Feeding Yourself with ADHD

ELIANNA Hi, I'm Elianna and welcome to ADHD FM, a podcast about discovering what it really means to be diagnosed with ADHD as an adult. I was diagnosed in my late 30s. A few years later, I'm still learning, reflecting, and laughing my way through it. One thing I realized is that I didn't want just answers. I wanted connection with others who shared my experiences. I was searching for my people, for a community that understood how my brain really works. I'm still on that journey now and we'll explore it together. This is a place to talk honestly about life with ADHD. What's hard, what's easy, what helps, what doesn't, what we're all still figuring out. I'm so glad you're here. Today's episode, we're talking all about food and eating and cooking when you have ADHD. It's a lot. And what's really fascinating to me is that I was originally taught this theory that we're all born intuitive eaters. But at some point we just unlearn it. However, now I'm realizing that maybe it's different for people with ADHD neurodivergent brains. Maybe I'm not an intuitive eater. Cooking is and has always been 1,000% a very special interest of mine. I love cooking, I love cooking messy, I love cooking wildly, I love getting creative. I love entertaining and making food for people. I love hosting and trying out a recipe for the very first time when I'm having guests over. That's such a fun new challenge for me. And today we're gonna talk with some friends and with some guests all about it. What it's like to have ADHD in the kitchen, what could go wrong, what could go very, very, very right, and have fun with it together. Before becoming a podcaster and starting ADHDFM, I have a background as a chef and I've worked in restaurants, I've worked as a private chef, I've worked leading cooking classes and running an educational kitchen, founding a kids cooking camp that was up on a farm and I've worked as a food coach for individuals with ADHD and also as a family food coach. What I really love about being a food coach is supporting people and helping them find their peace in the kitchen and their joy in the kitchen. And one of the, I think, benefits of having ADHD is being a problem solver and always being able to creatively problem solve. In the kitchen, I find many, many opportunities. To do that and specifically working with individuals and coaching them, I find that as well. One example is I was working with a family where the children were very messy and it was challenging for the parents with how messy the kids were. It wasn't fun for them to be in the kitchen with them or even eating around the table because things were spilling, hair was getting in the food, and it was just excessive and frustrating for the parents. So I helped coach them through a process of really finding ways to make cleaning interesting and fun and even like team building. Example is we would, the whole family got bandanas that they would put on before they started cooking. So it was like a fun way to set special time aside. They would put on their bandanas. Even the dad who had short hair would put on his bandana so he was part of the team. And benefit of it was also that their kid's hair was out of their faces and out of the food. And it kind of like set the tone. So they're like, okay, we're in the kitchen now. This is a time to be a little bit more aware of our bodies and what we're doing with our bodies. Still, it's okay to be messy and have fun, but there's at least a barrier and less hair getting directly in the food. So that's just one of the ways that I get to problem solve and help support families and support individuals with ADHD, finding ways to enjoy the process of feeding yourself and creating memories, creating experiences, and also eating delicious food. My relationship with food changed some when I was diagnosed with ADHD because when I'm taking medication for ADHD, often it's been an appetite suppressant. So I will not feel hungry, even though I know that my body does need fuel to continue to function throughout the day. So that was challenging because I would have to remember to eat a full breakfast in the morning before I took my medication. Otherwise, in the evening, when the medication would wear off, I would be very, very hungry and eat pretty much all my calories at the end of the day because the medicine had worn off. I love food and I love thinking about food, so I was very nervous when I started taking medication because I knew one of the side effects could be an appetite suppressant, which made me nervous that I wouldn't be able to enjoy food very much anymore, which some days was true and some days wasn't. Another thing that I've noticed when I'm not taking medication is that I will just simply forget to eat because I'm so excited about another project that I'm working on, what's helped me a lot in remembering to eat is to put it in my calendar and make it a ritual that has to happen every day. Even if, let's say I forget to bring lunch to work. It's in my calendar that I still have to stop and take a break and always really try very hard not to push through and say, I don't need that. Another thing that helps a lot is reminders