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Starting Your Fasting Journey in December
How to Keep Promises to Yourself When Everyone Else Is Eating and Drinking Everything in Sight
December is a strange month to decide, “This time I’m serious.”
You’re surrounded by cookies in the break room, pies on every table, and people who look personally offended when you say, “No thanks, I’m good.” And yet, for whatever reason, this is the exact month a lot of people suddenly say:
“I’m really going to lose this weight.”
“I’m done feeling like this.”
“This time I’m sticking to it.”
You’ve probably made that promise before. Maybe every year.
And if you’re honest, you’ve probably broken it before too.
This is what the original video was really about: not just “holiday eating,” but the deeper pattern underneath it. The delay mechanism. The broken promises. The “I’ll start Monday,” “I’ll start in January,” “I’ll start when the holidays are over,” even though you and I both know you said some version of that last year.
So this article is not another “5 tips to eat less stuffing” piece.
This is about rebuilding trust with yourself, using fasting and food discipline as the training ground. It’s about learning to act now, not later. It’s about surviving December with your integrity intact, and using that win as fuel for the rest of your life.
Let’s go deep.
1. The December Illusion: “I’ll Start After the Holidays”
There are two classic moves people make around this time of year:
“I’m starting now, before January. This is my new life.”
“I’ll go crazy now, then get serious after New Year’s.”
On the surface, these look like opposite strategies.
Underneath, they’re the same problem:
They both assume there’s a “right time” that will magically make discipline easy.
But there is no right time. There is only now and your willingness (or refusal) to act.
When you say, “I’ll start after the holidays,” you are teaching your brain one very specific lesson:
“When things are hard, we delay.”
That’s the dangerous part. Not the calories.
The pattern.
Because life will not stop throwing “holidays” at you:
birthdays
anniversaries
work events
vacations
date nights
stress spikes
grief, arguments, celebrations
If your rule is “I’m disciplined until life gets intense,” then you don’t have a rule. You have a mood.
December is not a problem. December is just a loud mirror showing you how you already operate:
Do you keep promises to yourself when it’s inconvenient?
Or do you only keep them when the calendar is empty and the fridge is controlled?
December doesn’t break your system. It exposes it.
2. Broken Promises: The Real Weight You’re Carrying
Everyone talks about losing pounds.
Almost nobody talks about losing self-respect.
Every time you say:
“I’m starting Monday”
“I’m not eating that tonight”
“This is the last time”
…and then you cave, you’re not just breaking a diet. You’re breaking a contract with yourself.
One broken promise feels small.
Ten broken promises feels heavy.
Hundreds of broken promises?
That is the quiet weight sitting under every new “I’m serious this time” speech.
You feel it when you say, “I’m starting,” and another voice inside whispers,
“We’ve heard this before.”
That voice isn’t your enemy. It’s your record-keeper.
If you want fasting, dieting, or any kind of transformation to stick, you cannot just “lose weight.” You have to repair that relationship with yourself.
How?
You stop making big, dramatic promises you’re not prepared to keep.
You start making smaller, sharper, more honest commitments and then actually honoring them.
Not “I’ll be perfect this month.”
Instead: “Today I will not eat between 8 p.m. and noon tomorrow. No exceptions.”
Not “I’ll never binge again.”
Instead: “If I overeat, I will stop at the first plate. No seconds. Non-negotiable.”
Each kept promise is a brick.
You are rebuilding trust, one brick at a time.
3. The Delay Mechanism: “Monday,” “January,” and Other Lies We Tell Ourselves
The video talked about that delay mechanism:
“I’ll start Monday.”
“I’ll start January 1st.”
“I’ll start after this event.”
You know this game. We all do.
What’s really happening when you say, “I’ll start after the holidays”?
You are trying to outsource discipline to the future version of you.
You imagine some clean-slate morning where:
you wake up motivated
no one invites you anywhere
no stress hits
your cravings politely disappear
That person does not exist.
The only you that exists is the one reading this sentence right now.
When you delay, you are not “setting up a better start.”
You are practicing avoidance.
The irony is this:
The best way to prove there is no mythical “perfect time” is to start in the most imperfect time you can imagine.
If you can hold a line in December, around food, alcohol, sugar, and social pressure, then January will feel like a vacation.
If you always wait for things to calm down first, your entire life becomes one long delay.
4. Time in Grade: Why “More Time Doing the Right Thing” Beats Everything
In the video, there was a key idea:
“More time in grade. More time doing the right things is what gets you through.”
Forget the fancy hacks for a second.
When it comes to fasting, weight loss, and health, the main driver is:
How many days and weeks you spend in a reasonable caloric deficit
How many hours you let your body exist without constant eating
How much time you spend letting your system recover instead of drowning it in sugar and ultra-processed food
It’s not about being perfect for 48 hours and then face-planting into a dessert table. It’s about stacking normal, almost boring, consistent days of:
Not overeating
Not snacking mindlessly
Not drinking your calories all day
Not using food to plug every emotional leak
That’s where fasting can be powerful. It simplifies the game.
