My sister said it best when she toasted Yooper Stewart and me at our wedding – YS brings a much needed peace to our family. You see, I’m the daughter of two control freaks, as well as the second of three daughters. To say that my people are high strung is an understatement. We’re masters of the trapeze.

That’s one of the reasons I fell in love with YS – he’s as calm as they come. Nothing rattles him. When hundreds of flights were cancelled and we had to spend the nigh in Newark, New Jersey, YS smiled at the airline employees, called them by name, then kindly thanked them for their help (seriously, he said “thank you kindly”). That’s the man that I married, and that’s why I knew something was off last year.

My cool, calm, camouflaged honey started moping around the house, whining, and ranting about everything. If I’d wanted to live with those kinds of mood swings, I’d still be living with my sisters. He was supposed to be my rock – what happened?

My instincts kicked in and I did the first thing I could think of – I told him to get his head out of his butt and stop whining. Surprisingly that didn’t work. That’s when I started observing and noticed everything was connected: crankiness from whining from being tired from lack of sleep from not being able to sleep at night.

What?

How can a guy work 11-15 hours of manual labor each day and not fall asleep at night? I couldn’t solve that dilemma, so that’s when I called our naturopathic physician. He started by taking over an hour of history from YS, then gave us his theory: adrenal fatigue with possible hypoglycemia. He ordered blood work to confirm.

Sure enough, YS has a hormone problem. The doc put him on some natural supplements to help his thyroid and adrenals function better. YS’s sugar actually wasn’t too bad, but he’s not absorbing enough protein, so he’s taking some digestive aids, too.

It’s supposed to take a few months for the supplements to really help the body rewire itself, but I’m already starting to see a change. YS sleeps better, whines less, has more energy, and can finally relax. It’s good to have Yooper Stewart back to his old self. I fell in love with the man for a reason, and I don’t want him to change. Well, I wouldn’t mind a little less gas, but I can handle the rest.