Episode 368-From Mislabels To Meaning: A Functional Nutritionist ADHD and More with Amy Jones

You can feel it the moment someone finally says, “Oh, that’s why.” Amy Jones joins us for a candid, funny, and deeply human talk about living most of her life without an ADHD diagnosis, getting labeled with everything but the real answer, and how that one missing piece rewrote her entire story. We sit with the grief of “what could have been,” but we spend even more time on what relief can look like when you stop treating yourself like the problem and start understanding how your brain actually works.

We also go straight into neurodivergent parenting, because the real learning happens in the small moments. We talk about building a home where kids can speak up, practice self-advocacy, and feel safe telling the truth about what’s hard. There’s a powerful segment on noticing empathy, naming it out loud, and how reinforcement can shape growth over time. If you’re raising kids with ADHD or autism, you’ll recognize the invisible weight of accommodations, sibling dynamics, and trying to give your children what you didn’t have.

Amy brings a practical lens as a functional nutritionist and ADHD life coach: nutrient imbalances, meal timing, blood sugar crashes, and why “just do the healthy thing” falls apart when executive function is tapped out. Her best advice is system-first and shame-free. We talk about externalizing decisions, building default grocery lists, planning for the worst day, and even using tools like voice notes to share the mental load of variety and meal ideas at home.

If this conversation helps you, subscribe, share it with a friend who needs it, and leave a review so more neurodivergent families can find the support they’ve been missing.

Transcript

Welcome And Summit Invitation

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Hi, and welcome to the SG Child Show. Today, I am so excited to bring you my new friend that we have just been laughing already this morning. This is going to be such a great conversation. And listeners and views, I know you're going to enjoy it. You're going to get so much value out of the resources we're going to share. And just as always, please reach out if you have any questions. If you want to be a guest, invite a guest, have a topic you want me to talk about. So don't forget to reach out. Uh, you could find me on all my social medias, and this will come out in between the weeks of the summit. So don't forget to go to streamable.live. That's where you can find the 1 in 31 Autism Connection. If I can say my own summit name, Autism 1 in 31 Connection Autism Summit. That's because I was backwards in it. So please come and join us. You can register. You don't have to if you don't want to. You can just show up and watch it. It'll be streaming live on all my social medias and on the website itself. Oh my gosh, it's going to be the most amazing, amazing event. 86 speakers, 20 live panels, pre-recorded sessions, and even spotlights from our amazing friends, our non-speaking communicators like Elizabeth Bonker. She will be our spotlight speaker. So please come and join us. Thank you so much, Amy, for letting me get all of that out. It's so nice to have you here today.

SPEAKER_02 1:34

Oh, thank you. And and the summit sounds fantastic. I'm looking forward to it.

SPEAKER_01 1:38

Wow. It's it's so incredible. And you know, our we have incredible sponsors that came forward to support. They know that I'm just working, you know, every day, just straight from my heart at this computer, just putting out all the things I can. And I really appreciate and I'm so grateful for all of the support. And the fact that, you know, we had a hundred speaker signups within like a week and a half. I mean, that is like people running towards it, like literally in a sprinter.

SPEAKER_02 2:14

Right?

SPEAKER_01 2:14

Yes. Yes, yes. And it the buzz and the excitement and all of the energy around it. And, you know, this incredible thing happened. And it's kind of funny. It's just so telling of the name itself, the one in 31 connection. And I emailed everyone there was gonna be a speaker, and within that first couple of days, all of a sudden, there were, and I didn't do like a blind carbon copy, I just emailed everyone. Call it my bad email habits, but you know, everyone started replying all and introducing themselves, and all of a sudden, it became this beautiful, like opening, introductory kind of networking thread of emails of all of the panelists and speakers introducing and getting to know one another. I I couldn't believe it. My heart was already like, this is it, this is exactly what I want. This is this is why I'm doing this. We could have just stopped at the email thread. No, I'm just joking.

Creating Connection That Sparks Collaboration

SPEAKER_01 3:20

But yeah, I was just so it just it made me made me a little cry so heartwarming to see that. And such everybody wants to be seen and heard and known and you know valued and belong. And I really think that there is like a turn in our society or an opportunity, if you will, for it's opening up and it's being accessible, and it's easier now than ever to be a part of those things, just like today, you know, having you here.

SPEAKER_02 4:02

Yes. Well, and I think that's such a testament to I mean, not just your energy, but your the opportunity that you're providing, you know, the signups alone, but then the fact that everyone felt so comfortable to just reply all and share. And right, like I think that's me. I couldn't believe it. Yeah, yeah. And I think that's you know, that I definitely that's the common threat I see personally within all of the work that you do. And you know, really diving into a lot of your your episodes and your podcast. I that's that's how I feel. That's why I'm standing here today, because of exactly that kind of I don't know, just the environment that you create, the space that you create for others.

