Best Strategies for ADHD Meal Planning
It’s 4:00pm and the options for dinner feel almost overwhelming. You grab a snack while you consider what to have. One snack turns into an evening of continuous snacks. Look out! Make way for the guilt!
“Why do I binge?” '“I can’t control myself when I have these foods in the house.” “ My dinners are terrible, I never eat healthy.”
Dinnertime decision paralysis can make meal planning so crucial, particularly ADHD Meal planning. ADHD or any other neuro spicy mind benefits from the framework of meal planning. As an intuitive eating counselor, many of my clients are seeking ways to enjoy food and feel more intuitive. The idea of a meal plan may not sound sexy or intuitive. How can we bring in aspects of a more intuitive approach while maintaining a framework for ADHD Meal Planning?
Goodbye Guilt
First things first. In order to improve our relationship with food we need to drop any food guilt.
What are some physiological reasons for the continuous snacking in the evening?
We didn’t eat enough through the day. We are hungry.
We felt stressed all day and we are now feeling relaxed and it feels comforting to eat.
Our ADHD medication has worn off and a day’s worth of hunger has set in.
We don’t have a clear idea of a meal, the idea of deciding on a meal feels overwhelming making it easier to snack.
A Framework of Eating
Eating through the day gives you a constant source of fuel. Our body needs some energy about every 3-4 hours to keep those glucose levels stable. Eating on some type of a schedule is important for any body but particularly when we use ADHD or appetite suppressing medication (GLP-1). What are some strategies to help avoid reaching for just quick energy foods or hitting the evening and making up for all of your energy needs at once?
Eating schedule
Aim for 3 meals and 2-3 snacks. They don’t need to be large. It may even help you trust your fullness to know there is a snack around the corner.
Pair a carbohydrate with a protein and/or a fat. An apple in the afternoon vs an apple with nut butter will have different lasting power.
If you don’t feel feel mid day hunger, try liquids. Protein shakes, greek yogurt with fruit, overnight oats, or a smoothie.
Types of Meal Plans for ADHD
Let’s dig into some of the different types of systems for organizing ADHD Meal Plans.
Theme Days
Theme days are a fun way to categorize each day and organize your go-to meals. I love how this cuts down on the overwhelm of so many options. This can be a fun way to incorporate the whole family too. Come up with creative Theme titles and everyone gets to throw in a favorite meal to the rotation.
How to Organize a Theme Meal System
1) Decide a category for each day of the week.
2) Brainstorm your favorite go-to meals for each category. You may have 3-5 favorites for each night.
This may look like:
Monday: Pasta Night
Tuesday: Mexican influence
Wednesday: Breakfast for dinner
The Super Prep
The Super Prep meal plan appeals to those who thrive on a laid out or detailed plan. They like knowing what to expect and either enjoy prep or enjoy the benefits.
This ADHD meal plan system takes more work on the front end but can lend itself to very calm evenings. Many people find that meal prepping on the weekend for the week ahead is the best system. I think breaking your week in two can be beneficial. Prep on the weekend and again mid week to ensure your food is fresh and allow any pivots for schedule or leftovers.
The Super Prep
Prep the meals or the meal set up ahead (Sundays are a popular day for this!).
Consider doing two preps per week. A weekend prep and a mid week prep. This keeps food fresh and allows for you to pivot for a change in plans.
Find a way to communicate your meal plan. Hang your meal plan in the kitchen, have it on your phone.
Utilize pre made meal plans for ideas.
Ready for 1000’s of recipes at your fingertips? I offer access to Meal Planning Software and you can try it free for 3 days, with out a credit card. Check it out here.
Quick Pick Up
The chef delivered meal is a thriving industry and for good reason. The ease of fresh, well thought out meals delivered to your home brings some calm to any dinner time routine. The range of what is offered can be a nice middle ground between ordering restaurant meals to completely home cooked.
This plan offers a variety of options in time in the kitchen. There are “heat and eat” meals, minimal prep meal kits and meal kits that require a fair amount of cooking but the ingredients and meal idea if packaged for you. This dinnertime convenience comes with a price tag. Most of these programs offer first week specials. Try a week and see if a program would benefit your lifestyle and fit into your budget.
Quick Pick ups
Provide convenience with some degree of at home eating.
Ideal to build kitchen skills or during periods of cooking burnout.
There are subscription and a la carte options nationally and locally to meet most price, nutritional and time needs.
Local chefs that deliver either a la carte or subscription meals weekly
Local grocery stores with meal kits-This can require less planning than a subscription plan. Many stores offer kits in the deli area. Trader Joe’s has done well offering quick meal options in their freezer section. Add additional veggies to one of these frozen meals for extra nutrients and taste!
Hungry Root- This subscription plan offers a variety of meal options, meal kits with variety of time requirements and unique snacks and groceries.
Purple carrot- This plan specializes in plant based subscriptions, meal kits or prepared meals.
Home chef- This is a subscription meal kit company but many of the a al carte products can now be found in the grocery store after Kroger purchased the company.
Blue Apron- This subscription company with both ready made and meal kits. They tend to offer meal kits that can require more kitchen time but many love the ability to save the printed recipes for future use.
Hello Fresh- This company offers a good variety of meal kit options. Select the number of people you want to feed, time you want to spend in the kitchen and type of food you want to see in your weekly boxes.
An Intuitive Addition
Intuitive Eating is based on 10 principles, part of this involves the ability to notice one’s hunger and fullness. The structure or framework of a meal plan that is helpful for ADHD meal planning still has room to sprinkle in some intuitive eating practices.
Intuitive Eating strategies
Take a deep breath before your meal.
Pause mid meal and think about how the food tastes. Do you like the taste, is it warm, sweet, will the next few bites fill you up?
Work hard to remove “good” and “bad” labels around food.
Smell your food before you eat and savor the flavor.
Untangle movement from exercise.
Eating regularly, checking in with how we feel while eating and finding a meal plan that works with your personality sets you up for success in ADHD meal planning. These strategies can make such a lifestyle difference and work great for neuro typical individual as well.
Are you interested in booking a FREE 15 Minute Discovery call to start Nutrition Therapy? Find out more today!