50 Ways to Love Your Liver

Some recent hullabaloo over my liver (see photo at left) has got me thinking about nutrition. There's a ton of information available about ADD and nutrition, and I'm not going to pretend to be an expert, but I do want to address a couple of nutrition issues as they relate to my life with an ADD partner.

The experts say you should eat small, balanced meals every three hours. By "balanced" they pretty much mean it should contain some protein (so for example, buttered bagel = bad, apple with nuts = good). But you know as well as I do that acquiring food every three hours is no easy task. There is no conveyor belt in my kitchen that ushers in healthy snacks on cue. And for those of you with ADD, stopping what you're doing every three hours to eat may seem unthinkable.

It's very hard, but there are ways to make it work. I will let you in on my secret. Are you ready? ZIPLOC BAGGIES. No, seriously. Ziploc baggies are the healthiest thing in our pantry. At night before I go to bed, I measure 1/3 cup of roasted, unsalted nuts and 1/4 cup of raisins into one baggie, 1/2 cup oatmeal into another baggie, and 1/2 cup of whole grain cereal into another. I grab an apple out of the fridge, an Amy's Organic burrito (or something similar) out of the freezer (unless there are leftovers, in which case I take those), and put the whole lot in my bag for work. For Jen, who works from a home office, having the ready-made baggies in a basket on her desk works just swell. They take less than two minutes to prepare, and we have all the food we need until dinner.

"Okay," you say, "But what about dinner?"

Dinner is a challenge for so many families, and my personal opinion is that the food industry and mass media don't take it seriously enough. I remember one commercial for a supermarket...I don't know if it's still airing...but the narration went something like, "Monica works a full-time job and still has to come home and make dinner for her family. Our store makes Monica's life easier. This week, bottom round roasts are only $6 a pound." And every time it would come on, I would yell at the TV, "HOW EXACTLY DOES THAT HELP MONICA?!"

Monica does not have time to make a roast beef, and chances are neither do you. So you probably do what my mother did every night when I was growing up. You wait til 6:00 and then hop in the car. On a good night, you run into the supermarket and pick up some chicken breasts and a bag of pre-cut salad. On a bad night, you hit McDonalds. Either way, it's stressful and aggravating and the thought of doing it again tomorrow is enough to make you go on a hunger strike.

But again, there are ways to make it work. To me, the most critical aspect of making a big change is to have realistic expectations and forgive yourself for slip-ups. If you eat healthy for three nights in a row, and then on the fourth night something comes up and you have to hit the drive-thru, IT'S OKAY. With that said, let me tell you what works for me and Jen.

First of all, Jen gets all the credit here. Jen is the one who plans and cooks our meals (including Punky's) and without her I'd be eating cereal every night. This is how she does it:

1. She knows what's healthy and what's not.
2. She goes to the supermarket once a week.
3. She writes down what she's going to make for dinner on index cards, one for each night of the week.
4. She cooks three or four nights a week, depending on her schedule. We have leftovers once or twice and usually go out or get take-out once or twice.
5. When she doesn't have time to cook, even if it's for four or five days in a row, we get take-out AND IT'S OKAY.

Seems like a pretty efficient system, doesn't it? Especially for someone with ADD. It just goes to show that it is possible to provide yourself and your family with nutritious food without going to the ends of the earth. It takes practice and patience and (like I said) forgiveness when it doesn't go perfectly. But it can be done. And it's worth it! Because you can feel the difference in your body and your mind when you eat healthy.

Comments

[Pat]

I want to trade ADDer's with you! Mine skips meals and refuses to eat nutritiously. There are mornings he will not get out of bed until I bring him a bag of chocolate which he promptly chows down on. Any ideas about ADD partners that aren't interested in helping themselves.

[Kim]

Yes, I'd like to trade too! My BF refuses to even consider the possibility of a food allergy, won't go for testing, won't try an elimination diet, and despite packing a lunch for me every night (he is so sweet to me), usually doesn't eat himself until I come home from work and make supper...