The PHOCUS Eating Map
Eating with ADHD can feel so hard… I wish I had a map…
Hang on a minute, you do! Meet the PHOCUS Eating Map!
Food is seldom just about nutrients on a plate
For those of us with ADHD/AuDHD and other flavours of neurodivergence, eating is also about energy, appetite signals, sensory preferences, executive function, mood, stress, sleep, digestion, and the state of our nervous system. That is why so much nutrition advice can feel oddly unhelpful. I mean, I tend to smirk at soundbites like:
“Meal prep on Sundays.”
“Eat three balanced meals a day.”
“Just plan ahead.”
“Listen to your hunger cues.”
“Choose the healthier option.”
Like, lovely, yes… I did mention all of these in my book ADHD Body and Mind… I did also write about how hunger cues can be hushed, almost imperceptible, and then suddenly become urgent. That can mean that your mornings become chaotic, and that decision-making around food feels near impossible by 6pm…
What if your safe foods are the only foods your nervous system can tolerate this week? On top of that, you feel a huge amount of shame about that because you think you’re failing yourself. Why? Well, someone on Instagram said you must have 30+ plants a week, otherwise your gut-brain connection will not work as expected, and you’ve managed to have the same 10 on repeat. So now you, on top of everything else, are stressed to the bone… Not only about the food you’re eating, but about the food you’re not eating, but you’re supposed to eat in order to “optimise yourself”… Don’t even get me started on optimisation!
Oh, and then there’s this situation where you know exactly what would help, but you do not have the capacity to do it, cognitively, physically or both. Mind-boggling! Welcome to nutrition with a sensitive nervous system on an ordinary day!
This is the space I created PHOCUS for
PHOCUS began as the practical food framework from my book ADHD Body & Mind. It brings together neuroscience, gut-brain health, nutrition and self-kindness to help you think about food as support, rather than as another thing to get right or wrong.
More recently, I developed the PHOCUS Eating Map, a self-reflective neuroscience-based tool to help you understand what kind of support your eating may need before you try to change anything. Why? Well, because in my many years talking to people about their behaviour around food, I’ve come to realise there’s a clear pattern where “How do I eat better?” isn’t a very helpful question. In fact, adding my own lived experience and that of many other ADHDers/AuDHDers I talk to frequently, asking “What is making eating more complicated right now?” tends to be a much more constructive question.
Meet the PHOCUS Eating Map
This is a self-reflective tool I’ve been working on for the last couple of years as part of a research ecosystem that invites you to look into your eating experience. It is something I needed for myself, but then, with my neuroscience hat on, I wanted to develop a tool that helps us neurodivergent people understand why we also diverge from the norm when it comes to eating. With that in mind, the idea of the PHOCUS Eating Map is to guide you when you’re lost and need help navigating your way around food choices and behaviours.
The PHOCUS Eating Map explores your eating patterns, hunger and interoception, food options, capacity, underlying neurobiology, sensory context and self-kindness. It also connects with the PHOCUS-T Safety Map, an optional trauma-aware reflection available inside my PHOCUS masterclass members’ area, which explores how safety, tension, vigilance, judgement sensitivity or feeling watched may shape eating and digestion with more care and context.
Science, story and nourishment for neurodivergent life, straight to your inbox.
The point is not to judge your diet, so this whole thing isn’t built to give you a diet-quality score, a diagnosis or to measure your motivation, discipline, or willpower. It literally is a map, a way of noticing whether your eating is being impacted by disrupted rhythms, missed meals, stress, decision fatigue, sensory load, appetite shifts, digestive changes, low executive capacity, and emotional load… And let’s not forget the pressure you put on yourself when food decisions feel challenging.
Having battled with my relationship with food for over 35 years, I can honestly say that matters… If going into self-blame mode whenever eating felt difficult scored brownie points towards a knighthood, I’d be Sir Toribio-Mateas by now! I’ve made feeling as if I’m being lazy, inconsistent, lacking discipline or not able to do what I know I should be able to into my favourite sport.
