Eating with ADHD: The Online Course 2022 – Nicole Demasi

Hi Everyone, It’s Nicole…

‘Eating with ADHD’…who knew that was even a thing?!

I certainly didn’t even after 10 years of being a Dietian! But oh how my life could have been so much easier!

Like thousands of other women, I battled with undiagnosed ADHD for the first 33 years of my life.

After my diagnosis in 2020, as a Dietitian, and in true ADHD fashion, I hyper-focused on connecting the dots between diet and ADHD.

When looking for answers, I asked myself these questions….

As you can imagine, there were a lot of questions!

And what was even more of a frustration and concern to me…is that there were so many unanswered questions! There’s barely any information connecting these issues anywhere on the internet aside from what foods to avoid….which wasn’t what I needed.

So, I used my 10 years experience as a Registered Dietitian to dive into the science-based nutrition, along with the research from the best minds in the ADHD world to find a solution to my problem.

That resulted in me ultimately creating a step-by-step system and approach to food that changed my life!

It allowed me to become aware of what was holding me back, allowed me to heal, allowed me to rewire my mind, and it allowed me to create a healthy relationship with food where I could stop binging and restricting, all while increasing my energy, focus, and mental and emotional health!

Most importantly, it allowed me to create a life where I could be in control around food, and a life where I could manage my ADHD!

As a dietitian, it was against everything I’d ever been told by mainstream education, culture, and society!

As many of us are getting diagnosed well into our adult years, I was able reflect on my life and realize that my undiagnosed ADHD was actually creating a life of disordered eating, anxiety, self-esteem issues, and a lot of confusion.

I also came to realize that my brain is unable to operate like neurotypical “normal” brains and that I was ignoring hunger & thirst cues because of time blindness & lack of interoceptive awareness. That unawareness of what our bodies truly need is what leads to restriction, which leads to bingeing, which leads to guilt, being undernourished, and feeling overwhelmed and embarrassed… all of which triggers what we call the ‘binge and restrict cycle’, where those symptoms repeat themselves hour after hour, day after day.

As I’m sure you can relate, I was genuinely exhausted & tired of being in this cycle, and feeling broken all the time. Life felt so hard.

And, as I said, I’m actually a Registered Dietitian with 10 years experience! Yet nobody in mainstream medicine, science, and nutrition ever gave me the answers or connected the dots between eating and ADHD.

(In fact they made it worse as I explain below.)

So, when I did finally get diagnosed, everything about my life, my mind, my emotions and my behaviors made sense!

It was both eye-opening and painful at the same time… but definitely the most validating thing that’s ever happened to me.

Before I share that system and the 9 key steps below, it’s important to look at the challenges we all face when eating with ADHD so that we know what we need to overcome on this journey…

• ​Impulsivity
• ​Binge-eating
• ​Bored/low dopamine
• ​”Stimming” with food
• ​Forgetting to eat (time-blindness)
• ​Ignoring hunger & fullness cues
• ​Lack of appetite (stimulant meds)
• ​Overwhelm & anxiety
• ​Time blindness & poor planning
• ​All or nothing thinking
• ​Perfectionism
• ​Emotional eating (dysregulation)
• ​Chronic yo-yo dieting
• ​Disordered eating
• ​Sensory issues
• ​Decision overwhelm
• ​Analysis paralysis
• ​Sugar cravings