247. ADHD, Food Fixation, & Binge Eating: What High-Performing Women Need to Know
247. ADHD, Food Fixation, & Binge Eating: What High-Performing Women Need to Know
If you’ve ever felt like your relationship with food makes no sense, especially if you’re smart, self-aware, and deeply motivated in other parts of your life, this conversation might feel like someone finally turned on the lights.
Because for many women, especially neurodivergent women, binge eating is not about laziness. It is not about lack of discipline. And it is definitely not about simply “trying harder.”
In this episode of Embodied Writing Warrior, I sat down with Christie Sausa to talk about the often-overlooked relationship between ADHD, dopamine, food fixation, emotional regulation, and binge eating. And this conversation explains so much.
Why ADHD Changes the Food Freedom Conversation
One of the most important things Christie shares is that ADHD affects far more than attention span. It can impact executive function, meaning planning, organizing, decision-making, and follow-through. That matters a lot when you are trying to navigate food in a culture obsessed with diets, meal plans, food rules, and rigid routines.
For someone with ADHD, a traditional diet can feel like being handed a thousand tiny demands. And when demand avoidance is part of the picture, even self-imposed rules can feel threatening.
That means the issue is not “Why can’t I just stick to this?”
The better question is:
Was this approach ever designed for my brain in the first place?
ADHD, Dopamine, and Why Food Can Feel So Charged
Another huge thread in this episode is dopamine.
ADHD brains often crave novelty, stimulation, reward, and relief. Food can provide all four. It is accessible, fast, familiar, emotional, sensory, and often wrapped in comfort, ritual, and memory.
That is why food can become more than food.
It can become:
stimulation when you’re bored
comfort when you’re overwhelmed
focus when you feel scattered
relief when your nervous system is overloaded
reward when life feels flat
And binge eating often has a very particular energetic signature. As Christie points out, it is not always the actual eating that holds the biggest charge. Often, it is the anticipation.
The planning.
The sneaking.
The getting.
The “I’m about to have it” feeling.
That anticipatory build-up can become its own dopamine loop.
Food Fixation Is Real, and It Deserves More Nuance
One of my favorite parts of this conversation was Christie’s language around food fixation and food attachment.
A lot of people understand ADHD hyperfocus when it shows up with hobbies, projects, people, or interests. But they do not always recognize that the same pattern can show up with food.
You get intensely attached to a specific food.
You think about it repeatedly.
It starts feeling emotionally loaded.
You chase it.
Then one day, the novelty wears off and the fixation fades.
That pattern can be deeply confusing if you don’t understand what’s happening. It can make you feel obsessed, dramatic, or broken when really, your brain is doing something very understandable.
This matters because you cannot heal a pattern well if you keep mislabeling it.
Moderation vs Abstinence for ADHD Brains
This part was especially interesting.
There is so much messaging in wellness spaces that moderation is the gold standard. And for some people, it is. But for others, especially people with strong all-or-nothing tendencies, moderation can feel like psychological torture in a cute outfit.
For some ADHD brains, a clear line is easier than a blurry one.
A temporary, simple boundary like:
no sugar for 7 days
no coffee drinks for a week
not keeping trigger foods in the house
can feel less stressful than trying to “just have a little.”
That does not mean everyone should approach food this way. It means we need more room for individualized strategies.
What feels rigid to one person may feel relieving to another.
What matters is not whether it looks moderate from the outside.
What matters is whether it creates more peace, more simplicity, and more self-trust.
Short Experiment Windows Can Work Better Than Forever Rules
One of the most practical takeaways from this episode is the idea of using shorter time windows.
Instead of:
“I’m never having this again.”
Try:
“I’m experimenting with this for 7 days.”
That shift matters.
A shorter time frame gives the brain structure without the heaviness of forever. It reduces ambiguity. It feels more doable. And it lets you gather data without turning everything into a moral referendum on who you are.
This works beautifully for high-performing women, too, because it reframes change as an experiment, not a perfection test.
Shame Makes the Spiral Worse
We also talked about what happens after the food choice.