SPEAKER_01 4:45

Thank you. Oh my gosh, I appreciate that so much. And I for me, it's like I always think of it and kind of joke that I'd like to build playgrounds for people to come. Like I'm making my own parties, right? I'm having my own online parties here. Like it's kind of selfish if you ask me, no, you know, and but what it is, it's so truly incredible. And even last year, there was uh just I don't know why it always comes back to my mind, just because I guess the moment that it happened, I saw it physically, and I it was like, wow, it was an AI and innovation panel, and we had some pretty big speakers that were talking about their products or the companies they worked for, and then two of them said, Oh my gosh, we should see what we could do together. And in that moment, it was just like fireworks and all of this stuff. And I was like, wow, how many lives could we change right here with just this one connection of these two huge companies coming together? Like I had no intentions of that, like that wasn't my purpose, but wow, I'm so I'm so grateful for that. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:04

Oh, absolutely. That's so beautiful, and I think those little moments, even you know, as an entrepreneur myself, uh we don't always accept them, and we're we're working often so hard to put ourselves in places and positions and environments where we can expand, but then it's actually like in those moments where you don't expect it when you're being your most most authentic self. You're not even thinking about it, and then it's something like that happens, right? Like I think that's

Amy Jones And A Missed ADHD Story

SPEAKER_02 6:30

magic. I love it.

SPEAKER_01 6:32

I love it. Oh, Amy, thanks for being here. I am here with Amy Jones today. Let us start this podcast the right way. Please introduce yourself, let us know a little bit about you, and we'll get into this great conversation.

SPEAKER_02 6:45

Yeah, I am a functional nutritionist and an ADHD life coach. I also taught high school visual art, as we do as an ADHD or we're doing all kinds of different things for 20 years. And I think, you know, why I'm standing here in front of you is because I spent the majority of my life struggling with anxiety, generalized anxiety disorder, depression was labeled on that, BPD was slapped on that, whole bunch of stuff, right? Everything except for ADHD throughout my entire life. At one point, I was even told I was medication resistant and I went through some very intensive, you know, alternative treatments that were not helpful. Um, but and nobody was asking about ADHD or even thinking about it. And I wasn't either at that point. And the only reason I started to think about it was because my youngest son was diagnosed at six years old. And I was like, oh, this looks familiar and interesting. And and that's where I really started to push, right? And I had to push, I had to, I just had to advocate for myself. Like I've never had to advocate before. And as soon as that, and it wasn't so much about the diagnosis, it's about what the diagnosis would would allow me to learn about myself and learn about my brain. And it and it literally like rewrote my entire life story. And, you know, I went through some grief in terms of like what could have been, but I was like, what doesn't matter? What could have been? Like this is amazing now. Let's here we go, you know? Yeah. And so I think what it gave me the most was I just always felt like there was something wrong with me. I was the problem. Why couldn't I just, you know, suck it up or whatever, right? But there was a there was a very good reason, many good reasons for that. So, and so when I my my youngest was diagnosed, the pandemic hit. Oh my gosh, the whole thing was just, you know, how everybody knows how that felt. And it gave me that time to pause and and decide whether or not I, you know, I wanted to keep going in this direction based on, you know, this new information about how my brain functions. And and that's when I decided to take a leap. And I went back to school for holistic nutrition and then added another certification for functional nutrition on top of that, which is sort of adding in sort of like testing and other things. And I started my business and then really focusing in and honing in on ADHD and neurodivergence, and and nothing worked. And I'd have clients and they'd be like, Yep, this is all great, amazing. And then I would literally work with them two, three sessions and I'd never see them again. And I kept reaching out, like, what's going on? Talk to me here. And and I realized there's this huge piece that I'm missing with neurodivergence and ADHD, just any sort of neurotype in this area, because there's a behavior piece. There's like, I can't, but I can't do it. I know, but I just don't know how to do it. And I'm I'm ashamed and I I don't, I, you know, there was all of that. I was like, whoa, wow, clearly I need to go back to school again and my ADHD life coaching certification. And I'm actually, I just it it's amazing like what it's opened up, I think, for my clients and for me and for my children. Um, you know, and I'm I'm always thinking about thinking that metacognition thing, and I'm going back to school to do my master's in neuroscience in starting in September, again, part-time within

Grief, Freedom, And Self-Trust After Diagnosis

SPEAKER_02 10:20

all of this. I don't know how, but I think that's where yeah, you have to. I just have to know as much as I can know in order to support others. Like that's kind of my MO. And the behavior thing is, you know, all the whole thing. That's kind of that's really the work that I do now. And my teaching experience really, I didn't realize how much it lends itself to all of this. And, you know, and so when I think about, you know, not being diagnosed the majority of my life, I'm like, but it allowed me to to do something that really supports what I do now, which is where I was meant to be all this time, right? It's so it's amazing how life works like that, right?

