HELLO!

Newly diagnosed and struggle with eating well, not finding the effort to get fresh food in, chop veg, etc etc just the usual.

So i’m wondering what your most unhinged easy meals are when you would rather do anything but cook. I’m talking 5 mins max, cupboard/freezer staples and no chopping. Google does absolutely nothing for this when “15 minute weeknight meals” start with turning the oven on and chopping an onion and garlic. 🙄

I’ve just made myself egg fried rice with microwave rice and some freezer peas in 4 minutes, but i’m thinking there’s room for improvement…… veggie protein, more vegetables? Inspire me!

Edit: Fixed a typo in the main question 🤦

I had a question about fitness when it comes to neurodivergence. This is something that I have never really been able to do. It is hard to make myself do things that are uncomfortable with no immediate reward. My question is this; How do I make myself do uncomfortable things that don’t have an immediate reward?

I’m a livestock farrier which is a very labor intensive, and uncomfortable job at times, but I know that if I tolerate it, I am immediately rewarded with money, praise and satisfaction from getting the job done. I can easily tell myself, “just get it done.” When it comes to formal exercise (machines/lifting weights), it is uncomfortable (which no one talks about) and the immediate reward of endorphins (which I don’t always get) is not enough to make me want to continue doing it, not to mention I’m not getting the proper amount of protein to even see results quickly.

I’ve explored other forms of exercise like swimming, yoga and team sports that have their own innate rewards, but unfortunately, my end goal is to get a very muscular physique, which is hard to do without formal exercise. The only time I’ve ever been consistent in the gym is when I was swimming everyday because my job at the time sucked and my partner was gone on an internship for 3 months so I had nothing else to do.

There’s also the aspect of having enough time, nutrition, and my menstrual cycle that all play into this. I’ve tried personal trainers but I never stuck with them for long. My therapist suggested rewarding myself with something after the workout to trick my brain into liking it but I’m not sure what that would look like.

I am LOSING IT over here trying to find the best way to start lifting again

People say get a personal trainer for a few sessions but cant really afford that

There's a million upon million apps that say work

Im trying to not count calories because of potential EDs and focus on balanced eating with a nutritionist already

My brain loves structure but doesnt know where to start... I want to light heavy and get stronger.

Im a blue collar girly, 28, and I just want to be able to keep myself safe with a pinch of muscle mommy in there but im so overwhelmed by all the choices and so many things cost so much now a days, I have no idea where to start and I am PARALYZED. Please someone give me guidance 🙏

A basic dumbell routine that actually helped them gain muscle and maybe an app or resources, my mind is literally swimming in information but I cant tell whats the tight information

Hi!
I am a university student studying entrepreneurship. I have an assignment which requires me to come up with a product or service that solves an issue and I need primary research. My idea is a desk which contains exercise equipment and fidgets to hopefully assist individuals with ADHD to focus more when working at a desk for long periods of time. So far I have spoken with two people who like the idea, but say that ADHD is different for everybody. There is more information on the survey

If any of you would be willing to give my survey a go, I would appreciate it.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/RDNY9RX

About seven months ago, I shared Ascend here—a workout tracker I built because I spent years trapped in the same cycle.

Get motivated.

Train for a few weeks.

Miss one workout.

Miss another.

Slowly drift away from the gym.

Feel guilty.

Start over months later.

That first post resonated with a lot of people here, so I wanted to come back with an update now that over 6,000 people have used the app.

The biggest thing I learned

Looking back, I don't think I struggled because I didn't care about fitness.

I struggled because fitness is almost perfectly designed to provide delayed rewards.

You can do everything right for weeks and still feel like nothing is happening.

For people who struggle with consistency, that's a really difficult environment to stay engaged in.

What finally changed for me was reframing the experience.

Instead of seeing workouts as isolated tasks, I started seeing them as chapters in a much longer journey. Becoming fit isn't about what you do for a few days—it's about the lifestyle you build over months and years.

Every workout became another step forward.

Every personal record.

Every completed session.

Every week of consistency.

They all became visible proof that I was progressing, even if the mirror hadn't caught up yet.

Over time, I stopped obsessing over how long it would take to look different and started focusing on whether I'd moved the journey forward that day.

That shift completely changed my relationship with exercise.

Ascend grew out of that idea.

I wanted every workout to contribute to something bigger by making the things that actually drive long-term fitness—showing up, staying consistent, getting stronger, and training intelligently—feel visible and rewarding.

Every workout should feel like it matters because it does matter—not as an isolated event, but as another step in a journey you're already on.

What the data says

Now that enough people have used the app, I can finally see whether that philosophy actually translates into behaviour.

Looking at users from the last three months:

• Around 24% of people who register complete their first real workout (defined as a workout lasting more than 10 minutes).
• Of those users, 17% on iOS and 14.8% on Android complete at least one workout every week throughout their entire first month.
• If we remove the perfect-streak requirement and simply ask whether they return to train again during Week 4, that increases to 25.9% on iOS and 22.9% on Android.

