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Adult ADHD ADD Tips and Support
Adult ADHD Tips – Plant-based Vegan Diet and ADHD
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Adult ADHD ADD Tips and Support Podcast - A Podcast for Neurodivergent Creatives. Plant-Based Vegan Diet and ADHD. This podcast is an audio companion to the book "The Drummer and the Great Mountain - A Guidebook to Transforming Adult ADD / ADHD."
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Welcome to the Drummer and the Great Mountain, a podcast where we share effective tips and practices for working with adults. Add ADHD in a natural, effective way without the use of medications each episode Join me, your host Batman Saram, along with the author of the Drummer and the Great Mountain, Michael Joseph Ferguson. Join Michael and myself in an interactive discussion of sharing our stories as we journey together in transforming what can be the gift of being what we call hunter types. This podcast is intended to be your audio companion to the book written by Michael, who joins me each episode where we both will strive to foster dialogue and give you our personal insights and share both of our experiences on this similar path that we are all on. Our intention and hope is that along with the book, this podcast gives you an additional perspective as you listen to us, delve deeper into each chapter of the book to give you even more tools to go along with what it is that you are reading. Visit us at drummerandthegreatmountain.com to purchase the book and look for more tools, tips and updates as well as giving us feedback on this podcast. Join our growing global community of creative types, entrepreneurs and out of the box thinkers on our shared journey. Welcome to the Drummer and the Great Mountain podcast.
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Welcome everyone. Thanks for tuning in. I'm your host, Michael Joseph Ferguson. How are you all doing in today's episode? In this episode we're going to be discussing how to manage a plant based vegetarian diet as a hunter type. What's an ADHD friendly approach to making this happen? So I want to first thank our listener Tara for initially recommending this as an episode topic. And this topic has come up a number of times in the past couple of weeks, both in our coaching group and with a few of my coaching clients. So I thought it was time to to make an episode. So this is a topic I'm very familiar with. I became a vegetarian at 22, I'm now 51, so that's almost 30 years. So plant based diets, although healthy, can potentially be a lot of work and planning that can often overwhelm us. So what we'll be discussing is first off how to get enough protein on a plant based diet. That is a very important topic. How to ensure that you're getting all of the other essential nutrients to ensure your brain and body are functioning optimally. But most importantly for all of you is how to simplify this process. So I was able to stay with it because I knew a lot of tips and tricks and over time just worked out some things that made it a lot easier If I hadn't known or put some of these pieces together, I don't think I would have been able to stay with it. I've also created for you a super useful PDF cheat sheet that you can print out and put up on your refrigerator and it's going to have how to create a complete protein. It's going to give you a chart for that as well as some of the meal recommendations and tips later on in this episode. So to get that, go to drummerinthegreatmountain.com Episode108 that's drummerinthegreatmountain.Com Episode108. Don't put a space in there or you can check the link in the episode Description okay, so one quick announcement by popular demand, we are offering another two month live online support group starting on September 3rd. We are calling this the Thrive Group. We thought that was a cool name and I know many of you could not join us in the last one because it filled up really quick. So we just wrapped up the previous group and it was so great. It was such a gift to see how many people were able to make real progress on things that they really struggle with because they had some group support. They had that consistent weekly support of people around them that can really give them encouragement, but also getting support from us, me and Cuesta who are going to be leading it. So we really just thoroughly enjoyed it. So thank you all for those of you who joined us. It was truly a pleasure. So this group is based on the model and principles I use for my one on one life coaching sessions. So I've been doing these since 2007, so that's been refined over time. If you've been listening to this podcast for a while, but you need some support in integrating the topics we discuss, this is for you and especially if you maybe you're having a hard time affording one on one life coaching sessions because those can be a little more expensive. This also may be cost effective for you. We actually lowered the price a little bit because I know some of you are in countries where the exchange rate's a little high so it might be a little more affordable to you to join us. So this group is all about implementation. Each week will cover a different topic such as time management, goal setting, follow through, navigating emotions. But primarily the focus is on you getting support. Support with goal setting, support