For many women, the real damage is not just the binge or overeating itself. It is the emotional avalanche that follows:
guilt
shame
self-criticism
panic
“I’ve ruined everything”
And then because those feelings are painful, food becomes soothing again.
That is how a single moment becomes a spiral.
This is why grace matters so much.
Not fake permission. Not bypassing. Not pretending it is all fine when you feel awful.
But a real, grounded curiosity:
What was I needing?
What was happening emotionally?
Was I overstimulated, under-stimulated, lonely, restless, or dysregulated?
What was the function of the food in that moment?
That kind of reflection gives you information. Shame just gives you smoke.
Simplicity Is Not a Cop-Out. It’s a Strategy.
A theme that runs through this whole episode is simplicity.
For ADHD brains, fewer decisions can be powerful. Fewer negotiations. Fewer “maybe just this once” moments. Fewer daily battles.
Sometimes healing looks less like adding more food rules and more like:
not stocking the foods you know you spiral with
having safer alternatives available
reducing decision fatigue
using accountability
creating structure that your brain can actually hold
Simple is not lazy.
Simple is often what makes consistency possible.
Movement as Dopamine Support
Christie also makes a strong case for daily movement, not from a punishment lens, but from a regulation lens.
If your brain needs dopamine, stimulation, and momentum, movement can help provide that in a way that supports rather than sabotages you.
It does not have to be a perfect workout.
It can be:
a walk
a class
a short circuit
dancing
bouncing or jumping
a few minutes of movement between tasks
The point is not to “earn” food.
The point is to support your brain and body so food does not have to carry the full burden of regulation.
That is a very different paradigm, and honestly, a much kinder one.
The Bigger Reframe
This conversation is such a good reminder that healing your relationship with food is rarely about becoming more rigid, more perfect, or more controlled.
Sometimes it is about becoming more honest.
More compassionate.
More observant.
More experimental.
More willing to work with your wiring.
Because once you understand that food may be serving a dopamine function, a soothing function, a focus function, or a safety function, the question changes.
It stops being:
What’s wrong with me?
And becomes:
What does my brain actually need here?
That question has a lot more room for healing.
Listen to the Episode
If you’ve ever felt trapped in food fixation, binge eating, or all-or-nothing cycles, especially as a neurodivergent woman, this episode is going to give you language, permission, and practical ideas that actually fit real life.
Tune in to hear Christie Sausa share her lived experience and the strategies that are helping her work with her brain instead of fighting it.
Links Mentioned:
Transcript
Welcome back to Embodied Writing Warrior. Today's episode is going to be such an important one, especially for anyone who's ever felt like their struggles with food don't fully make sense through the usual wellness lens. There might be a reason for that because if you have a DHD or any kind of neurodivergence in the picture, which many creative, high performing women do, food can hit very differently.
So today we cover everything from dopamine, food fixation, executive dysfunction, emotional regulation. All or nothing thinking. And we also talk about why binge eating is so often misunderstood as a willpower problem when it is absolutely not that simple. Today I am joined by Christie from the A DHD Tart Tarot over on Substack, and she brings both lived experience and so much nuance and expertise to this conversation.
So we talk about what happens when food becomes not only a coping tool, but also a hyperfocus, a source of stimulation, or even just the easiest way to regulate when your brain is overwhelmed. We also go into so many practical tools that can actually help, which include simplifying decisions, doing short term experiments, using movement for regulation, and also talking about why moderation does not work for everyone.
I loved this conversation so much. It has been compassionate, it's practical, and it's incredibly validating. So if food has ever felt charged or more emotional for you, then. The people around you seem to understand. I genuinely think this conversation is going to land and support you, and I am so excited to bring you today's guest.
Let's get started.
Kayla: . Hello Christie and welcome to the Embodied Writing Warrior Podcast.
Christie: Thanks for having me.
Kayla: Thank you for being here. So you are someone who covers a topic that is so important to address, especially through the lens of food freedom binge eating, and just.
Having a healthy relationship in the wellness arena. So can you share a little bit about your unique perspective
Christie: So I was diagnosed with A DHD twice, and the first time was when I was 11. And the reason I didn't fully remember that is because I also got diagnosed with food sensitivities and basically had to remove my favorite foods from my diet overnight, which was dairy and gluten and sugar.