from when I'm body doubling or from friends or family to drink water, eat, and take breaks. And of course, eating isn't just about getting the calories in purchasing food and having it available for you and remembering to eat, but it's also about cooking for me is a huge way where I get to express my creativity in the kitchen. I said at the beginning, I can get very messy and have a lot of fun with it. And I think that's really why I love cooking so much is because it fits into my brain. It's a short activity that you can get super, super, super creative, but doesn't take very long. And in the end, you have something beautiful and delicious that you can cherish and enjoy and nourish your body with. One of my favorite foods to eat are really warming and calming foods. And that just feels like an amazing culmination at the end of a cooking experience to get to eat that warming food. you have this burst of energy in your cooking and getting creative and throwing different spices in and using different techniques. And then at the end, when you eat, you get to see the result of all of that. Enjoy the warming food and enjoy how it looks and how it tastes and all the flavors coming together. There are also a lot of challenges working in the kitchen when you have ADHD. multiple times, I have left the stove and burner on, ruined a few pots and pans in my day, also forgotten things in the oven for a very, very long time, but the oven was off. So I just wanted to acknowledge that and just say like, all do it, it happens. Luckily, nothing bad has happened because of it. But some tools that I find helpful are setting alarms and having mantras before I leave the kitchen. and also taking something directly off the stove when it's finished. that way, even if I do happen to leave the burner on, then if I move it off the stove, it doesn't burn it. but timers and try or remind your brain with a mantra that when the timer goes off also means turn off the stove my problem is I get so excited to eat so then I just start tasting and walk away and serve and there's like the rush of service which is so exciting if you can try to have a mantra like before I eat turn off the stove or right, when the alarm goes off, turn off the stove or anytime you remember, just check the stove. Also, I find when I'm like actually turning on the timer, I'll turn on the timer and then label the timer beans slash turn off the stove. And that can be helpful as well. So I'm very curious if anybody else has had disasters in the kitchen before it happens. But I'd love to hear your stories and your tips and tricks as well. GUEST INTERVIEW ELIANNA This episode, we have an amazing guest. Her name is Katherine Smart. Katherine is a writer, a podcaster, an entrepreneur, an on-air host, a recipe developer, a food stylist, a culinary instructor who happens to have ADHD. She is on a mission to help people with busy brains build confidence and tap into their creativity starting in the kitchen. Katherine is the host of the Food and Creativity podcast, Not From Concentrate. and the author of Not From Concentrate, a newsletter on Substack. Same branding, very straightforward. Can't forget. Her forthcoming cookbook, Not From Concentrate, is wildly delicious and distraction-proof recipes for busy brains. I'm so excited for it. Comes out in February 27, and by DK. So I am insanely excited to have Catherine here today as a guest. Catherine is on a mission to help busy brains build confidence and tap into their creativity starting in the kitchen. When I read that mission, I was like, yes, yes, that's me, help me. So thank you for being here and thank you for having that mission and thank you for doing all of this amazing work for 15 plus years. We're just gonna dive right in.with how many times have you left your stove on? Or has that ever happened to you? CATHERINE I think only maybe once or twice because it's so like it's such a fear that I have. But I have lost my wallet and my keys countless times. I'm pretty sure my bank like flag stuff for fraud because I was like going through debit cards so quickly. Like I lost it. I lost it. So not the stove, but other other things. ELIANNA How do you complete your mission? How do you spark creativity in the kitchen. CATHERINE You know, I actually was diagnosed in third grade, which I feel is a pretty unique story for a lot of women. But it took me until about a year ago to want to think about my ADHD and really talk about it and work through it. And so all the work that I'm doing is towards that mission, but I'm kind of figuring out as I go. I think for a long time, I just carried so much shame around it. And it wasn't until I realized that, no, I actually, I have a lot to share from what I've learned having my career with ADHD. There's an opportunity to help other people. And I'm really lucky that I was able to make a career doing something that excited me I haven't had what success I in spite of my ADHD. It's because of it. Because it truly, in my mind, it's a double-edged sword. there are legit superpowers that come with having an ADHD brain and there's legit challenges. for ADHD years in general to really engage, I think get into like a flow work