You be very self aware of your feelings and motivation to fast and to eat… and make a wish on astar. Haha.
But I’m serious, there’s only so much you can control with your rational thinking brain until your lizard brain takes control, especially with food intake.
Watch out for anxiety around eating - do you enjoy eating in the eating window? if you eat outside the window, how do you feel?
Also watch out for feeling really virtuous about not eating.
I don’t find fasting or intermittent fasting to be triggers, but everyone is different.
One important aspect is to work on our relationships with food while doing IF. Examining why were we eating the way we were before. How best to address foods we know will be problems for us. How does all that factor into our new eating habits.
While I never struggled with fully disordered eating, I certainly turned to food for comfort. It caused me to ultimately fail in my first two attempts at losing weight. Eventually I would want those old habits more than I wanted to change. What finally helped me was to set some positive goals for myself that were not just losing weight. That was focused too much on the outcome and I needed to want to engage with the process itself.
Vigilence! And self talk. I have to have frequent conversations with myself about how restricting isn’t sustainable and won’t last. If I’m hungry in my window, I need to remind myself I can eat. I have to tell myself if I’ve been craving something and denying myself it, but the craving persists, sometimes it better to give my body what it wants, because denying myself all the time isn’t sustainable. I try to keep in mind the long game and what will help me be successful longterm.
Watch your own thoughts and emotions. If you start seeing yourself becoming very anxious, negative, judgmental, and punitive of yourself — or if you start feeling bad, guilty, anxious about eating at all, and only wanting to fast longer and longer — then you should stop IF immediately and talk to a doctor or therapist.
If you have a history of disordered eating, please talk with a doctor or therapist before starting IF. It doesn’t automatically mean you can’t do IF, but it’s important to get guidance so you can do it safely. IF should be a tool to take care of yourself, not a tool to punish yourself or hurt yourself.
Maybe don’t do OMAD, personally I have found that it’s easier to keep to ‘normal’ eating if i variey between longer and shorter eating windows. If I one day end up basically stuffing my face during my eating window I take that as a signal and follow it with a few days with a longer eating window. So far it has worked for me, but as other have commented you need to pay attention and be mindful so you can change if you need to :)
I try to plan my meal ahead of time, stick to one serving. As last resort, I ask myself if I would be embarrassed to eat this meal in front of my boss, etc. Silly, I know but it works and helps me dial back my consumption on those days I feel like eating everything in sight. On the few days I’ve over- indulged, I get outside and talk a walk, etc. I have such a guilty feeling that I try to avoid it.
I try to combine IF with intuitive eating and mindfulness. In my eating window I try to pay attention to my body so it’s not just a binge fest. Am I really hungry? What do I really want to eat? What will make feel good? Yes, I can have that cookie if I genuinely want it but I can’t mindlessly eat cookies. If I want to eat for emotional reasons I distract myself.
This also works for my fast. I regularly go to 40 hours but if I need to break the fast, if I’m not feeling well, if I’m headachy or shaky, I break it. That’s it, no hesitation. Drink water/electrolytes, breathe through it, but if it doesn’t feel good/right I stop.