Caitlin Kindred: 0:27

I only like kind of was half kidding about my book idea, by the way, about my kid's not very nice and I bet yours isn't either, because nine years old is a mess. Anyway, hi everyone, is your kid also full of nice days and not so nice days, because I bet they are.

Ariella Monti: 0:48

They're great. I'm taking submissions.

Caitlin Kindred: 0:52

Yeah, feel free to send me a DM about how your kid is and you can use different words. I'm using different words because I'm censoring myself, because that's not the real title of the book. If you know, if you're one of our Arielos and I's good friends, you probably already know the title of the book Anyway. So this is how to be a grown up. You probably already know the title of the book, anyway. So this is how to be a grown-up. This is the how-to show for moms whose brains are a mix of Wikipedia, the TikTok algorithm and a forgotten crockpot meal, like we discussed in the last episode, which was the forgetting to turn on the crockpot and or to thaw the meat before.

Caitlin Kindred: 1:29

Yay, or both, or both. Yes. With me today. Co-hosting for Jennyenny is novelist ariela monte, and she is a firework show of kindness in a baggy t-shirt, because we both know this girl loves her baggy t-shirt I do love my baggy t-shirt.

Caitlin Kindred: 1:47

Yeah, yeah, I know, I know know we are continuing our discussion of ADHD and food because my meds make it hard for me to remember to eat and manage my hunger cues, as you mentioned and pointed out to me. So, thank you, and today we're talking about how to manage those issues with ADHD years and food. But before we do that, I told you last week that you should be following us on social. Are you doing that yet? Let me give you a chance to do that right now. You can find Ariella at Ariella underscore Monty on Instagram threads she's good on threads, she's got quite the following there and TikTok, yes, you can find us at CK and GK podcast. That's all one word with the word and spelled out in between, on all the places except twitter, because no, thank you, please, uh and yeah that's a dumpster fire it's a dumpster fire of bots and true socialers.

Caitlin Kindred: 2:50

True socialers don't need Don't need to be there. So, yeah, let's go ahead and continue our discussion. So we talked about the issues that ADHDers have around food. We talked about hyperfixations. We talked about impulsivity. We talked about executive dysfunction. We talked about disordered eating. Let's get into managing exactly.

Ariella Monti: 3:17

Redo that, because I don't know why I said exactly and are the meds kicked in no, they are not. I don't know that they ever kicked in.

Caitlin Kindred: 3:30

To be honest with you, I didn't even take mine this morning.

Ariella Monti: 3:32

That was bad that was not good, I took mine. They're just not. They're not working anymore.

Caitlin Kindred: 3:40

I don't always take them on the weekends, because which is dumb because that's the day that I really need it, because it helps manage my irritability a lot and my and everyone's home on the weekends. So I should be managing, but so usually I'll do like a half dose, yeah, so I, and now it's too late in the day and I can't do it, so I'm gonna have to do it later tomorrow. Tomorrow will be the next time. In the meantime, I'm just gonna sit here and like stim, nice, that's what I what I do, so let's do it Okay.

Ariella Monti: 4:15

All right. So last week we talked about the challenges with ADHD and eating. Like you said, we talked about hyper focus, impulsivity, executive dysfunction and again I would like to say that my personal recommendation is to talk to your doctor and or a clinician who is well-versed in ADHD and its effects on diet and health, but from a peer-to-peer we're coming at this like… A conversation.

Caitlin Kindred: 4:51

Yeah, exactly Between people who A conversation. Yeah, exactly Between people who have it. Yeah, exactly Right, right, right.

Ariella Monti: 4:56

So working with a professional like a therapist or a psychiatrist who is well-versed in ADHD is going to make the biggest difference For me. Medication helped with most of the impulsive eating. Therapy helped with eating my feelings, which I did quite often, and working with a registered dietitian who specialized in intuitive eating helped me learn to listen to my body and kind of taught me a lot about the current science of nutrition. So I started to feel a lot less of the shame and guilt spirals that I was into and being exacerbated by my ADHD.

Caitlin Kindred: 5:48

Are you going to talk more about this, the RD, Because I am about to tell you like, say more. Like are you? Are you going to give us some of that information, Because I'm fascinated by what you learned there.