with follow through and support on getting clear about what are my actions for the upcoming week, what are the things that need to happen so that the week goes better. So all this is in a group setting. You'll connect with fellow podcast listeners around the world who share your strengths and challenges. It's just very healing to with people who are like minded. We heard that a lot in the last session. Just to be able to actually relax and go okay, I'm with people that I don't have to mask around. I can just relax and talk about what things are coming up for me. But also then really get some the support from me and from Cuesta, but from the group and getting some ideas and then just that encouragement I find goes a long way. So if you're interested in you can go to drummerinthegreatmountain.com thrive and you'll be able to get more info including dates, times, pricing and I'll also leave a link in the description and again, this starts on Tuesday, September 3rd. So first off, why even go on a plant based diet? Why move towards vegetarianism? What's the purpose of it? Why should I even care about it? Why are there so many news articles on it? I'm looking at Google News every day and I'm seeing like one article a week saying there's a new study out or there's some recommendation from a doctor saying if you go on a plant based diet, it's going to improve your health. So what are the reasons for it? What are the studies showing? So studies are showing that it will improve your heart health, you'll have better weight management, it will reduce the risk of chronic diseases, especially cancer. I think that's a really big motivator for a lot of people. Better digestive health, improved immune function. I know that for me personally that was absolutely the case when I went on a plant based diet. I rarely get sick anymore. That was a real shocker for me. And improved blood sugar, meaning that people with type 2 diabetes or on the cusp, they can absolutely benefit from a plant based diet. I have friends that have experienced this and I've watched it happen. So even if you're not interested in the environmental impact of going on a plant based diet, or the humane aspect of going on a plant based diet, which is one of my particular motivators when I first got started, then just recognizing how much it can have an impact on your overall physical well being is enough, I think, for you to consider it. So I started on a plant based diet when I was 22 years old and you've heard me probably talk about this on the podcast a number of times. I went from eating a standard American diet to a plant based Diet. And what I found was within just a couple weeks, it was like I could see again. It's like my energy came back. It was like a veil had lifted from my consciousness. I could think clear, I had way more energy, I had a lot more life inspiration to do things. My creativity kind of really kicked in and it was profound. It made a huge, huge difference in my life that had I not done it, my life would have not gone in the direction that it did. And so part of that, I will say, had to do with just getting rid of refined sugars, additives, preservatives. That was, I'd say 50% of it. But the other 50% was going on a plant based diet, getting more living foods and nutrients into my diet. So a lot of what I'm going to be talking about today is just my experience of that period of time working out some things that I found to simplify the process and, and hopefully give you an easier time of it. Because when we're wired this way, things can get really overwhelming in terms of food prep. So there were a couple of mistakes I made early on in this process. And so there's three of them. One was I wasn't getting enough protein. So some people, especially in kind of the raw food movement, were like, you can get plenty, it's easy to get enough protein on a plant based diet. That's not true. You have to actually work on it. You have to actually know what you're aiming at. You can't just trust that your body is going to be processing X, Y and Z and getting what it needs. You have to take the time to really understand what nutrients your body needs, specifically how to create a complete protein. So we're going to talk about that. The second mistake I made was I was too extreme. I tried a lot of raw food diets. I tried a lot of things where I cut out, completely cut out like all canned foods and frozen foods and, and it just wasn't necessary. And it made, it made everything much harder. So that was something that in hindsight, you know, I had to go through it, I had to experience it. But in order to maintain it, that wasn't necessary and it made it too complicated. I needed to simplify it a little bit. And I think as important as the protein piece was I wasn't tracking what nutrients my body needed that I wouldn't be getting from meat or dairy. So when I again, when I lived on Kauai and I spent a lot of time there, I felt very bright being on a plant based Diet very energized, but very spacey, not very grounded. That feeling of centeredness and groundedness and earthiness is important especially because we need to function in the world again. I went to some pretty extremes before I came back and went, okay, I need to do, I got to arrange things a certain way for me to really be functional and, and get all the benefits of a plant based diet. So one caveat here, and it's something that I