And I did that. I did an elimination diet. I lost 30 pounds in six months, and I immediately like. My focus improved. People were asking my mom like, what did you do to this child? She's totally different. She can focus, she pays attention. And you know, I, it worked so well. I didn't remember my A DHD diagnosis.
I never chose medication because I have a lot of sensitivities around that. So, you know, it was like something I totally forgot about. And then I got rediagnosed when I was 31, which was a couple years ago now. And you know, I. Had always had this issue with food, and I always thought it was just me being weak and not having willpower.
And all the women in my family have diabetes. So there's like these complicated feelings around food and enjoying food because it's always the implication, like if you enjoy food too much, you're gonna get diabetes. And you know, I. Sort of internalized that. And all my favorite foods were removed, my diet.
And of course that's what I wanted. So I developed like this binge eating habit. And actually it started when I was really young. I was like seven the first time I binged. I actually ate all the chocolate out of my admin calendar and closed all the doors and pretended I didn't. And, that worked for about a day, but, I kept having these instances and I realized like in 2023 I think it was, I read a National Geographic article that basically said, is there a link between binge eating and A DHD? And I was like, wow, okay. So this explains my entire life, basically. And from there I just had to approach eating differently and approach dieting and approach like.
Everything about food differently, and I'm still evolving now, like I just changed yet another way. I'm doing things the other day. So it's been a journey.
Kayla: Well, absolutely, and you touched on something that is so important that people need to hear again and again, is that this is not a willpower thing.
This is not a discipline thing. Mm-hmm. Especially if there is a DH ADHD or neurodivergent divergence in the picture. So can you talk a little bit more about how people who have a DHD or Neurodivergence actually have a different way that their brains respond to food diets the entire journey altogether?
I would just love for you to break that down.
Christie: So basically one of the biggest challenges is our executive function, which basically means the planning, the organizing, the following through. And with diets, like most diets have a lot of rules, and we also don't like rules, and a lot of us have. Like this tendency to have demand avoidance.
And again, this is still one of those things in the community that is debated, whether it's just autism or if it's a DH ADHDers and autistic folks, but like demand avoidance is. There, there's pathological demand of avoidance, which basically means everything you're asked to do, your brain sees it as a threat to your autonomy.
And that's why a lot of folks with A DHD or autism growing up were also diagnosed with oppositional defiant disorder, which I was also diagnosed with is, you know, basically we don't like rules and we don't like rules, even if we make them for ourselves. And like the biggest thing is, in my opinion, is our conquest for dopamine because.
We're always looking for novelty. We're always looking for flavor and fun, and food is a really powerful way to get that. Like think of all your favorite memories, birthdays, like almost everything has a food component. So for me, food is such a safe place. Like it's my emotional. Regulation mechanism, and that's another thing it does.
A lot of us develop these coping mechanisms and for me it was food because food is easy. You grab it, you have whatever thing that you're craving. For me, it's usually salty or sweet foods. Your brain is like, okay, good. This helps me regulate. I don't have to think about all the things I'm going through.
I just stuff the food and that's it. So it's like there's multiple parts to it, and I think that's one of the things that makes it complicated is you kind of have to see what parts of your brain are responding at any given moment and how can you give it what it needs so that you're not either self-sabotaging yourself or making yourself.
Crazy over whatever diet you happen to be on because a lot of us also have gut issues. Like gut issues are higher probability with neurodivergent folks. And so a lot of us have to be on restrictive diets. And the key is figuring out ways to do that without driving ourselves crazy. And that's something I'm working on myself too.
So, you know, there is that component. I think the biggest thing with A DHD and food is. You know, realizing you can have a more normal quote unquote eating pattern and way of dealing with food if you just figure out what your triggers are and what you can do to make your brain feel safe. 'cause your brain ultimately wants to feel safe.
And that's like the bottom line, I think, is figuring out what you can do for you to make yourself cope better.
Kayla: So one thing I love that you touched on is this is not a single solution.
