Morning Systems That Actually Work (for ADHD + Perimenopause)

Unapologetically Imperfect – Season 2, Episode 10

If every “perfect morning routine” you’ve ever seen feels like it was built for someone else’s brain (and personal assistant), you’re not imagining it.

In this episode, we break down what actually works when you’re navigating ADHD, perimenopause, and the kind of life where your nervous system is already on edge before coffee.

We cover:

• Why traditional morning advice fails ADHD and perimenopause brains
• How executive dysfunction, cortisol misfires, and time blindness sabotage your start
• What Core Anchors, Transition Rituals, and MVP Menus actually do (and how to use them)
• How to build a flexible, body-based system that works—even on chaotic days

No rigid schedules. No shame spirals. Just structure that flexes.

This is the final episode of our 5-week Summer Bridge Season before we kick off our full Fall arc—focused on Focus & Flow.

• 🧠 Attentional Control Theory & Cognitive Load
• 🧬 Dopamine, Cortisol, and Circadian Rhythm changes in perimenopause
• 🎯 Core Anchors (baseline stabilizers)
• 🔁 Transition Rituals (mode shifters)
• 🧰 MVP Menus (backup plans for hard days)
• 🎶 Playlist timing & Implementation Intention Theory

• Create a simple morning “playlist” with 2–3 anchor actions
• Pre-decide one thing the night before
• Pick one MVP task based on your energy level—and call it a win

🌅 Want to Rebuild Your Mornings Too?

Morning Reclaim is open now.

This is Jen’s ADHD-and perimenopause-friendly morning reset for smart, high-functioning women who need systems that work on real days—not just perfect ones.

💻 Live sessions. No fluff. No shame. Just structure, rhythm, and tools that meet you where you are.

🧠 Great if your mornings feel like sabotage—or if you need a reset that sticks.

Rolling enrollment now. Join here

🔗 Links + Resources:

• Join the Balance Life Lab – low-cost, low-pressure community for women with ADHD, perimenopause, and real-life chaos
• Morning Reclaim – build a flexible morning rhythm that works
• Follow Jen on Facebook for more executive function + hormone-fueled truth bombs

Follow the show, text this episode to a friend, or post it where your people hang out. Because we all need backup.

Keep being unapologetically imperfect. You’ve got this.

If you’ve ever walked out of a doctor’s office wondering if you were gaslit—or just going crazy—you’re not alone. The truth? You’re not broken. You’re in a system that still ignores the very real realities of perimenopause.

This episode is a smart, strategic, and unfiltered deep dive into what to do when your doctor doesn’t listen—and how to stop doubting what you know in your bones is real.

We talk about:

• Why “your labs are normal” is not the full story
• How perimenopause symptoms are dismissed as anxiety, aging, or attitude
• The lab work that actually matters (hint: it’s not just hormone panels)
• What to say, how to say it, and how to protect yourself in the exam room
• Why HRT safety depends on proper clot risk screening—and what to ask for
• How to rebuild self-trust when you’ve been dismissed too many times

This one’s packed with tools, stories, and a full breakdown of the labs to request (including when they matter and when they don’t). Whether you’re considering HRT, feeling ignored, or just want to feel seen, start here.

• Why most doctors get less than 4 hours of menopause training
• When hormone panels help—and when they’re useless
• The difference between oral and transdermal estrogen (and why it matters for clot risk)
• How to speak your doctor’s language using CBT-based communication tools
• What “learned helplessness” looks like in women’s healthcare—and how to break the cycle
• How to track symptoms + labs to build a clearer health picture
• When to say “enough” and fire your provider

🩺 Mentioned Labs & Screening Tools:

We cover these in the episode—ask your provider when considering HRT or if you're getting dismissed:

• ✅ Full Thyroid Panel (TSH, Free T4, Free T3)
• ✅ Vitamin D, B12, Iron/Ferritin
• ✅ Cortisol (AM, especially with fatigue)
• ✅ Hormone Panel (Estradiol, Progesterone, Testosterone, FSH, SHBG)
• ✅ Bone Density Scan (if 40+)
• ✅ Clotting Risk Labs (if family/personal risk or considering oral estrogen): PT/INR, aPTT, Factor V Leiden, Prothrombin G20210A, Protein C & S, Antithrombin III, Homocysteine, Antiphospholipid Antibodies

• Feel dismissed, overwhelmed, or brushed off
• Are considering HRT and want to know what’s safe for your body
• Have symptoms but keep hearing “everything looks normal”
• Want language and strategy to self-advocate without shutting down
• Need the reminder that you’re not too much, too loud, or too dramatic

📲 Subscribe, follow, and share this episode with the friend who keeps wondering, “Is it just me?”

👀 Bonus: Want a symptom tracker or lab request script? DM me LABS and I’ll send it your way.

🌅 Want to Rebuild Your Mornings Too?

Morning Reclaim is open now.

This is Jen’s ADHD-and perimenopause-friendly morning reset for smart, high-functioning women who need systems that work on real days—not just perfect ones.

💻 Live sessions. No fluff. No shame. Just structure, rhythm, and tools that meet you where you are.

🧠 Great if your mornings feel like sabotage—or if you need a reset that sticks.

Rolling enrollment now. Join...

S2, Ep 8 – Functioning-ish: Out of Sight, Out of Mind

Object permanence isn’t just for babies. In ADHD brains, it messes with your memory, your relationships, and your ability to act on what you care about.

You bought the birthday card. You meant to text back. You love them. And still—it doesn’t happen.

In this episode, Jen dives deep into the ADHD phenomenon of object permanence—why people, tasks, and even your most important relationships fall off your mental radar the second they’re not in front of you. This isn’t flakiness. It’s executive dysfunction.

This episode gives you language, tools, and strategies to name what’s happening and start building real bridges back to the people you love—even when your brain drops the thread.

• What object permanence actually means in an ADHD brain
• Why your brain forgets people, messages, and plans—without meaning to
• How executive dysfunction, emotional queuing, and working memory all collide
• The guilt spiral: how forgetting leads to shame, which leads to shutdown
• Real stories (like Jen’s lost friendship with “Bill”) that show what this looks like in life
• How to repair when you’ve disappeared—and how to explain it without shame

• Relational Reminders – recurring name-based nudges tied to routines
• Visible Love Lists – post-its, pics, or digital cues to reconnect intentionally
• Message Hacks – low-pressure ways to stay connected when your brain is maxed
• Object Anchors – physical prompts that bridge thought to action
• Emotional Cueing – how to pair emotion + reminders so your brain notices
• Scripts to Explain It – how to share the real story behind the silence

This isn’t just about memory. It’s about preserving connection in a brain that doesn’t naturally do it. If your friendships live in your heart but not your text thread, if you carry guilt about the people you love but haven’t reached out to—this episode will help you name it, normalize it, and start rebuilding with systems that support how your brain actually works.

Morning Reclaim is open now.

This is Jen’s ADHD-and perimenopause-friendly morning reset for smart, high-functioning women who need systems that work on real days—not just perfect ones.

💻 Live sessions. No fluff. No shame. Just structure, rhythm, and tools that meet you where you are.

🧠 Great if your mornings feel like sabotage—or if you need a reset that sticks.

Rolling enrollment now. Join here

• Join the Balance Life Lab – low-cost, low-pressure community for women with ADHD, perimenopause, and real-life chaos
• Morning Reclaim – build a flexible morning rhythm that works
• Follow Jen on Facebook for more executive function + hormone-fueled truth bombs

This episode is for the friend who disappears for weeks and comes back with love and guilt in equal...

S2, Ep 7 – Hormone Headlines: Exercise in Perimenopause

Your body changed. So should your workouts. This isn’t about weight. It’s about function, energy, and not wrecking yourself.

