Meal Planning with ADHD
Meal planning can be intimidating for people with ADHD - planning falls into the category of executive function, and challenges with executive functions are a main characteristic of ADHD.
So there’s that, and also all the executive functioning skills that meal planning involves like:
Finding ADHD friendly meals, aka the right recipes that don’t take too much time to make or clean up, and recipes you actually like and make you feel good
Figuring out what ingredients you already have
Making a list of ingredients you still need
Grocery shopping for those ingredients
Putting groceries away
Finding the time to make these meals
Actually making your meals
Eating your meals
Leftover storage
Clean up
That mega-list wasn’t meant to overwhelm you - just reassure you that you’re not the only one who finds the process of feeding yourself overwhelming. It’s a lot of steps! Especially if you’ve noticed how including nutrient-dense food in your diet makes you feel so much better overall, but still struggle with the reality that it can require more executive function, time and planning to prepare.
What is ADHD Meal Planning?
Before getting a little more into meal planning with ADHD, I want to talk about the difference between ADHD meal planning and ADHD meal prep, or meal prep in general.
Like so many things, both ADHD meal planning and ADHD meal prep exist on a spectrum and can look and act the way you need them to. Both act more as overarching categories for a series of steps that you, a person with ADHD, can pick and choose what works best for you during this time.
So in this way ADHD meal planning acts as more of a personalised framework, guiding you on what to eat over a certain period of time (eliminating a week’s worth of decision fatigue) as well as what ingredients you’ll need to give yourself access to, the time you’ll need to get access to, prepare, eat and clean up.
Ideally, this ADHD meal planning framework takes into account all the other things you have to do that week and gives you realistic, doable steps to follow so you can feed yourself and not become overwhelmed and burnt out by the process.
ADHD Meal Planning vs. ADHD Meal Prep
Meal prep would typically be taking things a step further and batch preparing your food for the week. Batch meal prep can save you time throughout the week, but it's not necessarily something I recommend for everyone with ADHD because eating the same thing 3-4 days in a row lacks novelty, which is a super important motivator for the ADHD brain.
The beauty about ADHD meal planning is that it gives you a personalised framework where you decide exactly how much meal prepping you will be doing throughout the week and what that’s going to look like for you. For example, making a stir fry with 5-6 ingredients that lasts for 2-3 meals can count as meal prep because you’ve made (‘prepped’) enough for a few meals.
Reducing the Overwhelm
Because meal planning will look different for everyone, I believe it's a tool that can take so much overwhelm out of eating and preparing your food. Life with ADHD is overwhelming enough, so for this reason I really recommend people with ADHD experiment with meal planning.
For adults with ADHD, meal planning can be a game-changer, making it easier to maintain a healthy ADHD diet and nutrition. Here are five tips to make ADHD-friendly meal planning more manageable:
Source and Save Easy to Follow Recipes: Find simple, appealing recipes from platforms like Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, (I just started using pintrest for recipes this year and I love it! For recipes. It's easy to search and find a recipe for anything you want to eat and the recipe is usually right there in the pin or 1 click away. I find the text-based recipes are easier to follow than videos because they’re more detailed, you don’t need to replay if you miss a step and will always have the exact measurements).
I also like to sometimes source recipes from websites like Minimalist Baker, Joyous Health, and Love and Lemons because these three tend to share nutritious recipes that make me feel really good, taste good and aren’t too complex to prepare.
The classics, like cookbooks and recipes from friends and family are also great resources for recipes.
Be sure to save and store these recipes in a place where you will be able to find them easily, that you check regularly. Like a box in your kitchen for the OG recipes, a saved folder in instagram, a photo album on your phone with screenshots or video downloads etc.
Three big things to consider when sourcing recipes are:
A) They follow the balanced meal formula, aka they contain protein, fat, carbohydrates and vegetables. Meals that contain all of these groups will give you sustained energy and help keep your brain fueled until your next meal.
B) They can be made in around or under 30 minutes - if you have more time to dedicate to cooking and want to then by all means! But I find recipes that take less time tend to be more ADHD friendly.
C) An obvious one but so important: Making sure it's a recipe you will enjoy eating!
Finding satisfaction in your meals is essential for a long-term, healthy relationship with food. And this is even more real for people with ADHD who have interest-driven brains.
If we make a meal that has nutritious ingredients but is boring in all the other ways, we’ll have a hard time eating it and it will end up hurting our motivation to meal plan and cook for ourselves on an on-going basis.
So finding recipes that you know you like eating, recipes that use ingredients you like, and recipes that include ingredients that are fun for our senses (like crunchy or crispy ingredients for example) is all part of what ADHD meal planning can look like.
2. Quick Breakfast Options: Save time and brain power in the mornings with quick breakfast recipes you can prepare the night before or make in under 10 minutes. Consider options like eggs with cottage cheese and toast, smoothies, or overnight oats with chia seeds, berries and protein powder.
3. Utilize ADHD friendly kitchen tools: Based on the foods you tend to make often, enjoy eating and that make you feel good - consider what kitchen tools you can invest in to help you make these foods with less effort. Some examples could include:
Rice cooker
Air fryer
Crockpot
Slow cooker
Blender
Toaster oven
4. Categorize your Grocery List: After taking inventory of what ingredients you already have and what ingredients you still need, create a grocery list. Then categorize your groceries into little groups that make the most sense to you.
This could look like:
Pantry items: Nut butter, chickpeas, lentils, pasta, rice, soup cans, nuts, olive oil, crackers, popcorn
Dairy: Eggs, yogurt, milk, butter, cheese
Main proteins: Chicken breast, ground beef, tofu
Produce: Vegetables, fruit, sprouts
Treats/fun foods: Cookies, chips, ice cream
Depending on how well you know your grocery store, you could also categorise your list based on your journey through the grocery store. So for example when I grocery shop I’ll always start off on the right side of the store, where I pick up butter, milk, and eggs. Then I’ll move over to the next aisle to grab some teas, beans and other pantry items. Then I’ll pick up bread at the back of the store, some turkey meat for sandwiches if that’s part of my meal plan, ground beef, chicken breast, then get all my produce at the end of my trip because it's located right in front of the cashiers.
Experiment with both, or any other way you think may help make grocery shopping less overwhelming.
5. Give yourself permission to make any changes you need to make throughout the week!
Your ADHD meal plan should be a guide, something there to support you, help make your life easier and not cause you more stress.
Remember to have self-compassion and honour that life (especially with ADHD) can be chaotic at times, things come up, your energy levels can change in response to life or where you’re at in your menstrual cycle or your emotions.
Be so mindful not to let your ADHD meal plan become rigid and something you have to follow to a T - it's there to support you and if you need to take a break and order in for a night that’s more than ok.
Creating Your Own ADHD Meal Plans
Meal planning is a skill that takes time to develop - it really is a trial and error system that you’ll get better and more efficient at with time.
In both my 1:1 programs I help my clients develop the skill of creating meal plans as part of a larger strategy of improving their nutrition, access to food and their relationship with food.
Meal planning looks different for everyone, and working with a practitioner can be really effective for helping you find the right approach for creating meal plan frameworks for your unique lifestyle, needs and brain.
If you’re curious about working 1:1 with me, reducing overwhelm, improving your relationship with food and making ADHD meal planning part of your life - I’d love to connect with you!
Book a free 20 minute intro call with me to learn more about me, my approach and what working together could look like.
Thanks for reading! :) Let me know how ADHD meal planning is going for you in the comments.