Christie: Mm-hmm.
Kayla: Thing to approach. There are multiple reasons someone might turn to food, especially with A DHD. So, in your own lived experience, is there an order of operations you might.
Look to, for example, you mentioned regulation and dopamine. Would you first kind of check in and ask, okay, do I need regulation? And if the answer's no, then you would be like, am I looking for dopamine? Is there sort of a way people can crack their own code? Is kind of the thing that's coming to mind.
Christie: I think the biggest thing is learning to slow down, and this is really hard 'cause we have patience issues.
We are very impulsive and we just want the thing and we want it. But the biggest thing we have to do is like really check in, find a way to pull yourself back. I actually have an AI project for this in my own personal ai. Platform where I just have it ask me a bunch of questions and usually by the time I'm halfway through, I'm like, I'm done with this.
I don't want it anymore. 'cause it's just like, it makes you see what you really are wanting. But I also realize that's hard to do and you might not be able to do that. And that's where acceptance comes in and sort of having this hindsight look at it and saying, okay, well why did I do that? What was going on in my life?
And like I've gotten really good at this. Like I'll see myself, for example, I love lattes. I love going to the coffee shop and it's not the worst thing I could be eating, but it's also added calories and it's really not that great for me at, at this point in my like health journey. So I say to myself, okay, what is the deal?
And I realized it was two-pronged. It was, I'm stressed about my mom 'cause she has health stuff going on and I'm. Bored. And I want something to take my mind off how bored I am. And you know, once you see that pattern, you still might tend to do that, but you have a little more awareness around it and could say, okay, what else can I do?
So if I'm bored, I tend to see that as restlessness and I'll go exercise or I'll go walk or I'll go do something. Using my brain. If it's something emotional regulation, like I try to feel the emotion and say, okay, I acknowledge I'm stressed about my mom, but eating or drinking this thing isn't really gonna solve anything.
And ultimately, I think that's what it is. It's realizing. The things you think are gonna fix things for you aren't necessarily gonna fix it. All you could do is find ways to cope that are a little better for you. And like you said, it's not one thing is gonna solve everything. It's always an an evolution.
And it's the same with any productivity tools. Like they work for a while, then they don't. So you gotta find what works for you right now and then find ways to adjust it as you go to suit your needs better.
Kayla: You touched on so many powerful things there. One is I love that you've created your own AI with like your own customized questions, because I think that's a powerful tool for people to build for themselves is what questions do I need to ask myself in those hard moments?
And if you are already using ai, that's such a great go-to. And then the second thing you touched on was. That grace after the fact, because I think that, I'm not sure if this is an A DHD thing or just a high performing creative person thing, but there's such a tendency to yourself up after you make the mistake, after you.
The thing you didn't plan. And then what can often happen is there's this emotional shame and guilt that comes in and you don't wanna feel that. So then you tend to make another choice and it can become this spiral. So that grace and also the slowing down, those two things I imagine are such powerful tools.
So, mm-hmm. I love that you touch on that and also just. The permission to let your support systems evolve over time. And you did mention there's like a new change that you've made recently. Are you comfortable sharing what that was and how you find it supporting you in this season?
Christie: So, I don't know if you follow a DHD, or Russ of a DHD Big brother.
He has a podcast too, and he's also on Substack and we had a conversation the other day on Live on Substack and, you know, we were talking about food and he was saying. I just can't do moderation, like moderation doesn't work for me. And we were talking about, like my grandmother used to always say to me, everything in moderation.
And I'd be like, what's that? Moderation doesn't exist. It's either I'm diving headfirst in the cookies and they're all gone, or I don't have the cookies anywhere near me. So the thing that I realized after I talked to him and we challenged each other to give up one thing for a week. Was I have to like go cold Turkey on the things that are bothering me.
And the only way I could do that is literally taking 'em all outta my house. I had a little bit of a, a snack, area that I would. Whenever I felt like I needed something sweet, it was like my substitute. So I had like cashew nuts that have maple syrup on them and charcoal covered nuts and it wasn't the worst thing.