have to say, even though my younger self would be like, oh no, don't say that. But I just found it to be true. Just working with so many people and watching so many people try different types of diets, full plant based diet may not be for everyone. Okay, so if there's some people that I think because of either their blood type or just how their body processes food, especially non meat dairy based foods, that it's just very difficult for them to get the nutrients they need to go on 100% plant based diet. And the issues that tend to arise are the ADHD symptoms get worse, depression sometimes happens, weak and lack of energy over time can happen. Now most of these actually can be minimized or completely eliminated when you know what to give your body. But one example I will give is something if you want to go all plant based, you can get omega 3 fatty acids from things like flax oil. The issue is not everyone can process flax oil and get the Omega 3 out of it. Some people's bodies just can't do it. So there's a hybrid approach that I will mention which is that maybe you consider salmon twice a week and then the rest of your diet is plant based most of the time. That's going to give you what you need across the board. So if it's hard for you to just go 100% plant based, then that might be something to consider. Now I will say that it was not the case for me. It was very easy for me to go all plant based. I had more energy and once I got things dialed in with protein and supplementation, I was fine and I was fine for a long period of time. So test it out is what I recommend is if you feel like you want to go all plant based, test it out. But do your research and make sure you do some of the things that I'm going to talk about so that you can maintain it and ensure that your mental clarity goes up, your energy level goes up and you don't have a lot of these other side effects. So for all you meat eaters out there, I will Give you this note. So two or three months ago, I decided to try a one week and have meat that whole week to see if there was any difference. Because I do this work with people all the time and I thought it's important for me to make sure that I am walking the walk. And so I did. I went one week having healthy meat every single day. And what I found personally was I felt very flat and muted, that it had a really profound impact on my consciousness. I was really surprised by that. I didn't necessarily have more energy and I didn't find any specific benefits to going that way. So I really did my research, I tested it out, I tracked my energy every day and at the end of it I went, I'm getting what I need, I'm fine. So I will insert that. And again I'm one person, I'm one sampling. So you need to test things out for yourself. So again, the middle ground would be two times a week, salmon for dinner. Salmon is like a superfood. It's got a lot of omega 3 fatty acids in it. It's a really good source of protein. I encourage you if you're going to go that route, go get wild caught salmon because it's lower mercury, sustainably caught, that's your best bet. You can go get frozen wild caught salmon is usually the least expensive. So if you're going to go that route, that's what I would recommend. So let's get into it. The first thing you need to know when you're going on a plant based diet is how do you get complete protein in every meal that you have. So what is a complete protein? So a complete protein contains all essential amino acids in sufficient quantities needed for the human body. So what that means is there's some sources of protein that are plant based, but they're not a complete source. So we have to do some food combining here to ensure that when you're getting protein, you're getting all of the essential amino acids you need for your body and your brain. So I want to give one example of that. L tyrosine is one of those essential amino acids and that is what is necessary to convert into dopamine when your body processes it. And that's we have less dopamine receptors when we're not getting enough L tyrosine in our diet. That's going to potentially exacerbate our ADHD symptoms. So it's important when going on a plant based diet that you understand complete proteins. So the chart that I'm going to be Giving you. So you can go to Drummer and the great mountain.com episode one, you can get the free PDF. It's going to show you how to create a complete protein from a plant based diet. And so it starts with you basically combine any kind of legume with either a grain, a nut or a seed. Okay, so a classic example of this is you combine garbanzo beans and sesame seeds and you get hummus. And hummus is one of those great complete proteins that clearly humans knew about for a long time because it's been with us for a while. But that is a complete protein. Rice and beans is a complete protein. Now things like quinoa, which is a grain, is in and of itself a complete protein. It has all nine essential amino acids. Okay, so but this combination of legume and either grain, nut or seed, that is how you get a complete protein. And just as a reminder, what I recommend is 20 to 30 grams of protein per meal to support our ADHD brain. That's what we need to make sure we're getting enough L, tyrosine, L tryptophan, all those things that are going to help our brain chemistry be in its optimum form. And in a little bit, we're going to discuss some specific