Dear Kayla,

I have no problem waiting for my OMAD time. Right now I’m in beginning stages so I have 6 pm dinner. I can’t seem to stop eating once I start, no matter what my intentions, I continue to pick after my plate of food. Any tips on how you eat your one meal then get up from table and start fasting?

Thank you 😊,

Beth

PS: I would love to use the weight loss tracker but can’t seem to open it! Not sure why.

Dear Beth,

Thank you for your question. You didn’t mention how experienced you are with fasting. I very slowly made my way to OMAD, over the course of about 15 months or so. So, if part of your problem right now is that when you sit down to your meal you feel out of control, then shorten your fasting window until you find you can sit down and feel in control. However, it sounds to me like it’s more the end of the meal you’re having trouble with. Here are some tips based on what I do.

Tip #1: Eat until you are full, not based on an arbitrary number of plates.

I eat from a 9″ plate, but I do not have rules against seconds or thirds. A very heavy rich meal (think biscuits and gravy and sausage and bacon) may leave me full after one plate. Roasted salmon with broccoli might be a three plate scenario. I always go by feel. I pay attention to how my 7-day average weight is trending over about 6 weeks of time, to make sure that my satiation calibration is correct. The trend will show me if I’m eating too much or just the right amount.

Tip #2: Don’t pick. Put the food on your plate.

I generally don’t pick from the pan or the bowl, since this can easily lead to overeating. Instead, I’ll serve myself some more of whatever I’m wanting onto my plate, so that I can see just how much I’m eating.

Tip #3: Get up from the table and walk around a bit if you’re unsure about whether you’re full.

In the beginning of practicing OMAD, I found there were times when I wasn’t really sure if I was full or not. I found getting up from the table and moving around a bit usually made it clear. I don’t mean going for a full-blown walk. I mean something like walking over to the kitchen sink for a refill in my water glass or something similar. Many times, just the act of standing up would make me aware that I was full. Other times, I’d see plainly that I hadn’t eaten enough, and I would sit back down and eat some more, until I felt full.

Learning to eat enough, but not too much, is a process. I still have meals where I’m unsure, and I’ll get up and move around. Even then, there are times when I guess wrong. Be patient with yourself. If you guess wrong, do what I do and forgive yourself quickly and learn from it. This is all part of the journey.

Sincerely,

Kayla Cox

PS: I checked the tracking spreadsheet on my website. I was able to download it and open it in Excel, LibreOffice, and in Google sheets, so I’m not sure why you’d have an issue. It may be a permissions setting on your device.