Last week I had a multi-day work retreat that involved all day meetings from 9:00-4:30 with lunch served at noon. MY IF schedule is either 16:8 or 14:10, 6pm-8/10am. I eat 2MAD regardless of whether I fast 14 or 16 hours, I just eat an extra protein bar snack around 8am on the 14 hours fasting days before my lunchtime smoothie.
At my company work retreat lunches lack adequate nutrition. My employer serves us turkey sandwiches on a Wonderbread-like substance, a huge cookie, and few pieces of fruit. Knowing my work retreat lunches would lack proper macros, I ate my typical lunchtime smoothie (which has excellent macros) at 8:30am, the retreat lunch provided at noon (no cookie), a snack at 3pm, and then my typical evening meal at home.
WOW DID I FEEL FULL & BLOATED eating every 3-4 hours instead of every 5-6 hours! I immediately resumed 16:10 after the retreat. This is a lifestyle, not a diet, and the flexibility helps you appreciate this, especially when you want to return to the routine after a brief deviation from it.
TL;DR: It no longer feels normal to me to eat 3MAD. My digestive system appreciates a longer break in between meals and snacks.
Agreed!! I always found catered lunches during workshops tough. Can’t take sufficient mental breaks during the AM meetings, so that platter of breakfast pastries next to the crappy coffee is too tempting. Lunches were sometimes Asian food with a sugary sauce. By 2pm I’m crashing and the platter of cookies becomes necessary.
What can help is specifying dietary requirements to the meeting organizer. While IF is a preference, allergies/sensitivities aren’t, so employers would usually be fine with requests for gluten free / vegetarian/ vegan. Even better the organizer might be ok with picking something off a menu of the catering service.