meal ideas that you can put together that's going to ensure that you get that 20 to 30 grams of protein per meal. Okay, so let's talk about supplementation in a plant based diet. There's going to be certain nutrients that you're probably not going to get enough of on a plant based diet that you will most likely have to supplement for. And here's the list. Vitamin B12, vitamin D, iron, omega 3s, taurine, which will be the topic of our next episode, and possibly iodine in small quantities. That's the general list. When we're on a plant based diet, you're not going to probably be getting enough of those. So either you need a supplement or really be on top of tracking what foods you need to get to ensure that you're getting enough of those. So starting with B12, you can supplement. The other thing you could do is add nutritional yeast to your meal plan, Which I love nutritional yeast because it's like kind of our replacement for cheese and things like that. So nutritional yeast needs to be on your radar because then you'll be getting the B12 you need, B12 if you need, if you are using it on a regular basis. And so what I found is you just start to really enjoy it and then it just becomes part of something. You add to your foods on a regular basis. So B12 is fairly manageable. I always recommend doing a little supplementation for B vitamins in general. You should probably make sure that your morning vitamin supplement has all of your B vitamins just so important for nervous system health and many other functions in your body. Vitamin D. I was deficient and I tried really hard. I got a lot of sun. It was not getting enough vitamin D. So supplementing with vitamin D is easy. Just get the drops is what I recommend. I think drops tend to integrate better than taking pills. So I would say if you can get the liquid drops of vitamin D. So iron is the next one. Iron, you really do need to track it through blood tests. Women, because you're going to be losing blood every month, you're going to need more iron. So almost guaranteed you'll probably have to do some iron supplementation if you're on a plant based diet. So omega 3 fatty acids are a tricky subject when it comes to a plant based diet. It's the one thing that it can be a challenge getting enough of them and that that source is actually getting integrated into our body and really helping our brain with what it needs to function optimally. As I wrote about in the Drummer in the Great Mountain, there's modern humans became modern humans when our brains got bigger. And that came directly from us living at the coast eating lots and lots of fish. So they track our brain development from ingestion of fish. So the tricky part here is there are sources of omega 3 fatty acids that you can get from a plant based diet. So flax seeds, chia seeds, hemp seeds, you can get those in oils. So the flaxseed oil, chia seed oil, hemp seed oil, the issue is not everyone's body can process that and convert it into the DHA and EPA needed for us to function optimally. The one caveat to that is, from what my understanding is algae oil or certain kinds of algae can potentially give you what you need. It tends to be a little bit more expensive. So I would do some research on this. So my advice would be this might be the one area where you may have a little bit of wiggle room and have fish oil, because fish oil definitely will give you what you need in enough amounts to get your omega 3 fatty acids daily dose. So that's something you may want to do some research on. But like I said, there are some plant based versions of Omega 3 that potentially your body can convert. But I think it's person to person as to whether or not Your digestion can actually get the DHA and EPA out of those sources. Taurine is something we're going to talk about in the next episode and it's something that I think I was deficient in for a long time. I'm very interested in talking about this because I've actually learned some things about taurine that were one very helpful for me this year. But also I want to share with you, especially if you have challenges with anxiety. So stay tuned for that. That'll be the next episode. And finally, iodine. So iodine you can absolutely get from a plant based diet. Primarily you want to probably get some nori rolls. It's the easiest way to get it. So seaweed is going to be higher in iodine. And if you just make sure that you're getting some sea vegetables in your diet, which people who are going plant based tend to think in that direction. If you're, especially if you're around other people that are doing it, it's sort of well known that you want to integrate in some kind of sea vegetable into your meals. So if you do that, you've got enough iodine in your diet because you don't need much, but if you don't have enough of it, it can actually impact you. Okay, so let's put all this together. So how do we make all this simpler? Those are a lot of different pieces here. But actually it's not that difficult to get your meal plan going. So I want to give you an example of breakfast, lunch, dinner and just what's the general flow of a day. Being on a plant based diet and making sure you're getting enough protein and nutrients to make sure you're feeling really good and it doesn't take too much time or energy. Okay, so for breakfast, start before breakfast making sure you're getting whatever supplementation you need. As we