Does anyone have trouble in planning meal times? I know it sounds strange, but I get frustrated and depressed when my husband asks me, "What do you want to do about supper?" I know the only two options are going out, which is expensive and fattening (unless one really enjoys garden salads and grissled steamed grean beans, or lean white meat that tastes like white canvass cloth), or cooking at home. I like to think that I've done fairly well managing my ADHD: I started a lawn business where I can make money hyperfocusing on one thing, and manage the house-hold requirements with intricate and color-coded files on my laptop desktop. I plan breakfast and lunch just fine (mainly because I'm only feeding myself at those times and we don't have any children), but by the time supper rolls around, I'm so exhausted from work or school, my Adderol has worn off, I'm weary of all the constant tasks and organizing that I would rather run away than to have to think and plan and prepare a balanced meal that requires cleaning up afterwards. I'm also famished by this time and all bets are off when it comes to bland or complicated dishes. I want a french-fried Shetland pony. If the task is left to my husband, his idea of a meal is canned chilli with grated cheddar cheese, or Easy Cheese on Doritoes.
I've always been into health and fitness, but have never mastered the nutrition thing. I think because to do it right, you really have to like shopping and measuring and learning recipes. It would take me weeks to really plan menus that most diet programs and nutritional experts can do in half a day (I grew up a suburban kid of the 80's. We never learned to cook anything but Hot Pockets and Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. I've gotten better, but at forty, the learning curve is a little slow and I work and am finishing a college degree.) This has depressed me for years: now more than ever because I'm a little heavier than I want to be and I have a husband who will simply never care about this at all. He doesn't understand why it upsets me, but I know enough about what poor nutrition can do.
Every sports dietician I've talked to, personal trainer, weight loss or nutritional program is just far more complicated than I know I'm going to do (If swordfish and the word "puree" is in the recipe and if it requires getting out a crockpot, you've lost me. If it takes more than 15 minutes, my body feels as if I've plowed the lower 40. If I have to purchase more than 3 types of fruits in order to get all the anti-oxidants, vitamin E, A, etc...same goes for meat: how many meats contain zinc, iron, omega-3's, but with low saturated fat, oh, make sure I take the yokes out of the eggs. Could we please go back to the Middle Ages where all we had to choose from was cabbage, a little beef or pork, and bread?)
This is a great forum: to the point with real applications by real ADHD folk. Is this a sticky point for anyone else? Did you find a solution? I live in East Tennessee where the kind of demographic that would hire private chefs is laughable and the butcher (do they even have those anymore?) would laugh if you asked for swordfish. Also, I don't have kids so I can't really delegate.
I know I could handle other difficulties if I just had this one licked.
Thanks,
Skimble in East Tennessee
I don't know if this will help you, but I can share with you what I do. I have three kids, eating out alot and trying to eat healthy is wayyyy to expensive. I was finding that I would forget to start lunch or dinner and it becomes so late I panic and throw whatever together. My kids were eating cereal alot and my daycare kids were eating pb and j or hot dogs more than i care to say. Anyway, after I got on the Adderall, while it is still effective I can stay focused long enough to make menu plans for lunch and dinner for an entire week. I then make a grocery list and go to the store and get everything needed. I then post the menus daily on a dry erase board on the fridge. It actually works great. With school out, if I am busy, my teenager can start lunch and he knows exactly what to fix. Also, I don't have to think about dinner (thinking is too hard after the meds wear off!) Another plus is that I am not doing as much impulse buying, so we are saving money on food.
I found a website called allrecipes.com. You can find easy healthy recipes there. It also allows you to plan menus and shopping lists that you can just print out. It has been a great help to me.
3RingCircus, I like how you work through the week. I'm kind of similar. I think my problem is that I really don't like chicken. I also have strange food dislikes that other people don't have, like maple syrup, fruit in deserts or on meats, etc. With the exception of coffee and alcohol, I have the tastebuds of a six year old:) But everyone's suggestion would work just as well with some kind of meat substitution. I think this is going to continue to be an ongoing process. I do like the ADD friendly recipes idea.Oh yes! I feel the same way--most all the time! By the time I've made it through the work day, the last thing I want to do is cook! Like you, I want to eat a healthy meal. Cooking at home is always healthier than eating out! Here's a couple of things that I do, but it does require some simple cooking. Also, it requires one who does not mind eating leftovers. It's just me and my husband here, also.
First, my husband grills chicken at least one night a week. I fix a garden salad to go with that. (It does require all the chopping of bell peppers, cucumbers, etc., though.) But, here's where it gets good: The garden salad I fix is a big salad that will last for several days--we'll get at least six servings from it. My husband grills extra chicken. So a couple of days after he grills, I get the leftover chicken and we have a large salad with the chopped chicken. TWO DAYS DOWN, FIVE TO GO!
