How to Avoid the Hangry Pains

My lunch for today consisted of an apple, a granola bar, six Hershey’s Kisses, and a juice box. It’s not the healthiest lunch, I know. And it’s not really the type of brain food I was hoping to have while developing my next experiment. However, there wasn’t much I could do about it. That happened to be all the food I could find stashed in my desk today.

I try to be good about brown-bagging my lunch most days. After all, bringing your lunch has all those great advantages like saving money and eating healthier. Except, somehow, life seems to thwart my plans of health and budgeting with its habitual obstacles. So, on those days, instead of packing myself lunch, I plan to eat in the cafeteria or go out to a local restaurant (read: fast food joint).

Unfortunately, most of my days of planning to outsource lunch prep happen to also fall on disorganized and hectic days. Today was one of those days where the forces of the universe collided and cause me to not bring a lunch, to have a busy work day, and to have forgotten my wallet.

Such days are bad days. Days like today cause the hangry pains – you know, when you’re hungry AND angry. Or become angry because you are hungry. Days like today result in some behavior like:

a)       Stalking the lunch room hoping someone has left a box of donuts for people to eat

b)       Pouncing on people’s leftovers like a vulture

c)       Crawling around the parking lot looking for change to use in a vending machine

d)       Any other type of unsettling, unprofessional behavior

However, there’s a step you can take to avoid acting like a hyperactive squirrel and grabbing all the food in sight. Take my advice: start to create a stockpile of snacks in the bottom drawer of your desk. And yes, I realize that my squirrel analogy has failed because you’ll be stashing food for when it becomes scarce later.

Honestly, though, having a cache of food for the days when everything goes wrong is the easiest solution. That way, when you forget your wallet, your lunch, and your zen state of mind, you can just reach into your desk for a granola bar, an apple sauce, and an instant cup of soup. It’s not the most healthful lunch, but it’ll be sufficient to abate the hangry pains, thus saving your reputation and potentially your job. 

Best of luck, 
Ruby