Ariella Monti: 6:01

I don't have anything prepared, but I am happy to answer any questions. No, I just mean, like anything that you may have mentioned to you.

Caitlin Kindred: 6:11

Like I've just A little bit yeah.

Ariella Monti: 6:13

Okay, okay, we'll take that conversation off. Well, and the thing is intuitive, eating could be a show in and of itself.

Caitlin Kindred: 6:21

Yeah, I was going to say like, that's kind of where my brain was triggered. Yeah, yeah, okay, I'll just look that up.

Ariella Monti: 6:26

Yeah, I was gonna say like that's kind of where my brain was triggered. Yeah, yeah, okay, I'll just look that up. Yeah, intuitive eating helped me heal a lot of the food trauma that I had from, you know, growing up in the 80s and the 90s but intuitive eating, I think. Now that I know that I have ADHD, I think intuitive eating is helpful, but only if it's sort of put in the context of somebody who has ADHD, hunger cues and intuitive eating the biggest part of it is listening to your body's hunger cues.

Ariella Monti: 7:01

Yeah, Like it's a struggle there.

Caitlin Kindred: 7:17

I'm going to pull up. I have found a couple of articles on intuitive eating and I'll make sure to add those to the blog post for this episode. And I'll make sure to add those to the blog post for I apologize completely. Very helpful, yeah.

Ariella Monti: 8:17

From us to y'all. Here are some tips and tricks from around the web and our personal experiences for dealing with ADHD and food struggles. Take what you need, leave what you don't. Your mileage may vary, so the biggest thing that I kind of found sort of in my research and then just kind of like existing as a person with ADHD protein rich foods are really important. So protein rich foods are used by the body to make neurotransmitters which dopamine, our good friend dopamine is not fully there, oh, my God, someone needs to eat some protein.

Ariella Monti: 9:02

I do Okay, so hold on.

Caitlin Kindred: 9:04

So if let's, yeah, okay. So if we let me pull this together, just to make sure that you can pull your brain back together. So if protein is what's required to make neurotransmitters and ADHD people already are lacking dopamine, which is a neurotransmitter it would make sense then that we need to supply ourselves with more protein in order to get whatever natural dopamine we can in that process. Yes, yes, Exactly.

Ariella Monti: 9:31

So protein rich foods are made by the body to needed by the body. Protein rich foods are used by the body. I have a script here. What is my problem? So protein rich foods are used by the. I'm sorry you're going to have such a hell of a time editing this.

Caitlin Kindred: 9:52

You know what? That's why I have another program do the initial pass through and then I go back in. It cuts the editing down by a lot.

Ariella Monti: 10:00

So there you go Okay. So protein rich foods are used by the body to make neurotransmitters. Neurotransmitters are chemicals that are released by brain cells to communicate with each other. So dopamine, our dear friend dopamine, is a neurotransmitter and it's essential for maintaining attention and focus and memory, and emotional regulation In general.

Ariella Monti: 10:27

Yeah, exactly like waking up your brain. And so if we're already low on dopamine naturally and we want to increase the dopamine that our even if it's a little bit like, even if our brain doesn't produce a lot of dopamine, we want to get as much as we can out of it. Yeah, we need to increase our protein. Okay, all that to say, when I was pregnant and I had gestational diabetes, pair my carbs with a protein. So if I'm and that was a way to ensure that my blood sugar was staying stable so if I'm craving bread, I eat the bread with some cheese. The protein and the fat in the cheese is not only a more satisfying snack, it supports the leveling of your blood sugar and it makes you feel fuller longer.

Caitlin Kindred: 11:34

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.

Ariella Monti: 11:37

Just kind of thinking about like all right, I'm craving some kind of carbs. How can you pair the carb with a protein? So say, you really want to eat a cookie. Cookie is full of carbs, right Full of sugar. Maybe pair it with some peanut butter.

Caitlin Kindred: 12:04

Oh.

Ariella Monti: 12:04

I was going to say something gross.

Caitlin Kindred: 12:07

It's going to be like fish. I just just to mess no, just to mess people up and be disgusting. I was. I was really wondering what you're going to put that with, I feel, as I was searching my brain for what connection could go with that cookie. So I was going to. That's why I was just going to inject something disgusting.