SPEAKER_01 11:01

Oh boy, serendipitous. I couldn't agree more. And I I felt the same way, like the isolation, the not belonging, the always feeling like I have these little ears, and I always felt like, oh, that's why I'm different. People just look at me and I'm different, and that's why I feel so different from them. But you know, I kind of make the joke that I could open my own store with the amount of drama queen keychains, t-shirts, and other items I got as presents throughout my life. Thank you very much, family, for you know, just always, you know, taking it to the extreme. And it really plays a role in your self-esteem, in your, you know, self-assurance of yourself, just all the self-fings. Thank you. And I it, you know, I think that I am now maybe it's because I just turned 50 and I'm just not afraid to say those things anymore or who hears it or whatever, because it was my experience. And the people who don't like hearing it, that's just that's too bad, I guess. Is like I'm not being ungraceful to them in any way. I'm just talking about my own experience and you know, their lack of knowledge during that time isn't a fault of anyone's, it was the time, the era, all of those things. Otherwise, maybe we would have been have better resources for ourselves back then. But it also lent us an experience to force our way through these uncomfortable things, through these the employment that you know was hard sometimes, being I don't know, I really struggled with leadership, or maybe like that role of I couldn't say no. And so they would always say, you can never be a manager, you could never, you could never, you know, and it's like, oh, what is wrong? Why can't I get to that part of me? Like, what is that, you know, stopping that? It was the fight or flight, and it was the not understanding that the maybe narcissist behavior that I had grown so accustomed to reacting to and behaving by actually became a part of myself, even though that the person wasn't even around me anymore. So, and I think that that plays a role in now being like digging through, kind of like you said, grieving the oh well, I could have been, I could have had, I could have this, and then really recognizing wow, now I have these superpowers and I have these strengths and skills that other people look at me and say, How do you do this? And I'm just like, it's Tuesday. What do you mean? It's this what I do on Tuesday.

SPEAKER_02 14:13

This I think I said that exact thing to you.

SPEAKER_01 14:17

It's just Tuesday, yeah. And I, but I I also am like the fact that I can now have that perception to overlay over my relationship with my husband, my kids, my parents in a way that maybe they're never going to understand, they're never going to accept, they're never gonna listen to this podcast, so it's okay. And you know, they've are still, you know, in the mindset that I'm sure many, many older generations are, in that it shouldn't be talked about, it should be, you know, you put on a good face when you are out there. You no stimming, no behaving badly, you know, even though you're behaving like a human, none of that. So yeah, the the then being able to be free, if you will, you know, just in my own self and clicking on my pen or whatever I need to do, you know, nobody has that option to tell me not to do it anymore. So yeah, it's it's this like, okay, I'm okay. I'm okay. It's not because I have little ears. Amy likes me because I am, you know, because I'm very similar to her more than anything, I think. So yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:46

Oh, I love that. And I like your the idea like being free, right? And I think, and I I think what popped into head is my my own son, my youngest, who was the original diagnosis of ADHD in our family, but then also

Parenting Neurodivergent Kids Without Shame

SPEAKER_02 16:00

autism level one eventually, so a couple of years later. And and I think that's what I'm uh what I feel all the time is is I want him to feel that same level of freedom. And I know that's not the same because I, you know, didn't have it's freedom to me because now I understand and I spent so much time not understanding, but I want him to have that license or or I don't know, and it's so it's so hard for them, right? At that, you know, he's 10. Yes. They're where, how, you know, I think that's where to me it just feels like I'm on fire. Like I can't, this is amazing. And I now I understand. And when I hit a roadblock or I hit something that's difficult, I'm like, okay, what is it here? What's what's happening exactly here? How do I break this down? How do I figure out how to accommodate or support this? And, you know, and for him, he he is very open about all of it, but he is, but the shame is still there. And, you know, just the support that I think we have to give as parents also to support that is is gosh, it takes a lot out of me too, you know, to help them feel that same feeling. Like this is just this is this is just a neurotype here, not just, but it is this neurotype. And there's so many, like I'm almost, you know, grieving the loss of, like you said, our own parents or wherever else, whoever else, just never fully being able to understand. And it's hard, you know, and and but that it gives me freedom when I look at that, and and I my son can't understand that, yeah, you know, because he's not yet, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 17:41