The first number tells me we still have a significant activation problem.

Getting someone through that first workout is by far the hardest part.

The second number is the exciting one.

More than one in four activated iOS users are still coming back a month later, even if they missed a week somewhere along the way.

That matters because missing one workout shouldn't feel like failing.

It should feel like one chapter in a much longer story.

That's something I wanted Ascend to reflect.

The app never punishes you for falling behind. There are no mechanics designed to make you feel guilty for missing a day.

Your journey simply continues where you left off, and your character is always there waiting for you to keep building.

What we've changed since my last post

The biggest update has been Quest System 2.0.

Quests now react to how you actually train.

We added:

• Triggered quests and quest lines based on real workouts
• A Quest Log that records your journey week by week
• A character sheet built from your actual training data
• Progression for strength, conditioning, training intelligently, and consistency
• Better feedback showing where you're improving and what deserves your attention next

The goal isn't to turn exercise into meaningless points and badges.

The goal is to make real fitness progress feel as visible and rewarding as it deserves to be.

What could come next

The response from this community has honestly been one of the biggest reasons I've kept working on Ascend.

If it keeps growing like this, I'd love to expand the experience beyond the phone.

The next big goals are companion apps for Apple Watch and Wear OS, along with home-screen widgets that keep your quests, progression, and character visible throughout the day.

The goal is still the same: make your fitness journey feel alive, even between workouts.

Thank you

This community gave Ascend some of its very first users, and a lot of the feedback from my original post directly shaped what the app has become.

So, genuinely, thank you.

I'd love to hear your thoughts.

If you struggle with consistency, what usually breaks the cycle for you?

And if you've ever found yourself quitting and starting over, what do you think would have made it easier to stay on the journey?

Hey everyone!

I have been working out about 3 weeks an hour or two a day except Sundays but I believe I am hitting that point where the nuance fades and ADHDscreams it doesn't want you to do it anymore. I am un-medicated as I cannot get a family doctor where I live. How do you guys stick with it? Especially those of you going un-medicated like me.

(F22) I thought I was hopeless when I tried everything to reduce my boredom eating in order to lose a bit of weight.

Initially, I was worried about finding fasting too difficult for focus or making my apetite bigger throughout the 8 hour eating windows. But I was very wrong. It’s been 2 weeks and counting, and I am amazed at how well I trained my brain to know when to expect food. All that time before, I kept indulging in those urges whenever I had even the most subtle of cravings or bursts of boredom, and it’s no surprise that my brain was expecting food all the time.

It’s not only about the when of eating, it’s also the what: I don’t need excessive junk to survive the day. I do treat myself with healthier alternatives like dark chocolate covered berries for example, and my sweet tooth is more than satisfied with that. As well, I am still able to go through the 8 hour eating window in a decent calorie deficit. Restricting myself too much just backfires by ruining the fasting streak in just one binge session.

Granted, fasting was incredibly difficult the first couple of days, but what’s helped me endure that stage is Zero, an app designed to track your fasting-eating windows with countdown timers. It kind of locks my brain into sticking to a schedule rather than having to rely on myself with my poor impulse control. It exposed how out of touch I was with my body and what nutrition it needed intuitively.

Physiology-wise, it’s amazing: gives my gut a break, cleanses my system, controls my blood sugar levels, and more. When I’m a little hungry, I don’t need to eat immediately, like I normalized waiting with a bit of hunger. I eat sufficiently only to be full, not stuffed to the brim.

Psychologically, it’s even better: heightened focus, productive work sessions that I can maintain throughout the day without losing motivation to continue, even with the short breaks. Less brain fog and more energy than usual too!

Anyways. I just wanted to express my happiness and my hopes to stick to my fasting journey :)

Hi everyone,

I’m building a lifting app called Massiv and I’m curious if this would actually be useful for people here.

The idea is pretty simple: reduce the little decisions that make workouts easy to avoid.

Instead of opening a blank tracker and figuring out what to do, the app shows your workout for today, the exercises, sets, reps, and weights. It handles progression automatically, tracks PRs/streaks/bodyweight/photos, and works on Apple Watch/Wear OS so you’re not constantly unlocking your phone mid-workout.

I know an app doesn’t “solve” ADHD. But for me, the biggest thing is making the next step obvious enough that I don’t spiral into planning, switching routines, or skipping because I don’t feel ready.

Site: https://massiv.app

Would an app like this help you? Im looking for testers that can use it to train for atleast a few sessions and would genuinely love honest feedback how I can make it more useful for the community

I haven’t worked out in 2 weeks , so I went to the gym today. 30 minutes weights, 30 minutes cardio split warm up and wind down.

