I'm cranky, therefore I must be hungry.

Having a little one in the house has severely tested my schedule-oriented way of life. I am the kind of person that likes things to be in order—I can only handle a certain level of spontaneity. For example, don't ask me to go away for the weekend without giving me at least an hour to pack. In fact, don't ask me to pack for something if I don't know exactly what I'm packing for. I like to be prepared, and nowhere is this more important than when it comes to my diet.

I need three meals a day, and I need a snack in between those meals. Most importantly, I need (want) all of that to be as healthy as possible. You don't want to know me if those three things run amok.

I get really, super cranky when I'm hungry.
Which is why I'm a schedule-oriented person.

Obviously I'm learning to adapt to my new life of no-schedule living. For starters, I'm not working right now so I'm not planning out my day as extensively as I used to. But this new life of mine, well...it's all about the new life living in our house. My daughter is sort of on a schedule, but said schedule runs amok quite easily which means I don't always get to eat (or shower) when I want to. And I'm getting up in the wee hours of the night to feed her, which ultimately confuses my body into thinking breakfast should be had at 2:00AM.

So combine that confusion with a lack of sleep, well. You get the picture. I'm cranky lately. Or should I say, I could be cranky a lot lately if I let myself. One look at my precious daughter typically makes me forget about my grumbling stomach. Or my drooping eyelids. One look at my precious daughter reminds me that these things don't mean a thing. She is worth it. Schedule? What schedule?! Who needs a schedule!

I just need food. I'll never not need food. Without it, ya better watch out.

Looks like I'm not alone, either. I was browsing Health.com the other day when I came across a great article that explains how "serotonin levels—a hormone that helps regulate behavior— fluctuate when people are stressed out or haven't eaten." Studies show (as they explain in the article) that when this hormone runs amok, we lose our ability to control anger. (And obviously anger is a part of being cranky.) How did the scientists behind the study figure this out? By manipulating the diets of test subject volunteers, which obviously threw their serotonin levels out of wack. Long story short, what we eat and when we eat it directly affects our ability to remain calm and collected.

So I'm not crazy. I'm just hungry.
All the more reason to eat right, I guess.

Question: Do you get cranky when you get hungry? Are you schedule-oriented when it comes to food?


REMINDER! Don't forget to enter my giveaway! You just might win a copy of Steve Ettinger's book,Wally Exercises! (Contest ends at midnight EST on Friday, February 10, 2012).