What is your biggest challenge with ADHD?

You know exactly what you need to do. You just can't make yourself start. Monica Packer knows why -- and it's not what you think.

Monica is a recovering perfectionist, habits and identity coach, and host of the top-rated podcast About Progress. She's also a mom of five -- three of them with ADHD -- and a decade into unlearning a version of success that nearly cost her everything.

In this episode:

The quick win: when a task feels too big, do something to start -- and give yourself permission to stop there

The real definition of perfectionism: not tidiness or drive, but placing your identity on your outcomes

Why perfectionism can look like overachieving or like doing nothing at all -- and why both are the same trap

Shame versus compassion, and why shame is the voice convincing you that you can't change

How to start noticing where that harsh inner voice actually came from

Monica's book Sticky Habits: A Woman's Guide to Reclaim Happiness, Ditch Perfectionism, and Create Habits That Last is publishing Fall 2026. This is part one of a two-part conversation -- part two gets practical with the habits she built once she understood all of this.

Find Monica at aboutprogress.com and pre-order Sticky Habits at stickyhabitsbook.com.

Support the show

Loved this episode? Here's your next step.

✅ Grab the Dopamine Hit List — click here for your free reset toolkit for the ADHD mom brain

Follow for more ADHD mom tips and resets Instagram: @quickwinsadhdmoms YouTube: Quick Wins for ADHD Moms

Connect with Jessica on LinkedIn Voiceover work: jessicalewisvoice.com

Quick Wins for ADHD Moms is a podcast for smart, high-functioning moms with ADHD who are tired of systems that don't work. Practical resets for ADHD burnout, mental overload, and everyday mom life. Find every episode at theADHDmom.com.

What is your biggest challenge with ADHD?

Your child comes home from school and heads straight for the pantry. You tell them to stop. They do it again tomorrow. And the day after that.

Kamy Moussavi spent most of his life in that pantry. He grew up overweight, cycled through every diet program his mom could find, and still could not figure out why food had such a hold on him -- even after he became an engineer, ran marathons, and built a startup. The answer turned out to have nothing to do with willpower.

Kamy is the founder of Step Together, a family-centered program that helps parents understand what is actually driving their child's relationship with food -- and why changing the home environment, not the child, is where real change begins.

In this episode:

The quick win: when your child runs to the pantry after school, they are looking for dopamine -- try a hug first and see what happens

Why food becomes the default coping mechanism for ADHD brains, and why it makes complete neurological sense

The role of alexithymia -- emotional blindness -- in ADHD and how it keeps people stuck in cycles they cannot see

Why parents often discover midway through Kamy's program that their child's weight is not actually the core problem

The Titanic metaphor: why small shifts in trajectory matter more than dramatic interventions, especially with younger kids

How ADHD is the first three letters of addiction -- and what that means for how we protect our kids

Every person on Kamy's team has personally struggled with childhood weight. This conversation will change how you see the pantry.

Find Kamy at steptogether.us

Support the show

Loved this episode? Here's your next step.

✅ Grab the Dopamine Hit List — click here for your free reset toolkit for the ADHD mom brain

Follow for more ADHD mom tips and resets Instagram: @quickwinsadhdmoms YouTube: Quick Wins for ADHD Moms

Connect with Jessica on LinkedIn Voiceover work: jessicalewisvoice.com

Quick Wins for ADHD Moms is a podcast for smart, high-functioning moms with ADHD who are tired of systems that don't work. Practical resets for ADHD burnout, mental overload, and everyday mom life. Find every episode at theADHDmom.com.

What is your biggest challenge with ADHD?

If your child has ADHD, you have probably wrestled with whether the school they're in is actually built for them. Antoinette Elliott has spent over 20 years in childcare, and her answer is a practical one: most aren't, but they don't have to be.

Antoinette is the founder of All Our Children Elite Childcare Academy in Georgia, a nature-based, extended-hour childcare program that intentionally includes children with ADHD, autism, and other learning differences alongside their peers. Every staff member completes crisis prevention training. Every meal is vegetarian. Every child is treated like they belong.

In this episode:

• The quick win: if your ADHD child's sleep is delayed at night, protect their morning -- a later start time produced fewer discipline issues all summer
• Why inclusive classrooms benefit every child, not just the ones with diagnoses
• How outdoor environments level the playing field for neurodivergent kids in ways a classroom never can
• What crisis prevention training teaches that most schools are simply not doing
• Why the vegetarian meal plan works even for the pickiest eaters -- and what social modeling has to do with it
• The story of a mom in her late twenties who discovered her own ADHD after her children were evaluated -- and why it is still happening to so many women

Antoinette's message is simple: you did it the hard way. Now there are resources. Your child does not have to do it the hard way too.

Find Antoinette at aocelitechildcare.com and on TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook at All Our Children.

Support the show

Loved this episode? Here's your next step.

✅ Grab the Dopamine Hit List — click here for your free reset toolkit for the ADHD mom brain

Follow for more ADHD mom tips and resets Instagram: @quickwinsadhdmoms YouTube: Quick Wins for ADHD Moms

Connect with Jessica on LinkedIn Voiceover work: jessicalewisvoice.com

Quick Wins for ADHD Moms is a podcast for smart, high-functioning moms with ADHD who are tired of systems that don't work. Practical resets for ADHD burnout, mental overload, and everyday mom life. Find every episode at theADHDmom.com.