discussed earlier, that may be the omega 3 fatty acids, that may be your morning vitamins. All those pieces. You want to start off with that. And then what I would recommend is the simplest thing to do is just do have a protein shake in the morning. Protein shakes are super easy and quick. All you have to have is some frozen berries. Have a nut milk of some kind. I like almond milk. So that's also going to have some protein in it. Cashew milk is another option. Mix that with some kind of non dairy protein mix that you like. Test out a couple. You can go to your health food store and usually they'll have them in packets that you can test them out first and see if you like the taste. And then you can order the bigger vat of it so that you have that and you just mix that in, blend it up, takes 3 minutes, wash it out, you're good to go. And you might want to add even into that, like a protein bar in the morning, super easy. So that whole meal can take 10, 12 minutes. Very quick. Just have the food, have those ingredients on hand, frozen berries, a nut milk and your protein powder, possibly a protein bar. You're good to go. Very simple. And you know you're getting enough protein and you're getting your nutrients you need for the day, then on to lunch. I mean, a real simple one is just to do a wrap. So a wrap would be greens, some form of protein. So that may be tofu, tempeh, something like that, and add in some hummus into the mix. Again, you're getting even more protein from that and some kind of salad dressing. Super quick to make, Put it together, you're good to go. You can also go, if you're going out for lunch, you might just look for a wrap that has those general ingredients that's everywhere. You can get a wrap like that just about anywhere that sells more healthy foods and snacks or just a salad and a protein. So again, going through that protein list, tempeh, tofu, adding hummus into the mix, you're going to get enough protein and nutrients you need for your lunch. And again, that takes very little time. So salad and protein or a wrap are really good ideas for lunch and for dinner. I'm going to give you some very specific tips here that I found over time that made my life a lot easier. So the easy one to do, if you're going to prepare and cook a meal, which is good to maybe do this a couple times a week, is to go stir fry combined with quinoa. So quinoa is already going to give you your full amino acid makeup. So you're going to be good there. But then combine some veggies, stir fried veggies with a protein as well, like tempeh or tofu or something like that, you're going to get absolutely a full dose of really good food and it's going to be fairly easy to make. So I want to give you the trick here for stir fry, so pay attention. I'm going to put this on the PDF sheet. So what I found is when you're doing a stir fry, it's actually pretty easy if you have all the ingredients on hand. Okay. So what I would say is get the any kind of Veggies that you want to throw into the stir fry. So that might be like broccoli, that might be carrots. You might throw some potatoes in there. It's good to have some of those healthy carbs as well. But it's key to have all the different flavors. I want to have a good stir fry. I don't want to just, just throw it together and have it taste crappy. So here's what I found. These are the key condiments that I found. If you have these, you can make any stir fry taste amazing. And you just have them on hand. So here they are. So you want to get all the different flavors right. Sweet, sour, spicy, umami. You want to get all that together so that when you make the stir fry, it tastes really good. If you're making it for someone else, they're going to be like, oh, wow, this is amazing. So here's what you need. You need a lemon. You need tamari, which is like a soy sauce. You need, I like maple syrup or honey, just a touch of it to give it a little bit of sweetness. Nutritional yeast, as I talked about earlier, loaded with your B vitamins, especially B12. So you mix that in, it gives you that cheesy flavor. And then you need cayenne or some kind of hot sauce to give it just a little bit of, you know, spunk to it. So it's got some. Got a little bit of edge to it. And if you have those, you're good to go. You throw in quinoa. You take your quinoa, you put it into your rice cooker, you let it roll for a little bit, and then you just do up your stir fry. The way I like to do it is I'll throw in the garlic and onions first, get that going, and then usually I'll throw the protein in next. So usually it would be like tempeh or tofu. Throw that in there for a few minutes, get that going, and then the rest of the veggies, throw those in, put the lid on for a little bit, let it cook up a little bit, stir it around maybe 10 minutes, it doesn't take that long. And then serve on the quinoa and you've got yourself an amazing meal. You've utilized all those ingredients. You're making sure you're getting all the nutrients you need and super easy to make. And especially if you can get like, if you're really in a rush, you can get some pre cut stuff so you can throw it in. You can get the garlic in a Jar. So you can just scoop that out and do it. Ideally you do it, you know, you cut everything up. But I know some of you are just super busy so you don't have the time to do it. But I'm telling you, stir fry on quinoa with something like tempeh