Instead of 30 decisions a day about tiny snacks, you make a few clear decisions about when you eat and when you don’t.
“Time in grade” means:
Each hour you hold your fast is a rep.
Each social event you survive without giving in is a rep.
Each late-night craving you ride out instead of obeying is a rep.
Reps build skill.
Skill builds identity.
Identity builds permanence.
5. Food as the Last Shared Solitude: Why Social Eating Feels So Sacred
The video makes a deep observation: for many people, eating has become the last shared space of solitude.
Think about that.
Most people:
Don’t train together.
Don’t take cold plunges together.
Don’t go on long hikes together.
Don’t do breathwork together.
Don’t sit in silence together.
But everyone will go:
“Let’s grab dinner.”
“Let’s meet for drinks.”
“Come over, we’re having pizza.”
“Let’s do brunch.”
Food is not just fuel in this culture. It is:
Celebration
Numbing agent
Entertainment
Reward
Background noise
A way to avoid real conversations
So when you suddenly decide, “I’m fasting,” or “I don’t eat that anymore,” some people act like you just insulted their religion.
You’re not just declining food. You’re declining their favorite ritual.
Understanding this helps. Because now, instead of feeling guilty or confused, you see what’s really happening:
They are not offended that you won’t eat.
They are afraid you are rejecting the way they know how to connect.
This means you need to develop new ways to connect that are not based on stuffing your body every time you see another human.
6. Fit Circles vs Sedentary Circles: The Hidden Gravity of Your People
The transcript talked about the difference between social circles:
Some groups: everything is about eating and drinking.
Other groups: food is background noise while they do life.
If you hang out with people who:
Always “reward” themselves with heavy meals
Use alcohol as default entertainment
Make fun of healthy choices
Roll their eyes at fasting or discipline
…then you are swimming upstream 24/7.
Compare that with people who:
Plan hikes, rides, swims, or gym sessions as their main activities
Can go out without needing to leave stuffed and buzzed
Treat health as normal, not extreme
In those circles, your fasting, your food boundaries, your decisions are not a big deal.
Your social group is like gravity. It either:
Pulls you back into old patterns, or
Makes your new patterns feel normal
Now, you might not be ready (or willing) to ditch people in your life. But you absolutely can:
Add new people who are more aligned
Join groups where health is normal
Spend more time with the ones who respect your goals
Spend less time with the ones who sabotage them
You do not need everyone to approve.
You just need to stop letting the wrong people set the standard for what “normal” looks like.
7. What “Diet” Really Means (And Why the Word Feels So Toxic)
Technically, “diet” just means the way you eat.
But for most people, “diet” means:
Misery
Temporary restriction
Shame when you break it
A countdown to “when I can eat normal again”
That’s why so many people hate the word.
But your “diet” in the true sense is not something you’re on or off. It is the pattern that shows up over months and years.
The question is not:
“What diet are you on right now?”
The real question is:
“How do you eat most of the time?”
Fasting fits into this as a structure, not a prison. It gives your normal way of eating clearer lines:
These are the hours I eat.
These are the hours I do not.
These are the foods I default to.
These are the foods I treat as rare.
In December, you have a choice:
Use the month as a free-for-all and call January “damage control month.”
Or use the month to start building the real way you want to live, even if that means making uncomfortable choices now.
Your “diet” is not a four-week project. It is the architecture of your life.
8. Self-Sabotage: Why You Keep Breaking Your Own Rules
One line from the transcript landed hard:
“Our bodies, ourselves, our minds, everything around us, even other people are very good at helping us sabotage ourselves.”
Let’s be blunt:
You do not need enemies.
You are fully capable of destroying your own progress.
Common self-sabotage patterns:
“I already messed up today, might as well finish the day off.”
“It’s a special occasion; I’ll be strict later.”
“I had a stressful day, I deserve this.”
“I’m starting a serious fast tomorrow, so tonight I’ll go crazy.”
“One won’t hurt” (knowing full well it won’t be just one).
Almost none of this is logical. It is emotional bargaining.
And emotional bargaining thrives when you:
Are exhausted
Are stressed
Are alone
Have no clear rules
Have no accountability
Have a long history of breaking promises to yourself
In other words, you sabotage yourself most when the environment is perfect for sabotaging.
So instead of just saying “I’ll try harder,” your job is to change the conditions:
Get more sleep.
Drink more water and electrolytes.
Have a written fasting plan for the week.
Pre-decide what will happen at specific events.
Remove the worst trigger foods from your immediate environment.
Have someone or something you must check in with (even a bot, journal, or app).
