During the Christmas season, the order of the day is food, more food, eating and more eating. That is the culture here especially for families who are fond of eating. I couldn’t think of a way to miss those occasions and how to go along without interfering with OMAD. Perhaps I have to quit OMAD in December and just go back after the New Year. What can you say about that?
Getting control of occasions
- Thread starter Corzhens
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I haven't yet been on OMAD during the Christmas season - this year will be my first experience with that. I think that it can actually be a helpful thing, though! I know in my extended family we have lots of young children who often need help eating their meal (babies, young toddlers) so having an extra set of hands that don't need to be consuming food at the same time as everyone else is incredibly helpful!
I think the best way to go about it is to not quit the whole month just because you might have some more parties than usual a few days in it. Even if you count Christmas and New Years day, a few office and family Christmas parties here and there, I think it's unlikely that all that would amount to a total of thirty days so while it might be okay to have cheat days sometimes, I don't think it's practical to say you'll have a cheat month just because of having a few more gatherings to go to than usual.
I might not want to quit OMAD totally maybe because even during the Christmas period we do not celebrate everyday. So days that there are no party and celebration I will just stick with my diet but days that I know there will be a lot of eating then I will drop the diet, I think it will be better this way than outrightly abandoning OMAD for a whole month.
Holidays are probably the hardest times for most of us, especially people with large families and a lot of celebrating.
I am lucky in that respect, because it is just my husband and myself, and we do not really do anything special to celebrate most holidays. Ours will likely be only one special meal for Thanksgiving, and one for Christmas, and that can easily fit into my OMAD routine.
If it doesn’t, then I will just do intermittent fasting on whichever schedule I can find for myself, and then get back to OMAD as soon as possible.
What I have been reading, is that some people do a longer fast time, like 2-3 days, especially after taking a break from fasting, and this helps to get our body back in the fat burning mode.
For me, it actually comes down to a decision of whether it is more important for me to celebrate with extra food, or to keep my body in fatburning mode so I can have the slim and healthy body that I want for next year.
I am lucky in that respect, because it is just my husband and myself, and we do not really do anything special to celebrate most holidays. Ours will likely be only one special meal for Thanksgiving, and one for Christmas, and that can easily fit into my OMAD routine.
If it doesn’t, then I will just do intermittent fasting on whichever schedule I can find for myself, and then get back to OMAD as soon as possible.
What I have been reading, is that some people do a longer fast time, like 2-3 days, especially after taking a break from fasting, and this helps to get our body back in the fat burning mode.
For me, it actually comes down to a decision of whether it is more important for me to celebrate with extra food, or to keep my body in fatburning mode so I can have the slim and healthy body that I want for next year.
The holiday season is my time of the year to treat myself, not mistreat myself. That's the way everybody should approach it. Yes, there will be loads of tempting foods placed before you and since holidays come but once a year, go ahead and have a little bit. Emphasis on the word “little”. I love sweet potato pie or pumpkin pie. I only get those pies around Thanksgiving and Christmas. I refuse to pass. However, instead of a full-size pie slice, savoring a half of a pie slice is still enjoyable! It's the holidays! Treat yourself. Don't mistreat yourself!
I suppose it's not a hard fast rule to stay completely limited to one meal a day. Like with what you said. Special occasions are definitely hard to manage. But since it's a personal diet plan, you can give yourself a bit of leeway. Like for 1 week, you can give yourself two or three days where you eat more than one meal.
Christmas time does have lots of food and eating. But at the end of the day, you're still in control of how much you actually eat.
Christmas time does have lots of food and eating. But at the end of the day, you're still in control of how much you actually eat.
It’s going to depend on what sort of eating schedule you intend to have. Do you plan on having breakfast or brunch with your friends and family, or do you intend on eating mostly lunch and dinner? While you might end up dropping OMAD for a little bit, that doesn’t mean that you have to quit intermittent fasting entirely.
There are other types of fasting diets with different eating windows, such as the 20:4 diet, and 16:8 diet. I think the latter is what I intend on doing for the holidays. I’m going to give myself a 16-hour fasting window, and an 8-hour feasting window. My family and friends usually gather between 12:00 PM to 8:00 PM for lunch and dinner, which means that will be my window for eating with them.
You won’t reap as many benefits as with OMAD, but there are still many benefits to such a diet.
There are other types of fasting diets with different eating windows, such as the 20:4 diet, and 16:8 diet. I think the latter is what I intend on doing for the holidays. I’m going to give myself a 16-hour fasting window, and an 8-hour feasting window. My family and friends usually gather between 12:00 PM to 8:00 PM for lunch and dinner, which means that will be my window for eating with them.
You won’t reap as many benefits as with OMAD, but there are still many benefits to such a diet.
For the christmas holidays OMAD goes out of the window. I agree that this is the time to be merry. Last holiday I had not started on OMAD but I was on low carb. I took three weeks off and I ate kind of what I wanted.In January I continued with low carb and I began OMAD in April. For this christmas I plan to take a break for two to three weeks again. I've not really decided how I'm going to do this. I'm probably going to move to the 16- 8 protocol where I miss breakfast and have lunch and dinner. I think its good to take a break.
Christmas season is really a struggle. I find it hard because I also helped in cooking the dishes so I will be cravings for foods. There are days that I had successfully overcome the cravings but there are bad days when I do not follow my diet. I think it is better to not stopped in to your diet. A whole of not doing OMAD may result for you for not going back at all.
One suggestion is to schedule your diet and don't do it during the holiday season or on months that there are scheduled family occasions and festivities because it would be quite hard to maintain with all the people eating unless you have the resolve in not attending such occasions.
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