Intermittent Fasting: Vacations

[spoiler title=’Click for video transcript’ style=’default’ collapse_link=’true’] when you’re intermittent fasting what do you do when you go on vacation so I’ve been doing intermittent fasting for several years now and vacations were one of those things that it used to kind of fill me with kind of dread and I wasn’t really sure how to handle it and a lot of people have asked me this question so I thought you know I should do an entire video just on vacations for me there isn’t a hard and fast rule I handle each vacation as it comes up I have guiding principles that I use to make the decision the main thing is to have a plan I always go in with intentionality now before what I would do you know when it would go horribly is I would go on vacation and kind of think well I hope I’ll be able to stick with it I’m really not sure how it’ll go either I was worrying the whole time thinking oh I’m getting so much weight cuz I’m so off playing right now or I wouldn’t be enjoying myself as much but I’ve kind of over time come up with a process if you are just intentional it takes away so much guilt and you know it’s just a matter of saying okay here’s what I’m gonna do and sometimes for me that is going completely off plan other times it is staying completely on plan and then sometimes it’s doing a modified version of the plan and here’s how I make that decision first of all if I see that intermittent fasting is gonna be super inconvenient I just go off plan an example of that would be at one point we say that Perrys Ocean edge Resort in Daytona Beach Florida and that was a time where I went completely off plan because they make homemade donuts there every morning for free for breakfast and it was gonna be a big family thing to go down there get those delicious donuts and I could have said well no I can resist the donuts and I certainly can but it would have made me a wet blanket like my family wouldn’t have enjoyed it as much and so I do always try to think about how is my plan gonna affect the people that I’m with because it’s not just about me another time we were on vacation we stayed at a condo and in that case it was very much like our normal daily routine we had groceries there we weren’t going out all the time and so for that one I analyzed that situation I said I’m just gonna stay on plan and that’s exactly what I did I found it very easy because I’ve made the decision beforehand I realized it wasn’t really gonna affect our vacation and it worked out fine but there are other times where the vacations have been something where I know that we’re not really gonna have a set schedule and so it’s kind of murky to me so I’ll just say to myself okay every day I’m gonna push my eating window as late as possible so opening it up as late as possible but you know then being okay with it whenever it opens up the main thing to remember is there will be a consequence either way so you know the way I kind of look at it is if you allow yourself complete eating freedom the consequence is probably gonna be a gain and then on the other end of the spectrum if you are completely on plan there might be a loss of enjoyment there and I’m always trying to make it as easy as possible so I really have to weigh how it might affect my weight and then also being okay with a gain and realizing how long it may take to get that weight off you know for me the fastest I ever lost weight was about a pound a week and now it’s even less than that because I’m more at a normal weight so I have to realize you know if I gain five pounds that might take me ten weeks to get it off and there are some other things to consider too for example how often do you go on vacation and how much of an opportunity is this particular vacation I mean is like a once-in-a-lifetime trip to the Maldives or something or is it you know you’re gonna have a little weekend getaway a couple hours away and then also how often do you go on vacation some people go like once a year some people go once every few years and then some people are going every month so you really have to think about how often this is going to come up but ultimately I think it’s about enjoying your vacation and one thing oddly enough that helps me to enjoy it is the ability to weigh and I’ve actually taken my scale with me on vacation and I know that seems you know maybe like some people would say oh that’s that’s such a bummer but to me it’s empowering to know where my weight is even if the scale is going up because sometimes that does happen it just helps me to have that peace of mind because I’ve done it both ways I’ve done it with you know taking no scale with me and just thinking okay I’m going off plan I I really don’t know what my weights gonna be like when I get back and then it is super hard that first day to get on the scale or I’ve just taken the scale with me and just weighed everyday and I really prefer taking the scale but again you know that’s just what helps me to really relax the most so I’m curious to know how do you handle vacations have you found it difficult I think a lot of people find intermittent fasting is kind of difficult on vacation because you’re around other people who are eating and they’re not on your same eating pattern it can really be because eating is also a social thing it’s not just about putting food into your mouth it’s about the fellowship and everything so it’s not just as easy as I’m just not gonna eat right now thank you for watching be sure to LIKE comment and subscribe down below [/spoiler]

Video Recap

Vacations used to be stressful for me. I never knew exactly how to handle intermittent fasting while I was travelling. Over the years, I’ve found that the most important thing is to be intentional. For me, that sometimes means going completely off plan, sometimes staying completely on plan, and sometimes it’s about doing a modified plan.

My Process

I take the following into consideration:

How inconvenient intermittent fasting will probably be. The more inconvenient the more likely I’ll choose to go completely off plan.
How long the vacation is. The longer it is, the less likely I’m gonna go completely off plan.
How much of a big deal is the vacation. If it’s a once in a lifetime vacation, I’m more likely to go off plan completely.
How long it will take me to get the weight back off.

I look at it like a spectrum, on one end, you’ve got maximum eating freedom, which means weight gain will probably happen, and on the other end you’ve got maximum adherence to the plan and you’ve got possibly weight loss. I then think about how much enjoyment I’d get from either end of the spectrum and choose my plan from there. One one hand, complete eating freedom is enjoyable, but there comes a point at which the weight gain will lessen the enjoyment. It’s about trying to strike the right compromise.