can do seven days. I could do, you know, it could even be less. Like if you want to do something, you could even say I'm doing this for 24 hours. I'll see how it works. But I think seven days is a good start because it's attainable enough, but it's enough time for something to shift. And a lot of it is just shifting out of these like hyper focus things. Like, I still think food for me is so much like I hyper focus on certain foods. And so, for example, whenever I go out, I want to have a coffee latte. And anytime I go to this certain store, I want this latte because they make it with coconut milk and I can have it. But then if I break that habit, then a week from now I'm like, okay, I don't need to do that. I didn't do that for seven days. And I think having that endpoint and making it short and not feel scary, and this is something I do with exercise too. I do something called five and five, which is five squats, five push-ups, and five sit-ups in five minutes. And, you know, you make it adaptable for you. But if you're starting to get into something, the best way is to make it almost laughably easy and then gradually make it harder. And, you know, you'll probably find it easier because once you get through it and see it's not that scary, your brain says, okay, I can do this a little while longer. And that's how I do everything. In my life. Like I just sort of ease myself in and sort of trick myself. And then my brain's like, okay, I got this. I could do it. And you know, it sounds silly to say I'm tricking myself, but that's what works for me. And I think, you know, making it attainable and achievable is huge.

SPEAKER_01 22:15

I think one of my favorite strategies I've ever heard was very similar. And it was the five-minute rule. Um exactly what you said. So five minutes of push-ups, squats, sit-ups, and then your brain's like, okay, I can do that. One thing I would love to touch on is you've mentioned food fixations, and you also talk about food attachment, which is a phrase people at least I haven't heard very often. So food fixation, food attachment, are they the same? And is it different than just really liking food or stress eating, for example?

SPEAKER_00 22:53

I think what I think of as like food attachment or food fixation slash focus is like ADHDers tend to hyperfocus on things. It could be hobbies, it could be sometimes people, which is why we have more chance of lumerence, which is, you know, unrequited romantic attachments. But I think with food and things that, you know, norm normally people don't put those two things together. They don't think, oh, okay, ADHD hyperfocus and food. But like I hyperfocus on certain types of food. Like, for example, I love the lot, I told you about the lattes, but I was super hung up on peanut butter cups. And it's not really a big deal, but I had to buy myself a bag of those little Justin's organic peanut butter cups. And I'm thinking to myself, okay, I have these, they're great. I had a couple. And then once you have a few, you're like, okay, fine. Like without explanation, you lose the interest. And it's like that with all the things we do, right? We do hobbies and we drop them. Like every year I try knitting for like two weeks for no reason, and then I give up on it. So it's all connected. It's this short attention, like hyper focus. And you get your dopamine from this thing, you're really attached to this thing. And then once the novelty wears off and it feels easy, you're like, okay, not interested. And I think that's another component of binge eating. Like the secretive aspect of it is also very much a charge. It's like a novelty, but it's also like it's it gets your dopamine going. It gets you focused. You like hyperfocus and you're focused on getting the food and hiding the food and eating the food. And like once I realized that, I was like, okay, that's it's all the chase. It's not even the actual eating. The eating is not it, it's the anticipation. And I like to think ADHD or just tend to hyperfocus on stuff, and food isn't off limits. And that's when we have to be like, okay, recognizing that pattern in ourselves and saying, okay, I'm in another hyperfocus stage, and do I really need to do this? Or can I maybe transfer that to something else? You know, we can't always, but it's worth a shot.

SPEAKER_01 25:05

The fact that binge eating is such a dopamine fuel thing, and you're absolutely right. It's not so much when you're sitting down to eat all the stuff, at least in my experience. It tends to be by that point you're numbed out, you're not really tasting the food at a lot of points because you're generally watching TV or doing something else, but it's all of that heightened anticipatory energy leading up to it. And it can feel very much like a fixation or an obsession or like this really intense compulsion. So when you found yourself in that state, have you found other things where you can transfer your focus? Or is binge eating one of those ones that can feel a little trickier?

SPEAKER_00 25:50

I think binge eating is one of those things that's a little bit trickier just because there's so many other things. There's so many emotional components. So many of us have like these really deep attachments with food in general that are beyond the ADHD thing, that are more emotional, that it might be tough. But what I try to do is like recognize it first and say, okay, this is a hyperfixation or hyper focus. I believe the two are different, but whatever it is. I say, I'm just I'm focusing on this because of my ADHD. And I know that I'm obsessed with this peanut butter cup because ADHD. And then it's a little easier to say, okay, well, do I really need to do this or will I just lose interest in this like two weeks from now? And then I can sort of like workshop other things that I could try to get invested in. Or, you know, one of the things that's really, and again, this might not be great to advise people in terms of like eating disorders, just do it. But and again, let me say I'm not a professional, a doctor, anybody, talk to your doctor. But I find acceptance helps take some of the charge away. Because when you're resisting and your brain is like, no, no, no, no, I can't do this, I can't do it, you're like, watch me do it. And if you don't, if you say, Okay, that's fine, you need this, you need this fixation or focus, whatever it is, that's fine with me. I understand. A lot of times your brain's like, okay, well, that's great. I don't really feel the need to now. Because I think there's some acceptance there that, you know, we're taught so often to like resist the things that are uncomfortable or embarrassing or um harmful or disordered that we often get into this thing of like we fight so hard, our brain then sees that as like, oh, okay, I'm not supposed to do that. I'm definitely gonna do that now because it wants to do like the forbidden. And so you almost have to find this balance between, okay, I'm choosing not to do this because I know it's not really a need, it's a focus. And maybe I could go take a walk or something, and saying, okay, well, if you really need to have this bag of peanut butter cups and have a couple of them, that's your choice. And then you see what happens. And for me, I usually feel like I'm gonna fall asleep because it's a sugar rush. So, you know, you also learn the hard way too. And at some point, I find you just get naturally tired of feeling bad. Like I was sort of self-medicating with a lot of sugar and sort of stress eating. And the other day, before I even talked to Russ, I'm just like, wow, I feel horrible. And then when he said that thing, I'm like, all I have to gain is feeling better. Like taking this stuff is almost going to be a relief because then I'm not gonna be self-medicating anymore. So I think that's also important to recognize. Like sometimes your body and your brain eventually get to a point where they're like, nope, not doing this. I want to totally go in the opposite direction. And when that happens, that's a godsend too. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 28:59