Again, like they were all organic, they were all low sugar, but just having that crutch there, let me go. After that, you know, every day I was always having something sugar. So I said to him, I'm doing no sugar for a week, and I'm doing no coffee drinks for a week. And so last night I packed up all the stuff and I'm giving them to a friend of mine who eats the same way I do and loves organic and gluten free.
I'm basically just going cold Turkey and I'm saying for a week I'm not having these things. And the reason it works is 'cause your brain finds it easier to remove one thing than to add a bunch of things. Like if you add all these parameters and all these loopholes, and I'll have coffee on Tuesday or on Thursday or whenever I go out.
Like before you know it, you're doing it all the time. So it's almost easier for me to say I'm not doing it for a week. And I know once I get past that week. I'm not gonna have the need to anymore 'cause that little dopamine thing is gone. And you know, I also wanna lose some weight because I got injured a couple years ago and I'm an athlete, so like I'm really not that overweight.
Most people say, what? What's your problem? You're fine. But for an athlete, I am. And I can't train to my full. If I'm overweight. So there's like that motivation component that I want to do this for this reason, and I'm totally removing this thing that really helps me because again, it's a lot easier to take stuff away than it is to just pile more stuff on your plate.
Kayla: So first, the moderator versus the abstainer. Perspective like that is huge. So we'll start there because I am very much the same way. It's easier to abstain than to try to moderate. It feels simpler, it feels easier, and it actually doesn't feel restrictive. And I've once heard that a hundred percent is easier than 99% because it's just a very mm-hmm.
Clear boundary. So would you say that's very common across. Most people with a DHD, or does that still vary person to person?
Christie: I mean, I think it, it's both. I think it varies. I think everyone has their own comfort level with boundaries and with. All or nothing, but I think a lot of us are all or nothing thinkers, and that's both good and bad, right?
Like in some ways it's bad because it makes us sort of see things in a very binary way. But in other ways it's good because it's like, okay, I either have this or I don't have this. And if I have that boundary with myself, like I took all these things outta my house. I don't have them anymore. So my brain isn't at war with me every day saying, oh, why don't you just have a little bit of that?
Or, why don't you have a little bit of this now? I'm like, okay, I don't have it. I can't do that at all. And I think, you know, the black and white, all or nothing thinking is very common with A DH Ds and certainly with autistic folks or people with both. And I think that's why it works, because we're working with our natural tendencies instead of trying to have this neurotypical like strategy or structure and you know.
There's nothing wrong with trying to do different things, and you could certainly do that, but for me it's so much simpler 'cause I don't have that executive function in the game. I don't have all these decisions to make. It's like, okay, I don't have it, so I'm not going to eat it. And every time in my life that I've done something like that, whether it was when I was 11 and lost all that weight, or when I was 27 and started CrossFit and totally gave up sugar because the teacher said, oh, you know, you should do this.
Give, stop all the sugar. Like it's always been extremes. And for a while I was encouraging people to have a more moderate approach and like find ways to swing out of extremes. Like I had this really cool analogy between a scale and like a pendulum. So pendulum keeps swinging. It doesn't stop any one place for too long.
And a scale is like black or white. And I think, you know. At the time, I thought that's harmful. But in this context, I think it actually works for us because it gives you that clear boundary. It doesn't require executive dysfunction or executive function, and it's just, it's easier. And I think that's the big thing.
If it's easy, you're gonna do it. If it's not easy, you're not gonna do it I think it all comes down to making things simpler, not harder for yourself.
Kayla: And there's a few things there as well that are so powerful. The first one is that you are inviting people to experiment and find the ways to bring in that simplicity, because what might be extreme or rigid for one person?
Is gonna be simple and stress relieving for another. Mm-hmm. So really looking at what does work for a person. And another thing that you mentioned that I absolutely love, that I'd love for you to dive more into is you set this challenge for seven days. Not for the rest of your life. Not for, oops, not for a month, not for 90 days.
You're like,
Christie: yeah,
Kayla: I'm gonna take this seven days at a time and see how it goes. Because I know you also mentioned that rules can be a little bit problematic. So does giving smaller experimental windows tend to help?
