My eyes are bigger than my stomach

You’ve probably heard the expression: “My eyes are bigger than my stomach.”

It’s usually said with a laugh – plate piled too high, eyes lighting up at the buffet, reaching for more than we can actually eat. But this familiar phrase has some surprisingly deep somatic roots. And understanding them can change the way you relate to your body and to food.

Let me explain.

Your Nervous System Is Processing Everything, All the Time

Your nervous system takes in a constant stream of sensory input through what we now understand to be eight senses, not just five.

You’re probably already familiar with the five “far senses”: sight, smell, taste, touch, and hearing. These are how we take in the world around us. When they’re working well, they give us just the right information to know how to respond in each moment, helping us feel both safe and in charge of our choices.

When it comes to food, these five senses support all four phases of what I call the nourishment cycle: helping us select, prepare, enjoy, and assimilate the foods most suited to our needs in this moment.

But there are three lesser-known senses that live on the inside of the body: the proprioceptive, interoceptive, and vestibular senses. These tell us about our position in space, the inner state of the body (hungry, tired, sick, aroused), and our equilibrium.

Here’s what’s fascinating: these same three “near senses” that tell us about our inner state also influence how we choose, prepare, enjoy, and assimilate our food. Think of the last time you were dizzy from the flu or nauseous on a boat. Not exactly a moment of great appetite.

What Happens When the Inner Senses Go Offline

The eight senses are also constantly communicating our level of arousal. Our eyes go narrow with concern. Our hearing becomes more sensitive under prolonged stress. Our viscera goes quiet and numb when we enter a freeze response from extreme overwhelm.

This is where the expression “my eyes are bigger than my stomach” gets really interesting.

When the three near senses are hijacked by high stress, we actually can’t accurately read how hungry we are or what our body needs. We may end up under or over-estimating our hunger, not because we aren’t willing to connect with the inside of our bodies, but because when we do connect, what we find is a nervous system signaling distress.

When the stomach feels quiet and vacuous, or tight and constricted like a ball of nerves, we lose touch with what we actually want and need. The near senses simply cannot give us accurate information in that state.

So the Eyes Step In to Do the Job

What happens next is something I find both fascinating and deeply compassionate: we substitute near-sense information with what we can get from the far senses.

In other words, what my stomach can’t tell me, my eyes will try to.

Some of us are very sensitive to visual input and actually need specific shapes, colors, textures, and the way light reflects off food in order to feel interested in eating. Bakers and chefs know this well. People are more likely to eat something that looks beautiful but tastes mediocre than something that looks plain but tastes wonderful.

This is not weakness. This is not a lack of discipline. This is your nervous system being extraordinarily creative with the resources it has available.

You Are Not Broken

Many people I speak with feel terrible that they aren’t eating “intuitively,” that they can’t gauge with any accuracy what they need or how much is enough.

But here’s what I want you to know: your body is hundreds of thousands of years old. It is exceptionally wise and intelligent. If sensing yourself on the inside feels out of reach right now, it doesn’t mean you are broken or that you can’t trust your body.

Your body is inherently trustworthy. But it is designed for many more functions than telling you about food. When your biology is organized for protection rather than for exploration and discovery, your eyes will take over and try to guide you, because your inner senses can’t do that job safely right now.

You actually need to feel relatively safe on the inside to receive clear signals about hunger, satisfaction, and fullness.

A Different Way to See Yourself

The next time you catch yourself saying “my eyes are bigger than my stomach,” I invite you to pause. Not with judgment, but with curiosity.

What if that’s not a character flaw? What if it’s your body’s intelligent workaround, doing the very best it can with the information available in that moment?

Because that’s exactly what it is.

Understanding this is the first step toward something different: not forcing the inner senses to work before they feel safe, but gently and step by step, creating the conditions in which they can.

in peace with food: Galina