Ariella Monti: 12:34

There you go. Here are less gross ways to add protein to your meals Rotisserie, chicken, on all the things. So if you get, yeah, Aldi, I don't know if this is like a thing all Aldis have, but the Aldi near us has like pre-chopped and packaged rotisserie chicken and man, I use that for everything.

Caitlin Kindred: 12:55

That's so smart.

Ariella Monti: 12:57

Yeah, you can during the winter. I don't do it now because it's like a thousand degrees outside, but during the winter I will get the Panera heat and serve soup like broccoli, cheddar or baked potato, and they usually they sell it also at Aldi or at the grocery store or even Costco. And I will heat the soup in a in a on the stove instead of the microwave, because then I can more easily throw rotisserie chicken into it. And so now I've added a protein to this soup.

Caitlin Kindred: 13:33

I did the same thing. That's so smart.

Ariella Monti: 13:37

I'll do the same thing with boxed mac and cheese. So, like your regular, like craft macaroni and cheese. After I get everything mixed, mixed up, I will throw rotisserie chicken into it. So now I've got, you know, the chicken and the, the carbs, just rotisserie chicken, like on all the things. Um, great, like salad kits.

Caitlin Kindred: 14:00

sorry, I'm just thinking like, yes me, if I use a salad kit, now I can. That's so smart, cause I know I a lot of our listeners are in Texas and Texans love our HEV. Like I don't know if my HEV my local one sells the rotisserie chicken already broken down, cause that's my big hurdle with rotisserie chicken is having to like rip it apart, like, oh, come on.

Caitlin Kindred: 14:26

It's just such yeah, yeah, yeah, pain, no, uh, yeah, I'd rather like honestly bake the chicken myself than deal with them right pulling it apart, but okay, but I'll look right, okay, smart, yes, yeah, definitely looked for like pre-chopped up rotisserie chicken and like the difference between, like you know, a neurotypical and an ADHD person.

Ariella Monti: 14:42

So my husband, he, he will bake, like in the beginning of the week, he will bake chicken or grilled chicken to use for salads or whatever for the entire week. But I cannot, I don't have it Like, I don't have the executive function for it. So that's where the rotisserie chicken comes in. Or even frozen breaded chicken. That's what I use on top of the salad kits. It's frozen chicken that I heat up in the air fryer so it's crispy and it's like a fry. It's like a fried chicken salad, but without the fried chicken like all of the oil and stuff from the fired chicken.

Ariella Monti: 15:28

I like it um other stuff to do greek yogurt in different, mixed into different things like smoothies. If you're a smoothie person, canned tuna is good, with crackers, frozen edamame, you can eat it alone as a snack or you can eat it with stuff hard-boiled eggs that are. You can either buy them already hard-boiled or you can just like bulk hard-boil them. That's what my husband does. He'll like hard boil like a dozen. Now, remember, we have chickens, so yeah, so it's easy.

Caitlin Kindred: 16:03

It's easy for you guys to do that Right?

Ariella Monti: 16:06

Yes, yeah, so. So we'll like bulk hard boil eggs, cheese sticks or cheese cubes kind of eaten with like anything. Those are kind of easy ways to just kind of like add protein to your meal to just kind of like add protein to your meal.

Caitlin Kindred: 16:31

Yeah, I was thinking my, my co-workers and I have a thing that we call emotional support cheese. Yes, and sometimes you just need a little cheese in your life. We all, we all love cheese, right? So if we, if we can handle, if our bodies don't reject the cheese, yeah, um, but there's like you can get them. You can get it pre-cubed, which I realize is like not ideal, right, like it's more expensive that way and all that. But if you just don't have the spoons to chop it up yourself, you can do that. There's also, like at Costco, you can get bulk. The brand is Tillamook that I'm thinking of. But like those, it's like a mini little cheese cube. It's like the half the size of a credit card. Oh, I will. I. That's my emotional support cheese. I'll have my little, my little lunch, and it always includes like a little little Tillamook thing of cheese or the little baby bell things. Those are good too. The little cheese rounds you can get those are big help for adding a little bit of that.

