It started when I was a teenager (in the 00's) buying "slimfast shakes" and reading "Heat" magazine every week. I watched what my mum and friends did and I copied it... because that's what undiagnosed girls do - we learn to fit in by mirroring everyone around us.

I absorbed it all - every "what the hell did she do to her body?" headlines on the magazines, every "before and after" photo that said smaller = better. And this continued into my adult life for another 2 decades - I did all the diets - slimming world, weight watchers, special K, low carbs, juice cleanses and calorie counting.

FOOD BECAME VERY NOISY.

Diet culture is harmful for any young brain, but for a neurodivergent one?

A brain that is wired for all or nothing thinking, dopamine seeking, emotional dysregulation and executive dysfunction...

Diet culture + ADHD = loud, relentless food noise.

I genuinely thought I was lazy and had no willpower. I thought I was "addicted" to sugar and crisps. I wasn't any of those things.

I was undiagnosed, dysregulated and under-fuelled.

When I finally started to understand my ADHD brain, I then trained in nutrition - and suddenly it all made sense - the cycles, the food noise and the shame.

I spent way too many years of my life letting diets shape how I felt about food and my body. I'm not doing that anymore - and I don't want that for you either.

This is my passion. Because I know there are so many late diagnosed women out there who have spent decades struggling with food. And they have no idea that their neurodivergence + diet culture is the reason why.

You're not addicted to food.

But restriction, food rules, calorie tracking and dysregulation are making you feel like you are.