You've done this dance a million times. You've tried to lose weight, get fit, change your body to try to feel more stable inside the structure you're living in but nothing really sticks. You get frustrated, looking in the mirror, on your worst days you might tell yourself you're awful. Ugly. Unloveable. 

You search the internet for advice, consume social media posts about fitness. Every time you might feel uplifted, ready to give it a go - it must work right? This influencer has a great body. Other times you might tut to yourself and go back to your sofa. All they really said was "try harder". You already know that that doesn't work for you.

​Sound familiar?

A lot of fitness advice assumes we all experience our bodies in roughly the same way.

That if someone wants to change their body, they simply:

• notice a problem
• feel motivated
• build discipline
• stay consistent

But neurodivergent brains often don’t experience the body in such a straightforward, stable way. Our brains aren't wired that way. We're wired to notice more, or less. We're wired to ignore bodily signals. It was probably a huge benefit in some ancient past, being able to bypass hunger signals, pain signals... but now all it means is that you thought you might need the loo 5 hours ago and you've still not been - until you really can't hold it a second longer.

And that can completely change the relationship people have with fitness, motivation, mirrors, progress, and even self-perception itself.

​For many neurodivergent people - particularly ADHD and autistic individuals - body image is not always a fixed, accurate, or emotionally stable experience. 1 + 1 doesn't always = 2. Usually for us, (1 + 1 - 2 ) + (4 / 2) = 3. Somehow.

Instead, it can fluctuate dramatically depending on:

• stress
• sensory state
• emotional regulation
• attention
• interoception (the ability to interpret internal bodily signals)
• past experiences
• environmental feedback

Some people become hyper-aware of their body:

• every movement feels visible
• every perceived flaw feels amplified
• clothing feels “wrong”
• mirrors become emotionally loaded

Others experience almost the opposite:

• disconnect from the body
• difficulty visualising physical change
• trouble noticing gradual progress
• forgetting the body exists until discomfort appears

​
And many of us fluctuate between the two. Which isn't so much fun to experience. One moment being on topof the world, the next feeling like you've crawled out of the sewer after having scared away Pennywise himself.

ADHD brains are heavily influenced by emotional salience and immediate feedback. That basically means that we take what we feel emotionally VERY seriously. It's one of the most important things we base our perception of reality on, AND that our brains need to know IMMEDIATELY the outcome of something we've done. Again, it probably kept us alive thousands of years ago but it's not so useful when you're in an office in the centre of a town trying to ignore that jab your snarky co-worker made about how many doughnuts you ate.

That means body image can become:

• extremely intense
• highly reactive
• inconsistent
• tied to momentary emotion rather than objective reality

On a good day:
“I. Am. Hooottttt.”

On a bad sensory or emotional day:
“I look awful. I'm a vision of hell itself. If hell were as bad as I look. Nothing is changing.”

Even if the body itself has not meaningfully changed.

This is partly because ADHD affects:

• attention regulation
• emotional regulation
• reward systems
• self-monitoring

​
Your brain has a handy “zoom in” function, that works great on certain features but it also happens to completely ignore the broader context.

​This doesn’t mean neurotypical people never struggle with body image - of course they do.
But neurotypical body perception is often more stable across time and context.
​
Many neurodivergent people experience something more variable:

• the body can feel unfamiliar from day to day
• confidence can collapse rapidly
• mirrors may feel unreliable
• progress may not “feel real”
• physical awareness can swing between hyperfocus and disconnection

This can create a very complicated relationship with fitness.

​A lot of fitness culture relies on:

• consistency
• delayed gratification
• stable self-perception
• long-term motivation

But if your perception of yourself changes constantly, fitness can become emotionally chaotic and psychologically exhausting.

For some neurodivergent people:

• one bad photo can completely derail motivation
• lack of immediate visible change feels unbearable
• sensory discomfort makes gyms exhausting
• routines collapse after interruptions
• perfectionism turns missed workouts into “failure”

Others may hyperfocus intensely on fitness for short periods before burning out completely.

