My Fitness Journey

Hi, my name is Jacob McMillen, and between the ages of 24 and 27, I gained 55lbs and reached a medically obese BMI.

There were a lot of reasons for this: getting into a longterm relationship, moving, starting a new career, getting sick frequently, etc.

But what I didn’t realize at the time was that I had undiagnosed ADHD, which resulted in a “not normal” relationship with food.

Not only was my brain lacking the typical “stop eating, you’re full” signals, but there was no limit to my cravings for the types of comfort foods that gave me a burst of “feel good” dopamine.

I could eat 6 slices of pizza and be so full, I was physically in pain… while still craving that next slice.

Up to the age of 24, this didn’t catch up with me, because I was young, had a young person’s metabolism, and was doing a lot of physical activity in my day-to-day life. But when I moved to the Pacific Northwest, things changed.

A new climate and career resulted in a more sedentary lifestyle, and over the course of three years, I gained 55lbs, going from 195 all the way up to 250.

Here’s what I looked liked at 24.

And here’s what I looked like at 27. This is what 55lbs of weight gain looks like on a 6’4″ frame.

Now, I want to mention right here that I’m not showing you these pictures to shame myself or anyone else for gaining weight, whether it’s less than me or more than me.

I’m showing you these pictures to give you proof that I’m not just making this up.

I was so unhappy with how I FELT and looked at this weight, that I became hyper-fixated on changing it.

After moving back to a dryer climate and feeling like I could move around again, I started my journey to get in shape.

And I immediately encountered some problems.

Problem #1: I was completely incapable of “eating clean”.

I tried.

I really did.

I ate the chicken and the rice and the broccoli. I drank lots of water.

Sometimes I’d make it a few days.

But then the late-night cravings would overwhelm me, and I’d binge on comfort foods.

And I’d be SO disappointed in myself.

Why was my willpower so weak? Why couldn’t I do it when so many other people could?

I knew that failing to follow-through on diet was a common problem for people pursuing their fitness goals, but I’d been successful at going “all in” (another ADHD feature) in other areas of my life, so I didn’t understand why this one was different.

No matter how many times I tried, I couldn’t get results through willpower or mental tricks.

I needed a practical solution to my cravings.

Problem #2: I struggled with consistent motivation to workout.

I’d always been a physically active person, so unlike some of the ADHD folks I’ve helped, I already had some activities I enjoyed doing.

The problem was consistency.

Remember that “all in” thing I meantioned a second ago?

The only way I knew how to motivate myself was with a black and white, “all or nothing” mentality.

Either I was doing the PERFECT workouts on a PERFECT schedule… or I was going weeks between exercise.

And as you might imagine, life wasn’t nearly as simple or black and white at age 27 as it was at age 24.

I had a fulltime career taking up my time.

I had a longterm relationship to invest in.

And at age 27, I welcomed the birth of my first child… which certainly didn’t help with my workout consistency.

And don’t even get me started on the THOUSANDS of fitness influencers constantly showing me new workouts and telling me that THEIR EXERCISE plan was the secret to getting results.

I made the mistake of trying a few of them.

But no matter what I tried, I couldn’t get results through new exercises, willpower, or mental tricks.

I needed a practical solution for working out consistently.

Problem #3: Every setback turned into a spiral.

One of the big challenges of getting fit with ADHD is that there is very little instant gratification.

Most people need between 1-2 weeks to a lose a pound of bodyfat the right way, and you need to lose about 5 pounds before you start to notice a visual difference.

It’s a slow game of being consistent over time, and when neurotypical people experience disruptions to their routines or schedule, they can typically do a good job of just accepting that they’ll miss a day or two of progress.

After all, what’s one or two days out of sixty?

But that’s now how it worked for my ADHD brain.

I was heavily dependent on being PERFECT with my workouts and eating in order to stay motivated with my exercise and deal with the cravings we talked about earlier.

For a long time, the only way I could get through the tough moments was by gamifying my consistency and trying to get to the end of the week with a perfect score.

The moment I made one mistake, my motivation was gone.

And once I gave-in to the cravings, it wasn’t a matter of losing a day or two of progress.

I could easily eat enough calories in one evening to undo an ENTIRE WEEK of progress. If that evening spiraled into a week, I just undid an ENTIRE MONTH.

And there were so many things that could trigger a routine disruption:

• A last-minute “emergency” at work
• A simple cold picked up from having kids in school
• A flat tire or unexpected home maintenance need
• An annoying gopher that kept coming back to make holes in my yard

I spent the entire first two years of my journey constantly taking two steps forward and one step back.

And no matter how many times I told myself, “This time will be different,” I couldn’t prevent spiraling with willpower or mental tricks.

I needed a practical solution for handling these spirals.

Finding The Solutions

I’ve never been one to just idle in my challenges. I think that’s been the most positive side of my ADHD: that the moment I recognize a problem, I begin looking for a solution.

Unfortunately, these solutions were NOT easy to find.

Fortunately, I eventually found them.

It started with finding an approach to eating that ACTUALLY WORKED for my ADHD brain.

This approach allowed me to include reasonable amounts of comfort food in my diet that helped keep the worst of the cravings at bay while allowing me to still make consistent progress.

Next, I dug deep into exercise and the scientific literature behind fat loss and muscle building, and I realized that it was WAY SIMPLER than what I’d been trying to do.

I stopped trying to jog or do cardio AT ALL, I stopped trying new exercises all the time, and I focused on answering two key questions that allowed me to get everything I needed from exercise to reach my goals.

Next, after a TON of trial and error, I found a hyper-practical approach to managing the spirals from routine disruptions. It wasn’t until I gave up on trying to have more willpower, more motivation, and more control that I was able to find this approach, and I’m really excited to share it with you.

Finding these solutions allowed me to lose 65lbs, getting down to 190, 5lbs below my starting weight.

Here’s the before-and-after picture I shared on my small, friends-and-family Instagram account at 30 years old.

I remember how happy I was seeing myself in this photo. I’d come such a long way.

This type of result is what most of the ADHD folks I know have been trying to reach and struggling with, and I’ve really enjoyed helping a few of them finally start to see progress in their own fitness journeys.

Helping them is what inspired me to launch ADHD FIT.

In hindsight, if I’d known everything I know now, I would have been able to get this result in about a year (I was undiagnosed and unmedicated through this entire journey). Instead, it took me three years, but at the end of the day, I never permanently gave up.

I absolutely gave up temporarily a few times: sometimes for a weekend, sometimes for a week… once for an entire month.

But then I kept going.

Getting fit is hard for anyone, but it’s a LOT harder when you have ADHD.

If you are willing to keep trying, I want to help you level the playing field and start pursuing your fitness goals on Normal Difficulty. 

I want to help you address the challenges of ADHD head-on in ways you’ve never seen talked about from fitness influencers, even the really good ones who give great advice but don’t know what it’s like to be neurodivergent.

If you’d like to join me, click below and sign up for ADHD FIT.

If you’ve been trying to make progress for years and struggling with mainstream fitness advice, this is what you’ve been waiting for.

I’m really looking forward to meeting you and partnering with you on your journey.