October 27th 2024
Happy Momentum Monday (on a Sunday)!
Before we dive in I wanted to let y’all know about a FREE workshop I’m hosting tomorrow evening, 6-7:30pm London time all about Reducing ADHD Overwhelm and Breaking Free from Burnout. There are a few VIP tickets left that will get you and hour of live Q&A after the workshop, a copy of my Break Free from Overwhelm and Burnout Guidebook, an invitation to join my weekly members only, virtual body doubling calls AND the opportunity to book a free 30 minute Systems Strategie call with me to help set up your digital supporters such as Google Calendar and syncing your reminders. All for only $30! If you’re struggling with overwhelm, I promise you will get some really great value from this workshop.
Ok, now on to our regularly scheduled momentum…
It’s been a few weeks of leveling up in the kitchen, so let’s do a little recap of what we’ve tackled, plus sprinkle in a few new tricks for making meal times (and clean-up) smoother.
We’ve covered:
Ingredient Prepping—the ADHD-friendly version of meal prepping. We’ve ditched the stress of cooking full meals in favor of prepping components you can mix and match all week.
The Master Grocery List—our golden ticket to avoiding decision fatigue at the store. By having a ready-made list of essentials, you’re saving brainpower for the fun stuff, like choosing which snack to eat first when you get home.
Mix-and-Match Meals—the ultimate “grab, toss, and eat” formula that reduces mealtime stress with repeatable meals that work for your brain, energy, and time.
As these emails have come out, I’ve received amazing feedback from some of you on additional tools that could be added to your ADHD toolbox. Since we’ve already been nerding out on kitchen efficiency, why not try out one of these app recs to make life even easier:
Tools to Help You Thrive
Pantry App: Keep track of what’s in your fridge and pantry, so you don’t buy yet another jar of peanut butter or find that broccoli in the back of the fridge 3 weeks too late… 🤢
Cooklist (available on Apple and Android)
PantryCheck (available on Apple and Android)
More recipe-centric apps:
StashCook: This app is amazing! It stores all your go-to recipes, meal ideas, and even helps with those “what do I make with this random zucchini?” questions. You can even take a screenshot of a recipe and it will fill in the7 details for you, AND add all the ingredients to your shopping list! ADHD-friendly organization for your meal planning? Yes, please!
Tasty: The Tasty app is full of quick, visual recipes with step-by-step video guides. You can also filter recipes by ingredients you already have on hand, which is a huge time-saver.
But hold up, we’re not done yet! Now that we’ve got our ingredients prepped, our shopping simplified, and our meals flexible, let’s talk about that moment… when the kitchen looks like a bomb went off and you’ve still got half a dinner to make.
Want to dive deeper into your specific “brand” of ADHD?
The Dreaded “Clean-as-You-Go”
Yeah, it sounds like a fairy tale when we’re dealing with ADHD, right? But it’s time to embrace the ish here, just like with our routines. We don’t have to be Martha Stewart-level spotless while cooking, but finding small moments to tidy can make a HUGE difference.
Why Clean-As-You-Go-ish Works for our ADHD Brains:
Micro-tasks in action: Instead of thinking about cleaning as one giant task, it’s all about doing small bits. Rinse that knife, wipe that counter—just quick, tiny actions that don’t feel overwhelming. It’s SO much better to wipe up that little spill while it’s still wet versus waiting until it’s dry and crusty-NO THANK YOU!
Reduces end-of-cooking overwhelm: After a meal, the thought of tackling a mountain of dishes is like looking at Everest without any hiking gear. Clean-as-you-go cuts down that mountain bit by bit.
Finding the barrier to entry: Sometimes the clean up can keep us from cooking in the first place. So if we can start to implement a “system-ish” for clean up, making it as easy as possible, maybe we’ll be more likely to cook delicious, nutritious meals in the first place!
Less decision fatigue: By handling small clean-ups as you go, you’re avoiding the mental chaos of “where the heck do I start?” when it’s all over.
Action Item for This Week:
Next time you’re cooking, pick one small task to clean up while you wait for the water to boil or the oven to heat up. Something as simple as wiping down the counter or rinsing your spatula or throwing things in the dishwasher as you finish with them. Bonus points if you do it in less than 5 minutes— ADHD-friendly race against the clock, anyone?
Snap a pic of your clean-ish kitchen, and let me know how it feels. And if it’s still a mess, that’s totally cool too—progress over perfection!
Catch ya next week,
Leah 🌶