5 Ways Your Body Talks to You (And What to Do about It)

1. Hunger Cues

Hunger has been hijacked by the modern world, and going back to how God designed this mechanism can flip our posture from fear to awe.

When your body has enough food, it isn't sounding any alarms. It has its own quiet ways of saying we're good here. A neutral stomach is a full and nourished stomach. But a couple of hours after a meal, once your stomach empties and your blood sugar begins to dip, a different process ignites. Your stomach releases a hormone called ghrelin, which runs up to your brain and demands a response. The brain then sends signals back down to your body to call for your attention, typically through a gnawing stomach, difficulty concentrating, and the one we all know best… irritability.

Here's what's amazing about it: this signal is set to go off every few hours, right around the times your body has learned to expect food or when your body needs it quickly. Think of how a newborn cries when hungry. A baby doesn't cry on a fixed schedule; rather, it cries because it has a biological need, and that is what it knows to do. That cry then escalates the longer it goes unanswered. This hunger drive is the same in adults (just without the crying part). When your body is asking for fuel, one of the best things you can to do is hear it and respond to it. So often we're on the go, caught up in everything else, answering emails or making food for others, that we tune out the internal cry, all the while ghrelin accumulates in our brain and blood sugar decreases, ultimately turning up the volume on these cues.

The problem is, ignored hunger doesn't just sit there calmly; it assembles. And the accumulation of hunger hormones in your brain itself isn’t the problem; rather, it's our ignoring it. Imagine pulling a rubber band farther and farther back: the longer you let hunger stretch, the more likely you are to snap back with a vengeance once food is finally in front of you. This overshoot is often labeled as a lack of willpower; however, when we look at the mechanism, it's actually how we were designed and simply a body that needed our attention. 

Listening to your hunger and answering it is one of the greatest ways to honor the beautiful design God crafted.

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2. Cravings

Cravings are another cue often labeled as problematic. What if instead of shaming or ignoring cravings, we saw them as invitations? Cravings allow us to better understand our bodies and can be powerful insights into blood sugar regulation, hormonal shifts, or emotional needs. Before reacting to or overriding a craving, we can lean in and listen to glean what our bodies need by exploring these two possible triggers.

First, is it actually just hunger?

We start by asking: when did I last eat? If you've gone over 2 hours without food or your last meal was short on protein or fat, there's a good chance you're experiencing exactly what we covered in the last slide. Remember the rubber band: the longer hunger stretches, the faster it flies forward. When hunger takes on a life of its own, our natural drive is toward foods that are available and quick to digest. And do you know which foods check both of those boxes? Processed and sweet foods. In these cases, it's less about the craving and more about a body that simply needs food. Knowing this can shift the craving from a specific food to simply recognizing that you are hungry. 

If it’s not hunger, is it an emotional need?

Assuming the craving isn't sparked by hunger, emotional needs are perhaps the most common yet overlooked driver of a craving. Picture wrapping up a demanding day from work and family responsibilities, all piled up back to back. You finally make it to the end of the day, walk through the door, and everything slows down. Suddenly, you are craving something very delicious. We all know that moment when the daily treadmill clicks off, and that's usually when cravings rev up. Sweet, salty, crunchy. Whatever your preference is, the common thread is that we are looking for delicious… satisfaction… comfort. Assuming you've eaten dinner, a craving that shows up in this quiet moment is far more likely to be about needing an emotional hug or recognition than about the food itself.

I feel this most workdays around 4:00 PM, after a long day of getting the kids off to school and then sitting with clients. My delicious craving is anything chocolate. It used to feel so strong that I would drop everything and drive across town for it! But learning to look at cravings with curiosity rather than judgment or accusation has allowed me to move away from guilt and toward understanding. While I identified chocolate as the need, beneath the surface, what I was actually looking for was something sweet for myself. After a day of pouring into others, I wanted a treat of my own. The best part of pulling this thread is that it opens our eyes to how often we need sweet Jesus to sit with us. We stop seeing cravings as problems to fix and start seeing them as invitations to reach for the one who always satisfies. So now I anticipate that 4 PM craving, and instead of driving across town for some candy, I bring a couple of individually wrapped chocolates as my afternoon treat with Jesus. Before I indulge, I pray. I thank God for all He's provided and Psalm 51:10: “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” And then, I intentionally and presently enjoy a chocolate with Jesus on my mind. 

