I’m being flexible with my approach to IF, including the length of my fasting windows and what time I observe them. One thing I’m struggling with off the bat is coffee or wine - meaning do I scratch the itch to have coffee (not black, I know that’s an option) first thing in the AM, or do I start my eating window several hours later so I can have a glass of wine after the kids go to bed. I’m fine eating my last meal at 3 or 4, but around 7PM a glass of red sure sounds nice. There’s no wrong or right answer here - just the angel and devil on my shoulder currently!
Do what works for you while understanding the impact on your fast (I do the same thing with coffee in the mornings!).
If you’re interested in trying a non-alcoholic alternative to the wine, I just started using something called “Stop Your Wine-ing” from Apothekary. If you blend it with the right things, this could also keep you under 50cal/glass and save your evening fasts (though I know that’s a controversial idea here), and might help with the stress and improve sleep quality vs. the glass of wine. No judgement either way though; do what works for you!
Black coffee preferably to keep you calorie free and stay fasting. For fasting window I would place it closer to the end of the day, like around sunset or sometime not long after possibly when you are about to turn in for the day.
For example I used to fast from 8pm till 2pm the next day, and eat from 2pm till 8pm to match the eating window with my work lunchbreak which is usually around 2pm but have since changed my eating window to a 12pm to 6pm time so that I could be done eating way before bedtime which is around 9pm-9:20pm so I could be up for my morning exercise before work.
Anyways this is alot of info Im sharing, not to confuse you, if you want to have a glass of wine at 7pm to close out the day and start your fast I would reccomend drinking a couple of cups of water after that to hydrate you because alcoholic beverages can leave you dehydrated and Im not saying youre drinking like youre going wild at a party or something but just in general.
But starting your fast at 7pm could work great, and then break your fast at say 11am to make it a 16 hour fast. But but but, you can ease into this and just do like a 12 or 14 hour fast to get used to it and adjust to the lifestyle change, still start fasting at 7pm or 8pm and just push the traditional morning breakfast to like 9am or 10 you know and that would give you a fasting window of like 12-14 hours. But ease into this so you dont burnout mentally from overthinking the stuff or physically trying to turn your diet of foods upside down.
Hope you find your way :) stay hydrated and stay strong