state, be excited about their work, be motivated. have to tap into creativity. So the first part of my mission is really helping people figure out how to tap into that creativity. And then the second part is addressing those executive functioning challenges that might prevent us from getting a healthy meal on the table, getting the groceries done, making the food that we want to be feeding ourselves and our family. And my hope is that By starting in the kitchen, we build that confidence and take those skill sets like all out into the world and into all these other parts of our life. ELIANNA What are some of the frequent struggles you see with people with ADHD around food and how do you help them with it? CATHERINE Yeah, so I'm writing a cookbook right now. It does not come out until February of twenty twenty seven. It's called not from concentrate, wildly delicious and distraction proof recipes for busy brains. DK is the publisher. What's so interesting about it is as I'm writing this book, I'm realizing that there's things that I just think of as common sense, but they are particularly helpful to folks with ADHD. So if you don't have ADHD, there will be some things that might seem like common sense that are huge unlocks for ADHDers. So one of the big things is overwhelm. think You you look on the internet and it is like miles and miles of SEO in a blog post. And you look at how recipes are written and there's the method and there's the ingredients. So for me, it's all about, helping people overcome overwhelm. and giving them like really specific tools to do that. And for me, there are two kind of buckets are I write my recipes in a different way so that your attention is not pulled from one part to another. And then the second part is there is organizational pieces of it too. know, like things being out of sight, out of sight, out of mind is never more true than it is for ADHDers. Like I'm seeing you nodding like. Share a story. Tell me that you have a drawer somewhere or like a sludge of shame produce. ELIANNA Yeah, definitely. But specifically in the kitchen, it's definitely like the refrigerator for me. I'm like, why do refrigerators not have clear glass doors? Like, that's so annoying, right? Like, I can't see everything. so my husband will do a lot of the shopping but he will never put it away. I will always be the one to put it away so that I've seen it so that I know it exists. Because if, even if he tells me like, I got these amazing peaches today at the farmer's market, if I don't put them away and I never see them, I forget we have peaches and they go bad and we don't get to enjoy the peaches, you know? So that's like something that we developed that I think really helps. because I see everything, get to put it in a beautiful bowl, which also gets me excited and adds the joy. And then I know it's there, but yeah, so much aspirational produce because refrigerators aren't designed with glass doors. That is so smart. And I can't believe that I hadn't thought about that before. Please use it. Please use it. CATHERINE I'm going to have to use it and give you a little shout out. Same thing with the pantry. I do like transferring things into clear containers because again, if it is in a box and I can't see how much is in there or it's not yelling at me, I'm going to forget about it. And A lot of the systems that work in restaurants I think can be really helpful for ADHDers. having that roll of masking tape and labeling everything with the date, having kind of first in and first out principles I think are super important. And in addition to putting things away, I wrote something kind of recently about preparing for Thanksgiving, but it could be any sort of like big meal or get together. And as much as I like to have a clean workspace, sometimes you need organized clutter so that you can see what you have. Like I think the tendency can be you know, to put everything away and make everything look super clean. But like, if you want to remember that you need to make that marinade, you should put the shelf stable ingredients and like the citrus, leave it out on the counter so that you have that visual cue of like, I need to make that. A hundred percent. so another reason I felt like it was important to write my book, is A lot of the content I've been seeing is you have ADHD. you're overwhelmed, that's fine. Here's a recipe to like dump four cans together. And there are absolutely times in life to do that. And I am not a snob, but back to what I was saying before, I actually think sometimes the challenge is not the biggest struggle for ADHDers. It is the lack of interest or the lack of creativity. And I felt like a lot of what was out there was not giving ADHDers enough credit. And quite frankly, depriving them of the opportunity to engage with food in like a really fun, meaningful, cool way. And that's content that I wanted to see as a cook. And I'm not a, I do not make complicated recipes. You know, I spent many, I spent several years at Christopher Kimball's Milk Street. And I learned so much. However, I have a different cooking style. So it's not that my recipes are complicated, but they're also, they can be impressive. They can