Ariella Monti: 17:23

Yeah, and that's a good segue to another suggestion, which is to simplify your grocery list. So part of simplifying your grocery list is to buy the pre-cooked things, buy the pre-cut things. So like yes, yes, there is what we call like the adhd tax, so a salad kit is more expensive than getting the lettuce and the carrots and all the individual ingredients. Like, yeah, a salad kit is more expensive, but consider which you're more likely to eat and which one is going to become a science experiment in your refrigerator.

Caitlin Kindred: 18:07

Yep.

Ariella Monti: 18:08

So true, you know, so true. Right, like we are, more, I am more likely, even if I, even if I only use a portion of the salad kit, mm-hmm.

Ariella Monti: 18:21

I'm still more likely to eat it hit, I'm still more likely to eat it, yeah, I'm still more likely to eat it than if I have to cut up some lettuce. Wash some lettuce. Cut up some, even if I get the like the salad, you know the bagged lettuce, bagged lettuce, yeah, and all that you know. Make sure you're washing that now, because you know food safety Hysteria, yeah. So make sure you're washing that now, because you know food safety Hysteria. Yeah, so make sure you're washing all that stuff. But yeah, I am more likely to eat a salad if I just get, if I just spend the however many dollars it is on the individual salad kit, than if I buy the ingredients separately. So so if you can do that, if you can afford it, do that. You know. Get the stuff that's pre-cooked, get the stuff that's pre-cut, because it is important. Nutrition is important and if saving a prep step is going to allow you to get proper nutrition, then you should do it. Yeah, you should absolutely do it.

Ariella Monti: 19:32

Other ways to simplify your grocery list is to buy staples and then identify what you can do with those staples. So, like I talked about the rotisserie chicken, so like I talked about the rotisserie chicken, so it's like I get the rotisserie chicken and then I kind of write down what I can do with the rotisserie chicken, because very often I will buy a thing and then forget what I wanted to use the thing for. So if I know I got to get rotisserie chicken, what am I going to use the rotisserie chicken for? I'm going to use rotisserie chicken for X, y and Z, and then I can get you know three different kinds of meals out of one specific ingredient.

Caitlin Kindred: 20:20

Yep, yep, absolutely.

Ariella Monti: 20:36

And the other one is graze small meals instead of large meals. Yep, yep, absolutely. That is going to make the most satisfying and satiating meal and just kind of eat every couple of hours, instead of like eating in the morning and then waiting four or five hours to eat in the afternoon and then waiting four or five hours Like just just eat throughout the day. Yeah, have a little snack.

Caitlin Kindred: 21:02

Yeah, I heard, heard this tip just going back to the grocery store thing saying buy the staples. The other thing that I've noticed a lot of, again, adhd people do, especially with produce, because we all are very well-meaning or we're like, yes, we hyper fixate on the I'm gonna have so many stinking baby carrots, like. Sometimes baby carrots become like my, my hyper fixation. Food with hummus, like it's been a it's been a regular thing for me.

Caitlin Kindred: 21:31

Um, I saw this tip instead of putting your condiments in the door of your fridge, put your fruits and vegetables in the door of your fridge. Yes, your condiments can go in the drawer. Yes, because one, you're going to put them in the drawer and you're going to forget they exist. Because out of sight, out of mind, right. But when you need ketchup, you won't forget that your ketchup exists. You'll know that it's in there, right. Right, so you'll be able to go in there and get that out. And when the other stuff is on top of or in the front of your face, you will remember that it's there. That might also help you to eat it more regularly.

Caitlin Kindred: 22:17

And then again, which I mentioned before, when I in the previous episode, when I get grapes or something like that, if I know it's something that's going to require work to eat it like grapes or strawberries, I often will put my groceries away, like all at once, because I'm like I have to put it away, I got to get it all out of here and it, because it makes me anxious, use that energy, that to that channeling of, of anxiety, of like the compulsion to put things away or whatever it is when you get the groceries to then also wash whatever produce you need to wash at that time, so that it's ready to go, and all you have to do is grab a handful of grapes out of your little cup from the door in your fridge and then you don't have to worry about, you know, finding it, losing track of it, washing it later, whatever, it is Just a tip that helped us, that helped me.