If your old workouts leave you sore, inflamed, or just annoyed—you’re not lazy. You’re in perimenopause. And the rules of movement have changed.

In this episode of Hormone Headlines, Jen breaks down why traditional fitness advice doesn’t work for women in midlife—and what does. Whether you’ve been hard-core in the gym for years or just trying to figure out where to start again, this is your permission slip to stop chasing soreness and start training smarter.

• Why your workouts stopped working (and how hormones are driving it)
• What changes in your body during perimenopause and how to work with it, not against it
• How cortisol, estrogen, and sleep impact movement, recovery, and results
• The actual goal of midlife movement: strength, stability, function—not shrinking
• What counts as movement (spoiler: walking, dancing in your kitchen, and mobility work absolutely count)
• Jen’s real talk on why she trains now—and what she had to let go of
• The theory breakdown: Progressive Overload, NEAT, Joint Stability Theory, Cortisol Regulation

• Strength training 2–3x/week: free weights, bands, bodyweight—all good
• Mobility every day (yes, even 5 minutes) to protect joints and reduce pain
• NEAT (non-exercise activity thermogenesis): think chores, movement snacks, light activity throughout the day
• Walk—it’s cortisol-regulating, blood sugar balancing, and easy on your nervous system
• Ditch the high-intensity shred programs if they’re tanking your energy
• Choose joy, not punishment: movement should feel like support, not shame

• Estrogen and joint health
• Cortisol overload from overtraining
• Muscle loss prevention in perimenopause
• Moving from performance to preservation

Morning Reclaim is open now.

This is Jen’s ADHD-and perimenopause-friendly morning reset for smart, high-functioning women who need systems that work on real days—not just perfect ones.

💻 Live coaching + flexible tools

🧠 Supports your nervous system, hormones, and executive function

Rolling enrollment now. Join here

🔗 Links + Resources:

• Join the Balance Life Lab – low-cost, low-pressure community for women with ADHD, perimenopause, and real-life chaos
• Morning Reclaim – build a flexible morning rhythm that works
• Follow Jen on Facebook for more executive function + hormone-fueled truth bombs

Tag @jenleemorse.

Keep being unapologetically imperfect. You've got this.

S2, Ep 6 – Functioning-ish: Start. Stop. Spin.

The ADHD system cycle that looks like inconsistency—but is actually biology.

You build the planner, the system, the playlist. You're all in. And then… you ghost it. Or obsess over it. Or start something new. This episode is for the women stuck in the Start → Stop → Spin loop—especially if you’re juggling ADHD, perimenopause, or just an executive function system running on fumes.

This is not a motivation problem. It's not a discipline issue. It's neurobiology.

In this episode, Jen breaks down the dopamine-fueled highs, the burnout-fueled crash, and the shame spiral that follows—plus how to build re-entry systems that don’t require you to be “on” to work.

• What the Start → Stop → Spin cycle actually is—and why it hits hardest for ADHD + perimenopause brains
• The crash that follows hyperfocus (and why you keep blaming yourself for biology)
• Theories that explain it: Executive Dysfunction, Self-Efficacy Theory, Dopamine Dysregulation, Polyvagal Theory, Perfectionism Theory
• Why your systems fail on your worst days—and how to build ones that don’t
• The infamous Meal Card Saga that sparked this entire episode
• What a “done list” is and why it might save your sanity
• Re-entry strategies, not motivational speeches
• The exact scripts to use when you’re spiraling ("I'm cycling, not failing.")

⚡ Tools + Strategies Mentioned:

• Re-entry Rituals
• “Today Only” Tasks
• Done Lists
• Body Doubling
• Capacity-based Planning
• Visual/Chunkable Tools: Post-its, whiteboards, Notion, Airtable
• Rhythm Tracking (Energy Mapping > Rigid Schedules)

Morning Reclaim is open now.

This is Jen’s ADHD-and perimenopause-friendly morning reset for smart, high-functioning women who need systems that work on real days—not just perfect ones.