You cannot control every thought that pops into your head.
You can absolutely control the environment that either feeds those thoughts or starves them.
9. Learn From Your “Failed” Diets (Especially the Short Ones)
In the video, there was a smart suggestion:
Think back to the diets that actually worked for a short time. Even the one that lasted just a week. What was different about that week?
Most people hate thinking about their “failed” diets. They see them as proof that:
“I can’t stick to anything.”
“Nothing works for me.”
“I just don’t have the willpower.”
Reality check: the fact that any plan worked for a week or a month means something worked.
Your job is to find it.
Ask yourself:
During that week, what exactly was different about my schedule?
Who was I around more (or less)?
What was I telling myself on the good days?
What did I do the first time a craving hit?
Did I sleep better that week?
Was I under more or less stress?
Did I write things down? Weigh myself? Track something?
What rule did I actually respect during that week that I later abandoned?
You are not looking for magic. You are looking for leverage.
Example:
Maybe during that one successful week:
You told three people what you were doing.
You got up a little earlier.
You didn’t keep junk food in the house.
You had a specific fasting window and stuck to it.
Then in week two:
You stopped talking about it.
Sleep slipped.
The snack drawer came back.
Your fasting window started “flexing” to fit your cravings.
The plan didn’t suddenly become impossible.
Your conditions changed.
Instead of labeling the whole attempt a failure, mine it for strategy:
“That version of me was doing at least three things right. I will bring those back, on purpose, starting today.”
10. Should You Start Now? Or Wait for January?
Let’s answer the question directly.
Should you start now?
If “now” is December, the holidays, the middle of chaos, family drama, travel, schedules, social events, and pressure?
Yes. Especially then.
Not because you will hit some perfect body by New Year’s.
But because starting now does three critical things:
It kills the illusion that there will ever be a perfect time.
It forces you to learn real-world strategies, not fantasy-life strategies.
It proves to you that you are capable of keeping promises in hard conditions.
If you can hold a fasting window at a holiday party, what excuse do you have on a random Tuesday in March?
Now, starting now does not mean:
Starving yourself to punish past decisions
Going from chaos to extreme 5-day water fasts overnight
Trying to be flawless at 100 percent from day one
Starting now means:
Making one clear, non-negotiable commitment about your eating and fasting today
Keeping that commitment even when it’s inconvenient
Waking up tomorrow and doing it again
You’re not starting a 90-day challenge. You’re starting a pattern.
11. Practical December Fasting Game Plan
Let’s make this concrete. Here is a simple approach to survive (and even win) December without blowing yourself up.
Step 1: Pick a Fasting Framework
Choose one structure you can actually hold:
16:8 (16 hours fasting, 8 hours eating)
18:6
One meal a day (OMAD) a few times a week
24-hour fasts once or twice per week
Water-only until a set time (e.g., noon or 2 p.m.)
Do not pick the most extreme thing you’ve ever heard of.
Pick something challenging but winnable.
Step 2: Define Your Non-Negotiables
Write down a few simple rules like:
“No calories before noon, even on weekends.”
“No second servings at any meal during December.”
“No liquid calories except black coffee, tea, or water.”
“If I break my fast early, I still stop eating by my usual cutoff time.”
Make them plain. Make them honest. Then treat them like law.
Step 3: Plan for Social Events in Advance
Look at your calendar and pre-decide:
Which events will you attend?
Which ones are you actually free to skip, even if your ego says, “You have to go”?
At events you do attend, what is your rule?
Example rules:
“At events, I will eat only protein and one serving of something else.”
“At family dinners, I will have one plate, no grazing afterward.”
“If an event falls inside my fasting window, I will drink water, coffee, or tea and focus on the people, not the food.”
The point isn’t to be robotic. The point is to never walk into an event without a plan.
Step 4: Protect Your Environment
Make sabotage harder:
Get the worst trigger foods out of your house.
Or, at minimum, put them somewhere they require effort to reach.
Stock up on zero-calorie drinks, mineral water, black coffee, tea.
Have salt and electrolytes available to support your fasts.
You should never be one impulsive step away from a full binge. Put friction between you and your worst moves.
Step 5: Track One Thing
Do not overcomplicate this.
Track one thing daily:
Fasting hours
Whether you kept your non-negotiable rules
Your waking weight
Even just a checkmark: “I kept the promise I made to myself today.”
Tracking is not about perfection; it’s about visibility.
What you measure, you respect.
12. Dealing With Friends, Family, and Food Pushers
One of the hardest parts of fasting or dieting in December is not hunger. It’s people.
Some patterns you will see:
“Come on, it’s the holidays. Live a little.”
“You’re no fun anymore.”
“You look fine, you don’t need to do all that.”
“Just start in January like everyone else.”
