;)
Reason #1
Posted by Erika in rad*living
Things fell apart for me, organizationally speaking, after I had my daughter. Most new mothers have a difficult time adjusting to the changes that having a baby can bring; my life looked like Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. It was a world I had never seen, and one that was completely decimated by what had just happened and unfortunately, I didn’t get Tina Turner’s badass outfit or her hot legs out of the deal.
I have ADHD and like most girls, I don’t have the hyperactivity component. Which was unfortunate, given the amount of stuff I had to do after the DOF arrived. At any rate, two of the most important things for folks like me to have are structure and schedule…two things I had none of at that time. I still struggle for them daily. Regardless, even without hyperactivity, I had the attention span of a meth addict on a steady diet of pixie sticks. Everything was done on an as needed basis…laundry, bills, grocery shopping; it only happened when we ran out of stuff.
I finally caved and tried some medication (Ritalin) which was fine for the very short term, but after a few months, I realized that it took every tiny shred of creativity that I had and stomped it out. Not cool, I said. I also felt like there had to be a better way to manage it, than with legalized speed…although the weight loss benefits were exceptional.
In the 4 years since, I have learned a great deal about better ways to manage my brain, and it’s one of the primary reasons that we have cleaned up our diet. I utterly ignored my health and well-being for the better part of 5 years, and once the sleep deprivation (the DOF is NOT a sleeper!) wore off, I started to see pretty clearly what had happened. Like a homemade Hiroshima……
I’m fixing my brain and my body with whole foods and mad exercise, but we’re still chefs, and I can’t tolerate food that tastes bad. I mean no one wakes up in the morning and says “Sure…I’d love a greens smoothie with flax seeds for breakfast!”, but if I means I don’t forget the kid at school, or leave wet laundry in the washer for 3 days, then it’s worth it.
