The other night I got only about four hours broken sleep.  The next morning my body was craving energy and I felt myself yearning to go on a carby rampage.  This experience brought me back to HALT, which is short for “Never get too Hungry, Angry, Lonely, or Tired.” 
It sounds a little obvious to say in order to avoid a food binge, don’t get too hungry.  But stick with me here.  I have had several clients lately who are workaholics.  They are routinely working 12+ hour days.  They tend to grab sugary “treats” during the day to keep going.  And on the way home they are (or were before we straightened it out) tempted to stop at the nearest fast food joint to grab what was easy and ready to eat. 
Getting too hungry leads to making bad decisions, especially if your blood sugar drops very low.  Workaholics especially tend to forget to eat during the day, until their bodies can’t stand it one more minute and force them to grab the nearest calories whatever the cost.
I worked with these clients to make sure that they had balanced snacks to eat during the day—with protein, fat, and carbs.  Maybe a banana or apple and some almond butter. And that they scheduled a regular time to make sure they actually ate their snack.  In this way, they had plenty of energy left at the end of the day to drive right past the Taco Bell and go home to a real food dinner.
As for getting too angry or lonely, I’m sure most of us have experienced emotionally driven eating once in a while.  Who hasn’t said, “I’m so angry I’m going to eat a whole pizza.”?  Be honest.
There is a close, two way link between stress and digestion.  Stress actually makes good digestion harder.  But eating well can also contribute to lowering stress.  If you’re finding you’re often uncontrollably angry you might want to check your blood sugar.  Low blood sugar can lead to irrational anger.  I have also observed that people who enough good healthy saturated fats like butter and coconut oil tend to be much more patient and tolerant. 
If pizza is the anger food, ice cream is the go to food for loneliness. With fats for satiety, and fresh fruit for brightness and sweetness, ice cream done right can actually be healing  (See my recipe for Blueberry Lemon Mint ice cream).
But, I am a holistic health coach and so I don’t think food is the answer to all my troubles.  I also have to make sure that I’m meditating regularly and doing the necessary things to maintain my relationships to avoid unnecessary anger and loneliness.Similarly, my first suggestion when you are tired is to sleep.  I am a very big fan of sleep. Getting plenty of sleep at night, and taking naps too if needed. Chronic sleep deprivation can lead to a vicious cycle of exhaustion as we seek stimulants (like caffeine and carbs) to keep going during the day and then are unable to sleep well at night because we over-stimulated.
My first career often required very long days and I was chronically sleep deprived.  It was amazing how much better my mood and energy would be when I finally was able to catch up on my sleep.  No amount of caffeine or carbs can make up for good sleep.
All of these things can be interrelated too.  If I’m too hungry, I can get cranky, which makes people not want to hang out with me, which makes me stay up all night worrying.  Despite what the advertisers would have you believe, Snickers is not the answer.  But a good supportive diet and lifestyle can help.

Time management is a problem for many of us.  We’re always late, or rushing.  Or thinking about the next thing that has to be done and not giving our full attention to what’s in front of us. Which, of course, means that we are rarely fully present or fully effective.

It *seems* that if we just get our shit together we’d be able to achieve so much!  If we could just push ourselves harder, be stricter…The actual journey to becoming a paragon of organization and effectiveness can be very overwhelming.  Many people think that what is required is just more discipline. 
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I actually don’t think being harder on ourselves is the answer.  I’ve become much gentler with myself and others over time.  I’ve given up thinking that being mean to ourselves is the way to get to our goals. I think time management is much more sacred than that.  I think it means being mindful, it means honoring our actual capacities and being fully present.

I have a few tools that I use with clients to help them achieve a more balanced relationship with rushing. I’m going to talk about them over the next few months, in hopes of giving you some tools that will help you get through the holidays with more grace and ease.

My first tip is to keep a journal of when life feels overbooked.  Write down how much time everything actually takes.  One of the biggest time bandits is denial.  As an example, if the meeting gets over at 11:30, and it takes 15 minutes to get to the next thing, it may seem logical to book the next thing for 11:45.   But in reality, one never is out the door the second a meeting is over.  There are always follow up comments to be made and hands to be shaken.  We might need to go to the bathroom or get a drink of water.

Once we see how long things habitually take, we can begin living in reality.  If we find that it almost always takes a quarter of an hour to finish our business and we are committed to giving ourselves breathing room, then we can schedule the next thing for noon.

When we arrive on time for the next thing, having already taken care of the little things, we will have time to land, take a breath, and we will be much more present, balanced, and productive.   We might even find that we start allowing extra time instead of just enough, in case there’s heavy traffic.

When I see someone who is consistently overwhelmed and exhausted, often late, and always guilty because they *should* be doing more, I feel compassion.  I know from personal experience that’s not a fun place to be.  But I also know that there are some gentle, loving means to become more balanced, and have more energy and greater equilibrium.  Please let us know if you would like support around this. You don’t have to do it alone.

A version of this essay first appeared on holisticperformancegroup.com