The Fit Different Manifesto

Building and maintaining a fit and healthy lifestyle is, outside of medical intervention, probably the number one most effective thing you can do to help with managing ADHD symptoms.

Building and maintaining a fit and healthy lifestyle is, outside of remembering your keys, probably the number one hardest thing for someone with ADHD to do.

I know this from personal experience. 

I’ve spent most of my life struggling to start or stick to an exercise routine.

I’ve spent most of my life consuming far more sugar than greens, and lifting more PlayStation controllers than dumbbells.

It’s tough for anyone to get into living healthily, but for us ADHDers, the nature of our condition makes all the usual challenges even harder.

Motivation to exercise? Yep, harder.

Not impulsively snacking? Yep, harder.

Keeping up with a routine after weeks or months? Haha, yeah, nah.

And yet, the cruellest of jokes is, that for people with ADHD, living healthily can have a dramatically positive impact on your symptoms.

From productivity, to focus, to motivation, to impulsivity, there isn’t a symptom that can’t be improved in some way by the right diet and the right amount of movement.

And so that’s why I started Fit Different.

I wanted to help people with ADHD access the power of exercise and nutrition, which in turn can help them with their ADHD.

A different way to Fitness

Here at Fit Different, my first task is to discover what makes you tick.

I will spend time ACTUALLY understanding your goals, your plans, your desires. 

And I will work with you to create a health and fitness journey tailored to all of this.

Doing this means we create a plan that actually sticks.

Flexible, fun, and frankly, at times, a bit weird, that’s not just how my mates describe me, it’s how I structure my programs.

I’m not coming at this from a position of theoretical knowledge only — this is backed by my own ADHD experience.

It’s true, what worked for me, may not work for you. 

But knowing HOW I got to something that worked for me and my ADHD, definitely does give me an advantage in finding a way to help you uncover your HOW too.

The 5 Basic Principles

Along my fitness journey, I have discovered, tested and confirmed a set of 5 basic principles for ADHD fitness success.

These 5 principles are backed by the science, but also my own experience:

1/ We do what works, no matter how weird it seems

What works for the adhd mind might seem totally alien to those without the condition.

but so what?

Screw trying to fit into the neurotypical box.

we do things that work for us, plain and simple.

2/ We find the perfect balance of routine and novelty

building routine is absolutely essential for people with adhd.

but i know as much as anyone, following a routine can be a pain in the arse.

So at fit different, we create routines that account for the adhd need for novelty too.

that means mixing things up and changing things out before they get boring.

3/ We set ambitious long-term goals, and realistic short-term goals

Having an ambitious long-term goal is like catnip for adhders. it gets us fired up, it feels worthwhile.

but at the same time, not having more realistic short-term goals, that help us see success on a daily or weekly basis, means that we’re likely to not see things out.

So together, we’ll create a long-term goal that feels just that little bit crazy and then break it down into more manageable short-term goals.

4/ We find our WHY and then find our HOW

Yeah, i nicked this one from simon sinek.

But it’s really important for people with adhd.

trying to do, well, anything, without a deeper meaning or value behind it, is pretty much impossible for us.

we need a why before we can settle on a how.

i’ll help you find your fitness why.

5/ We start with a Minimum Viable Plan and build from there

we have our why, we have our ambitious long-term goal.

it’s all looking great.

and then life takes over.

when the baby’s crying or the exam is looming or the work deadline is beckoning, the gym takes the backseat.

and that’s absolutely fine. that’s real life.

so how do we structure a health and fitness plan that accounts for this?

we create a minimum viable plan.

something that is so easy to do, it can fit around everything else life throws at you.

i’m talking 5 minutes of activity, or eating some spinach.

that level of easy.

as long as you hit your MVP most days, you’re moving forward.

everything else we do on top is the icing and cherry on the (sugar-free, low-carb) cake.

Taking it forward

Once we’ve addressed all of the above, we’ll work together to devise a plan to get you moving more and eating better.

and we’ll structure things in a way that works for you. 

Whether that’s having infrequent online check-ins or multiple in-person sessions weekly.

whether that’s doing individual training or group classes.

whether it’s top-level guidance on diet or in-depth meal recommendations.

So, if you like the sound of getting fit and healthy in a way that works with your ADHD, why not book in a call with me to discuss your goals and start your journey towards finding your fit!