Today is the 5th day of my 16:8 IF! And I must say, it has already been quite a rollercoaster.
I’ve always been a breakfast person, but now with a new job it got pretty inconvenient, since I have to get up at 6 every day to manage my usual heavy breakfast preparation, and it’s just so not worth it… So I stumbled upon intermittent fasting and jumped straight into it. My plan is to have my lunch at around 12, which fits my working schedule perfectly, have some snack at around 4, and then try to manage my last meal at 6-7.
First 2 days went pretty good, although i was extremely hungry in the mornings. At 10:30-11 I was starting to watch pictures of food on the internet and dream of a lunch break. But I also kinda found joy in this struggle, and noticed that i’m way more sharp and concentrated when hungry.
Then on the 3d day I had weird nausea in the morning, and even had to lay down for a bit before leaving the house. It went away, but I ended up breaking my fast with a cinnamon bun and a cupcake late at night because my friend came to visit me and brought the food, and for some I reason I didn’t want to say that I’m fasting, expecting questions or judgment. By the way, how do you deal with such situations when you are offered food by your friends or family, and you just feel weird telling them about your eating schedule?
But yeah, I tried not to stress too much about it, telling myself that I’m just a beginner and my body is getting adapted, and continued on the 4th day as before. And this time I got a severe hunger at around 6-7, and ended up eating the whole fridge, mixing food in weird combinations. I did it in the meal window, but I really was feeling physically uncomfortable from the amount of food I stuffed my body with…
And today, on the 5th day, I woke up slightly nauseous again, but at least not hungry. I’m motivated to continue, but I really don’t want these evening cravings to repeat. I guess it means that I was not having enough calories during the day, but I will need to figure out how to fit bigger/more nutritious meals in my schedule, because I’m at my workplace from 9 until 6, and then I usually try to go to the gym or meet friends, so basically all I can eat is what I bring with me or what I buy in the cafeteria. I’m working in the fucking middle of nowhere, so there are no shops or diners nearby.
As I said, I’m really motivated to keep going, and I understand that my body needs time to adjust. But I have to yet figure out so much, so it get’s frustrating from time to time… Tell me, what did you face as a beginner in IF? What was the hardest part? And how often did you end up cheating or being unable to have a meal during your eating window?
The hardest part for me was definitely ritualistic evening snacking. Ultra-processed and -palatable foods never were the main struggle. Sure, I would overeat such foods – that’s the effect that they are engineered to induce after all –, probably still would today if I had some. But the nature of my problem was for the most part behavioral, i.e., I would overrely on just food in general, no matter if healthy or not, for 100% emotional reasons.
I’m a simple human, as was my solution: Don’t any longer use food to manage affective state. It was one simple decision sufficient to ignite change. And yes, the first couple of evenings were brutal but the cravings quickly subsided. At the one month mark I started cleaning up my diet; I no longer felt that I needed to “eat everything in the fridge (or even just on the table for that matter)” merely because it was my eating window. At the two month mark I could effortlessly skip my weekly indulgence in a full-blown junk food orgy. At the three month mark I could contentedly sit amongst others, observe them eat dishes that I would formerly consider mouth-watering and remain unimpacted. And so on and so forth. It was a process for sure, but subjectively I wouldn’t quit compare it to the challenge of quitting say an opioid.
Nowadays I never cheat – there’s just zero need for it. This doesn’t mean I never make compromises. When I’m at a social event, I eat whatever is on the table until satiated – even if I would never incorporate those dietary choices available into my own meals. It has nothing to do with enjoyment and everything to do with not making everyone else uncomfortable. As long as it doesn’t happen all the time, I’m relatively safe. Generally speaking my decision tree goes like this: “Do we have an event planned for the day? If so, is it for the 3rd day in a row or the 5th time in a month (don’t pay attention to the concrete numbers, that’s just what works for me)? If yes, abstain, or try to replicate what you do at home (focus on whole foods, avoid caloric beverages – just generally don’t touch stuff made for you to abuse). If not, shift your window (assuming it hasn’t passed) to the time of the event”. Note that I practice OMAD and therefore don’t care about windows all too much, though I believe that the general principles touched upon can to some extent still be applied regardless of one’s specific scheme of choice.
How do I deal with people offering food? “Thanks, not hungry, maybe later”. If they desire to learn more, they’ll ask. If they get pushy, ignore.