Not yet. Not he has just hasn't experienced enough, but he may be able to, and that's a hopeful thing that I love hope. I think that that's a great thing to to look at, and you know, that's so interesting. And I think we have a ton of this opportunity. I have an older stepdaughter who's in her 20s and moved out and has a family, and we're not in touch or anything, and so I have this like lacking. So once again, we have this lack, and then we have this perception differently because we have it and we have to deal with that. And your kiddo doesn't have that, and neither does mine. And my my youngest, when she was little, I would always say to her, you don't love anybody more than yourself, you don't love me, your dad, your grandma, nobody. You love you more than yourself every day of your whole life. That's it. No other, nothing, nothing more. And so, I mean, I you know, I didn't know what that who that could create, what that could do for a person. I just know I didn't have it. And I wanted her to have that opportunity to feel that way her whole life, not just figure it out in her 30s or your 40s, you know, like you after you've lived practically like this entire lifetime of things. And but I wanted her to really just always have that value within herself to never question it. And not that she never would, that's not a true statement, but just that she'd have that strength and that like ideal that I would always put in her mind that she always came first. And I am I am I admire her more than anyone in the world. I think I'm closer to her than anyone right now. She's 14, and we're in just like this really close, close, amazing relationship. And oh man, I I couldn't, I wouldn't have it any other way. And for her to, she also got her diagnosis at eight, ADHD autism dyslexia. And I think that it was because her brother is two years older than her, is you know, uh profoundly autistic. For her, it was more like, okay, this is this is who I am, this is what I, you know, this is my things kind of a thing. And it was never something she questioned or didn't like about herself, or or now the dyslexia, yes, those things reared their ugly challenges several times, and and we had some hard times through that. But as far as like I think when her dad and I both understood that we were, you know, our identification of Audi HD, if you will, we she saw that we were like kind of like a thing, you know, and we were like, congratulations, welcome to our team, you know, kind of a thing. And so it was it was more of a we're all and I was the last one to find out, so I would always be like, Well, what if I'm not like what if I don't belong still? What if you all have this common thread and I still don't? But I did. So right? Gosh, cry baby. It's just so incredible though, like how that type of thing can bring people closer together in that family unit. And I think that, you know, celebrating yourself, I think you couldn't do or be a better example for him doing that.

SPEAKER_02 21:21

Yeah, thank you. I appreciate that. And I I think I just thought about that. I love that, you know, and I've heard you speak about your your daughter too in your relationship as well in your podcast. And I just think it's like yeah, gosh, I I just I I hope that's my hope for the future, something similar to that. But even with my oldest, and I I think we've struggled because you know, when there's two kids and one, and you I know you know this very well, but you know, there's one who seems to get not necessarily all the attention, but maybe more support or accommodation than the other. And my oldest also is, you know. Neurodivergent as well. He's he's in the SPD realm. I do think there is just some sort of ADHD in there, but in terms of like something different. It's not about the hyperactivity for sure. Yeah. But there's something going on like and and and that's where we are always talking about this is this neurotype and this like you know, this scale and where we are at on that and and how everyone's brain is on that together. It's a human experience. Yeah. And and and so, you know, explaining it to him, he still pushes back a lot. He's, I think, you know, 11 going on 18, I think.

SPEAKER_00 22:35

Of course not. 11. 11. Get it, I get it.

SPEAKER_02 22:40

But like I think we we had sort of a we were on holiday last week and I think we had a bit of a breakthrough. And I was like, you know, like I'm your person here. Like this is, you know, this to me looks like what might be happening. And maybe, you know, can you tell me if that's what might be happening and how can I support you? And we just had such a great conversation, and we haven't really had a chance to do that because I'm always dealing with the other one. And it gave us that beautiful time. And he was like, Mama, I didn't know that we could talk like this. And I was just like, Oh my god, but that's amazing, right? Like we just keep now.

SPEAKER_01 23:17

You can now you that now you're there, like that is now it's been set up. Now you can, you know, make some special time or whatever. Go, you know, just grab his hand and go out of the house for a minute, take him behind, you know, let's have a little chat for a second, you know, make it as it feels really like special and honored. And uh no, I I I agree, and it's it's tricky when you know, I I don't think my son would he's the cognizance of expectations is in there, other than he needs his uh, you know, chips and his water and his internet working, but the expectations of people uh you know there was interesting. There was an interesting I love the show Autism Live. I don't know if you've ever seen that show. I love it. I love Shannon and I are great friends, I love her dearly. And I she was having a show about darn it, now I'm gonna forget how to say it. It's where you are thinking about how somebody else might be engaging in like your conversation, so considering others basically is the the bottom line. And she was saying that if your child, you know, it can show that they can consider others, then that is like a life skill that can be grown upon and and learned and and added to. And I always kind of thought, and you know, I guess it that's that's a horrible thing to say. Sorry, DJ. Presume confidence here, Sarah. I, you know, just that he maybe didn't have that ability to have that kind of liked reciprocative awareness of of one another. And uh something happened the other day, and I can't remember if it was like I said, ouch, or I sneezed or something, and he yelled, Are you okay, Ma? And I went, Oh, oh my gosh, he just thought of me. He thought, is my mom okay? Did something something happen to my mom? Like and it was in that moment that I thought, oh yes, this is that skill she was talking about, this is that thing I doubted that you know, and and I just needed to see it in an actual, like tangible way, so that I understood.

SPEAKER_02 25:41

Yeah, yeah. Wow, oh my gosh, yeah, there's so much there. Oh my, we could go off on a whole other tangent right now.