💻 Live sessions. No fluff. No shame. Just structure, rhythm, and tools that meet you where you are.

🧠 Great if your mornings feel like sabotage—or if you need a reset that sticks.

Rolling enrollment now. Join here

• Join the Balance Life Lab – low-cost, low-pressure community for women with ADHD, perimenopause, and real-life chaos
• Morning Reclaim – build a flexible morning rhythm that works
• Follow Jen on Facebook for more executive function + hormone-fueled truth bombs

If you’ve ever bailed on your own system and spiraled into shame, this one’s for you.

Share this episode with someone who’s tired of trying harder and ready to try differently.

Tag @jenleemorse.

Keep being unapologetically imperfect. You've got this.

S2, Ep 5 – Hormone Headlines: Sleep Sabotage

Why can’t you sleep? It’s not you. It’s your hormones—and your nervous system knows it.

If you’re tossing, turning, sweating through your sheets, or waking up at 3AM in a full-blown mental spiral—this episode is your survival guide.

In this episode of Hormone Headlines, Jen breaks down the neurohormonal chaos behind perimenopause sleep disruption. No, it’s not just bad sleep hygiene. Estrogen, progesterone, cortisol, and your nervous system are all in a power struggle—and your rest is the collateral damage.

• Why perimenopause wrecks your sleep—spoiler: it’s not just hormones, it’s your thermostat, stress response, and circadian rhythm
• What actually helps (and no, it’s not a 90-minute wind-down routine)
• How perfectionism and shame hijack your sleep, and how to reclaim rest without the pressure
• Real tools: cooling strategies, magnesium, herbal supports, CBT techniques, and nervous system signals that actually work
• Personal stories, science, and zero BS

You’ll leave this episode with a no-pressure plan to reduce friction, support regulation, and finally get some damn rest—even if your hormones are unhinged.

• Magnesium Glycinate
• Skullcap Tincture + Vital Sleep herbal support
• Oura Ring / Sleep Cycle app (or analog tracking!)
• Cooling bedding, movement timing, sleep-friendly foods
• CBT reframes + Polyvagal grounding tools

💥 Want to Reclaim Your Mornings?

Check out Morning Reclaim — Jen’s flexible, ADHD-friendly reset for women in perimenopause who want mornings that actually work.

This isn’t about waking up at 5AM to meditate and journal. This is about reclaiming your brain, your bandwidth, and your time—without shame or pressure.

🧠 Designed for real brains, real hormones, and real life.

💻 Live calls + strategic tools to build momentum that lasts past breakfast.

📥 Rolling enrollment now. Click here to join → https://www.jenleemorse.com/

• Join the Balance Life Lab – low-cost, no-BS community for ADHD + perimenopause support
• The Morning Reclaim – flexible structure for real-life mornings
• Follow Jen on Facebook for more midlife hormone + executive function support

Know someone who’s blaming themselves for sleep sabotage that’s actually hormonal and neurological?

Send them this episode.

Tag @jenleemorse when you post it.

And as always—keep being unapologetically imperfect.

S2, Ep 4: Motivation Hangover – The Drop After the Push

Segment: Functioning-ish

Seasonal Arc: Summer – Expansion

Theme: Post-Push Recovery & System Resets

• 💬 Join The Balanced Life Lab – Jen’s private community for women living with ADHD, perimenopause, and lives that don’t sit still.👉 Learn more here
• 🎧 Share the love: If this episode helped you name the crash or release the shame, send it to someone who’s been stuck in the same spiral.

You finally finish the thing—the project, the launch, the deep-clean dopamine sprint—and then… you crash. Hard. Motivation? Gone. Energy? Nonexistent. Everything? Feels flat.

That’s a motivation hangover, and in this episode, Jen breaks down exactly what’s happening in your brain and body when the post-push crash hits—and why it’s not laziness, failure, or lack of discipline. It’s biology. And it needs a different kind of recovery plan.