be fun. They can be sexy, good, impressive food or just really good weeknight meals. But I really felt like I wanted to see content that was speaking to food lovers or people who had an interest in cooking. And not just here is the absolute simplest way to get calories into your body and stay alive. Yeah. That wasn't something I that in your recipes a lot too, really adding joy in. it doesn't have to be. Yeah, like you were saying, just cans dumped in. And I think a lot about use case, you know, like there is the book that I'm writing is organized into chapters because the way that I think about food is really use case. like. You know, I have one chapter called Party Without Panic, and it's all about. how to have people over. Because for me, so much of the joy is having people over. And that's really how I fell in love with food was I was waiting tables in college, and I would take any little bit of extra cash I had, and I would buy ingredients to have dinner parties. And I think a lot of people are really intimidated by having people over. I wanted to share recipes and strategies for what can you make ahead? How can you set yourself up for success? How can you enjoy your own party? Again, that's something anybody I think can benefit from, but if you have ADHD, it can seem even more overwhelming. But those recipes are gonna feel different than my lunch chapter, which is all about just like, okay, I want something that tastes good, but really I need something that is gonna get me through the day, balance my blood sugar, keep me going. I'm so excited. Without giving too much away, can you share, like, in that use case when you just forget to eat, get very hungry, can you give an example of a dish you could make in like 20 minutes, that would be exciting. definitely. I have this sub stack and there's a free weekly send, which is mostly guests on my podcast. And there's often free recipes and that's all great. The other piece of my sub stack is for paid subscribers and it's called Smart Cooks. And those are the like original recipes written just for that. exact thing. So very similar to what people will see in my cookbook. Lunch, I think about in sort of two buckets. There's the getting yourself motivated to make something ahead so you have it. I love like a chicken salad many different ways is a great thing to have Instant noodles like straight-up ramen, but leaning into some pre Prepared ingredients from the grocery store. Like I always have a bag of shredded carrots in there. I always have a bag of pre peeled garlic Some baby spinach I can throw in at the end for me eating lunch is such a challenge like my default is skip it and then eat handfuls of cookies and then feel like absolute shit afterwards. So one of my goals in writing this book was super selfish and it was to give myself more ideas for how to eat well during the day so I can be a functioning human. But again, It needs to be delicious. So another that I love is I'll do a six and a half minute egg. and then shove it in a pita bread. And again, leaning on those same pre-prepped ingredients, like the shredded carrots, some sprouts, some cherry tomatoes and put that all in a pita pocket. Tin fish, I love sardines just popping a can of sardines, maybe putting on some chili crisp and some crackers. i think a huge thing is your condiments too we are now in a time where the grocery store has like epically good condiments. You can buy really good tahini. You can buy really good chili crisp. You can buy, you know, yummy vinaigrettes, good pesto that you can keep in the freezer. And I just think investing in your condiments is huge. and it will prevent you from only eating cookies. don't like, can get myself to eat the vegetables and the protein if I'm making it really delicious with, you know, some kind of yummy store-bought dressing or sauce. I'm not above that by any means. ELIANNA I agree. If I have like a salad dressing that I'm really excited about in the fridge, I'm way more likely to have salad for lunch CATHERINE Yeah. And it goes the other way too, right? Like if you can convince yourself to make a batch, of homemade chimichurri or homemade blue cheese dressing or whatever, then you're like, well, I don't want that to go to waste. So I'm gonna, I'm gonna actually use it. Exactly. That actually ties right into the next question. I feel like food waste is a hot topic right now too. And it's something that I can kind of. fixate on a little bit, maybe too much. It's like, how do I eat? How do I not only feed myself lunch, but how do I also not waste food that process? Do you have any tips for reducing food waste? It's such a challenge. I think not over-purchasing is the number one thing. And what's great about that is figure out what motivates you. So for some people that is environmental and it is like, I don't want to be contributing to climate change. I don't want to be wasting food. For other people, it can be a budgetary constraint. And for me, it's both, quite frankly. thinking about every time you don't throw something away, that's money that's back in your pocket. And for me, the first step there is always shopping your pantry and shopping your fridge Sometimes we don't