SPEAKER_01 25:50

And it is so much, and nobody you know, somebody like you can understand how much that really is, but I could tell my neighbor and they wouldn't, oh, good for you, right? No, it wouldn't mean anything. Like I said, you kind of look at it, like, huh? That's like, no, you don't understand. That came out of that tiny experience. Oh my gosh, yeah. So, and I told him I was proud of him. I went and I was like, Do you know what you just did? Like, you have you're you're showing empathy. You you heard mom say, you said, mom, are you okay? Like, I'm so proud of you that that's so great, DJ. And I think that he's unaware that he's that's a thing or he needs so I think that reminding him and kind of trying to teach in those moments, you know, it's so hard to know what to teach and how to teach, like inside core value or like feelings about others. Oh my gosh, it it seems impossible someday.

SPEAKER_02 27:02

But I think that's a lot that you know, that praise, that reinforcement, that you know, that action or that what whatever happened for for him in that moment, it that's gonna be the rewiring too, right? That neuroplasticity piece. So now he's associating this with your re wonderful reaction and and love and and that's just gonna keep keep going, right? He's just gonna feel that again and and can start to recognize it. Like that's wonderful that, you know, there's so many of us that don't, and I I am a very guilty of this with my own children, is that I don't, you know, acknowledge or name things enough, even though I know, like, you know, I'm much like you in that sense, I know how important that is. And and I think it's hard to, we're so busy to be able to do that all the time, but the but it's so unbelievably like biologically altering in terms of our brain, right? It actually makes a huge difference in terms of how we grow, right? Every day and how our kids, how our kids learn about how their brain works, also, you know, that's huge, that's beautiful.

SPEAKER_01 28:15

And it really is. It gives them, you know, especially maybe not DJ yet, and maybe someday in his life, but Anna definitely now has that self-advocacy skill.

Teaching Self-Advocacy And Noticing Empathy

SPEAKER_01 28:26

You know, she can, she knows like what I want her to stick up for herself about and where she's in those environments where she's safe or she still needs me. That's okay too. That's okay too. Even though your kids are learning self-advocacy, they don't have to be put on blast, put on spot, made to do it. Like that is just as damaging as uh, you know, a lot of other of other notions. But I think that just being available, telling them, like, yeah, you're okay, you can do this is great. But also if they have pushback, you know, no, I I don't I can't do this. Like, okay, well, what would make it easier for you to do it? You know, maybe there's some options you could give first, and then okay, well, let me see if I can help and jump in there and then do it. And it's and it's tricky, just like buying things at the grocery store. I mean, just it was the trickiest uh thing to uh start to uh teach my little introvert to it's okay, like you don't need to stand behind me in line, you can stay in front and ask for what you need, you know, kind of a thing. Yeah, those are some skills that they just don't tell you you're gonna need to teach. There's no parent rule book out there, folks. So, you know, find all these wonderful pieces you can and just try them out as much as you can.

SPEAKER_02 29:55

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I that's beautiful. And I the advocacy thing, I think, is oh, that's like a beast, definitely for our family as well. And and be and and avoidance, right? And I think a lot of us do that even as adults without even realizing. But I think the language that you're giving them and how the support is showing up in this really positive way is is incredible. I think they're they're very lucky to have you.

SPEAKER_01 30:22

Thank you. I feel so lucky to have them. I felt like you know, an only child with of divorced parents, and I was very just like lonely and never really felt belonged to or about or anything. And so to kind of have this, I don't, I don't even remember this. I don't remember the moment where I felt whole and not broken anymore. Like I don't even know when that, like I couldn't even tell you it's been decades now, you know, at least two decades. And it's so oh, it's so beautiful. I just I know that they I don't take it for granted. I think that that's a huge part of it is having that contrast, right? Once again, we have lack, then we can appreciate the the other side of it. But what if you are supposed to come into this world and not have lack and be given what you need and be supported? Like, will you still not have those contrasting abilities? I don't know. I don't know what that looks like. Maybe I'm doing it all wrong, Amy, right? Who knows? We never know. Like it's it's just like it's it's a strange, it's like this strange gift, right? We have it, it's a double-edged sword, and we can definitely like make things better and and but all at the same time, what if there's never any lack? Like, will that be a problem? Like, will that come to face something in the future and be an ugly head that we also have to face? You know, I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 32:09

Yeah, well, I highly doubt you're doing anything all wrong. Let me tell you.

SPEAKER_00 32:14

I know my husband are always like, we didn't know, they could tell us one day we hated this all. I know, I doubt it.

SPEAKER_02 32:21

I know, I think about that all the time too. Yeah, and that's a hard one because we're we're doing like, you know, the work that you're doing, what who you who are you you're supporting? And every single day of your life is gosh, you're doing such amazing work. And I think that's where I think we're just gonna have to hold on to that, both of us. Because right now, like 20 years from now, it might be absolutely like, oh my gosh, I can't even believe, but we don't know, and this is the path, right? This is the this is still way better than what we were dealt early on in our lives, right? So yeah, but I think, yeah, I think you're yeah, I don't think you have to worry.