Christie: Yeah, definitely. So I like to think you need that end point. And this is something that I always think of Jerry Seinfeld because he said this about writing.
If you know you're gonna write for 30 minutes and have a timer. It's a lot easier than if you just sit down with a pad and paper and say, I'm gonna write and I'm gonna do this great thing, and I don't know when I'm gonna end. Because your brain freaks out. Your brain doesn't like ambiguity. Your brain likes structure.
Even a D ADHDers, like as much as we say we hate structure, we actually need structure. Because if we don't have. There's like no parameters and no boundaries, and it's just a little bit more like ambiguity that we have to wrestle with. So it's better to say, I'm doing this for a short amount of time and I can do seven days.
I could do, you know, it could even be less, like if you wanna do something, you could even say, I'm doing this for 24 hours. I'll see how it works. But I think seven days is a good start because it's attainable enough. But it's enough time for something to shift. And a lot of it is just shifting outta these like hyper-focused things.
Like I still think food for me is so much like I hyper-focus on certain foods. And so for example, whenever I go out, I wanna have a coffee, latte. And anytime I go to this certain store, I want this latte 'cause they make it with coconut milk and I can have it. But then if I break that habit, then. A week from now, I'm like, okay, I don't need to do that.
I didn't do that for seven days. And I think having that end point and making it short and not feel scary, and this is something I do with exercise too, I do something called five in five, which is five squats, five pushups, and five sit-ups in five minutes.
And you know, you make it adaptable for you. But if you're starting to get into something, the best way is to make it almost laughably easy and then gradually make it harder. And you know, you'll probably find it easier.
'cause once you get through it and see it's not that scary, your brain says, okay, I can do this a little while longer. And that's how I do everything in my life. Like I just sort of ease myself in and sort of trick myself. And then my brain's like, okay, I got this, I could do it. And you know, it sounds silly to say I'm tricking myself, but that's what works for me.
And I think, you know, making it attainable and achievable is huge.
Kayla: I think one of my favorite strategies I've ever heard was very similar, and it was the five minute rule of mm-hmm. Exactly what you said. So five minutes of pushups, squats, sit ups, and then your brain's like, okay, I can do that.
One thing I would love to touch on is you've mentioned food fixations and you also talk about. Food attachment, which is a phrase people at least I haven't heard very often. So food fixation, food attachment, are they the same? And is it different than just really liking food or stress eating, for example?
Christie: I think what I think of as like food attachment or food fixation slash focus is like ADHD tend to hyperfocus on things. It could be hobbies, it could be sometimes people, which is why we have more chance of limerence, which is, you know, unrequited. Romantic attachments, but I think with food and things that, you know, norm, normally people don't put those two things together.
They don't think, oh, okay, A DHD, hyperfocus and food. But like I hyperfocus on certain types of food. Like for example, I love the la I told you about the lattes, but I was super hung up on peanut butter cups and it's not really a big deal, but I had to buy myself a bag of those little Justin's organic peanut butter cups and.
I'm thinking to myself, okay, I have these, they're great. I had a couple. And then once you have a few, you're like, okay, fine. Like without explanation, you lose the interest. And it's like that with all the things we do, right? We do hobbies and we drop them. Like every year I try knitting for like two weeks for no reason, and then I give up on it.
So it's all connected. It's this short attention, like hyper focus. And you get your dopamine from this thing, you're really attached to this thing. And then once the novelty wears off and it feels easy, you're like, okay, not interested. And I think that's another component of binge eating, like the secretive aspect of it.
Is also very much a charge. It's like a novelty, but it's also like it's, it gets your dopamine going, it gets you focused, you like hyper-focused and you're focused on getting the food and hiding the food and eating the food. And like once I realized that I was like. That's, it's all the chase. It's not even the actual eating.
The eating is not it, it's the anticipation. And I like to think A DHD or tend hyper focus on stuff and food is an off limits. And that's when we have to be like, okay. Recognizing that pattern in ourselves and saying, okay, I'm in another hyper focus stage, and do I really need to do this?