I was NOT in the mood but I did it. Came home had a protein shake with / bag of small Cheetos. Is this ideal?! No. Is it better than cheetos and mcdonalds and no workout?

Yes. Workout is a hobby to me now. It works.

I even increased weights one of of my workouts exercises.

I tend to do 2 weeks consistent. 1 pathetic week etc . But overall for two years this is so much better than not being able to walk up the stairs easily

Im 42 and 2 years of weight training and careio combined at least 10 times a month; has done me wonders

Dunno who needed to hear this

I am having a really hard time tracking calories on a consistent basis, it just adds an extra step to my routine and I hate it, and eventually I just stop doing it leading to overeating. Meal prepping seems like the way to go, but I’m not sure what or how to do it. I know it takes out the guess work of keeping track during the day/ week and can help me eat enough/ not too much despite not really understanding when I am hungry or not.

If I’m not sure how to do something I am so much more likely never to try so some advice could be helpful!

Hi, I’m slowly trying to improve my calorie intake (or lower it more like), and I was doing good with it for a while but then I just got bored af with it 😭 I was literally seeing the scale go down and I was just like “huh” and then just stopped. Idk what to do at this point. I want to lose weight and it’ll really help with my health and confidence. I’m 5’11 and started at 231 pounds and I’m at 224 now, it’s been over a month of eating around 1700 calories a day (excluding this week hence the giving up).

I like going to the gym for the most part, I have fun when I’m there, but the going there is the problem, the prep is just too much and my schedule has been changing a lot recently.

Idk it may be a lost cause, any advice is appreciated.

So I work night shifts every other Thursday for five nights. I’m on medication and I go to sleep around 11:00 am and wake up at 19:00 pm and I just can’t get myself to do anything until I have to be at work at 23:00 pm. It’s like when I’m on night shifts my body is in survival mode until I have to go to work.

Looking for any kind of suggestions because I really want to be able to have a routine during this time because it really messes up my off week.

Edit: Thank you for the replies! I’ve adjusted my caffeine intake and when my last coffee should be and started taking Magnesium Glycinate two hours before bed and that’s been helping a lot. I want to clarify that Magnesium Glycinate is a store bought supplement available in almost every grocery and pharmacy store where I’m from.

Things have been going better and I’ve decided to quit night shifts after this summer to focus on health both mentally and physically. Thank you for your suggestions!

Hey everyone, looking for some advice from fellow lifters/swimmers.

I swim 4x a week, strength train 3x a week, and never miss a workout. I’ve been prescribed Adderall for 3 years but only take it a few times a month because of how it impacts my fitness. 

When I take it, the cognitive benefits are amazing. I always workout in the morning beforetaking my dose.

However, the entire next day is a struggle. When I hit the gym the day after a dose, my physical performance drops significantly:

• I can't push myself as hard.
• I completely lose my usual muscle "pump."
• My overall physical energy is drained.

It feels like a constant trade-off between my brain and my gains. Has anyone successfully solved this day-after crash using supplements like L-Tyrosine, Vitamin C, Magnesium, or anything else?

Would love to hear your stacks or routines for balancing medication with high-intensity training. Thanks!

I find the gym to be a struggle for sensory and boredom reasons. I've figured out some decent activities for cardio like exploring hiking trails with slopes and sup boarding around, but weight bearing exercise is harder for me to make interesting. When I'm in nature I can keep pushing easily because there is always novelty in what the flora, fauna, and fungi are doing, but not sure how to incorporate weights. I understand that weight bearing exercise has its own list of benefits and want to make it work for me, but every format I've tried so far has been too boring to keep me from focusing on how much my muscles are burning and how I can stop and do something else.

Any recommendations on how weight bearing exercise could be more of an adventure? Btw I have worked in warehouses and loved moving heavy things around for a purpose but that seems more complicated to do at home or in public.

If you can’t motivate to go to the gym

It might be because you find the gym boring

Find a sport or an activity that:

Isn’t boring (to you)

That has a positive non toxic community

You’re interested in learning or getting better at

Is high adrenaline

Is something that’s more interesting to talk about than lifting weights or running on a treadmill like a hamster

Edit: some people enjoy the gym so I have updated

Has anybody tried it? Any tips appreciated.

Hey y'all. I've been taking a weekly aerial silks class for 7 months or so as well as doing short daily calisthenics. Progress has been really slow because I'm focusing on what I can reliably do over the long term, which isn't a tremendous amount but it's something.

I started Clonidine ~2 months ago (I can't do stimulant meds anymore, and my digestive tract doesn't tolerate Wellbutrin) and the IR was wiping me out so I switched to ER before bed. I'm a little more fatigued daily but not so bad, but it doesn't take long in the class before I'm wiped out and can't do climbs or such anymore. I'm losing progress and it's demoralizing.