This is one reason neurodivergent people often cycle between:

• extreme motivation
  and
• complete disengagement

​rather than maintaining steady consistency.

A lot of fitness advice moralises consistency.
​
If you struggle, the assumption is:

• you aren’t trying hard enough
• you lack discipline
• you don’t want it enough

But for many neurodivergent people, the challenge is not laziness.

It’s nervous system management.

It’s trying to build habits while:

• fighting inconsistent energy
• regulating sensory input
• managing emotional overwhelm
• navigating unstable self-perception
• chasing dopamine
• recovering from burnout

That requires a very different approach than simply:
“try harder.”

Usually:

• reducing all-or-nothing thinking. You can do this actively by focussing on noticing when you're doing it. Yes, it's effortful but with enough practise it will help you stablise things *some* (if not *most*) of the time. You can do this by talking to yourself (out loud is better, but in your head works too), when you notice your inner voice/inner perception taking on a critical aspect.
• tracking objective progress instead of relying on perception. Use objective measurements - take photos once (max twice) a month, with measurements written on them that have been taken using a measuring tape. Always the same clothes, always the same pose, light and measuring tape. Yep, again, it's effortful but it pays off in the long run - ask a friend, family member or even someone online (there are lots of fitness communities - and eventually there will be here too!) to help you remember to do this!
• building flexible routines instead of rigid perfection. Yep, you're not going to do the routine every day of every month. I find writing down my routines on little cards and leaving them on my desk helps me to pick up the routine again once I drop it. I LET myself have off days/weeks from the routine when it no longer seems interesting (and often adopt a slightly different routine for a while - again, with a card). I'll post more about this soon!
• understanding sensory needs - take them seriously. Use headphones, ear plugs, sunglasses or whatever you need to feel more comfortable. Even choosing the right spot can take a lot of sensory pressure off (maybe you're not a gym bunny, but somewhere will work!)
• allowing movement to support the nervous system, not punish the body. Try different things - even in the safety of your own home - and see what suits you. Fitness shouldn't be about punishing yourself, it should be about feeling good in your body and doing something that helps your body feel better.

Uunderstanding that your perception of your body is not always an objective reflection of reality.
Sometimes the brain is reporting emotion, stress, overstimulation, exhaustion, or dysregulation but not always the truth.
​
And once you are able to regularly remind yourself of that (write it EVERYWHERE if you need to), fitness stops becoming a punishment for “failing” your body and starts becoming a way to support the brain living inside it.

Fitness will ALWAYS require effort, and if you simply don't have the spoons YET to take it on it doesn't mean you won't one day. The key is to not punish yourself when you don't have the energy to do all of the things society expects us to. No one is ever perfect, not even neurotypicals. Routines change, weight goes up and down and bodies feel good and bad... do what you can, when you can.

I'm dangling upside down from a hoop, knees hooked over it, red in the face and trying desperately to do a full sit-up just so I can grab the hoop again and right myself, but my body... well, my body betrayed me in that moment, so I ended up flapping there like a flaccid, sweaty potato until my instructor took pity on me and heaved me up, "assisting" my sit up. 

The next week, we're doing a beautiful pose which involved us sitting on the hoop, threading our outside arms behind us and grabbing the hoop from under our butts. I try a couple of times, to no avail and my instructor, seeing my pathetic attempts at trying to reach around my slightly rounded belly - "ok, so just try to slip down on the hoop a bit" I do so... she pulls my arm but it is NOWHERE long enough; "butt down, further just a bit", I obey immediately but my hand is just getting further away from the hoop now and I'm starting to understand something my instructor hasn't yet seen... my arms aren't long enough to go around my bigger-than-before butt. She ceded gracefully, saying that some people have shorter arms than others... 

