What to do with big meals as a tradition?

I started fasting yesterday, 16:8, I'm a breakfast person so my eating window is between 8AM and 4PM. Every Friday, my family have this tradition, we meet around 7PM and we eat a big dinner, including meat, salads (sometimes some kind of pie) and cake at the end. We usually finish this meal at 10PM. How can I adjust my fasting and eating window for this meal?

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I would probably on Friday eat breakfast and this meal only.

I would probably also skip breakfast on Saturday.

I am sure you will find a good way to incorporate this meal in your system. Flexibility is one of the nice things about IF.

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That sounds like a really nice tradition with your family :) if you’re comfortable with doing so, can you share that your trying to make adjustments for a healthier lifestyle to have their support?

You could try adjusting your feeding window or doing a longer fast the following day (18:6 or 20:4)

Fasting can be so flexible. I try to remember that one “bad” meal doesn’t cancel out all of the work you put in before.

Maybe skip the cake and/or pie some weeks - or just have a smaller portion of one. For me, i find if i swear off chocolate/baked goods/carbs I’m miserable and wind up bingeing on something horrible. If i keep those things in moderation - something for a special occasion then it’s a nice thing to look forward to every once in a while and it no longer feels “forbidden”

I hope some of that is helpful! :) you got this!

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Politely excuse yourself from the cake at the end. Your stomach has likely shrunk from IF and a sugar bomb is nobody’s friend. Either tell them at beginning you won’t be having cake or claim to be incapable of eating another bite.