Daily Choices

I have never thought of myself as a very good person.

I am.....

Careless

Impulsive

Irresponsible

I have tried so hard to change who I am. I've tried Flylady and Emily Barnes to help me keep my house clean. I've tried every routine and schedule you can imagine to keep myself consistent. I do well at first and then I get bored or distracted and fail.

I often feel like a child. Why can't a grown woman get it together? I had even considered medication. Since coffee puts me to sleep, I do react to stimulants in the way that ADHD people do. At my worst, I would have mood swings that were similar to bipolar. I talked to my husband about it and decided that I might need medicine in the future but I wasn't ready to be called crazy just yet.

I decided to pick out a dieting book at the library to give me some motivation. I picked Diet Rehab by Dr Mike Dow. It explained how our brains work. The kind of ADHD symptoms that I was having could well be explained with low dopamine that could be boosted by certain foods and activities.

The mood swings were caused by my efforts to "fix" myself. I'd find a new program or a new motivation and be on top of the world for a while. New things are dopamine boosters. Then I would get into the nitty gritty of trying to be consistent with my new program and my dopamine would drop and some days it was a struggle to get out of bed.

It gets worse with age. My biggest addictions are caffeine and peanut butter. Fat and stimulants that boost dopamine. Because I'm getting older and weight comes on more easily, I can't have a Coke and a Reese's as often as I'd like or I'd be 300 lbs.

I'm using these ideas for myself and my son who has been diagnosed with ADHD but has reacted terribly to medication. The best part is that I don't have to add a lot of foreign foods and eliminate our favorites. For the first week which ends today, I add one dopamine boosting activity and one dopamine boosting food per day. I eliminate nothing for the first two weeks.

So I added exercise, dancing, cleaning to upbeat music and new recipes. On the first day, I noticed my son was a little more anxious. That could be low serotonin so I started adding things like cooking, crafts and more laughs and hugs to boost serotonin.

Basically, sugar spikes and crashes our serotonin levels and fats are the pitfall foods of dopamine. So add more complex carbohydrates and protein.

We ate more beans, grits, flax seed and eggs. I have seen some more ways of adding protein like smoothies and high protein pasta.

Starting tomorrow, I'll be adding two activities and two foods each day. I really like that this about daily choices. Our actions, diet and attitudes affect our brain chemistry every day. Every day we have a chance to make better choices that will help us be more focused and less impulsive.