So acceptance, so powerful because what we resist does tend to persist and get stronger. And then also that body and brain awareness of like, I actually want to feel better and choosing differently will help with that. So, do you have any other go-to strategies for helping with binge eating or food fixation when you have ADHD?

SPEAKER_00 29:24

Well, my biggest advice right now is just don't give yourself, don't make it easy for yourself. So, you know, sometimes you cohabitate with people, you can't very well throw away all their food. But if you're living alone and you know that you're hyper focused on cookies or you tend hyper focused, like having too much of a stockpile, you're gonna go jump into those. And it's that balance again. Like you can maybe have like if you like potato chips, maybe have a small bag, but don't get the giant humongous bag and get like four of them because you will eat them. The more you have, the more you're gonna eat. And, you know, I also recommend folks like find alternatives to things that maybe they tend to get attached to. So for example, if you tend to drink a lot of soda, I mean, pretty much everyone's acknowledged soda's bad for you. Maybe find like, do you like the flavored seltzers or find Olipop or one of the alternatives and like find ways to make it easier on yourself until you can like say, okay, I'm done. I'm going extreme. But I do think sometimes just going extreme and really like changing things up, like I'm not gonna do sugar for a week, or I'm gonna do this for a week, really like helps your brain reset. And of course, you know, if you have an eating disorder, all of this is not great, you should go talk to a doctor. But um, for me, it's like learning at what point I'm at and what I can do to fix myself at that point, and not even fix myself more like work with my brain and say, okay, we're gonna make it easier for you so that you don't have to do all this stuff. And so my advice is always if you have it, you're gonna eat it. Maybe get rid of the stuff and find alternatives if you can. And also community. Like if you have an accountability buddy, like Russ and I, we just met the other day. We both said we're not gonna, he's, I think he said he's not doing bread, and I said, I'm not doing sugar and coffee drinks for a week. Having that person to check in with, or even just saying it to someone is huge because then you know that it's almost like you have that little paranoia kick in, like, oh, if I do this, I'm going against my word. So asking for help if you have like these binge eating issues, going on Reddit, going on any of these platforms, looking at like-minded people, because it's a lot more popular now than it used to be to talk about this this stuff with ADHD in autism. So I think it's really important. Like the community aspect can't be understated either.

SPEAKER_01 32:06

Absolutely. So you have already given so many practical embodied things that listeners can walk away with. If you were gonna give them one more embodiment practice that you would recommend, whether that's a way of approaching food, maybe type of journaling that you enjoy, what would you give to the listeners as we wrap up today?

SPEAKER_00 32:30

So, my other part of this is I strongly believe moving every day is essential because if you're not getting a dopamine hit or your endorphins going or any of those other neurochemicals going through movement, you're gonna look for them somewhere else. And that's usually food. So find something you like to do. It doesn't have to be going to the gym, it doesn't have to be something super regimented. It can be walking around your park in your neighborhood. It could be, you know, doing an exercise video. It could be dancing, it could be hopping 50 times. I don't know if you've seen those TikTok videos, the lymphatic drainage thing, but the jumping up and down 50 to 100 times is actually a pretty good way to get things going in your brain too. It like tricks your brain, you know, anything that's moving, anything that keeps your brain active. And if you're bored, like listen to a podcast while you do it. Listen to a pro podcast as you're walking or running. Go to a class if you have access to like gym classes, workout classes, because then you have that community aspect and you have someone else telling you what to do. And I find it's a lot easier to exercise if someone else is telling me what to do than if I have to do it myself. Like I have a master's degree in that and I know how to put together programs, but somehow for me, I'd rather have someone else tell me what to do. So that's like holy grail for me with ADHD is diet and exercise. And the two work together. And if you get both working together, you're gonna have a lot easier time managing your not only your brain, but your body than if you just do one or the other or none.

SPEAKER_01 34:09

Yes, the movement piece is so powerful. And I'm actually gonna try that, like jumping up and down 50 to 100 times when I've been accidentally sitting at my desk writing for too long and need like that kind of reset. So, Christy, thank you so much for being here. And when listeners want to learn more about you, connect with you further, where are the best places for them to go?

SPEAKER_00 34:32

So I'm still on medium. I'm one of the folks who writes a lot about ADHD and neurodivergence over there. And so if you go to medium.com, I'm at ChristySta MS. So, and you know, I I still write there quite a bit. And then Substack, I have not your average athlete, which is the human side of sport, and I write a bit about neurodivergence as well. And I also have on Substack the ADHD tarot, which is exactly what it sounds like. ADHD tarot readings that kind of like blend the tarot meaning traditionally with ADHD meaning. So I do a lot of different things, and I welcome anyone to buzz over there and check out my work.

SPEAKER_01 35:15

Yes, and that's actually how we met was through Substack. And I love your ADHD tarot. I think your interpretations are so still relevant to the main tarot meaning, but the way you take it and apply it to ADHD is so cool. So I always love reading those, and I will include links to everything in the episode description. So thank you again so much, Christy.

SPEAKER_00 35:40

Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_01 35:41

It was great chatting with you.

unknown 35:43

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 35:45

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