Trying something new is always a bit worrying, but what is easy to forget is is that despite all of the beautiful stills, and videos that go so smoothy anyone who does anything has at least 10 more videos or photos where they either don't quite get it, or they, like myself, are channelling their inner panda.

If you browse through social media, you could be mistaken to think that everything anyone tries goes well first time... let me dispell that illusion right here and now by talking about how much it hurts if you don't quite position yourself right.... yup, that hoop is much thinner than you might think and I can't say that having it between your legs is the best feeling in the world...

​Or when you pose thinking that you look super elegant... but instead you look like you're fighting for your life (and that you have super short legs... why and how I'll never know)!

Or, and this is my personal favourite, your instructor has a lot of faith in you but you're DEFINTELY questioning your life choices right now...

I'll keep it simple my friends... doing stuff is hard and it doesn't always go to plan. But if you've ever wanted to try something and have been put off by "I can't do that" just remember this post, because no one can before they learn. So go out and give whatever it is a go, and if you take some embarrassing photos... well, all the better ;)


Oh, and I finally managed it... the invert and sitting up to grab the hoop. Sometimes, you just have to keep trying!

We tend to assume that our body tells us the truth.

Hungry = eat
Tired = stop
Don’t feel like it = don’t do it

Simple, right?
Not quite.

Even in neurotypical brains, what you feel isn’t a direct readout of your body. It’s an interpretation of your internal state.

While this applies to lots of different signals, let's talk about hunger - and overeating. 

The same signal can mean different things:

• Low energy could be hunger… or poor sleep
• A “weird tummy feeling” could be hunger… or anxiety
• Restlessness could be fatigue… or boredom

Hunger isn't a clean signal. It involves lots of systems that track the internal environment and integrates external signals - it doesn't just pop up from energy deficit. It can be: low energy - tiredness; external cues - like a social post showing a perfectly decorated cake; expectations - I feel "something" in my tummy, it must be hunger; and learnt associations - it's 4pm, it's time for a snack, or, it's Saturday - it's pizza day!

And when those signals overlap, the brain picks the most likely explanation — not necessarily the correct one.
That’s why you might eat when you’re actually tired.
Or skip a workout when your body was perfectly capable of moving.
The good news? Neurotypical brains are pretty good at updating their guesses.

If you're interested, these are the articles I used in my research!

https://neurosciencenews.com/guilt-shame-behavior-neuroscience-30065/
https://iris.unitn.it/retrieve/3ae87282-953d-41c6-ae30-bd0ff7f1c812/2023_Grecucci_shame%20MEtabrainsci-13-00559.pdf
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10156575/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5281644/
https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.13539
https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.22609
https://dl.acm.org/doi/full/10.1145/3689648

Feeling guilty for not working out? For eating too much? For taking a break?

It might feel like you’ve done something wrong — but that feeling isn’t as straightforward as it seems.

Humans didn’t evolve to be happy. We evolved to survive. And for most of human history, survival depended on staying part of a group. Being accepted meant safety. Being excluded could mean real danger.

Guilt plays a role in that system. It helps regulate behaviour by nudging us back in line when we feel we’ve broken a rule - especially social ones. If you took too much, didn’t contribute, or behaved unpredictably, guilt pushed you to correct that before it threatened your place in the group.

The problem is that your brain still uses this system today - even when the “rules” aren’t actually about survival.

Well, our brain treats commitments like social contracts - even if they're only with ourselves. It's like saying "yeah, well we agreed to it, now we have to do it".

Of course it doesn't work that way, you might not work out because you're not feeling well, or because something popped up and adding guilt to that doesn't work - I mean, seriously, has having that heavy feeling of guilt EVER worked for you long term to get you to do something?

I know it hasn't for me. What's worse is, is that that negative feeling gets "tagged" as a workout feeling... which means when you think about working out, you feel badly about it. You end up shooting yourself in the foot over and over again.

Because we're made to be rule based, especially when it comes to social groups, our "should" becomes a rule - I MUST work out.

