Posted on July 27, 2026
These days, many of us use some kind of tracker for various health metrics – exercise, heart rate, sleep, stress levels and much more. The collected data can be very helpful if used wisely. But in certain people it produces more stress than anything useful. Prone to perfectionism as I am, I have mostly avoided tracking for that reason. And a recent experience bolstered my sense that, whether or not we track our health, another source of data should never be overlooked.
I was on a weeklong cruise aboard a ship I know well. I appreciate that its menu includes a wide range of healthy foods that parallel what I eat at home. I never have to consume something unhealthy unless I want to, and I like having that much control.
What I can’t control aboard the ship is when I eat. Breakfast starts at 7:30am and dinner at 7:30pm. This is quite different from my eating schedule at home where, for the past six years, I have been practicing a version of intermittent fasting (“IF”) that restricts my daily eating to, roughly, 10:30am to 6:30pm. I have followed this routine not to lose weight but to achieve the “metabolic switch” IF is known for, which helps burn fat and reduce inflammation, among other contributors to good health.
For most of that time, this regimen has suited me. Recently, though, I’d felt more bloated and gassier. I read that “older adults” like me have slower digestive processes than younger people, so I wasn’t entirely surprised. With no other symptoms, I didn’t think I was sick and neither did my doctor. But the unpleasant feelings persisted.
Aboard the ship, my breakfasts were similar to what I eat at home: plain yogurt, fresh fruit, a sprinkling of granola. Eating breakfast earlier than usual, I was hungry by lunchtime, and by dinnertime I was hungry again. As the week went by, despite the wide difference between my home and onboard eating schedules, I noticed how good I felt after meals – better than before my trip.
Back home again, I fully intended to return to my usual eating routine. After all, I’d been eating this way for years, and I liked thinking of the good things it was doing for my health.
Then I found myself wondering what my body had been trying to tell me during my trip. It dawned on me that I had been asking a lot of my digestive system: to process a whole day’s food in the space of only eight hours. What had worked when I was younger was not working anymore. My digestive system now needed more time to do its job.
I changed my plan and began experimenting with an eating window of about ten hours. It’s been little more than a week since I got home, but already I feel more comfortable than before I left. I’m also feeling a sense of contentment that’s hard to describe. I think this comes from having used my intuition – instead of a rigid rule, regimen or data set – to decide what’s best for me.
This has caused me to think of other times I’ve seen intuition be especially helpful. I have a friend who was convinced something was wrong even though doctors told her she was fine. She persisted until it was finally discovered that she had ovarian cancer. She survived, and today she spreads this message to others: Listen to your body.
As another example, one of my sons had difficulty swallowing as a young child. Despite more than one doctor saying nothing was wrong, I – and my son – knew there was, and I didn’t give up until his problem was diagnosed and dealt with.
I intend to apply this lesson I’ve learned to other areas of my health. No matter how many valuable data inputs I have, and no matter what’s true or good for other people, I want to stay connected to my own body. I hope the inner voice of my intuition will always be there, like a compass, to help guide me toward what’s best for me. And I hope yours will do the same for you.