want to open that fridge. We don't want to open that drawer because we know the sludge of shame is in there from when we got overly ambitious and bought those greens that went bad. But forcing yourself to take a beat. and really do an inventory of your fridge and pantry before you start cooking and before you go to the grocery store and really challenge yourself to use things up. And then the other part of that does, I think, have to do with investment of time and money. So if you do buy that nice block of real Parmesan cheese, you spring for that farmer's market vegetable, you might feel a little more pressure, like a good kind of pressure to to use it. So for me, it's always a real challenge of like being super honest with myself about my ambition versus my reality. And then, and then, you know, keeping track of that inventory, because I also think the other the food waste thing is we get so ambitious, like we are going to you wouldn't go run a marathon if you haven't ran a mile, right? So like, if you have not been cooking dinner, unless you have ADHD, then you would try. Exactly. And then you try. But it's like, you'd be like, no, can definitely I'm to cook dinner five nights this week. And it's like, girl, no, you're not like just make a plan to get takeout two nights, make a plan to cook two nights and like see that through. ELIANNA Yeah. My friend has she does her meal plan every week and there's leftovers on it or there's takeout on it on the meal plan. like just because it says meal plan, it doesn't have to be cooking. Totally, and I'm not, I've struggled a bit with meal planning, but like in that same vein, you know, it's common knowledge for ADHDers and everyone really that getting everything out of your brain and like into a list is hugely helpful for your brain and giving yourself that permission. Like we are getting pizza on Friday, do that and then don't feel guilty. CATHTERINE It also makes it easier to commit and slog through and you're like, God, I don't want to make dinner tonight. You're like, okay, I'm getting Chinese tomorrow. can do this. when you were talking about, reducing food waste, I was thinking, you know, shopping your pantry or shopping your fridge could, you could kind of gamify it. You could make it into game and be like, the game is, I'm going to use two things for my pantry and one thing for my fridge tonight and make it like, what was that show that they chopped? Yeah, chop. Yeah. Make it challenge. Yeah. I think also like people are so you'd be surprised how much you can impress people. mean, hopefully everyone doesn't seek the same sort of outward validation that I do, but you know, I have so frequently and laughed with other cook friends. I'm sure you do the same thing. You find out someone's coming over and you put together like it might be the last handful of blueberries or grapes that you had in the fridge and the end of that cheese and you just cut off the dried off corner and. cut it into nice little squares in a handful of two different kinds of crackers because you opened those boxes and it looks so beautiful. so often I think having that sort of creative challenge of like how do I make this pretty? Like I'm gonna, sure I have a half tub of hummus from the store. I'm gonna put that in a small dish. I'm gonna drizzle on some olive oil and sprinkle on a little bit of maybe I have some za'atar or some Urfa or you know, it can be just dried oregano. And people feel so special and taken care of. And so I think that those little sort of aesthetic challenges can be really helpful in getting me to use what I have. and also, you know, feel good about cooking for people. Cause one of my other main goals is, especially since the pandemic, I think we've stopped having people over the same way we used to. And like, most people benefit from. more in-person gathering. connection. Human connection. ELIANNA Exactly. CATHERINE We can't just be talking to our computers and phones all day. my hope is always to make things accessible enough that people build that confidence and feel like, can have my neighbor over for a glass of wine or Yeah. The next question is actually from a listener. they're asking about the monotony of it. So basically like, how do I just feed myself every day? Like, how do I get the calories in? Just like, how do I feed myself? every That's a real question. one piece that I love that does really speak to that exact thing is You Gotta Eat by Margaret Eby, I think is how you pronounce her name. It's a cookbook that came out. She's a great writer. And it is very much those, how do I just make myself something? And so I think sometimes it is just starting there with like the lowest common denominator, but forcing yourself to do one thing that makes it special and good. we always keep Urfa pepper in our cabinet, but again, it could be any kind of little like pepper or sprinkle or spice. And my kids sometimes are just like, can I have? Can I have butter bread or olive oil bread like with that sprinkle? So whether it's a spoonful of chili crisp or you know, a sprinkle of pepper or a drizzle of tahini, like take that one extra step that feels special because I think sometimes we forget like