SPEAKER_01 33:01

Oh, you know, and we all do, I think we all as parents hope that we are doing right to for our kids that you know, and I think that one big huge lesson I learned in through raising my stepdaughter and then having the opportunity to, you know, raise my kids in a a decade later, so quite a bit of a different maturity level was that preparing them for independence looks like making them independent before you prepare them for independence.

Building Independence With Real Practice

SPEAKER_01 33:36

That's confusing, that can be kind of scary, and but learn, but that's what we want. We want our kids to leave the house someday, to find their family, to make their own, to have their own careers. We have to do that by teaching them to leave, to get out, to be independent. It's the most conflicting thing ever, but I think that this time around, I'm really seeing the growth that it has in this individual to say, yeah, these are the things like here's a you know, we haven't done it yet, but I have considered like here's a debit card for this summer. You'll budget this. This is how much you'll get a week or whatever. Like when you're done, that's it. Like, you're gonna need to understand how to start budgeting it. Nobody ever did that with me, they just world and you had to figure it out on your own. What the heck? So I think the practicing now is just the best thing I could possibly do. And you know, I think that some maybe you know, my own parents would say is she's too young, she's too young for this, this, this, and this. And I'm saying, no, absolutely not. This is the exact time that we're doing this because this is what's where her maturity is, this is where her level of intelligence and her, you know, ready for this part of life. That's what we're we're doing. Like, I'm I I can't go off of these old patterns and systems that didn't work for me, didn't work for my oldest stepdaughter. I won't do it again. Like, I'm not gonna be the what do they say, you know, repeating the same patterns and insanity. So, no, we're not gonna do that. We're gonna be trying new things and finding new ways and and getting like new results because yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:40

Yeah, and I think that's such a good true testament to your relationship with your daughter in that sense too, and how how well you know her and where she's at, and also like this wonderful opportunity. Every time, you know, I notice, especially in my oldest right now, I'm trying thinking the same way, like really pushing the independence piece, not allowing, but offering more opportunity to for freedom and for responsibility and for natural consequences when things don't go the way that we want them to go, or he wants them to go. And but he lights up when he gets those opportunities, even though they're hard. And and and I think this is what I hear too, with you talking about your daughter, that but we're still here. Like we're gonna walk you through, we're not gonna just throw you in the deep end. It's we're here, and then let's look at, especially for someone with ADHD, like we're we're gonna support you and let's figure out what's hard about this. Because I didn't, you know, thinking about the debit card thing, especially with managing money and ADHD, we know that that's not necessarily easy all the time. No, how does that how does that look differently for my child? And versus, you know, what oh, and what my experience was, and how do we build something different that works for them, right? Their own unique brain in this situation, whatever it might be, debit card or whatever else, right? And I think that's what's so beautiful about that, too, is is we we get that honor, I feel like, to be able to be there and and support from a different lens. I think that's a big piece too, that I keep just thinking about as you're speaking, because we're thinking differently about thinking differently in terms of whatever we're counting, right? I think it, I think that's yeah, I just keep feeling that.

SPEAKER_01 37:31

Um we kind of have like a head up in it, like a little bit of a a head start or a a secret tip, if you will, or something.

SPEAKER_00 37:40

Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:42

I love that.

Functional Nutrition Systems For ADHD Life

SPEAKER_01 37:43

Tell us about your business, um, where we can find you, online website, all of that stuff. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 37:50