Here’s the truth:
People who are truly secure in their own choices do not need you to match their level of indulgence to feel comfortable.
You do not owe anyone proof that you can eat like them.
Prepare a few simple responses:
“I made a commitment to myself. I’m keeping it.”
“I’m good, but thank you.”
“I’m focused on my health right now. I can enjoy being here without overeating.”
“I already decided what I’m doing today. I’m sticking with it.”
You don’t need to lecture anyone about fasting or diet.
You just need to opt out of their expectations.
If someone pushes harder, it tells you something about them, not you.
Your job is to stay aligned with the promise you made to yourself, not their comfort zone.
13. Stress, Emotion, and the Weight You Can’t See
You might look back at times when you did well for a week or two and wonder, “Why didn’t that last?”
The answer is often not “You are weak.”
More often, the answer is:
A stress spike hit.
An emotional event knocked you sideways.
You had no plan for those moments.
Food is one of the easiest ways to:
Avoid feeling something
Delay a hard conversation
Take the edge off anxiety
Distract from boredom
Reward yourself when life feels thankless
So when life squeezes you, your brain sends you right back to the most reliable quick fix it knows: eat.
This is why December is such a training ground. You get:
More emotion
More family dynamics
More pressure
More expectations
More comparison
More opportunities to run to food
Instead of seeing that as a reason to delay fasting, see it as a controlled test environment.
Ask yourself:
“If I can learn to feel stress and not immediately eat, what doors does that open for me?”
“If I can feel awkward or pressured and not cave, what else in life could I handle differently?”
“If I stop using food as my main coping strategy, what will I be forced to confront—and could that be the real source of my growth?”
Fasting is not just about not eating.
It is about facing yourself without the buffer.
14. Fasting as a Way to Rebuild Trust With Yourself
At its core, fasting is simple:
You say, “For this set period of time, I will not eat.”
You feel the desires, habits, and impulses rise.
You watch them peak, change, fade.
You do not obey them.
Every completed fast is a kept promise.
Every kept promise is a message to yourself:
“When I say I will do something, I mean it.”
That is the real transformation.
Not just:
Smaller waist
Lower number on the scale
Looser clothes
Those are side effects.
The main change is that your words start to mean something again.
Imagine what your life looks like if:
When you say you will start, you actually start.
When you say you will stop, you actually stop.
When you put a boundary in place, you actually enforce it.
Fasting is a laboratory for that kind of integrity.
You are not just becoming someone who eats less.
You are becoming someone who can trust themselves.
15. Making December Your Turning Point, Not Another Chapter in the Same Story
Let’s bring it back to where we started.
You have stood at this edge before:
Tired of how you feel
Embarrassed by broken promises
Frustrated with the calendar
Half-excited, half-skeptical about starting again
This December can either be:
Another month where you say, “I’ll get serious later,” or
The month you finally prove to yourself that you do not need a perfect time to act
That is it. That is the line.
You do not need the perfect plan.
You do not need a guru.
You do not need the whole year mapped out.
You need one thing:
A clear promise you are willing to make to yourself today, and the courage to honor it when it stops feeling convenient.
From there, you stack:
One kept fasting window
One handled social event
One night where you didn’t binge
One morning where you step on the scale, not out of obsession, but out of honest tracking
You will not feel dramatically different overnight.
But over days and weeks, something will shift:
You will start to recognize yourself again.
16. A Simple Challenge to Start Right Now
If you have read this far, your next move is not to scroll for another article.
Your next move is to act.
Here is a simple starting challenge you can take on immediately, even in the middle of the holiday chaos:
Pick a fasting window for the next 7 days.
Example: “No calories from 8 p.m. to 12 p.m. the next day.”
Write down 3 non-negotiable rules about your eating during that same 7 days.
For example:One plate per meal, no seconds.
No sugary drinks.
No eating standing up or in the car.
Look at your calendar and identify any events:
Decide in advance how you will handle each one while staying within your rules.
Each night, ask yourself one question:
“Did I keep the promises I made to myself today?”
If yes, you get a checkmark.
If no, you write down what happened without excuses, and you recommit for tomorrow.
Do this for seven days. No drama. No “all or nothing.”
Just seven days of honesty and follow-through.
Then, when January comes and everyone else is talking about “getting back on track,” you will not be starting. You will already be moving.
You will have proof:
“I can keep my word to myself, even when it’s hard.”
That is worth more than any New Year’s resolution.
Whatever tools you use—whether it is a journal, an app, a bot, or a coach—the real engine is you:
Your willingness to stop delaying.
Your courage to feel discomfort without running to food.
Your determination to slowly, steadily rebuild trust with the only person who can never leave you: yourself.
Be strong.
Be honest.
Be safe with yourself.
And this time, when you say, “I’m doing it,” make sure the version of you 30 days from now can look back and say:
“They meant it.”