Ariella Monti: 23:10

I did it a couple of years ago where I also got that tip. I saw it somewhere, maybe TikTok, to put the condiments in the crisper drawers and put all of the produce kind of in the doors, and it was a game changer because it's there.

Caitlin Kindred: 23:30

You see it every time you open it up, so you're less likely to reach for the dumb stuff, exactly so.

Ariella Monti: 23:37

And not even though now, like we don't put the, even now, the vegetables and the produce and stuff are not in the doors. Though we have stuff in the doors that we get frequently, the produce and stuff is still. It's in the main part of the refrigerator.

Caitlin Kindred: 23:57

But it's in front of your face.

Ariella Monti: 23:59

It's in front of our face. It's not hidden in the crisper. That's where, like the pickles and the mayo and like all of that stuff goes in the crisper. So, you know, rot in and of itself, but it'll take a couple of years.

Caitlin Kindred: 24:14

Right, right, exactly. Better to have the things with the longer shelf life in the drawers where you don't look at them all the time.

Ariella Monti: 24:23

Right, exactly. So, yeah, yeah, but that is another good segue to just random things that you know worked for us, so that worked for me. Another thing that works for my family in general is because my son also has ADHD, but he has avoidant, restrictive food intake disorder, so it's a ADHD related eating disorder, and he only really eats pizza from one place and it's a takeout place from near, you know, near us. So we will get like last night we had pizza. We get two pies. One pie is the one that we eat that night.

Ariella Monti: 25:13

Everything else gets wrapped up and put in the freezer and then all we have to do is throw a slice into the air fryer and that is what my kid eats. You know, pretty much every day for dinner he'll have a slice of slice of pizza. But just, I can't tell you like how many times I've needed something to eat and I will just grab a cold slice of pizza out of the fridge or I will reheat a slice of pizza in the air fryer for myself. Like, having those things ready to go is it's a big deal really? Yeah, it's a big deal. It's really helpful when you're hungry and you just need something to eat and you don't want it to be something that is void of nutrients.

Caitlin Kindred: 26:08

I'm a big fan of like of seasoned almonds, like roasted almonds with some sort of and like I really I've talked about this before like the chili lime salt ones that we can get at H-E-B are really great. Or like wasabi and soy. I think they're probably a little salty, they're probably a little high in salt, but I usually try to pair that with lately it's been a smoothie. Uh, I'm a big, I'd hyper fixate on smoothies fairly regularly and with that I would say if you are, if you're someone who can tolerate smoothies, I can't tolerate them with greek yogurt in them. I know that they're good for the protein piece, but I just it does something to the flavor and the texture for me that I just can't get past. So I make mine with orange juice and I make sure to put like plenty of banana in there. You know, the unsung hero of the smoothie is the banana and I and all the stuff I put in, I don't use fresh fruit, I use frozen fruit, because it makes the texture better and I can and it doesn't go bad.

Caitlin Kindred: 27:05

Bad. I don't have to worry about my bananas going bad and then having to peel them and then put them in. It just is not worth it to me. So I just buy packaged, already sliced, frozen bananas and then and you can even buy them in like fruit mixtures, right, so you could do like a berry smoothie, but it's all the stuff already mixed together.

Caitlin Kindred: 27:23

And then one of the things I'll do when I have the spoons for it is I'll put them into like those silicone bags, and it's already pre-measured and all I have to do is take the bag out with the juice and pop it into the little bullet and and blend it up. And the nice thing about that, too, is the bullet comes with those little cups that can then like be turned like it's the blender cup, but it's then becomes your drink cup and you just put in a straw and walk away, right, like that's a really good way to get some of those, get those servings of fruit that you really need. And if you're, if you're, awesome about putting spinach in there, do that too. Like spinach is better than putting kale in a smoothie, and for me, the flavor is better, I think they're both gross and for me the flavor is better.

Caitlin Kindred: 28:10

I think they're both gross. When I was pregnant I did a lot of putting the spinach in because of that, like folic acid and all that stuff.

Caitlin Kindred: 28:14

Yeah, yeah, um. I don't do it so much now and I should, but when I eat salad I typically prefer to have spinach salad instead of other stuff, so I feel like I get a good amount of it there. But those, that's another good one. That's one of my adhd safe. I like the. The almonds and smoothies are a big one for me Because I don't get sick of the textures.

