What if every diet you’ve tried was teaching you to ignore the one expert who knows your body better than any nutritionist or wellness guru?
Your stomach.
Not the apps that buzz when it’s time to eat. Not the meal plans that ignore whether you’re hungry or full. Your actual, physical, sometimes-cranky stomach that’s been trying to guide you this whole time.
Sarah came to me after twenty years of fighting her own body. Twenty years of point systems and programs that treated her body like a misbehaving pet. She’d lost thirty pounds four different times. Gained it back five.
But here’s what stopped me cold: Sarah couldn’t remember the last time she felt hungry. Not “it’s noon so I should eat” hungry. Just… hungry. That simple signal that kept humans alive for millennia? Gone.
She’d been arguing with her stomach for two decades. And losing.
The Great Deception
An entire industry exists to make you distrust yourself.
Think about it. When did a diet company ever tell you, “Listen to your body and you’ll be fine”? Never. Because there’s no money in self-trust.
Instead, we get programs that buzz when it’s time to eat. Systems that ignore your hunger signals. Apps that treat your body like faulty machinery needing constant correction.
Your brain makes a terrible food critic.
See, your brain evolved when food was scarce. It still thinks you might starve tomorrow. It hoards calories like a Depression-era grandmother hoards canned goods. Sees a donut and thinks, “Emergency fuel! Stock up!” Doesn’t matter that you just ate lunch.
Your brain runs on outdated software.
Your stomach? It runs on wisdom refined over millions of years. It knows when you need fuel. It knows when you’ve had enough. It distinguishes between needing protein and needing comfort.
Watch a toddler at mealtime when they’re not distracted. They eat until satisfied, then push the plate away. They ask for food when hungry. They refuse food when they’re not.
Toddlers haven’t learned to distrust their bodies yet.
We have.
Becoming A Body Detective
How do we get back to that wisdom? How do we become detectives of our own experience?
First, we dig through layers of conditioning. I call it hunger archaeology.
Most of us buried our hunger signals under years of external rules. “Eat every three hours.” “Clean your plate.” “Don’t eat after seven.” “Carbs are evil.” “Everything is toxic except this superfood that costs forty dollars a pound.”
Underneath all that noise, your body still sends signals. You just need to learn its language again.
Physical hunger shows up gradually. Starts as a gentle whisper in your stomach. Maybe slight emptiness. Then it gets more insistent. Your stomach grumbles. You feel low on energy. Ignore it long enough, and it becomes urgent. Shaky hands. Difficulty concentrating. That “hangry” feeling.
Emotional hunger? Different story. Shows up suddenly. Wants specific foods—usually something crunchy, creamy, or sweet. Gets triggered by boredom, stress, sadness, even happiness.
Here’s the key: food doesn’t satisfy emotional hunger. You can eat a whole bag of chips and still feel whatever you were trying to avoid.
Try the Apple Test. When you think you’re hungry, ask yourself if an apple sounds good. If yes, you’re probably physically hungry. If no—if you’re specifically craving pizza or ice cream—you might be emotionally hungry.
Neither is wrong. Sometimes we eat for comfort. That’s human. But knowing the difference helps you respond appropriately.
Marcus, a lawyer, used to eat lunch at his desk while checking emails. He’d finish his sandwich without remembering the taste. Two hours later, he was hungry again despite eating enough calories to fuel a small village.
I asked him to try something radical: eat lunch without distractions. Just him and his food.
First day, he lasted three minutes before reaching for his phone. But he kept trying. After a week, something shifted. He noticed flavors. Textures. He realized he didn’t like the turkey sandwich he’d been eating for months. He felt satisfied with less food when he paid attention.
Most importantly, he started trusting his body’s feedback instead of shoveling fuel into his mouth while his mind was elsewhere.
The Fullness Frequency
Now let’s talk about the other side: fullness.
We’ve lost the ability to hear “enough.” We eat until the food is gone, not until we’re satisfied. We clean our plates because that’s what good people do. We finish the bag because there’s only a little left.
Your body has been trying to tell you when you’ve had enough this whole time.
Fullness isn’t just “not hungry anymore.” It’s a positive signal. Gentle satisfaction that spreads through your body. Food starts tasting less intense. You slow down naturally. You might take a deeper breath or sit back in your chair.
But you have to pay attention to notice it.
This isn’t about meditating over your meal. This is about tuning in while you live your normal life.
Try eating your next meal 20% slower than usual. Put your fork down between bites. Check in with your stomach halfway through. Ask: “How hungry am I right now? How much more do I need?”
First few times, you might not hear anything. That’s normal. You’re relearning a language you forgot how to speak.
But something interesting happens when you start trusting your body’s signals. It’s not just about food anymore.
When you learn to trust your hunger, you start trusting other body signals too. You notice when you’re tired instead of pushing through with caffeine. You recognize stress in your shoulders before it becomes a headache. You honor your need for movement, rest, connection.
Your body becomes your ally instead of your enemy.
Sarah, six months after she started listening to her body, told me something that had nothing to do with food: “I finally left that job that was making me miserable. I kept ignoring how drained I felt every morning, just like I used to ignore my hunger. But once I started trusting my body about food, I couldn’t ignore how it felt about everything else.”
The Rebellion Starts Now
Trusting your body is a radical act in a world that profits from your self-doubt.
Every time you listen to your hunger instead of a diet app, you rebel against a system that wants to keep you dependent. Every time you eat until satisfied instead of until your plate is clean, you choose self-trust over external rules.
Your body is the most reliable wellness coach you’ll ever have. It doesn’t have an agenda. It doesn’t care about trends or profits or what worked for your neighbor. It only cares about keeping you healthy and balanced.
But like any relationship, it takes time to rebuild trust.
Start small. For the next week, try these experiments:
Before you eat, pause and ask: “How hungry am I right now?” Rate it one to ten.
Halfway through your meal, check in again. “How hungry am I now?”
When you think you’re done, wait five minutes. Sometimes fullness takes a moment to register.
Notice what foods make you feel energized versus sluggish. Your body will tell you if you listen.
Pay attention to emotional triggers. What situations make you want to eat when you’re not physically hungry?
Don’t try to fix anything yet. Just notice. Just listen. Just start the conversation with the wisdom that’s been waiting inside you all along.
You already know how to take care of yourself. You just forgot how to listen.
Your body has been trying to guide you home to yourself this whole time. Maybe it’s time to stop arguing and start listening.
The rebellion starts now. And it starts with trust.