I mean, at the end of the day, I have a doctoral degree in stuff to do with nutrition and the brain. Shouldn’t I know exactly what to do? Spoiler alert. NO! So I get it that you don’t either, or that your clients are not sticking to the meal plans you’re giving them, for as wonderful as they may be, and they can’t even articulate why because of shame… They’re paying you handsomely for your professional advice and then not doing “what you’re telling them to do".
That’s why the PHOCUS Eating Map asks a kinder and more useful question:
“What support would make eating easier?”
And that support might be just so very simple…
It could be a reliable eating cue like an easily repeatable breakfast, a snack you cannot miss visually, or a short list of safe options. This minimises the decision paralysis of a meal plan with a list of 10 possible options for lunch. What about low-capacity meals for days when you simply can’t be bothered? And what about considering that the environment you inhabit every day affects not only your mood but also your hunger cues, whether you’re on meds or not? And then there’s perfection. “Oh, I’ll start on Monday because I’ve already f*cked up things today, so I might as well binge for the rest of the weekend.” I’ve been there, got the t-shirt, and it’s taken me years to find more compassionate responses when the day has not gone to plan.
This is why I wanted to connect the Eating Map with my upcoming PHOCUS Masterclass
So what’s the difference?
In a nutshell, the PHOCUS Eating Map will help you understand your eating needs, and the masterclass will help you understand what to do with that information. You can take the PHOCUS Eating Map on its own, and that may already be useful. It may give you language, clarity and a softer way to understand your eating patterns. But in the masterclass, we go further.
We will look at how to interpret your PHOCUS Eating Map result and turn it into practical next steps. We will also explore the food-based PHOCUS framework, including protein, fibre-rich plants, healthy fats, hydration, gut-brain support, food pairings, cravings, energy dips and sensory-friendly ways of making food more regulating. My recent conversation with Dr Rupy Aujla on The Doctor’s Kitchen gives a lovely taste of that food-based side of PHOCUS. In the masterclass, we bring that together with the Eating Map, so the advice becomes more personal, realistic and ADHD-friendly. And I’ll show you how to interpret it for yourself and/or your clients, and how to translate it into tangible, practical applications that add as little cognitive load as possible to an already overwhelmed system.
We will also touch on the optional PHOCUS-T Safety Map, which adds a trauma-aware layer for understanding when eating may need more safety, predictability and nervous-system support before dietary change feels realistic.
Ready to understand what your PHOCUS Eating Map result means?
Join me in the PHOCUS Masterclass, and I’ll show you how to interpret it and turn it into practical, ADHD-friendly support.
You can still use the code PHOCUS10 for £10 off.
Enjoy lifetime access to the PHOCUS Masterclass members’ area, including the live 90-minute training session with Dr Miguel Toribio-Mateas, the post-event recording, exclusive slides, participant notes, the PHOCUS food and meal-creation guide, plus a workbook and interpretation guide to help you apply your PHOCUS Eating Map result in everyday life, clinical work, or professional practice. The live event is scheduled for 5pm UK time on Wednesday 15th July.
Optional PHOCUS-T Safety Map guidance inside the members’ area
Immediate access after secure online payment.
Not ready to join the masterclass yet?
No worries! You can start with the PHOCUS Eating Map here.
My masterclass is for people wanting to understand their eating with more clarity and kindness. And yes, that means anyone and everyone, with or without ADHD. It is also for practitioners, coaches, therapists, nutrition professionals and educators who would like to support neurodivergent adults without pathologising restricted, inconsistent, delayed, sensory-driven or low-capacity eating patterns.
The bottom line is that PHOCUS is not about perfection, but about understanding eating in context. Because the next step is seldom a better meal plan. When you’re lost, you’re much better off finding a better map.
I look forward to you joining me on this journey.
With love and gratitude,
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