Ariella Monti: 28:35

I am not a smoothie person because I'm not a liquid calories person. Like I just, even if I like a smoothie, if the smoothie tastes good, I won't finish it. Like I need to have it in. Smoothie tastes good, I won't finish it.

Ariella Monti: 28:49

Oh, I get that Like I need to have it in such, you know, small quantities, because I won't, and I'm like that with a lot of beverages. But my, the way I kind of add a little bit of, add a little bit of protein to like my yogurt which I do, like I'll have vanilla Greek yogurt I get um the shelled hemp hearts and just like sprinkle like a handful of that on my yogurt and it kind of adds a little bit of texture to the yogurt. I also put granola in there because I need something kind of crunchy with like I don't know. Like I don't like when my yogurt is like like the consistency of ice cream, like I want. I want my ice cream to be the consistency of ice cream, but I don't want, like my yogurt, to just be without anything. I need something crunchy.

Caitlin Kindred: 29:42

Yeah, I have a thing about texture though. So, like for me, I don't want chunks of fruit in my yogurt because that really grosses me out, so I'd rather have smooth yogurt than not. But I can do the granola in there, like that I can do. It's just the like soggy, like super soft fruit. It's why I don't really do much pie, honestly, because I can't stand the feeling of soggy fruit. The flavor is always delicious, I just don't like the texture of it.

Caitlin Kindred: 30:17

But think about what are the things that, when we're talking about the things that are safe for you, what are the things that you know you won't get tired of the texture? What are the things that you know are easy to prep? What are the things? And then look for healthy options so that you know you won't get tired of the texture. What are the things that you know are easy to prep? What are the things? And then look for healthy options. So, if you know you like crunchy things have almonds in your house, have granola in your house. If you know that you should be eating more yogurt but you can't stand the texture, but you do like crunchy, do exactly what Ariella said Put something crunchy in there to kind of to ease that ick feeling that you get from certain foods that you don't like, because that's the other piece of it too is that, like there's a sensory thing that comes with food.

Caitlin Kindred: 30:56

It's not just the sensory, like pleasure of eating sour or whatever things, it's also the avoidance that comes with certain senses that we just, or sensations that we can't handle. So, um, yeah, those are my two. Those are probably my two biggest ones is having frozen fruit in the house and almonds. Like I probably eat almonds every, every single day.

Ariella Monti: 31:19

I think I do these mixed nuts from from Aldi and I just kind of keep them around, like, like I try to have them on my desk so that if I am hyper-focused on something, on a project, and I am starting to feel hungry, I can just eat a few handfuls so that when I'm done with whatever I'm working on, I'm not hangry Like I might still be hungry, but I'm but you're not raging.

Caitlin Kindred: 31:48

Yeah, I'm not hangry Like I might still be hungry, but I'm not raging.

Ariella Monti: 31:49

Yeah, I'm not raging. Like I can now, like I'm okay to like, make myself something to eat, not, oh, my god, I need to shove something into my face before I pass out or murder somebody.

Caitlin Kindred: 32:04

Thing I've done. This is not about a safe, safe food, but the thing that helps me with like the textures and the impulsivity of things is I will portion foods ahead of time too. So, like you know, things that come in snack packs are more expensive, but you could snack pack them yourself, right, um, so that you, you portion them out ahead time. One thing I'll do is I have those like silicone muffin, whatever they're called wrappers. Do you know what I'm talking about? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And you can put one of those with your thing of mixed nuts and then you know, like, this is how much I'm going to eat right now, and then if you're prone to, you know, getting multiple handfuls of them and you know it's, it's going to be a problem, you know, put that away.

Caitlin Kindred: 32:51

The other, the other thing I like. I have weird sensory things about my hands, so, like this is a lot of this is my weird, random ick that I'm going to share with all of you. I don't like when one hand is wet, because I don't like drying one hand. The way that the towel feels on the dry hand and the wet hand at the same time just makes me really uncomfortable. And there's some foods that like leave dust and stuff on your hands, so then you end up having to like get it off your hand with water.