The rule then becomes a moral judgement "only BAD people break the rules"

and that then often snowballs into a personal attack on identity - "if I skipped my workout and broke the rule, *I* must be a bad person!

Over time, this can snowball.

But that leap — from behaviour to identity — isn’t logical. It’s learned.

Society plays a HUGE role in this. We get judged for eating too much (pig!); not eating enough (control freak!). Not working out (lazy!); working out too much (obsessed with themselves!); for enjoying sex (slut!) and for not wanting it (frigid!)... It seems like you can't win. Right?

Historically it makes sense, we WANT to have strict rules about behaviour in environments that have few resources and fewer cures for disease e.g. eating too much could have lead to unfair distributions in society; not being physically fit might have lead to other people losing their lives come winter time and sexually promiscuous behaviour could have lead to the spread of disease. 

But they're historical factors, not modern ones. We just haven't updated the handbook yet.

We still apply the same moral judgement we might have centuries ago (even though there's lots of evidence that that's not even true for middle-aged societies!).

So if you don’t work out one day, your brain reacts as if something meaningful has gone wrong. But in reality, nothing about your worth has changed.

​A more helpful response isn’t more pressure - it’s perspective.

Instead of: “I should have worked out,”

try: “I didn’t have the capacity today. What did I manage instead?”

That shift matters. Because guilt doesn’t actually help you improve — it just keeps you stuck in a loop.

Really think about this. Does not working out make you a BAD person?

​Sit with it for a moment.

Because in my opinion, no, you’re not a bad person for missing a workout or for eating too much when you know you shouldn't (or even for enjoying or not enjoying sex).

Not unless you're stealing food from the mouths of homeless children living in sub-antartic conditions, or kicking puppies as you saunter away from the gym you monster.
​
Your brain is just running on some very old software, and it's time we sat with ourselves long enough to update it conciously.

So sit with it, update your software CONCIOUSLY, guilt adds nothing except stress. And excess stress adds nothing but problems.

Now go and check out my YouTube channel where I'm vlogging about my journey back to fitness before I hit 40 (August is coming... ouch!) and making cool little shorts that talk about this stuff!

youtube.com/shorts/L5GhrHqe_2g?si=Jfda35b4Ex8MTIvo

Ok, maybe I wasn't "quite" back by breakfast, but 2 years, 8 kilos, 1 house move, 2 lockdowns, 6 months without my pole mounted and several pulled muscles later I've found my way back to my blog.

How could I have left you all for so long and what was I doing? I know, I'm terrible *grins*. I've been doing lots of things, but mostly just surviving this pandemic. Like many people, my livelihood was hit pretty hard by COVID and well, the rest is to be seen in my poor, battered old bank account. 

Anyway, with all the time I've been away I've been learning what not to do.

At 32 I was disgnosed with ADHD and everything started to make more sense. It's taken me three years to make my way back to DiaryOfaPoleAddict, lots of mistakes,lots of failed and missed workouts, missing motivation and gain (and loss) of weight but finally I'm ready to come back with a purpose. 

From here on in, you can expect the following from your resident pole addict:​

• ADHD friendly techniques for maintaining a workout habit
• Self-Care and Self-Love based information posts
• Self parenting posts aimed at helping you grow psychologically
• Workouts (with pictures, instructions and equipment lists)
• Articles for the neurodiverse brain, such as: "How to Stick to a Routine when you're working with Executive Dysfunction", or "What the "Unsaid" Rules of Gyms/Pole classes are" etc
• Merch that'll help you organise yourself & work out more often!
• 
  

​And lots lots more.

