How “The Window” Helps Me Manage My ADHD Symptoms
There is no one-size-fits-all solution, but small, incremental efforts help lessen the mental load
When I was running cross country in college, a nutritionist gave a presentation on “the recovery window.” The concept was that after a run, you have a 30-minute window to optimize your recovery. In those 30 minutes, if you did not have a meal and eat, you would be compromising your post-run recovery.
This window was obviously a problem if we drove 30 minutes to an hour to run somewhere and could not feasibly get a meal in during that time period. This would lead to an all-or-nothing mindset, at times, where people felt forced to eat something within that period of time, so some people prepared by bringing protein bars or the like, while others felt compelled to stop and get food somewhere on the way back.
This “recovery window” has proven to be a lot more complicated on factors like whether the person has been fasting and what state of training the person is in. This window can last up to five or six hours, according to dietitian graduate student Sarah Katz.
Nutrition aside, the concept of this “window,” when applied to other areas of my life, has been critical, recently, in managing my ADHD. This summer, I have been doing…