Caitlin Kindred: 33:19

So I have those finger chopsticks which I've talked about on this show with Jenny.

Ariella Monti: 33:24

We're like I don't have to.

Caitlin Kindred: 33:25

I don't have to touch the food Right. It keeps my hands clean and I can use that. I can put it on my fingers, I can keep typing and I can get my little. I can use my little finger chopsticks and get my almond with that that has like salt on the edge and not have to, you know, get one hand wet to rinse it off, like little things like that.

Caitlin Kindred: 33:45

That sound strange, but help me Things that I know are better for me, without like completely being turned off by like sensory wise, completely being disgusted by what's in front of me. Yeah, absolutely. Slice the tomatoes ahead of time, get all the squirty juice out, because that stuff's gross for me, but then I can eat the tomato, which is good for me. See how that works. There you go. Anyway, those are my random things, weird but works.

Ariella Monti: 34:19

I, even though I put the notes together for this show, can't really think of my random things at the moment. You'll think of it later.

Caitlin Kindred: 34:28

If you have one, we'll put it in social for the episode, so don't stress about that In the meantime. Next week we're going to be talking about ADHD and parenting, so that's a big topic. We're going to talk about parenting the ADHD child and some tips and tricks to do that, but also parenting the ADHD child as a person who also has ADHD, so it'll be another two-parter. Make sure you stick around for that. If you're not subscribed to our show, do it now. Subscribe so you don't miss it and we'll be right back. Our show Do it now. Subscribe so you don't miss it and we'll be right back.

Caitlin Kindred: 35:11

Hey, y'all. Pov you find a diary exposing forbidden magic and the hot museum caretaker's life depends on you burning it, roots and Ink. The debut novel by Ariella Monti is the fantasy romance for rebels. Use promo code CK and GK to get 20% off your copy at AriellaMontecom. Again, that's all caps C-K-A-N-D-G-K for 20% off on AriellaMontecom. Get your copy for 20% off today. Anyway, yeah, we're back. Is there anything you're hyper fixated on right now, or just I don't think so, okay, you know I've been, I've been doing a lot of lately.

Ariella Monti: 36:03

I'd love to know burning candles I go through, so I go through phases with burning candles where I will have them. I haven't really bought. I have them but I won't really use them because I'm afraid of burning down my house. But so recently, or like a month or so ago, I bought a few candles from F-ing Candle Company. I love them, yeah. So full disclosure. The owner and I go way back to like first grade.

Caitlin Kindred: 36:43

Really. Yeah, I didn't know that that's so cool.

Ariella Monti: 36:47

Yeah. So I was filling in my parents like, hey, this is what she's up to these days. And when I was telling them about some of these candle names and stuff, my son was like oh hey, that's hilarious. And start screaming, you know?

Caitlin Kindred: 37:06

the patriarchy. Yeah, exactly, it's my last yeah exactly Right, right, right so.

Ariella Monti: 37:12

so of course I went and bought them um, but now, because I have them and they smell so good, I've just been using them like that's awesome. Like every day. I've got that one which it smells really good, and then for one I have to do all of the like boring business stuff. This one is head B in charge, nice, so that's Nice, I like it, like, yeah, so yeah, that's what I've been, that's what I've been kind of kind of into lately.

Caitlin Kindred: 37:44

Our good friend Joey got me one that says per my last email, and I love that one. Yeah, I, that one's great, but uh, it's, those are fun. I we've talked about my lamp before on this. Show my candle lamp. That just is the candle warmer that's, that's been a game changer for me.

Caitlin Kindred: 38:04

I have that on all the time. My hyper fixation is stupid again. But my husband recently got we don't we're not a big video game house. He was when he was younger, as every 20 year old is right like but he learned that the new Madden game was going to be out on PS5 and he was like I need to play it. So what did he do? He bought a PS5. Was like I need to play it. So what did he do? He bought a ps5. Now as well, right as right, just like what? Okay, um, because apparently we're 20 again. You know, whatever.