As the weeks go on, and more posts pop up I'll be offering extra services, tips and articles all aimed at the NEURODIVERSE (ND) brain. During this time, if you enjoy the resources I'm preparing (or have enjoyed the resources I've already prepared on this blog) please consider buying me a "beer" here: 

You may not be ND (or you may not know it yet) but you're still welcome here and the articles will still be SUPER helpful :)

TL;DR
Motivation is important, but discipline is more so ;) Stay on track using these strategies, tried and tested by your own resident ADHDer (with resources, videos and madlibs).
1. The Ulysses Pact: a friend holds your money hostage.
2. Positive Reinforcement: not just for dogs and kids.
3.  Streamline: plan your week.
4. The One With The Red Crosses: maintain a streak.
5. Plan For Fuckups: this one doesn't need a tagline...
6. Two strategies that might not work for ADHDers... but they look so good.

I've never given up the love of the pole, or the gym, even though we were separated for a lot of time by said pandemic and now we're back, well... the honeymoon period of "wow I've missed this" has been replaced by "it's... so... hot. Skin... is melting. No want go in gym" *sweats from effort of speaking*

It got me thinking about methods of motivation, how the normal ones are simply disappointing for my "I know you'll eat the cookie even if we don't do the thing" brain and so, dear readers, I have returned to share with you the bounty of my research...

How can I motivate myself?

First of all, let's quickly consider a sub-question "what is motivation?". Motivation, in my opinion, is the drive and will to actually MAKE changes. It's what came to me one day when I was sitting at the table, tired, overweight and over-eating yet again. It's what rears its head every New Year's Day when we choose to do a billion things to improve ourselves. It's the thing that eagerly has us signing up for gyms, weight loss websites and new workout clothes (that last one isn't true. Workout clothes are awesome either way).

With that said, I feel at this point that it's important to separate motivation and discipline. It's not possible to be motivated 100% of the time, so at some point, we have to "fake it" using habits, rewards, sweet talk or straight up coercion which can be a "challenge" for the exectutively-functioning-impaired such as myself.

There are some pretty universally accepted methods of becoming (and staying) motivated to do something; social support, knowing your "why", pomodoro (and other timing) techniques, clearly setting your goals (using SMART goals) amongst lots of generic and simple ways to motivate ourselves, but it got me thinking - if motivation is so easy, why the hell is it so hard? Ok, so my brain might be akin to a particularly capricous 3 year old, who's just discovered that mum's makeup makes great finger paint at the same time mum has come to summon her to go and eat her greens and NOT spread "ruby red" lipstick over everything, but it shouldn't be *this* hard... should it?

Yes, and no. Being an ADHD brain doesn't make this stuff any easier, ironically enough, attention isn't the issue... but executive processing (the brain being able to tell everything what to do and when, using a system of priorities(1)) definitely is (2), and that's what presents the problem for most people. Us neurodivergents especially.

So... how can we get that ol' grey matter to play ball?  Generally, if it doesn't catch my attention or reward me with some sweet sweet dopamine, it will quickly be abandoned (and on I go to my next hyperfixation). How can I motivate myself?

Sit back and relax, with my summary of my favourite methods!

Ulysses (or Odysseus to the Greeks) was the guy who, when returning from the Trojan war, ordered his crew to tie him to the mast, so that he could listen to the song of the Sirens. He plugged his crew's ears with wax, and then ordered them to ignore him, and subdue him if he should escape.

Likewise, this technique uses a pact, with a resulting reward/punishment, with another person to keep you true to your goals.

​prefer POSITIVE reinforcement (still more effective than punishment or negative reinforcement) on an interval schedule (here you can choose between variable intervals, or fixed intervals depending on your needs).

That's a lot of words but what would it LOOK like?

Well, for a new behaviour it would be something like:
​
1. choose an action (work out for 5 minutes)

2. reward self for action - ask someone to praise you until you blush every time you complete this action (other options: food is usually the go to here, but that can lead to unhealthy relationships with food so something like playing your favourite video game).