I chose to keep a bit of the chocolate because I think Jesus would actually enjoy that too! How you respond to your emotional craving will vary depending on your needs; however, we would all benefit from a prayer “hug” in our day the next time a craving hits.

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3. Gut Health

Growing up with a mom who was a nurse taught me about gut health at an early age. When she would pick us up from the sitter, she would always ask: “What’s the poop report?” As the oldest of four, I distinctly remember feeling mortified by this question. But now? I see the wisdom in her ways! She was inquiring about our digestion because she knew this was a key indicator of how our body was functioning. 

Your "poop report" provides valuable insight into how your body processes and responds to the food you eat. It’s one of the simplest and most underrated ways your body speaks to you. Healthy “poop reports” typically involve having 1–3 well-formed, snake-like bowel movements a day. If you have smooth, soft, easy-to-pass stools that hold their shape, congrats! You are passing the poop report! This is your body letting you know your food has been effectively digested and has the powerful support of your microbiome! If stools are loose, watery, or cow-patty-like, it can indicate there is malabsorption or an imbalance in gut bacteria. When food is moving through the intestines too quickly, it doesn’t get the chance to break down nutrients to their full potential. On the other hand, if stools are pellet-like, hard, or infrequent, this could indicate dehydration or low fiber intake. When waste lingers too long in the colon, toxins meant for elimination can be reabsorbed into the bloodstream and potentially manifest as fatigue, skin issues, or brain fog. 

The Bible doesn’t dive deep into gut health, but I smile when I read Deuteronomy 23, which references God's concern for how we handle waste. It makes me think God would then invite us to pay attention to this part of his creation. Think of your daily poop report as a way to understand how your body responded to the previous few meals you ate, and you can start to connect your body’s response to the food you eat.

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4. Body Changes

A lie we've been fed and have perpetuated is that our bodies are never supposed to change. But when we look at the whole course of a human’s life, the body is constantly changing. Growing. Adapting. Aging. The only constant in the human body is that it is always changing.

So often, I watch a client experience a change in their body and go straight to shame and disappointment. How could my body fail me? How could I let myself get here? As Christians, we are invited to rise above this lie. We get to know, as 2 Corinthians 4:16 says, that "though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day." A change in our physical body does not mean our life is less than.

As a dietitian, one of the most incredible parts of my job is watching the grace God weaves into the human body's design. Changes come (some by our own volition, others imposed on us), and yet we can tap into a supernatural source of sustainability. The power in this is that when our inner self is secure in a God who is forever renewing and sustaining us, the outer change loses its power to threaten us. It becomes information instead of an indictment. We get to see the physical change as more logical, more informative, and far less emotionally charged.

Take weight gain as an example. Nearly every adult experiences it at some point in the aging trajectory, and every time, this change comes with emotional baggage. What if, instead of treating it as a fault or a problem, we first tapped into the Spirit that renews us day by day — and then returned to the physical change, responding to it with discernment that doesn’t threaten our identity? 

Weight changes (especially with life shifts and aging) aren’t failures of discipline or morality; rather, they are signals worth understanding, and that discernment goes better when you walk into conversations with your health care provider knowing your body is fearfully and wonderfully made.

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5. Your Ability to Rest

One of the most awesome designs of the human body is its ability to switch from go-mode to rest-mode. In anatomy and physiology, this is called the balance between the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. Your sympathetic nervous system is your go mode. Your fight-or-flight wiring. It's incredibly helpful for getting the day's work done. But just like God made the earth in six days and rested on the seventh, your body was made to come down out of go-mode and settle into the parasympathetic nervous system: your rest-and-digest mode.

As a dietitian, I’m especially interested in the body's ability to make this switch because rest-and-digest is when your digestive system does its best work. It is where it breaks down and absorbs your nutrition in the most intricate ways. The catch is that in our overstimulated culture, and with the trauma life so often brings, our bodies have gotten really good at staying in go-mode. For many, it’s become a mechanism of survival.

If you find yourself unable to sit and receive rest, or you struggle to sleep through the night, this may be your body asking for attention as you learn to rest. And this is where I am so grateful for a faith that gives us a God who promises peace that surpasses all understanding (Philippians 4:7). When we can hear that our body is having a hard time turning off, we can see it as an invitation to invite God in and to let Him give us a supernatural peace our own striving never could.

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