Caitlin Kindred: 38:39

Not that there's anything wrong with grown men playing video games. If it becomes a problem, that's a different issue. My, my husband is a grown-up. And then I'll come out and he'll be like playing call of duty and he's making his like concentration face for his tongue's like, and I'll stick it out of his like all right, yeah, you're a grown-up. Look at you playing your video games. Um, and then what did I do? I immediately found what I believe to be the cutest little game. It's so precious. You know, like how cute the robots are in wally. That's how cute. This little robot is an astrobot and apparently it's like a super well-known game.

Caitlin Kindred: 39:19

But I don't know anything about video games so I didn't right yeah, no but so, like I started, I made my husband buy me astrobot, like you're gonna buy. Madden sam gets spider-Man and Spider-Man 2. I get a game, I want a game. I get to play and I'm in charge now and I play Astro Bot and it's so cute, so cute.

Caitlin Kindred: 39:40

That's amazing, it's just a little boy who's like going and rescuing his robot friends. I'm like you're just the cutest little thing. Like I'm not even like obsessed with playing it, I just like how cute he is. He's my little hyper fixation right now. He's so precious. He'll like stop. If you stop, like running him in through the game, he'll be like hello, hello and he's looking for his little friends. And it's like sometimes he stops and flosses like does the little dance?

Ariella Monti: 40:07

You're just like you're so cute.

Caitlin Kindred: 40:10

Why are you so sweet? I loved Wally. I thought he was precious. I thought Eve was precious. That's kind of the vibe. It's like this little, this cute little. Anyway, that's my little hypo. That's it right now.

Ariella Monti: 40:21

How precious he is.

Caitlin Kindred: 40:23

Yeah, did you get anything done recently? Because video games tend to get in the way of me getting things done. So that's why I'm asking like, did you?

Ariella Monti: 40:36

get anything finished. I, that sounds like a no.

Caitlin Kindred: 40:38

I I feel like I did that's but, I don't know why is it so hard for us to remember stuff like that?

Ariella Monti: 40:44

I don't know. I used to, when I, when I used to do, I think I I wrote a blog post for y'all about it, my glad journaling, yeah, yeah yeah, and the a was is for accomplishment, and that was great because, like that day, I could be like here's the stuff I accomplished, here's the stuff that I got done. I I did get you know what I did do.

Ariella Monti: 41:07

I did organize a lot of my event stuff after I got back from a book convention in Savannah, I was able to kind of organize a lot of my book stuff and my event stuff, because I'm going to another event or I have a couple of events on my calendar or I have a couple of events on my calendar. So having all of that stuff sort of organized in a way that will make traveling easier and set up easier is good. So I did get quite a bit of that done, that's good, we had a lot of boxes.

Caitlin Kindred: 41:48

You know like how sometimes all the deliveries just tend to come at once. Yes, yeah. And it was just so many boxes and I finally got all of those Like that felt so good to like walk back down our front entry hall and not have just boxes that were half empty and partially broken down like just why, like I'm sure, we look like a bunch of people who just like go through so much crap because of the amount of boxes we just put out on the front like in the recycle.

Caitlin Kindred: 42:23

But I was just so glad to get them out there was just so many of them.

Ariella Monti: 42:26

It was awful yeah so yeah, it was like that for us like a month or so ago. They were just like piling up on the deck because I live out in the country and we burn our boxes, yeah, yeah, so.

Ariella Monti: 42:39

so yeah, we like we had them out on the deck because they were just like piling up inside the house. But now, thankfully, but. But then the issue I ran into is when, now I'm trying to organize stuff, I heard there's a couple of like garage sales going on. It's like fundraising, yeah. So I'm trying to get stuff together to donate it and I'm like I need a box.

Caitlin Kindred: 43:06

And. I don't have how many good boxes I have Like, oh, this is a good box I should save. Yeah, I feel, save this. Yeah, I feel like that's a thing that you start saying once you're in your 30s.

Ariella Monti: 43:15

Right Like this is a good box.

Caitlin Kindred: 43:17

We're going to hang on to this. Yes, for something we can use it. Yes, I use them for taking things to donation facilities.

Ariella Monti: 43:25

I get it.

Caitlin Kindred: 43:25

Yep, this conversation has officially derailed, so I think that means it's time for us to medicate or eat, or both, I don't know. Either way, make some good choices, find those ADHD safe foods and love you mean it, okay, bye, bye.