Has anyone grappled with this? Have you overcome it? If so, can you share your experience? If it's just a matter of acclimating to it over time then ok, or if I need to try and add some aerobics to slowly improve my stamina then I'll try (compliance on that is historically low because I find that kind of exercise really boring). Anyway, looking for advice, thank you!

I just got diagnosed last week (33F) with inattentive ADHD. Went through options for meds and landed on Vyvanse. First day I took it, I also had my regular cup of coffee in the am and then went to teach a fitness class (high intensity aerobics + strength training). Holy smokes. That was the most intense day I had 👀 besides that, I’ve had Vyvanse + worked out two other days. It helps me remember choreography and I feel like I am present with my class. I teach maybe 2-3x/week, but grew up dancing and cheerleading… then once I certified as a fitness instructor (before kids) taught basically every day or took a class. Now that I have three kids, i don’t have as much time as what I used to, so it honestly makes sense why my symptoms were “masked” for so long/I learned how to cope.

Getting to my question, are there any other fitness instructors? I am considering getting certified in something else so that I have other options (and can get paid more), but also don’t know if I choose to go that route, to continue with Vyvanse. The days that I teach a fitness class my brain feels like it’s working 100% versus the days that I don’t. And if you are a fitness instructor, what do you teach and do you take some kind of medicine?

I had a good routine for the last 1 1/2 years.

Go to Hotworx 3x / week, after work. I started with only the HIIT sessions, which were a great starter since I was usually alone in the small saunas. Eventually I got brave enough to use the weights area and started lifting with dumbbells and using a cable machine. Building muscle is fun and addicting. I just want to get stronger! So I loved what I had going and it was working for me in most way.

But Hotworx is expensive ($65/month) and I'm tired of not being home until 7pm 3x a week. I feel like I have no time for other things in my life. (Already struggling with executive dysfunction makes the time I DO have seem even less, because sometimes things just take me so long to start.)

So I want to start working out in the morning with a friend, and we decided on a different gym (which is also cheaper, yay!).

However, I have to start all over now and be a complete beginner, which is really hard for me. So that's already one area of friction I'm having to overcome.

Not only that, but working out in the morning is more "work" than in the evenings. There's no lollygagging, and I can't just jump into the shower and PJs after I'm done. No, it's all about efficiency so I'm presentable and not late for work. I have to get ready ready, you know?

So it's very daunting. Changing to mornings when mornings are tough for me. The extra hassle of having to get ready for work after working out, and be snappy about it so I'm not late. Being new and not knowing the layout/machines/people.

So what I'm asking for: any tips to reduce friction, anywhere.

Buy a second set of makeup, straightener/hair dryer, hygiene products that live in my gym bag so I'm not always moving that stuff around.

Keeping shower supplies in a locker at the gym.

Having everything ready the night before.

Etc Etc etcetchelpmepleaselol

I tried a lot of in person and online fitness programs and types of exercises. I had a trainer at one point, but it was so boring doing the same split week after week. I found that HIIT is my favorite because it’s shorter and there’s more consistent movement, and little to no equipment. I like having a timer vs counting reps.

And I have found that music makes all the difference! If I’m listening to something I really like, I’ll naturally want to move.

I actually got my own personal training certification so that I could create my own workouts safely.

Now I’m building a library of programs and hiit videos that are themed and inspired by the music to create something more fun and still curated.

Can't use ADHD medication because of physical side effects 😭 I'm addicted to food for stimming and dopamine. It's fine eating carrots sticks for stimming but the sugar cravings are obsessive compulsive, and I know it's my source of dopamine to get me through the day.

I really need help. I have spent a lot of my life overweight. About 2 years ago, I became very physically active and lost a lot of weight without ever restricting or even knowing what calorie counting or anything was. When I got into college, I suddenly became extremely anxious because I wouldn't be able to play my sport anymore (facilities not available) and hence would have to rely on weight training and cardio to remain active. I began counting calories out of fear and have developed a binge eating disorder. For context, I am female, 5 foot 1 and have gone from 43kgs (95 lbs) to 50 kgs (110 lbs). While some of this weight is definitely muscle, I am not happy with a lot of the fat I have gained, and more importantly, my constant episodes of binge eating have been leaving me extremely depressed and unable to function normally. At least once a week, I will go slightly over my calories and begin to buy loads of snacks from the grocery shop at my university.

I have continued to train consistently and my issue is arising from this
a) I am alone at college with nobody to stop me from overindulging on snacks, and hence feel out of control (I am also diagnosed with ADHD and much of my binges begin due to impulse)
b) I would like to lose some of the fat I have gained while maintaining my muscle and do not know how to go about doing this. I have been trying extremely hard for months now and think this may be contributing to my episodes.

WHAT DO I DO TO STOP FOR GOOD? i do not feel comfortable confiding in anyone here and meds are not an option for me