Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 1: tip is a reminder not to make decisions when you
Speaker 1: are hungry. Almost no one is at their best when
Speaker 1: they are hungry, angry, lonely, or tired. You might not
Speaker 1: be able to do much about the last three, at
Speaker 1: least not quickly, but the first one you definitely can.
Speaker 1: So you might have heard the acronym HALT that is hungry, angry, lonely, tired,
Speaker 1: describing the situations where people tend to make worse decisions
Speaker 1: or lash out at other people if you haven't slept well.
Speaker 1: It is easy to make us stink in situations where
Speaker 1: you might have been more otherwise. Unfortunately, it is often
Speaker 1: not that easy to grab a nap right before a
Speaker 1: meeting or a decision if you are angry or lonely.
Speaker 1: Those can be hard to deal with immediately too. Perhaps
Speaker 1: a heart pounding workout could help dissipate that anger, but
Speaker 1: good luck making that happen between that very contentious ten
Speaker 1: am meeting and the eleven o'clock one where you need
Speaker 1: to approve something major. Hungry, on the other hand, is
Speaker 1: almost immediately solvable. I try to carry a little pack
Speaker 1: of peanut butter crackers in my purse or a fruit bar,
Speaker 1: because these give a quick hit of energy. Other options
Speaker 1: might be a granola bar or some sort of beef jerky,
Speaker 1: your dried fruit or trail mix. If you keep some
Speaker 1: of these in your backpack or a desk drawer, or
Speaker 1: at least somewhere reasonably accessible during times when you are
Speaker 1: going to need to summon your best self. Then if
Speaker 1: you find yourself feeling irritable and you know you are
Speaker 1: going to have to be level headed, you can just
Speaker 1: avail yourself of your snack. It really is almost miraculous
Speaker 1: how much less desperate things seem when you are not starving. Suddenly,
Speaker 1: you pause before volunteering for that thing you don't actually
Speaker 1: want to do. You think about which plane ticket you
Speaker 1: are going to buy, and you remind yourself that a
Speaker 1: late night lifeover is going to be terrible. You calm
Speaker 1: down before sending that angry or desperate sounding email. I'm sure,
Speaker 1: like many things, it is all evolutionary. Our bodies need fuel,
Speaker 1: and they don't perform well when they are not well fueled.
Speaker 1: In the modern world, there seems to be food everywhere,
Speaker 1: but not all of it is all that great. Those
Speaker 1: of us who can't eat a lot of regular snack food,
Speaker 1: in my case, for my dairy issues, can wind up
Speaker 1: having trouble finding stuff that will work. But packing a
Speaker 1: snack can be as easy as packing your phone. Most
Speaker 1: of us don't leave home without that, or perhaps a wallet.
Speaker 1: A small snack can really be similar, even if you
Speaker 1: don't actually eat the snack. I find that having it
Speaker 1: available can make me feel better. I know I can
Speaker 1: have a snack if I need one, so all is
Speaker 1: calm and all is bright. If I don't have the
Speaker 1: snack readily available, I am edgier. I am sure my
Speaker 1: decisions are worse, So aim not to make decisions. Hungry
Speaker 1: hunger can be solved quickly, whereas bad decisions can take
Speaker 1: a lot longer to unwind. Best to take the quicker
Speaker 1: solution in the meantime. This is Laura. Thanks for listening,
Speaker 1: and here's to making the most of our time. Thanks
Speaker 1: for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas,
Speaker 1: or feedback, you can reach me at Laura at Laura
Speaker 1: vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia.
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