or tofu. Quick, easy and amazing. Especially if you just follow those directions. The key trick here is put the lemon on at the very end because otherwise it cooks off. So if you want that, that kind of tangy flavor to give it, that little bite to it, you need to put the lemon in, in at the end. Okay, now that's the ideal scenario. To simplify things a bit. You may want to go and pick up some organic soups or chili things that are pre made. You can put them on, heat them up and you're good to go. You may have to simplify things a bit when you're on a plant based diet. And so I definitely have and continue to rely on those. Frozen dinners are, are also totally fine. They usually maintain most of the nutrients when they freeze. If not all of them, they lose very little if they're done right. Get organic frozen dinners, they're easy, heat them up, you're good to go. That might be another method by which you stay on a plant based diet and that's your dinner. Okay, so that's an example. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, very simple. You can go and get those ingredients and ideally, maybe on a Sunday you plan to, you have your shopping list and you know, don't be afraid to just do the same thing week in and week out. It's okay if you spread it out and you change up your meals, you know, every day, but then you just have your main shopping list for the week. You know, some variation of those is fine. I think sometimes we get too caught up in, oh, I've got to change it every single day. It's really hard to stay on things if you, if you're constantly shifting it up. Find some, maybe add in one new recipe a week if you're really interested in shifting it up. But again, breakfast, protein drink, maybe a protein bar, lunch, go for a wrap or a salad with a protein. Dinner is like if you want to make it, stir fry veggies on quinoa with a protein, some pre made soups and chili if you're in a russ or a frozen dinner. And just make sure you have those condiments on hand. Lemon tamari, maple syrup or honey, nutritional yeast and some kind of cayenne or hot sauce. And you are good to go. So that's what I would recommend. Now what I find is with plant based diets, if you have community support, it's going to be so much better and you'll probably eat better. So if you have a roommate or roommate or you have a family that can get together and you guys get into some really cool YouTube videos and you find like a couple channels where you really like their recipes, then you do it as a group, as a team and that makes it so much easier and you can have so much more variety in your diet when you're doing it by yourself. It's, it's it. You have to streamline. There's just no way around it. Um, obviously you can go out to dinner, you can go out to places and you can follow these general suggestions as well. But I wanted to give you how you would do it if you were on your own by yourself, which is where I was for a long time, doing this by myself. It worked. I was able to keep with it. It wasn't too overwhelming and I was able to stay with it as long as I did, long as I have. So some shopping tips is support your local health food store if you can, but some of you may need to go to your big box stores. Just check for the organic aisle. Aim for buying organic ingredients whenever possible. It does make a difference. They tend to have a much higher nutritional value than those foods that are not organic. Plus you're not getting all the pesticides and all of the things that may not be so healthy helpful for you. So again, if you would like to get the PDF cheat sheet for this episode, go to Drummer in the great mountain.com forward/episode108 and you will get the chart for how to make a complete protein. You'll get the all the suggestions I made as well as what are the nutrients that you need to aim for when you're on a plant based diet and how to get them. Okay, so I hope that was helpful to you. That was my download to you of how I've been able to maintain a plant based diet for as long as I have. And if you have other suggestions, I want to encourage you to either get on Facebook or anywhere else where we've posted this episode and add your suggestions as well. Drop me an email that would also be helpful. There's clearly not a comprehensive list, but I do feel like I covered all the basics that would be helpful to you. And if you're interested in joining us in our upcoming two month live online support group, the Thrive group. You can go to drummerinthegreatmountain.com for that starts on September 3rd, so until next time, be well.
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Thanks for joining us. If you'd like to learn more about the book the Drummer and the Great Mountain, visit drummandthegreatmountain.com to join us on social media, click the links at the top of the homepage. Help us spread the word. We're a small prey, and reviews really help. If you've been enjoying the podcast or the book, consider writing a review on itunes, Amazon, Goodreads, or your podcast app. If you're new to the podcast and want to quickly get up to speed on the concepts we discuss, check out our free 5 day mini course. Visit drummerandthegreatmountain.com Minicourse if there's a topic you'd like us to cover on future episodes, we'd love to hear from you. Please send us an email@inforummarandthegreatmountain.com.
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