How to manage hotel breakfasts abroad while doing 16:8 fasting

[Kitchenbattle]

Posting here for traffic. Need a bit of advice and/or perspective perhaps. I have started a new way of eating (I hate the term diet) and that involves 16:8 intermittent fasting. My question is I’m due to go abroad a few times this summer. And breakfast is included in the hotel and I will be with my family. I don’t normally eat my first meal until 10. How will I manage this? I don’t want to eat breakfast too early. Should I just take what I can from the breakfast buffet put it in a Tupperware and eat at 10. I also am avoiding carbs as as much as I can. And I am coeliac, so I can’t just go have a croissant and I won’t want to either. So I’ll need protein etc. Anyone else in the same situation who can give some advice?

we will normally have dinner around 5:30 six so that’s not a problem really. It’s just breakfast.

That’s what I do anyway, I never have a lunch. I have a meal at 10 and I have my dinner at about 5:30.

HA😀 maybe not then, I am sure it will be fine, i generally only eat 2 meals a day im never hungry in the morning but will eat on holiday but usually miss lunch.

I usually don’t eat breakfast at home until around 11/12 each day but on holiday I go to the breakfast buffet and enjoy it! I don’t eat any bread or pastries and just fill up on high protein foods like Greek yoghurt with seeds and nuts, eggs, fish etc. I generally don’t have a lunch and then have dinner. We usually go to Spain on holiday so dinner is late-around 9 or 10pm. So my usual eating times are out of the window but I don’t care as I’m on holiday in the sunshine!

Just have breakfast as late as possible and don’t worry about it for a week or so.

Honestly, the fact that you can’t relax and eat breakfast with your kids on holiday for a week is a huge waving red flag 🚩

Just relax and enjoy your holiday instead of fussing about with bloody Tupperware.

@tiramisugelato please don’t. I am a 41-year-old woman who has finally realised how my body works and what my body needs and want my body doesn’t need. I don’t need people to tell me what’s a red flag. I have been diagnosed coeliac with last year and I have been struggling with it.I FINALLY feel good, this is not entirely about weight. It’s about getting my body in a good place and I’m sorry that it makes you uncomfortable. But that’s how I work now. My family are supportive. I will bend where I need to bend, but I’m not willing to ruin it all.

Pause the fasting while on holiday, but omit the carbs.|
That is, go for a protein breakfast; avoid the toast, croissants, etc

Relax your rules - eat eggs for later breakfast. It's your family holiday.

There is nothing magic about 16:8-the point is to have a significant gap between dinner and breakfast. Eating a bit earlier during your holiday week is not going to ruin your diet, though it's a bit sad to be dieting on holiday.

It’s not a diet. It’s just the way I eat now. It’s what works for my body. Eating all around me what do me no favours. What’s the point in that?

I’d change the hours slightly you’re eating in a 8 hour window so not harsh, or just have coffee for breakfast and eat from lunch.

I'd just skip breakfast.

Just skip breakfast? Easy to do.

Well it is a diet. A diet is any way of eating - unhealthy diet, healthy diet, low carb diet.

Skip breakfast and just eat lunch and dinner.

Will you be able to get dinner at 5.30? Most restaurants don't open until 6 abroad.

Do not take a tupperware. Do not have the hotel breakfast. Take some suitable snacks with you and have a small early lunch instead.

Can you actually eat at a buffet if you’re coeliac? I usually can’t eat at buffets as I have a serious shellfish allergy and people are gross and touch everything. I know my friend’s husband doesn’t eat at the buffets when they travel and they get something specific for him.

in this situation I’d probably skip breakfast, have a slightly early lunch and then a slightly later dinner. Would that work? It’s great that you don’t want to make your family fit into your eating requirements, but this might be less faff.

I don’t eat a lunch normally . I eat at 10 o’clock. And then I’ll get a 5:30. yes we’ll be able to get a dinner we always do.

OK, I’m thinking the best option might be obviously a cup of tea breakfast time and I can take my medication then anyway, because I have to take it on an empty stomach then I may snack on a piece of fruit or something and have lunch. I’ll see how each day goes there may be one or two days where people are tired and we don’t get to breakfast until a little bit later.

Yes, normally I can. I just have to avoid all of the gluten products. What things like scrambled egg boiled eggs, meats, cheese salad that will do.

It seems like there will be more things available that are both gluten-free and protein-rich at breakfast than at lunch (depending on where you are holidaying). Eggs, bacon, yogurt, smoked salmon, etc. are readily available at breakfast buffets, whilst lunches everywhere (in Europe, anyway) seem to be some form of sandwichy, bready thing. Or pizza. Or ploughman's-type, which is always kind of stodgy, even if you skip the bread. If I were you I'd eat breakfast and have a salad for lunch.
eta: I do IF as well, and this is how I handle holidays.

I think you have a few options:

Go to breakfast as late as you can, and extend your eating window to 10 hours rather than 8. I think there's a reasonable amount of evidence that a 14:10 pattern still gives IF benefits.

Go to hotel breakfast and drink a couple of black coffees, then take something from the buffet for later

Don't go to breakfast and buy yourself something later.

As pp have said, if its a decent sized hotel most have a fairly international buffet, so there should be meats/cheese/eggs on offer, and berries.

I’ve just returned from a holiday, and for the first time in years stayed b&b. I’ve gone carb free, don’t eat processed food, cereals or sugar. I ended up having Greek yogurt with a tiny amount of honey or lots of cinnamon. A couple of days I relented and had wholemeal bread with butter. I was careful what I chose for dinner and had a salad for lunch. I did, however, have half a bottle of wine each night, and a lager a couple of times. I was more active than I am at home. I lost 2lb. Just eat mindfully but not obsess about what you should and shouldn’t eat and you may find that you enjoy your food more and eat less as a result.

The word diet means way of eating by the way. Our diet, your diet, his diet.

A diet is a weight loss plan, Im on A diet.

Anyway, you'll just have to relax how you normally eat and eat differently to fit in. Unless you want to find it much harder than it needs to be.

Yes, look I understand the word diet in a general sense, everyone has a diet, I get that. But this is not something where I’m aiming for a goal as such. You know what I mean, I’m not doing it for weight loss reasons with an end goal. I’ve just changed the way in which I eat, my eating habits, etc. And what I eat has also changed due to my dietary needs because of my coeliac disease.

It’s not really a “should or shouldn’t” it’s more of a “ can and can’t”. But yes, I will be having a glass of wine with my dinner. That’s what holidays are for. 🙌