Hungry, Hungry Hippos

Remember that commercial? Those of you who weren't a kid in the early-to-mid 70's might not. But I can still hear the jingle in my head. It played a LOT during Saturday morning cartoons.

The actual game included four hippo heads, each controlled by a lever-dealy and the goal was to push and wiggle the lever to get your hippo head to capture more of the marble-like things from the middle than your competitors could. It was noisy and never really worked that well, if my memory serves me right.

But every time my stomach growls, I think of it.

I try NOT to be hungry. Because when I am, I make bad choices as I try to fill up my gut. But the truth is that when you start eating less than you're accustomed to, you will be hungry.

In the first 6-8 weeks of the pyramid, I remember being hungry a lot. In hindsight, I know that I just hadn't figured out when to eat what to make sure I didn't get that way. I also know that after YEARS of never feeling hungry because I was eating whatever I wanted whenever I wanted, I forgot what it was like to listen to my body for a clue about when to eat.

I went to bed a few nights whining to Jim, "I'm hungry!"

He always said, "No you're not."

But over time, I learned to eat differently. I knew I needed protein in the morning to get me to lunch. And I needed protein at dinner to get me through the night. I learned that a piece of cheese, though higher in calories and fat than a handful of baked chips, would keep me feeling fuller longer. I also learned the difference between thinking I was hungry (because I wasn't constantly nibbling on empty carbs) and really feeling hungry.

So I was surprised this past Wednesday night when I woke up at 1 a.m. with my stomach growling. All I heard in my head during the enthusiastic gurgling was that Bob Seger song, "Woke last night to the sound of thunder. How far off I sat and wondered." (Hmm, gurgling and thunder sounds like another problem, but I swear I'm referring to hungry.)

Thankfully, I was too lazy to get out of bed to do anything about it. I just fell back asleep.

The hungry, hungry hippos would be disappointed.