we deserve pleasure in our food. And if you can get in the habit of taking an extra step for yourself, it's gonna feel a little bit easier the next time because you have that memory of like, no, that actually felt really good. to treat myself well, to eat that thing. Buy that fancy olive oil. Yeah, some little treats, or it can be an extra step, or it can be an extra ingredient to just make it feel a little more special. And then also just knowing you're not alone. This is such a problem and a challenge, and we live in a world where there's so many demands placed on us. I mean, I feel that way. And I also am not ashamed to rely on Takeout. thankfully live somewhere where there's some really good takeout. But I think beating ourselves up over it or like stewing in the shame of it is never the answer. I think that's the first place a lot of us go, like, I should be able to do this. I should feel better. And that is so unhelpful for me. really is finding the joy and then the solutions and really trying to just shut off that noise about how you should be able to do this. ELIANNA Yeah, it's a lot to feed yourself every day and make all those decisions, right? Like what do I even want to eat today? hard to decide where even to start. But I love that idea about having something really special that and kind of training your brain to get excited about that. one specialty item that you're going to get to have with lunch. CATHERINE And I know a lot. I've heard a lot about hyper fixation meals for ADHDers for that thing. I was like, do I really have that? ELIANNA That was my next question. It literally says, what's your hyper fixation meal? CAHTERINE I will say as I'm trying to be better about eating a healthy lunch, it is a store bought pita, but like a good one. Like there's this brand called Angel where I'm in Boston. So good quality pita, six and a half minute egg. And then yeah, I've brought up shredded carrots like 12 times. So that's obviously it. But I shove in the carrots and sliced tomatoes. Uh, and it just makes me feel so good. Cause I'm like, this is tasty. I'm actually eating a vegetable. Cause there were times I'd be like, oh my gosh, it's dinner. haven't like eaten a vegetable all day. Um, and I love eating a salad, but I hate making a salad. hate chop the cha all the chopping. So I think a veggie filled pita with either egg or tuna in it is my current hyper fixation meal. I love eating salad too. I think mine involves an egg too. really, I really like savory breakfast. And so I got really into cream of wheat and adding a poached egg on top. And then I'll change up the like flavoring. Like sometimes I'll put like curry or Vindaloo powder on it and make it like more Indian flavors. Sometimes I'll put chili oil on it. sometimes I'll put Zatar. The cream of wheat and the egg is there, but the vegetable and the seasoning will change. Because I do kind of connect to the hyperfixation thing. I like the routine of it, but I can't stick with it for very long. I know people that have hyperfixation meals that they've done for years, but mine only lasts a month or two. And then I'm like, no, I need something else. Absolutely. And I think part of that's probably because we like our creativity is found in food and cooking. And for a lot of people, it could be something totally different. so Is there anything else you want to share with us? Just if anyone is like struggling that it's such a journey and there are such seasons to cooking and being in the kitchen, especially if you're managing it along with ADHD, because I remember just beating myself up like crazy, getting through these just real survival times where there was no creative energy, there was no spark. and I wish I had been a bit kinder to myself and like, realize that like, that will come back and there will be times that it feels fruitful again, Yeah, that's so beautiful. ELIANNA Thank you for sharing that. There's definitely been times too in my life where it comes with overwhelm and I don't want to cook and I've thought the same thing. Like, do I care about food anymore? Am I passionate about food? But yeah, then it always comes back, Well, thank you so much for being here and talking with us. I have a few more quick questions. The first one is, what is your favorite thing about having ADHD? CATHERINE The endless well of ideas. Love that. What is one small thing that makes your ADHD brain light up? Exercise, because it gets the creativity flowing, but it also helps me focus in a way that few other things do. ELIANNA Amazing. I find that too. CATHERINE Like I am not in a great groove right now because I'm writing this book I've started giving myself a little bit more grace of like, just go outside and walk around the block and get the blood moving. Don't let the fact that you can't. do a full yoga class or commit an hour, stop you from moving in some way. What is the most random thought you've had recently? So I am currently in a marketing hamster wheel. So I have my podcast, I have my sub stack, and my business brain is going crazy trying to be like, okay, I've been doing all this hard work. How do I get out in the world and connect to the right people? And so I will wake