Mrs. Tum-Tum, Brain, and Food Noise Attempt a Three-Legged Race.

Hilde's experiencing a war, of sorts, between her Body, Mrs. Tum-Tum, and Brain. They're all tossing signals like gang members and Hilde's practicing who TF to listen to and when.

How hungry is hungry enough? Who decides? Brain or Mrs. Tum-Tum? What's normal hunger even FEEL like? Food noise, when not manically chattering in the background, sounds suspiciously like a regular "I'm hungry" thought. Which is which?

Hilde blames the war of the body organs on years of restrictive dieting that didn't teach her jack-sh*t about her brain, body, or stomach. Encouraged to ignore normal signs of hunger, she was taught to ignore her rumbling stomach, better yet, drink water if you're hungry. Eat three times a day only or you're a dirty diet cheater.. Don't consult your body or use your brain, because the answers were in the weight loss booklet to find out what to do, when to do it and how.

It's kinda like a 1970s Field Day sack race, that particular flavor of school spirit torture that teachers called fun and where kids were handed burlap bags, told to climb in, and jump to the finish line.

Except it's not one kid in the sack. It's three.

Body, Mrs. Tum-Tum, and Brain, all crammed together in a sack, hopping toward a finish line none of them know how to get to. Brain wants to sprint and yell the whole time. Mrs. Tum-Tum wants to sit down right there in the grass; she's not sure what to do. Body just wants someone to tell it what's actually true. and which way to head to get to the finish line.

So now, decades later, they're finally hopping in the same direction more often than not. Not gracefully. Not without the occasional face-plant into the grass. But Brain's stopped sprinting off alone and screeching, Mrs. Tum-Tum's stopped sitting down on the grass, feeling defeated, and Body's starting to trust that someone in that sack actually knows where the finish line is.