[spoiler title=’Click for video transcript’ style=’default’ collapse_link=’true’] so if your intermittent fasting what do you do when you need to go off plan so what I found is there are gonna be things in your life that are gonna pop up and they’re gonna be centered around eating and it’s gonna happen right in the middle of your fasting window so the question is how do you handle that you go off plan do you stay on plan what do you do and this is something I really struggled with in the beginning and what I would inevitably do is I would say okay I’m not gonna eat at this thing I would get to the event and I would be fine I wasn’t really hungry but people would pressure me oh come on you know eat I feel bad you’re not eating you know I don’t want to eat in front of you and then I would eat and then I would feel guilty that I ate you know because I didn’t keep my word to myself so I realized okay that’s not sustainable I don’t want to ever feel guilty for you know enjoying an event so I heard some advice that I think is so helpful which is basically if you are having to make the same decision over and over again make it once like make a rule for yourself and then it simplifies your life you’ve already made that decision you don’t have to worry with it anymore so here’s my rule if it happens less than 10 percent of the time so in other words that’s slightly less than once a week that’s the maximum that can happen then I’m gonna go ahead and eat the food I mean this could be things like business lunches or you know a family thing a family breakfast even and what I found is there is such a big difference even though in either case like let’s say you say okay I’m not gonna eat at the thing but then you go and you eat at the thing you know or you say well I am gonna eat at the thing and then you do eat at the thing either way you’ve eaten the food right but mentally it is so different to have the plan and to have stuck with it even if sticking with the plan means you ate because it’s about being intentional and it’s just really empowering when you’ve been intentional and you’ve stuck with your plan even if your plan was to go off plan now so far I have not had anything come up in my life where it’s greater than 10% of time and what my plan would be for that case be to reassess and say you know is it happening often enough where that needs to be when I eat my main meal or you know is it a thing where I could make up some sort of other rule so what does this look like practically speaking so like let’s say I have a business lunch I eat at the event and then at 6:00 6:30 when I normally eat supper I eat again and so on those days you know I’ll eat twice instead of just once I don’t let it become a free-for-all day so in other words like if it’s a breakfast then I just eat the breakfast and then I don’t eat again until supper I don’t say well you know I eat breakfast so now I’m gonna have lunch and now I’m gonna have snack and now I’m gonna have supper one thing that I don’t do and it’s an option it’s a valid option is to just have my one meal be at that event but you know especially in the beginning of all this I really found that to be too challenging I wanted this to always feel very easy so it’s super easy to just eat twice instead of once it’s a little bit harder to you know say if you eat the business lunch and then you have to wait until tomorrow supper that’s over a 24 hour fast which a lot of people would agree is pretty challenging and ultimately you know my decision was I want it to be easy and so if that means I have to sacrifice speed of weight loss then that’s what I’m gonna do and that’s what’s worked for me now one thing I would say is now that I’m so used to intermittent fasting if it was just a later supper you know let’s say the events at 8 o’clock nowadays I would say I’m just gonna make that my first and only meal because it’s just easier for me but in the beginning I still needed you know like even if we were gonna be eating at 8:00 I still need to eat at that again it was all about being comfortable and not making this too challenging so that’s what I do when I need to go off plan yes I go off plan occasionally and it’s always on purpose and that’s what works for me so I’m curious to know do you go off plan have you formulated a plan or do you take it on a case-by-case basis have you learned how to just not eat in front of people I still struggle with that one I would just rather everybody feel good and not make me feel guilty and so I’m just gonna eat with everybody else okay thank you for watching be sure to LIKE comment subscribe down below [/spoiler]
Video Recap
There will be times that you’ll go to events that are centered around eating, and you have to figure out how to handle it.
- I have found what does not work: say you won’t eat, cave in to eating because people are urging you to eat, then feel guilty
- I have instead made a rule for myself: If it’s happening less than 10% of the time in my life (slightly less than once a week, at maximum) then I will eat at the event.
- What this looks like in real life: I eat at the event (no restrictions) and then I will eat my normal meal at around 6:30, again, no restrictions
- I do not let this become a free for all day. It’s simply eat at the event, then eat at my normal time.
- Now that I’m more experienced with Intermittent Fasting, if the event is simply later evening, I’ll just have that be my one meal. But in the beginning, I would need to eat at my normal time, and then again at the event.
- My goal is to always make this as easy as possible.
- I’m willing to sacrifice speed of weight loss, if that means it will be easier.