I found several recipes that are healthy and only take appx. 20-30 minutes to prepare AND they are all easy and only require appx. 3-5 ingredients. So, I usually cook two nights and always prepare four servings each time so that I have leftovers for later in the week. That way, the 2 times I cook yields 4 meals. SIX DAYS DOWN, ONE TO GO!
We usually eat out once a week! SEVEN DAYS ACCOUNTED FOR!
Also, when I make some of my recipes like the chicken chilli, I make a large pot and freeze some into meal sized portions. Nothing like having a ready made meal! Another thing.. the frozen broccoli that comes in the bag that goes straight in the microwave to cook is great! It's so easy and good (for frozen veg).
What do you think? Of course, there are weeks that none of this happens and we eat too much fast food! But, this is what I usually do! Boring, but the food is good. My husband doesn't complain. It's better than a frozen Lean Cuisine! :)
Maybe we should start a new topic: ADD friendly recipes -- what do you think? I bet a lot of other women would share their favorite "Simple" recipes! Our rules for the posts: No Martha Stewart "wannabes" allowed! No recipes with more than 6-8 ingredients; no recipes that require the use of egg seperators; fancy kitchen appliances or gadgets; no recipes that have fancy french words. We don't want to use anything more complicated than a can opener and a spoon! (Perhaps that's too many rules--we might only end up with the suggestion of opening a can of Campbell's soup! ha!ha!)
Planning meals ahead is a great idea. I also have a few "fallback" recipes that I know well and can throw together quickly.
One thing to remember is that anything made in a skillet is easy and typically cooks quickly. Throw in some veggies, meat, seasoning and serve with rice or pasta. One of my favorites is to throw in chopped zucchini, tomatoes (either fresh or canned), basil, oregano, salt pepper and olive oil. I usually cook my husband a little meat to go with it in a seperate skillet as I'm a quasi-vegetarian these days. I serve it over brown rice (the kind that cooks in 10 min.) with a sprinkle of mozzerella on top.
And don't forget the lifesaving prechopped veggies- expensive but sometimes well worth it.
Thanks guys. I've started kind of doing the menu planning thing and I never go to the store without the list, but it takes me so long to think up stuff that I just get tired and then I always end up craving something entirely different that wasn't in the plans (usually unhealthy).
Jaderock, I like the skillet idea. I should think more about stuff like that. Truth is I never chopped a vegetable in my life until this past year. I think I need a cooking class, but one for guys with lessons like: "You have to soak beans before cooking." or "Pull string out of the greenbean before cooking." Really! No one in my family did this. Since I was 10, each family member just prepared what they wanted when they wanted. Our schedules were so different that we rarely sat down at the kitchen table together. This never bothered me. In fact, I liked the simplicity at the end of the day. A bowl of macaroni and cheese or cereal curled up watching Northern Exposure after a long day was just the ticket. But I know if I do stuff like that now, my husband would feel left out and I know my upbringing wasn't exactly normal. But I get depressed because what was once detox time has turned into obligation time.
My husband, on the other hand, grew up with everyone coming to supper and the mom did the cooking and of course it was chicken and dumplings (the chicken left-over from the one she roasted three days ago), greenbeans grown on their farm, and blackberry cobbler made from scratch. He knows I'm not like that and has never cared one way or the other. But I silently resent it nonetheless. I wouldn't mind cooking like that around lunchtime. Why does it have to be at the end of the day?
I rejoiced when I read Frank McCourt's memoir of his journey from his boyhood Ireland to teaching in the United States. At one time he was married to a beautiful debutant who wanted their lifestyle to be that that is expected of the suburban well-to-do, which meant a meat, potatoes, vegetables, and bread every night. He admitted in his story that he found dealing with that every night exhausting. I thought to myself, "That's how I feel." Why can't I get all my nutrients and calories earlier in the day and only eat a sandwich or something at night?
Skimble
If you have cable, there are some great shows on Food Network. I have learned alot from them. Alton Brown's Good Eats, Rachel Ray's 30 minute meals, Sandra (I can't remember her last name) Semi-homemade. There are alot more. I think you can watch them on the website also.
I would plan meals too, then I would be in the mood for something different than planned. I just leave it flexible enough, I could switch nights or I keep the stuff to make our favorites on hand. I do alot of the throwing everything in one skillet too. Vegetables, meat, past or rice and sesoning. I did that the other day, I sauted an onion, then a potatoe and some mushrooms, then I cut up a steak real thin and threw that in and cooked until it was done. I put in pepper and Old bay seasoning at the beginning and worcestshire sauce at the end. ONce you get the hang of it, you can mix and match just about anything you and your husband like. It was very good, took about twenty minutes and only one pan to clean up.