Follow-up to scheme J: Thank you friends!

Last month, when the deadline came around for my post, I felt like a contestant on who wants to be a millionaire, and I asked for help. Specifically, what I struggle(d) with was managing my energy.

3 of you reached out with some really great insight. I’m super inspired by how you approach managing your time, in particular. I think I still have a lot of room to get better when it comes to that, especially at work, and I will definitely use your experiences and advice to do that. One thing I am wrestling with a lot is guilt: when I am not working during the day, I feel guilty and rushed, and when I work at night, I feel guilty for not having good work-life balance. It feels like a set schedule might be a good bet for now, but I don’t know, I feel like it’s kind of a bummer since I have so much freedom! It’s like when you take a kid to the ice cream place and you say “you can have anything you want” and they go for a one-scoop vanilla cone.

One person helped me by framing the energy problem as boiling down to 3 essentials: sleep, exercise, and food. That was super helpful, because we recognized that food is the thing I am the least consistent with, and figured out the pattern (when I don’t eat lunch or dinner at the time that I start to get hungry, I get tired and headaches later in the day!) So I decided to actively work on it, and set a goal to eat 2 full meals per day with the help of my counselor (oh, yeah, I started ADHD-focused CBT. It’s been so freaking great). This person had some really great specific ideas for easy-to-eat foods. My uncle also suggested frozen soup for lunch. I’m experimenting.

This goal and conversation has helped a lot, again, with the guilt thing too. I’m doing what I can, and forcing myself not to care if the food is healthy, or vegan, or cheap. What’s important for now is that I just get a good amount of food in my belly on a regular basis.

Anyway, thanks so much, I’m very grateful to be able to [phone] you. Friend.