For an already learnt behaviour:
1. choose the action (e.g. go to the gym)

2a. variable interval rewards (e.g. for every - 2 workouts, 1 workout, 4 workouts - go for a spa day/buy a new piece of clothing/read a new book etc).
+ seen to be more effective/less extinction of behaviour
- more difficult to organise yourself

2b. (my preferred, but less effective generally) fixed interval rewards (e.g. for every 3 workouts you do, you get to buy a new item of clothing, or a new game, or take a trip or play in the mud... etc...)
+ easier to organise than 2a
- less effective than 2a

If you ever want me to do something again, your best bet is to praise the hell out of me ... 

+ easy, psychologically backed, can cost nothing
​- can be difficult to find rewards that are substantial enough (here's where social support can come in handy)

Half of the problem with working out (for me anyway) is the transition between what I'm doing, and working out. Not getting distracted between the PC and the gym would be a miracle, but sometimes it can all seem like... too much and so it's easier to procrastinate, right? Knowing what to do in the gym, what to wear, remembering to take everything you need...

​Reasoning behind this...
This technique comes back to a psychological memory aide called chunking - the original techniques were developed as a mnemonic strategy to help people remember things (after psychologists realised that our working memory has an upper capacity - once thought to be 7 (+/- 2) items, but is now generally regarded as 4 (3)). In the mnemonic, long strings would be broken into smaller bits so that they could be remembered - 234 231 23 12 is easier to remember than 2342312312 for example. We can apply this idea outside of memory though, and break tasks into their component actions.

​Workout planning (a bit like meal planning) can help make everything easier:
1. Set aside a few minutes at the beginning of the week and decide when you'll workout, and what you'll do.
2. Make a list of everything you're going to need for your workouts that week, and put them together in an easily accessible place.
3. If you're super organised, have separate gym bags with the essentials (towel, water bottle, headphones, change of clothes) lined up and ready to go.

Running low on time or energy?
Keep a workout journal with simple, quick workouts (or use an app such as Freeletics)

​+ easy to do, suits people who (like me) love routine
​- can be a bit overwhelming, needs planning

This originated with the comedian Seinfeld, when he was giving advice to a younger actor.

The Seinfeld strategy: This is a power-punch of a strategy, as it combines positive and negative reinforcement

Positive reinforcement from the big, red Xs that reward you with a sense of satisfaction.
Negative reinforcement from "relieving" the pain of missing a day.

It's also great, as it's a calendar full of big red (or whatever colour) Xs which is a fantastic visual reminder to do your chosen task!

A calendar big enough to keep in view. You can download a template I use here :)

Or (eco version) download a streak app with a very visual widget.

1. Choose a habit, task, routine -whatever you want to stick to
2. Every day you complete the task, mark it off with a NICE BIG X (I also like to use "ticks") in whichever colour you like. Red is nice and obvious!
3. Keep your streak alive as long as you can! When/if you miss a day, note down how long your streak was in that day's box and use that as your next goal to beat!

(You can find apps, such as HabitBull that do this - although I find if it's out of sight, it's definitely out of mind!).

+ it's big, in your face, easy to remember and hard to forget. It rewards you intrisically for completing your behaviour.
- (in my experience) it can be very demotivating if you've missed a day for a reason outside of your control.

Humans aren't perfect. It's hard to accept, I know, but regardless of this it's true. Progress is generally made in a non-linear way. Sometimes you're flying, sometimes you're smooshing your face in the mud - just ask my scales about our history together but that's kind of what makes it fun.

If people believe that "failing to plan, is planning to fail" I think it's not only a fallacy, but can be REALLY detrimental to mental health. As an ADHDer, then number of times I've "messed up" has been astounding. What's worse is being punished for these "failures". It took me until I was in my late twenties to realise, and then until my thirties to accept that actually, sometimes we do "fuck up" and that's ok too. We learn from it and it gives us additional information of past errors so we can better inform our future choices.

So, plan for it. Give yourself some wiggle room.

I have a plan to fail plan template here , which you can download for free.