up at three in the morning and think like, oh, I need to email this person or, oh, I need to take up Pinteresting again or, it's like these nonstop. things that I really need to run through a filter because, you know, I'm going to chase all these shiny objects and get nowhere. All about marketing. All about marketing. ELIANNA What's the most helpful understanding that you have about your ADHD brain and how it works that you're really excited to share that you're like, maybe it was like your aha moment or something that you've learned that you think would be really useful for other people to know about having ADHD. CATHERINE It's supposed to be rapid fire, but I'm going to give you two because I can't help myself. So one is the creativity part. And once I accepted that, like, oh, that creativity is and the endless ball of ideas like is ADHD. I felt way less shameful about the ADHD, way less, it held me back less and I just was able to kind of really tap into that and helped me gain confidence and just feel more joyful. But the opposite side of that is just in the past couple of years, I've realized what an issue prioritization is for me But going into this next year, I think my big, my big focus is going to be, how can I be better at prioritizing? Because I think like so many ADHD years, a lack of drive or ambition or work ethic is never the issue. Like it's not that you're not working hard enough. It's that you are not prioritizing appropriately. So feel like there've been folks that I've talked to my podcast that I've met in real life that are sharing stuff about prioritization. And I feel like it's, I'm able to receive it in a way that I wasn't before. And I'm excited to learn more about how I can be better at prioritizing and kind of take my readers and listeners through that journey with me. And hopefully it's something that benefits all of us. Well, those really go hand in hand, Because if you're so creative and you have so many ideas and maybe there's just not time in the world to execute on all of them. totally, it's like you're the cake out before it's baked and then wondering why it didn't work. Like it's such a challenge to give things the time they need. ELIANNA Okay, last question. What is your most useful ADHD hack? CATHERINE I'm gonna get like a little woo woo on this one, but I think it really is. figuring out what you're passionate about and like what you're excited about and like can you make that a major part of your life? So for me that was figuring out that food and media were things that I loved so much and how do I turn them into a job because I can't fathom with my ADHD brain trying to suffer through a life where my work was not something I was hugely passionate about. So I think you got to figure out what that is. And if it's not in your work life, like make it a big part of your personal life or your hobby life. I just think it's really important. ELIANNA I agree a thousand percent. I can't really do much if it's not fun or interesting or something I'm passionate about. Maybe that's why laundry is so hard. is the bane of my existence. In the domestic sphere, that is the most difficult. It's the worst because at least dishes I can connect with cooking but I don't know why I need to wear clothes like laundry sucks. And you get messy and smell like where do you want to culinary school? CATHERINE In Boston, I did a shorter program. I did a master's in gastronomy and then there was like a six month program as a part of that. ELIANNA We always had like the fish week in culinary school was the worst because basically we would pick one uniform You had like a set of five. You would just pick one that you would throw out after fish week. Because your whites smelled terrible. like no matter if you like bleached them every single day for a month. So I was like, pick your dirtiest pair, wear it that week and then trash it up. And then burn it. Well, This is a real joy for me to get to talk to you. CATHERINE Yes, thank you so much for having me. wish you congratulations and lots of luck with the new podcast. I'm excited to tune in. as a listener. ELIANNA In summary, I think having ADHD helps you have that creativity and if you can harness that creativity and bring it into the kitchen and bring it into your cooking experience, I think it really, really will improve your relationship with food. and allow you to have fun with it and enjoy what you're eating. I hope today's podcast was helpful for you and I would love to hear from you if you have amazing kitchen stories and recipes and really anything you want to share with us about eating and cooking and enjoying recipes and enjoying meals together with friends as somebody who has ADHD. Thanks for listening to ADHD FM. Huge thank you to my producer and editor, Marion If something from today's episode resonated with you, I invite you to share it with a friend or leave a quick review. I'd also love to hear from you. So drop me a voice note or a DM with your questions and tell me about your experience You can reach me on Instagram or TikTok at ADHDFM. Until next time. Take care of yourself, give your brain a little or a lot of grace, and keep finding what works for you. Goodbye.