Or can I maybe transfer that to something else? You know, we can always, but it's worth a shot.
Kayla: Mm-hmm. The fact that binge eating is. Such a dopamine fueled thing, and you're absolutely right. It's not so much when you're sitting down to eat all this stuff, at least in my experience, it tends to be by that point you're numbed out.
You're not really tasting the food at a lot of points because you're generally watching tv, you're doing something else, but it's all of that heightened anticipatory. Energy leading up to it and it can feel very much like a fixation or an obsession or like this really intense compulsion. So when you've found yourself in that state, have you found other things where you can transfer your focus?
Or is binge eating one of those ones that can feel a little trickier?
Christie: I think binge eating is one of those things. It's a little bit trickier just because there's so many other things. There's so many emotional components. So many of us have like these really deep attachments with food in general that are beyond the A DHD thing that are more emotional, that it might be tough.
But what I try to do is like recognize it first and say, okay, this is a hyper fixation or hyperfocus, I believe the two are different, but whatever it is, I say, I'm just, I'm focusing on this because of my A DHD, and I know that I'm obsessed with this peanut butter cup because A DHD. And then it's a little easier to say, okay, well do I really need to do this or will I just lose interest in this Like.
Two weeks from now, and then I can sort of like workshop other things that I could try to get invested in or, you know, one of the things that's really, and again, this might not be great to advise people in terms of like eating disorders, just do it. But, and again, let me say I'm not a, a professional, a doctor, anybody.
Talk to your doctor. But I find acceptance helps take some of the charge away because when you're resisting and your brain is like, no, no, no, no, I can't do this, I can't do it. You're like, watch me do it. And if you don't, if you say, okay, that's fine. You need this, you need this fixation or focus, whatever it is, that's fine with me.
I understand. A lot of times your brain's like, okay. Well, that's great. I don't really feel the need to now because I think there's some acceptance there that, you know, we're taught so often through, like, resist, the things that are uncomfortable or embarrassing or. Harmful or disordered that we often get into this thing of like, we fight so hard, our brain then sees that as like, oh, okay, I'm not supposed to do that.
I'm definitely gonna do that now because it wants to do like the forbidden. And so you almost have to find this balance between, okay, I'm choosing not to do this 'cause I know it's not really. A need, it's a focus. And maybe I could go take a walk or something and saying, okay, well if you really need to have this bag of peanut butter cups and have a couple of them, that's your choice.
And then you see what happens. And for me, I usually feel like I'm gonna fall asleep because it's a sugar rush. So. You know, you also learn the hard way too. And at some point I find you just get naturally tired of feeling bad. Like I was sort of self-medicating with a lot of sugar and sort of stress eating.
And the other day before I even talked to Russ, I'm just like, wow, I feel horrible. And then when he said that thing, I'm like, all I have to gain is feeling better. Taking this stuff is almost gonna be a relief. 'cause then I'm not gonna be self-medicating anymore. So I think that's also important to recognize.
Like sometimes your body and your brain eventually get to a point where they're like, Nope, not doing this. I wanna totally go in the opposite direction. And when that happens, that's a godsend too.
Kayla: Absolutely. So acceptance, so powerful because what we resist does tend to persist and get stronger. And then also that body and brain awareness of like, I actually wanna feel better and choosing differently will help with that.
So do you have any other go-to strategies for helping with binge eating or food fixation when you have a DHD?
Christie: Well, my biggest advice right now is just don't give yourself. Don't make it easy for yourself. So, you know, sometimes you cohabitate with people, you can't very well throw away all their food, but if you're living alone and you know that you're hyperfocused on cookies or you tend hyperfocused like having too much of a stockpile, you're gonna go jump into those.
And it's that balance again. Like you can maybe have like. If you like potato chips, maybe have a small bag, but don't get the giant humongous bag and get like four of them, because you will eat them. The more you have, the more you're going to eat. And you know, I also recommend folks like find alternatives to things that maybe they tend to get attached to.
So for example, if you tend to drink a lot of soda. I mean, pretty much everyone's acknowledged soda is bad for you. Maybe find like, do you like the flavored seltzers? Or find Ali pop or one of the alternatives and like find ways to make it easier on yourself until you can like say, okay, I'm done. I'm going extreme.
