Q: People with ADHD are constantly trying to make sense of their environments. Organizing the home is a great way to start. People with ADHD often have trouble remembering where they put things. Having designated bins, tubs, shelves, or hooks for different types of items can make life much easier. This is especially important for children, who benefit from well organized bedrooms and play areas. Help children stay organized by providing color coded bins and tubs. You can also label these with pictures or words describing the types of items that belong inside. Similar organizational techniques can also benefit adults in the workplace. People with ADHD also have trouble filtering out distractions in the environment. Here are a few tips for reducing distractions in the home or workplace. Turn off the TV and stereo when you are not watching or listening. Both of these can be distracting. This is especially important when the person with ADHD is trying to focus or when you are trying to communicate with children. Adjust lighting. Lighting that creates shadows or unusual patterns can be distracting for people with ADHD. Make lighting in your home consistent, and replace flickering bulbs right away. Steer clear of fluorescent lighting, as the hum of the bulbs can also make it hard to concentrate. Avoid strong scents. Distinctive smells can also make it hard for someone with ADHD to focus. Avoid scented air fresheners, as well as perfumes and colognes. People with ADHD do well with consistent schedules. Doing the same thing at the same time and in the same place every day makes it easier to remember and focus on important tasks. For children, having specific time set aside for homework and chores is helpful. It can also reduce arguments around these topics. Breaking routine tasks down into small, manageable chunks also helps. People with ADHD have trouble holding lots of instructions in their head at the same time. Even things that seem simple can be simplified. For example, loading the dishwasher can be broken up into loading the top rack, bottom rack, and silverware. For young people with ADHD, praise and small rewards at each step can help reinforce the pattern. For deviations, immediate and consistent discipline can also help. Make the sure the consequences for misbehavior are the same every time, and come quickly after the behavior. Creating structure during school breaks is especially important for children and teens. Encourage them to join organized activities that have regular meetings. Good examples include summer stock plays, sports teams, or clubs. Keeping a planner or calendar can be very helpful for people with ADHD. This can be a place to record the daily routine, as well as specific tasks like homework or work meetings. A planner is most helpful if you check and update it often. You can use apps or online planners with visible or audible reminders to make sure you don't forget appointments or scheduled tasks. For children, its a good idea to ask teachers to initial the planner each day to make sure the student has recorded homework correctly.
A: Organize the environment. Minimize distractions. Establish a routine. Use a planner.

Q: Put the stove on medium low. Add anything, from marshmallows to candy.
A: Get a frying pan, milk and chocolate chips. Pour the milk and chocolate chips in. Mix it for one to two minutes. Pour it in a cup, either by just pouring it in or with a big spoon. Serve.

Q: Most people lose weight very quickly in the first several weeks of a new regimen. While some of this weight is actual body mass, a lot of it is excess water. Once your body has rid itself of this excess water, it is normal for the rate of weight loss to slow down significantly. Track your progress and ask yourself: has my weight loss really stopped, or just slowed? Experts agree that an ideal rate for safe, lasting weight loss is one to two pounds per week, so perhaps your plateau isn't a plateau after all! Maybe you were very diligent about counting calories at the beginning, or maybe you were able to lose weight initially without monitoring your food intake that closely. In either case, you may be consuming more calories that you realize, and carefully tracking your intake using a food diary or one of the many free calorie counter websites and apps can help you identify exactly how much you are eating and when. Once you have a good handle on what you are consuming, you can start to look for problem areas and make adjustments If you have been very active, it's also possible you haven't been eating enough calories. If you are working out, your body will require more food. If you restrict yourself thinking that you will lose weight faster, you will actually cause your body to hold on to the weight you currently hold. As your body gets smaller, it will burn fewer calories and you will need to eat less and less to maintain the calorie deficit that leads to weight loss. If you have not done so lately, enter your weight and activity level into a calorie counter to get an up-to-date number for the number of calories you need. Most experts recommend a calorie deficit of 500 calories a day to achieve gradual, lasting weight loss. If the calculator tells you that you require 2200 calories per day, you should try to consume around 1700 calories per day to lose a pound per week. Have you been exercising consistently? Do you do the same kind of workout every day? Are you doing any kind of resistance training? Lastly, are you relying on the calorie counter on the elliptical machine at the gym to tell you how many calories you actually burned? Think about ways you can change up or improve your exercise routine. Finally, know that the calorie counters on gym machines can be highly unreliable, so if you've been using them to budget your calories, you may have been led astray. Elliptical machines are the worst offenders for over-estimating caloric burn. Track the amount of time you work out and the intensity, and use an online exercise calculator to get a better idea of how many calories you actually burned. Your body can get used to doing the same activities if you don't change up your workout routine from time to time. If you try something new, you may be engaging different muscles and burning calories in a new way that your body isn't used to, causing you to lose weight. The number on your scale may not be budging, but there may be other evidence that your body is still changing for the better. Do your clothes fit better? Are your arms bulking up? If you are putting on new muscle, your body will shrink even as the number on the scale stays the same. Better yet, that new muscle will burn more calories than fat, so your weight loss will probably pick up again soon. Don't weigh yourself too often. Weight fluctuates due to a variety of factors and it can be misleading. Once a week is more than enough. Try to keep your weigh in around the same day and time each week. Be patient and remember that not all plateaus are created equal. If you are making progress in other areas, you may just need to wait another week for the number on the scale to start falling again. If you've analyzed all the possibilities and tried everything, but still can't get your weight loss back on track, schedule an appointment with your doctor. She might have some additional ideas for you, and can also order blood work to check for a hormone imbalance. You may be suffering from an undiagnosed disorder such as thyroid disease, insulin resistance, or polycystic ovary disease that is preventing you from losing weight.
A:
Understand how weight loss usually progresses. Keep track of your caloric intake. Reevaluate your caloric needs. Think about your exercise routine. Look at other factors besides the scale. See your doctor for a check-up.