So I think, and I gosh, in terms of what I do and how I would describe it to people, definitely, you know, there's a lot of people who, you know, I say I'm a functional nutritionist, and everybody just wants to run in the other direction because nobody really understands what that even means. What like, are you just gonna make me eat kale 24-7? And I'm just like, no, this is not what it's about. And especially in this context, it's really about uh in terms of the nutrition piece. I look a lot for nutrient imbalances, especially those that are quite more often than not show signs for most neurodivergents. So there's lots of things like B vitamins because they're a they play a huge role in energy production, which ours is kind of all over the place, right? And and we can deplete it really quickly depending on what the task is. And so, kind of with an eye to some of these things, looking at meal patterns. So, how often are you eating and when and where might your blood sugar be crashing and contributing to gosh, emotional dysregulation plus a million other things, sort of looking at stabilizing a lot of that and then, but also really the real work here, and this is this behavior, like, you know, cognition piece is building these systems to support your daily life. So, you know, just making sure we can eat regularly, what is standing in the way of that, especially if you were a parent or especially if you have a child who might be a really picky eater, or you know, we're exhausted and we're running around trying to take everybody else, and then you're like, wait a second, I haven't eaten for eight hours. Like, what is happening here? So, really looking at that, why is this happening? You know, from that coaching perspective, how what's hard when you walk into the kitchen and it's you know 6 p.m. and you're exhausted from a full workday? We know that you're exhausted already. Your capacity, you don't have anything left. So, where, you know, and so that's often when we pick up the phone and call takeout. And that's okay. And we actually build takeout into our system together because it is, it is, it's a wonderful thing, especially when we know that there's a day that's going to be hard, or maybe for our child, and we can build in something like that in order to support us and support our nervous system that way. But it's really about like turning meal planning, whatever that is. I feel like it's a swear word or square phrase or something. Like I hate it because it's not necessarily about planning, it's about I think awareness of where your capacity is at in whatever moment it might be or throughout the day and where those fluctuations are, and then building a system for your absolute worst days. And that's what I do. I'm like, I'm like, nobody wants to talk to me because I'm like, tell me what the worst day, I want to know the worst day and what happened, and and you know, and especially with ADHD, we're like, oh, the judgment and and the shame. And I'm like, no, no, no, we're pulling all of that away. These are the reasons why you're feeling like this. Shame is coming up because of this, but this is what's actually happening in the moment, like physiologically. And and then how do we actually tackle building something that doesn't feel hard? A lot of it is has to do with externalizing, getting it out of our head. So sometimes even just writing down your top three meals that you know most people will like, because that's you know, if you have a family, there's no way either one thing, but whatever. You write them down, you stick them on your making them, getting them out of your head. So you just took one more decision, or you just took the the you know, the weight off of your working memory in that moment because you don't have to, you don't have to think it up. You don't have to retrieve it, right? It's there, it's in front of you. And then that goes on a default grocery list that we build, and you always have those ingredients and we figure out how to do that. And then you can come home and it, everything just feels like, oh, it's a little easier, right? And we build in the actual prep to it's you know, habit stacking. We attach it to something else you're already doing in the kitchen. If you're in there, let's wash something or let's chop one thing, not seven, one. Because we like to do seven because we're like, woo, no, just do one, right? Just do that, yeah, right. And then we it's in the fridge in a clear glass container at eye level when you open it, and then we can look and assemble rather than have to think. So it's like removing decisions, yeah, removing steps. That's huge. That's what we're doing here. And then we're removing, it's not even about necessarily the what of what you're eating, because we all know we need to eat more protein and blah, blah, blah. But this is what the struggle is, I think. For I know for me, I mean, I gosh, we're we're never perfect at what we support others with. And I still struggle with so many things. But but this is these are the game changers. And and really being creative and approaching, you know, walking into that kitchen, might be dinner time, might be breakfast, whatever your trigger is, where you don't eat properly or something happens that you're not happy with, really approaching it from but what's hard here and how do we make this easier? And just and going from there, it's so fun. Like, I I love like this is 100% my wheelhouse. I love this. I get so excited about it because it's like the sky's the limit. We can design anything, like there's no rules, right?

SPEAKER_01 43:14

We're

Variety, Repetition, And Easier Grocery Decisions

SPEAKER_01 43:15

gonna have another episode so we can just completely break down all of these things because um now we're gonna be going into like an hour something, and oh no, but um what what about this? Here's my thing that my family just barely said to me you never get anything different, you always get everything the same. Yeah, I'm like, come to the store then tell me what to get different. Like, my brain can't pick up different things. I don't know what to get you. I you've got to communicate with me. It's so hard to do that because I just don't know. I just I literally feel like I'm just like what do you call it? Those Wheels that go around, you know, for a water house or whatever. I'm just wrong. Dump in the water, picking it up, dumping the water, picking it up. Here's the groceries, eat them. Here's the groceries, eat them. All right. And I'm never like getting exciting things. But no, I think that's that would be a definitely like a big complaint in our family. Do you offer other ideas or do you is there, do you send people to any kind of sites and say, here's a list of other, you know, culture, cultural foods to choose from? Oh, I don't know, something like that. And and what do you tell somebody that has that problem?

SPEAKER_02 44:35

In terms of like variety, you mean? Yeah. First of all, I validate that exactly what you're doing is actually your nervous system protecting itself. So repetition, and that's actually one of the, you know, this kind of not a strategy, but it's kind of like a system that we use. Where can we repeat so that you actually take out decision making or too many steps? Like we that repetition, especially for neurodivergence, like it gives us that safety. And you know, even for kids too. And that's where there, you know, is a lot of pushback, especially with younger ones who are classified as picky eaters in that way. Because it is their nervous system, it's their way of protecting that part of them. And and food or meals might be really stressful. And so that's a way that they don't really understand what's going on. But that's could be what happened, it is happening with you, obviously, in that sense too. And then also, you know, I spot I have this exact problem, honestly, Sarah, with my own kids. I'm like, but just tell me like what else? And I'm always like, what else do you see? What else do you see in terms of lunches and they're bored of things? And one thing that I think has helped us too is we have like a Google system, like with all the speakers, and we just yell, I yell the grocery list, I yell to add this to the grocery list because I can't stop and write it. See, so that's not a thing. So I I just tell them and like you tell, like I don't care if it shows up, I will go get it. You tell it. So you don't have to tell me, I don't care. And I mean, yes, yeah. So something like that can really help for sure. And and then, you know, even in that moment where I'm offering them dinner and putting something on the table before we have to run out the door, and they're like, oh, and I'm like, what? What is it? Tell Google right now what you would prefer. Like, grab that moment, and then it'll help that even if they can't do it the first couple of times, they'll eventually start to do it. Yes, you know what I mean? So there's those little things like really tuning in for and it's for them, like they're not sure either, right? They're not sure, but they just want something different, but they don't know what.