Jen walks you through the science (ADHD, dopamine, perimenopause, and self-determination theory), shares her own recent crash (spoiler: nine days of meh), and gives you real tools to recover, regulate, and rebuild without shame.

• What a motivation hangover actually is (and why it feels so weird)
• Why perimenopause + ADHD = dopamine crash cycle
• How to stop blaming yourself when your spark disappears
• What regulation really looks like (hint: it’s not productivity)
• How to build your own post-push survival kit
• What to do and not do when your energy flatlines

🔧 Tools & Frameworks Mentioned

• Self-Determination Theory – Why motivation needs autonomy, competence, and connection
• Self-Efficacy Theory – Small wins rebuild trust in yourself
• Polyvagal Theory – Regulation first, strategy second
• 5-Minute Reset Loops – Quick sensory and vagus nerve resets to bring you back online
• Soft Landing Kits – Real-life rest kits for recovery without pressure
• MVP Menus – Flexible task menus for low/medium/high energy days

🔁 Jen’s Favorite 5-Minute Resets

• Humming or singing (vagus nerve stimulation)
• Full-body shaking (looks weird, works great)
• Cold water on hands/face (nervous system jolt)
• Breathwork or tapping (slow exhales = calm brain)
• Scent cue rituals (e.g., lighting a candle for work mode)

These aren’t about powering through. They’re about coming back to baseline—so you can rebuild with intention, not guilt.

Season 2 is a 5-week bridge: Summer – Expansion. It’s about scaling back in order to expand. Less pressure. More support. Smarter systems that actually hold when life (or your brain) doesn’t.

New episodes every Monday and Thursday:

• Monday = Hormone Headlines
• Thursday = Functioning-ish

Because sustainable systems > motivation hacks.

And you don’t need to earn your rest—you just need the right support.

S2, Ep 3: (10) Perimenopausal Mood Swings & Identity Shifts

Segment: Hormone Headlines

Seasonal Arc: Summer – Expansion

• 💬 Join The Balanced Life Lab – Jen’s private support hub for women navigating perimenopause, ADHD, executive dysfunction, and brain fog.
• Learn more here
• 🎧 Spread the word: If this episode hit home, share it with someone else navigating this messy, magnificent midlife shift.

One minute you’re fine. The next you’re sobbing over a commercial, questioning your career, snapping at your partner, and wondering who the hell you even are anymore. Sound familiar? Welcome to perimenopause—the emotional rollercoaster and identity earthquake no one warned you about.

In this Hormone Headlines episode, Jen dives into why midlife mood swings aren’t just hormonal—they’re biological, neurological, and deeply existential. She blends science and lived experience to help you understand what’s happening and what to do about it. No gaslighting, no fluff—just nervous system strategies and identity-level truth bombs.

• Why mood swings in midlife are not you being “too emotional”
• How estrogen crashes affect your brain chemistry (dopamine + serotonin)
• What identity shifts look like—and why they’re normal, not failure
• Why mindset work won’t work without nervous system regulation
• How to stop internalizing biological changes as personal flaws

• Polyvagal Theory – Why emotional regulation breaks down under threat
• Cognitive Behavioral Theory – How thoughts → emotions → behavior loops
• Self-Efficacy Theory – Why failed systems destroy confidence
• Energy Mapping – Track your real rhythms and work with them
• MVP Menus – Productivity options for high, medium, and low-capacity days
• Reset Rituals – Small actions to transition, decompress, and recenter

Your mood is data—not your whole truth. Jen breaks down how hormonal shifts distort perception and why most women misread emotional chaos as identity collapse. This episode helps you separate who you feel like in the moment from who you actually are underneath the static.

Season 2 is a 5-week bridge: Summer – Expansion. It’s not about blowing up your life—it’s about rebuilding systems that hold you when your hormones don’t.

New episodes drop every Monday (Hormone Headlines) and Thursday (Functioning-ish).

Follow the show to get honest tools, clear science, and real-life systems—without pretending any of this is easy.

You don’t need discipline. You need support that actually works.