But I do think sometimes just going extreme and really like changing things up. Like I'm not gonna do sugar for a week, or I'm gonna do this for a week. Really like helps your brain reset. And of course, you know, if you have an eating disorder, all of this is not great, you should go talk to a doctor, but mm-hmm.
For me it's like learning at what point. I'm at and what I can do to fix myself at that point, and not even fix myself more, like work with my brain and say, okay, we're gonna make it easier for you so that you don't have to do all this stuff. And so, my advice is always. If you have it, you're going to eat it.
Maybe get rid of the stuff and find alternatives if you can. And also community. Like if you have an accountability buddy, like Russ and I, we just met the other day. We both said we're not going to, he's, I think he said he's not doing bread. And I said, I'm not doing sugar and coffee drinks for a week.
Having that person to check in with, or even just saying it to someone. Huge because then you know that it's almost like you have that little paranoia kick in. Like, oh, if I do this, I'm going against my word. So asking for help if you have like these binge eating issues going on Reddit, going on any of these platforms, looking at like-minded people.
'cause it's a lot more popular now, than it used to be to talk about this, this stuff with A DHD and autism. So I think it's really important, like the community aspect can't be understated either.
Kayla: Absolutely. So you have already given so many practical, embodied things that listeners can walk away with.
If you were gonna give them one more embodiment practice that you would recommend, whether that's a way of approaching food, maybe type of journaling that you enjoy, what would you give to the listeners as we wrap up today?
Christie: So my other part of this is I strongly believe moving every day is essential because if you're not getting a dopamine hit or your endorphins going, or any of those other neurochemicals going through movement, you're gonna look for them somewhere else, and that's usually food.
So find something you like to do. It doesn't have to be going to the gym. It doesn't have to be something super regimented. It can be walking around your park in your neighborhood. It could be, you know, doing an exercise video. It could be dancing, it could be hopping 50 times. I don't know if you've seen those TikTok videos, the lymphatic drainage thing, but the jumping up and down 50 to a hundred times is actually a pretty good way to get things going in your brain too. It like tricks your brain, you know, anything that's moving, anything that keeps your brain active. And if you're bored. Like, listen to a podcast while you do it. Listen to a pro podcast as you're walking or running, go to a class if you have access to like gym classes, workout classes.
'cause then you have that community aspect and you have someone else telling you what to do. And I find it's a lot easier to exercise if someone else is telling me what to do then if I have to do it myself, like. I have a master's degree in that and I know how to put together programs, but somehow for me, I'd rather have someone else tell me what to do.
So that's like holy grail for me with a DHD is diet and exercise and the two work together. And if you get both working together, you're gonna have a lot easier time managing your, not only your brain, but your body than if you just do one or the other or none.
Kayla: Yes, the movement piece is so powerful and I'm actually gonna try that, like jumping up and down 50 to a hundred times when I've been accidentally sitting at my desk writing for too long and need like that, reset.
So, Christie, thank you so much for being here. And when listeners want to learn more about you, connect with you further, where are the best places for them to go?
Christie: So I'm still on Medium. I am one of the folks who writes a lot about A DHD and Neurodivergence over there.
And so if you go to medium.com, I'm at Christie Sousa, ms. So, and you know, I, I still write there quite a bit. And then Substack, I have not your average athlete, which is the human side of sport. And I write a bit about Neurodivergence as well. And I also have on substack the A DHD Tarot, which is exactly what it sounds like.
A DHD tarot readings that kind of like blend the tarot, meaning traditionally with a DHD meaning. So I do a lot of different things and I welcome anyone to buzz over there and check out my work.
Kayla: Yes, and that's actually how we met with through Substack and I love your A DHD tarot. I think your interpretations are so.
Still relevant to the main tarot, meaning with the way you take it and apply it to A DHD is so cool. So I always love reading those and I'll include links to everything in the episode description. So thank you again so much, Christie.
Christie: Thank you so much. It was great chatting with you.
