Intermittent Fasting Weekend Thoughts

TGIF! Thank God It’s Friday! This mantra is spoken by people everywhere—-those who are tired of school, work, daily grind, and typical schedules. AND….those who are on diets. Yep….dieters everywhere wait for the weekend to relax their diet protocols, eat foods that they haven’t allowed themselves during the week, and yes, even “go off” the diet.

Intermittent Fasters don’t need to do this! We can make this a way of life! We might shorten or lengthen our eating windows based on social situations, family events, etc., but we don’t have to go “off and on”!

You can learn to fast as a lifestyle—check out the video and outline below! May the fast be with you!

Outline for Intermittent Fasting Weekend Thoughts

A. Opening

1. Diet mentality—weekdays on and weekends off
2. Gradually—change our thinking from diet mentality to lifestyle mentality through Daily IF
3. Diet mentality is responsible for many of us not having a net loss over our lifetime

B. Think of Weekends Differently Than You Used To

1. Wrong thinking: “Weekdays are for self discipline and weekends are for self-indulgence and overeating”
2. What would you weigh if your weight was just based on what you did during the week?
3. No need to suffer through the week to reach the week-end splurge
4. IF can be the first time that you stay on all the time—just adjust your hours; make it a lifestyle

C. Plan Each Day According to What It Holds—Not Where It Falls on the Calendar

1. Don’t base it on calendar date, weekend splurges, etc.—-base your fasting hours on your schedules, menus, social calendars, family events, etc.
2. Don’t ever think that weekends are automatically “off”
3. Adjust your eating window based on family, social events, etc. You might even fast longer on a weekend if nothing social or special is going on!

D. Stop Eating “Treats” on Weekends and “Health Food” During the Week

1. There’s no perfection or over indulgence with Daily IF—it’s not one extreme or the other
2. Not good foods during the week and bad foods during the weekend
3. Perpetuates the whole cycle of diet mentality and over indulgence
4. Mindset—good foods vs bad foods
5. Have what you want when you want it—balancing it with what else you ate during that window (for the three benchmarks: a. Eat what you love; b. Eat what makes you feel good; c. Eat what helps you reach your goal)

E. Only Extend Your Eating Window for Important Occasions

1. Don’t automatically extend your eating window because of the day of the week
2. Look at the big picture—goal is fasting as long as you can (for example, averaging your fasting hours to reach 20 hours or whatever your goal is)
3. Diet mentality is “when can I go off?”
4. Lifestyle mentality is “how can I fast longer” and “how can I do this forever?”
5. Don’t make excuses for extending eating window to more hours
6. Not “when can I go off?”

F. Plan Your Weekend Free Time

1. Stay busy!
2. Plan your weekend—fill it up with work, family, pleasure, hobbies, leisure, home tasks, etc.
3. Use a block schedule for hours that are not filled up