If your relationship with food swings between forgetting to eat for hours and then not being able to stop once you finally do, this episode names exactly what’s happening. Jenna shares results from a poll of 700 ADHDers about their relationship with food and walks through what a healthy relationship with food actually looks like once dysregulation gets factored in.
She traces her own path from restrictive eating and body image struggles as a teenager to over a decade of intuitive eating, and ties that shift directly to the regulation work she teaches now. The swing between forgetting to eat and later bingeing traces back to a primal survival response. Going six hours without food registers in the body the same way an actual famine would, and hunger cues get easier to trust as regulation improves, no extra food rules required.
Here’s what’s covered:
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Why binge eating showed up as the top food struggle in Jenna’s poll of 700 ADHDers, well ahead of appetite loss from medication
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How restriction doesn’t have to be intentional; six hours without eating triggers the same response in the body as a famine
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Why honoring hunger cues, not tightening control over food, is what actually breaks the restrict-binge cycle
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How diet culture and beliefs about good and bad foods add pressure to the swing, even for people who assume body image has nothing to do with their food struggle
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What’s really driving emotional eating, and why the urge to reach for certain foods is often dysregulation wearing an emotion’s face
Jenna makes the case that intuitive eating and nervous system regulation work as one process, not two separate solutions, in healing your relationship with food. Regulated, you can hear hunger signals clearly enough to trust food again instead of white-knuckling through another rulebook.
“Restriction, regardless of the reason, is like holding your breath and then expecting yourself to breathe normally when you come out of the water.”
Jenna also pushes back on the instinct to keep the pressure on as insurance against future mistakes. Letting yourself off the hook isn’t the same as letting things slide. It’s what actually creates the calm, clear-headed state where you catch the milk on the shelf in the first place.
Jenna’s free ADHD Regulation Guide is a solid next step if any of this hit close to home.
For therapists and coaches who want a regulation-first framework for clients dealing with food and body struggles, the ADHD Regulation Method certification waitlist is open ahead of the September 2026 launch.
More on this approach is in The Simple Guide to ADHD Regulation, available at your local bookstore and library.
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More about ADHD with Jenna Free
ADHD with Jenna Free is a podcast for adults with ADHD who are done surviving their symptoms and ready to start thriving with ADHD, without the endless tips, hacks, and workarounds that have never really fixed anything. It’s also the show where therapists, coaches, and counselors come to deepen their understanding of treating ADHD in adults and learn what regulation-based care looks like in practice.
Hosted by Jenna Free, a Canadian Certified Counselor (CCC) and ADHD therapist, this show exists to give you a completely different way of understanding ADHD in adults. You’re stuck, overwhelmed, and exhausted because your brain is running on fight-or-flight. Willpower was never the solution, and once you understand that, everything changes.
I’ll answer questions like:
Do I have ADHD?
What is ADHD task paralysis, and how do I get unstuck?
Why is my ADHD getting worse in my 40s?
What do ADHD and perimenopause do to your brain?
How do I manage ADHD emotional dysregulation without medication alone?
Why do I procrastinate so much with ADHD?
Why don’t ADHD tips and tricks ever work long-term?
What does it look like to thrive with ADHD?
What does nervous system regulation have to do with ADHD?
How do I stop feeling overwhelmed with ADHD?
How do I get trained to treat ADHD in adults using a regulation-based approach?
What does ADHD therapist training through a regulation framework actually cover?
This podcast covers the full experience of living with adult ADHD: the real science behind procrastination in ADHD and ADHD task paralysis, why ADHD and perimenopause collide in ways no one talks about, and the solution-focused conversations most ADHD podcasts aren’t having. For practitioners, Jenna also gets into the clinical side: what nervous system regulation training looks like, how to apply a regulation framework with clients, and what ADHD coach certification and ADHD therapist training often omit. Jenna shares her own story throughout, what it looks like to go from chronically dysregulated to thriving, so whether you’re living with ADHD or working with people who are, you can see what’s possible.
This show gives adults with ADHD, newly navigating a late diagnosis, and clinicians seeking ADHD continuing education one thing: a clear path toward healing
If you’re an adult with ADHD who’s tired of the commiseration and ready for a show that believes your life can look completely different, or a practitioner who wants to understand ADHD at the nervous system level, you’re in the right place.