1. Create a plan of your goals (and mini goals if you want to include them)
2. Decide what "slipping up" might look like (e.g. I didn't go to my planned gym session or I ordered a pizza, 3 beers, two chocolate cakes and my weight's worth of ice-cream and then ate it in one go).
3. What will you do when you "slip up"?

Here are some ideas of how to handle "messing up":
1. Talk to a friend to stay accountable. Be explicit with this person about what things will be helpful to say to you in this situation ahead of time).
2. Speak gently to yourself. One rule of thumb I like to use is: would you speak to a little kid, or your dog like that? Would you speak to your friends or loved ones like that? If the answer is no... why is it ok to be that way with yourself? Imagine yourself as a child, speak gently, explaining the problem and the way in which you'd like to proceed.
3. Document the situation. What happened beforehand? What did you do? How did you feel? If it keeps happening, look back on this information to help you understand patterns. If something isn't working, it's better to understand how to fix it rather than berating it for not being right (except printers. Printers can go to hell). Be mechanical, not moral here.

+ I love this strategy, it combines a lot of great techniques to help you understand yourself and grow psychologically from your errors. It's also rewarding for me since... I love plans xD

- Can be difficult to apply in the beginning. LEarning to be gentle after years of being told to be harsh is a steep learning curve.

.I found this idea on the website of Nick Wignall (check out the article on productive procrastination here).

This SEEMS like a good idea, but if you have issues transitioning from task to task as I do (which you likely do if you're neurodivergent) it can just lead to effective procrastination. Which isn't the same thing!

Anyway, let me summarise the idea.

Since procrastination is normal, even in neurotypical people, Nick suggests building in some "free" time before your target activity. Want to go to the gym? Well, build in 10 minutes of scrolling through Facebook mindlessly before you leave. Want to go for a run? Organise 5 minutes of staring absent mindedly at the TV before preparing yourself (see... it spells danger! 😂)

Sounds good doesn't... allow me to summarise for you.
​
Set a timer for 30 minutes, in that 30 minutes do your target task ONLY but keep a "distractions list" close by. Every time you get distracted by something, write down your thought so that you can follow it up when you've finished.

So, for example, if you're working out at home, every time you want to go and do something else before you forget about it, jot it down.

I love this idea in theory and use it to not forget things while I'm out walking the dog (Google notes), but if at home it could (and can) lead to being distracted by your distractions list.

If you want to give it a go, you can find an example and a template here.

​1. https://www.understood.org/articles/en/what-is-executive-function
2. Swanson J. M. (2003). Role of executive function in ADHD. The Journal of clinical psychiatry, 64 Suppl 14, 35–39. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/14658934/
​3. https://www.pnas.org/content/113/27/7459

https://jamesclear.com/motivation
https://nickwignall.com/stay-motivated/
https://foundrybc.ca/stories/5-tips-staying-motivated-even-youre-really-not-feeling/
https://medium.com/swlh/the-beginners-13-step-guide-to-motivation-3f5a62110b6b
https://www.inc.com/lolly-daskal/19-simple-ways-to-stay-motivated-that-actually-work.html
​https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-a-schedule-of-reinforcement-2794864

​What did we learn today?

1. Winnie has the approximate attention span of a 3 year old duracell bunny on cocaine.

2. She *is* interested in counting her treats

3. Apparently "sit down and listen" doesn't work as well on dogs as it does on kids. And that only gets limited success in the first place!

4. Winnie can now sometimes recognise the difference between 1 and 2....

SUCCESS

5. *THIS* is what my darling Furbutt thinks of my approach to teaching...

Life got in the way. 

I admit it, I've been making excuses for almost 3 years now, but life got in the way. 

At the peak of my exercise routine, I lived for sport. I was fit and healthy, and although I weighed more than I do now, I had a good routine and discipline.

And then life happened.

It happens slowly, you know. Insidiously. It creeps up and smacks you around the back of the head, so you didn't even see it coming.