SPEAKER_01 46:35

No, I love that. I think that uh that's a huge practice. I think I'm trying to tell my kiddos to like always like tell me what you're thinking, like, what are you thinking right now? Like, I I need to know what's going on, like, explain it all. And I think that I see that that's being practiced, and then some adults will be like, well, they shouldn't, you know, talk back or they shouldn't. And it's like, no, this is their opportunity as a human to practice what they need to do in advocating and sticking up and and protecting themselves, and that's what they're gonna do, and that's what I've taught them to do.

SPEAKER_03 47:10

So deal with it.

SPEAKER_00 47:12

Yeah, not safety, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 47:15

You've created that safety for them so that they're they know they're it's okay to say what's actually on their mind because they're safe no matter what, right?

SPEAKER_01 47:25

Yes, I I mean, I wish I could have been able to do that. I still don't do it. I still don't do it. I still will people please and put myself last in situations where I think that they'll be better off being happier than I would fulfilled in whatever way. And and that's not a great example or role that I should be fulfilling for them. So yeah, always work to do, always work to do, folks. Always working.

SPEAKER_02 47:56

But this is wonderful, so wonderful. Yeah, thank you.

SPEAKER_01 48:00

And I think we go online to yeah, finish what you were gonna say.

SPEAKER_02 48:04

No, no, no, no. I was just gonna say that. I think you asked me earlier to give you my contact information and I just fully did not. Sorry.

SPEAKER_01 48:10

No, I love that you went into that. I I am sorry that not sorry, sorry, but like I love our conversation. I like I want to have you back on so that we can really get into like all of the busy things that we didn't talk about today because we were busy talking about lifing things, but it's all wrapped into one when it comes down to it anyway. So, but please, I would I would love to have you back on and really like dive deep into those things.

SPEAKER_02 48:38

Yeah, oh, I would love to. Thank you. Yeah, yeah.

Where To Find Amy And Closing

SPEAKER_02 48:41

And you can find me at Amy Jonesnutrition.com. That's my website. I think Instagram is probably my bigger hub, and you can reach out at any time there too with questions or whatever it might be. So it's just at Amy Jones Nutrition. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 48:56

Is that right? Yeah, hopefully that's all right. Hi Amy Secretary Skills working here. Okay, wonderful. I love that. Um, yes, for everyone listening, that's Amy Jones Nutrition.com or um on IEG, go to Amy or at Amy Jones Nutrition and please connect with her. She's incredible. She has amazing energy, just amazing energy. I'm so excited we made this connection. Like totally soul sisters, just from country to country. Like it doesn't even isn't it's it so interesting how you can be like, how can you be so far away? I need you like as my neighbor so we can hang out.

SPEAKER_02 49:47

I know seriously, I thought that exact thing, and I just feel like this is just it just felt like having a chat with such a good friend who knows all of the crap that I go through every day. You know, like what a wonderful gift. And thank you, Pandemic, for giving us this because we sent them online every before in that sense, like the same way, the same sort of like push to connect in this way with technology. It's it's such a gift, so yeah.

SPEAKER_01 50:17

Thank you, thank you, pandemic.

SPEAKER_02 50:20

Weird, never thought.

SPEAKER_00 50:25

My new friend Amy, folks.

SPEAKER_01 50:28

Oh, it's so good to have you here today. Oh man, what a great upcoming weekend summit is starting on Friday morning at 9 a.m. I can't even believe it. It's overwhelming and exciting. So I hope everyone has a chance to jump onto streamable um and check that out. But for our show today, Amy Jones Nutrition, please go visit her on Instagram and her website, amejonesnutrition.com, and you can connect with her there. And we'll have her back on so we can have a deep dive into the actual work that she does. But for today, please enjoy this conversation as just uh, you know, getting to know her. And as always, I love to tell people, and it's funny, I didn't say this before, but sometimes when people are nervous or they haven't had a podcast, I always say, don't worry, at the end of this, we'll just be friends, and that's all you'll have done is just sat and talked with a friend the whole time. And so I think that yeah, that clearly is the case. So yes, thank you so much for your time. And I can't wait to stay in touch.

SPEAKER_02 51:39

Thank you. Oh, thank you for this opportunity, and just to get a chance to do all of this with you, I think is such it's such an honor to me and so much fun.

SPEAKER_01 51:46

Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, well, we'll be talking soon. And all of you listeners and viewers, thank you so much for your support.

SPEAKER_04 51:54

Have a great day, the heart of the city, she shined bright. Oh, yeah, stories of love and courage of that.