I have been trying to do a clean 16:8 fast for a few weeks. I am doing well in terms of not eating outside of my eating window.
However, my family keeps passing around these little colds (we have one daughter in preschool and the other in kinder, so runny noses are just par for the course). And we adopted two new kittens about a month ago which I am mildly allergic to. So, at night, I keep getting this annoying post nasal cough that only seems to bother me when I lay down to sleep at night. So I keep taking robitussin or NyQuil, and often taking cough drops for a bit until the coughing stops. I know these all have sugar in them since they taste sweet. Unfortunately, this all usually goes down around 10 or 11pm at night.
I have tried taking the cough medicine before 8pm, but by the time I lay down later at night I still get the itchy throat that makes me cough.
If any of you have advice for sugar free cough medicine, or know how the medicine I am taking does officially count as breaking my fast I would really appreciate it. I have tried looking around online and just can’t find any solid information or advice for dealing with this while doing IF.
Should I move my eating window from 3-11pm so I can take the cough medicine in that window? I don’t really need to eat after I have dinner with the family and am really working on not snacking after dinner…
I wouldn’t worry about it, honestly. When you are sick, your health needs to take precedence over your fasting. The 15 calories or whatever that are in a dose of NyQuil will have no impact on your waistline, and coughing all night will be worse for your well-being than gaining a pound.
On top of that, if you are sick and feeling crummy during your fasting period and a sandwich would make you feel better, have a sandwich. IF is a marathon, not a sprint, and if you are sick your priority should be getting better. It’s okay to break your fast once in awhile.
Hope you feel better soon!
The few times I have had a cough that would not let up (we’re talking several weeks), I went to the doctor and got an inhaler. Stops the spasm immediately and allowed me to get the rest I needed.
Not sure how long you’ve been sick but if it continues and you can’t get rest at night without OTC cough medicine I would get checked out to make sure whatever you’ve got isn’t lingering in your lungs.