Countdown to FEBRUARY: a healthy vibrant January in which those Christmas pounds vanish - and more! All wellcome

[loveyouradvice]

Happy New Year

2026 is going to be a wonderful year of the weight coming off and our bodies glowing with health.

Come and join us!! We’re a friendly group that uses Fasting in one form or another to lose weight or maintain our weight loss. We all have our ups and downs, and welcome insights from others and laughter along the way.... pirates and dachshunds will pop their heads up, we're in awe of those shredding with Jillian and lifting significant weights (beyond our own!) and impressed when we get our steps in.

Fridays are our informal day for weighing-in (optional) and reflecting on the week – often with ideas for self-care and new goals for the coming week.

We cheer each other on, and commiserate when things don't go to plan.
If you’re new to this group, do introduce yourself and share your hopes and plans. Some of us find daily posting helpful for accountability - others just pop in every now and then.

So - how do you want January to look for you? And 2026? We'll look forward to hearing

Okay ... I'll start... I'm aiming to become stronger and more balanced in 2026 (in all ways)...with a bigger focus on exercise, now that eating for health feels easier. I love IF - it really works for me. So a typical day (when others aren't around) looks like 6-8h eating from around 9 or 10 am, with loads of veggies, berries and 100g protein - and I start the day with a square of 90pc chocolate and a couple of nuts. Deeply pleasurable and satisfying

Having got down to goal weight and further (10.11) pre Christmas, I'm aiming to get back there by the end of January, shedding those extra pounds.. and then considering losing more to settle at 10.7 as my "weight for life".

Friday check-in:
SW: 14.2
CW: 11.3.0... the first of my five Christmas pounds is off
GW: 10.11

Thanks for the new thread @loveyouradvice

I’ll be back eating on plan starting Monday, along with a new Jillian routine, ‘Ripped in 30’! 😁It’s similar to 30 Day Shred so will ease me into 2026.
Think the only thing that might get ripped are my gym leggings due to me possibly bursting out of them, but I’m keen to get back into a routine anyway.

I have tracked calories throughout my festive break and it isn’t pretty but I ate all the things I was looking forward to eating, and in large amounts; interestingly, to me at least, I certainly won’t bother with many of them again so my tastes have certainly changed over the last year. Enjoyed the savoury stuff far more than the sweet stuff, but I will forever be addicted to After Eights I think 😍Of course booze contributed to the high calories and I normally only drink at weekends so it will be easy to knock that on the head.

My usual 16:8 flew out of the window early on. I was waking up hungry, obviously caused by not eating well the day before, so I think the first few days of IF are going to be a bit of a struggle but I know it will be worth it.

My weight has been all over the place with a definite gain, but I think a sensible January will correct it and then I can concentrate on losing again. A lot of the gain will be what I call ‘fluff’ and usually disappears quickly with plenty of protein, veg, and fluids.

I have already made notes for next Christmas on what we truly enjoyed eating and drinking and what to swerve as really not worth the calories.

Onwards and downwards!

Hello.
I posted a couple of times on the last thread. Then things went completely out the window because I've been down with flu (along with my husband and 3yo and 1yo) properly miserable. Been eating and drinking everything in sight to try to muster tiny amounts of energy to care for the kids. Very annoying as my slim as anything husband had the opposite and completely went off food for several days.
I'm past the worst of it now but still utterly drained. Might try easing back in to fasting on Monday.

Hope you feel better soon @5humpedcamel

@ProfessorIDareSay your opening comment made me laugh! 😂. I hsve quite a few Jillian dvds might have that one
somewhere … but will probably try another round of iron on YouTube (Caroline Girvan) need the tree down first though

@loveyouradvice amazing that you are now in a position to concentrate on exercise having lost the weight and thank you for the thread ❤️

On New Year's Eve I could hardly fit into what was my loose dress
so from Monday I return to the land of 5:2

I did it very successfully from 2012 to 2020
(the threads on here predated Michael Moseley, many of us early posters were quoted in his first book)

This time I am actually going to buy my first ever set of bathroom scales (ones with the tracker and BMI app) to help keep muself on the straight and narrow.

"Happy Weight" should take me a couple of months.

Welcome @Talkinpeace - I remember you from the early pre books 5:2 threads! Hope you are back at happy weight soon.

My pattern back then of fasting on a Monday and Thursday will not work now due to changed work patterns.

What are the best current ideas ?

I’ve packed on several pounds, but kept with my IF window most days. Favourite jeans are now skin-tight. I aim to drink more water and cut out garbage and junk. Want jeans to be looser asap!

@2Early4Breakfast good luck with jeans - I can relate!

@Talkinpeace Something that has changed in recent years is a focus on getting more protein in - some people like Peter Attia have stopped fasting due to concerns about muscle loss, as restricting meals makes it makes it harder to meet daily protein requirements. So ideally make sure you are still meeting your protein needs over the week. You could try zero calls on Monday and Thursday during work I guess and then eating one meal after work, but that might be quite a tough reintroduction - others might have better suggestions!

@Clearingaspace
Interesting. BigChocFrenzy was the first to pick up on the protein thing.

I never eat breakfast and can easily go back to Miso Soup for lunch a couple of days a week.
My failings have been alcohol and supper portion sizes.
I am a huge fan of eggs so that may help !

Yes, bigchoc was into weight lifting so was ahead of the game really - would love to know what she is doing now.

You don’t want to know how much Bailey’s I have been having over Christmas… I am finishing off the mulled wine this weekend - then a break from drinking would be a very good idea for me, a glass of red wine even would at least be healthier than the sugar infused stuff I have been having.

I will email BigChoc tomorrow and get an update from her :-)

Ooh could you really! That’s great you kept in touch. I hope she is well.

Wow! So cool some of you have been doing 5:2 for so long! I remember ages ago hearing about a different ADF schedule but didn’t try it.

I just started 5:2 in November with some health issues and Christmas as well. It’s going well so far. I’d be very happy to lose steadily even if it takes longer. At this phase of life I know I need to be on a diet for life and am pretty happy with that.

Hello everyone and thanks for the new thread @loveyouradvice
SW 13. 5
CW 11. 10
GW11

I’ve fluctuated a lot over Christmas and NY starting December at 11. 7, went up to 11.12 after Christmas, despite mostly sticking to 16 8 TRE. Lots of food, alcohol, meals with friends, family etc meant quite a few days where my eating widow was a lot longer.. Like others I realised that some of the things I most looked forward to (eg cakes, chocolates) I didn’t really enjoy a lot of the time, weirdly.

I also noticed that despite having time off work I got less sleep than usual - due to lots of late nights which for me causes more hunger the next day.
Ive been trying to move my eating window to earlier in the day and really haven’t figured out how I can do that and also eat dinner with teenage DCs once school and work start again. Im working on it.
Plan for this month. TRE each day at least 16:8; avoid UPF and added sugar foods; focus on sleep - I know what I have to do, it’s just doing it! No caffeine after 12, no Netflix after 9.30. No eating after 8pm.

Would also love to get stronger this year generally - I do some walking every day and a quick resistance routine some/most days - Im kind of doing this but aiming to increase consistency. I’m in awe of those who do Jillian and Caroline Girvan.. but would love to do these in time.

best of luck everyone with new year plans - great to have these threads to help keep focus!

Yes those late nights scupper me @tiredwitless - definitely links to hunger next day.

I'd be really interested to know what we've all learnt from Christmas?

Yes, I discovered that a lot of the sweet stuff was too sweet and less appealing - but really loved the cheese (and crispy duck skin) and could easily eat too much of that!

Eating consciously is going to be my watchword for January- this has the biggest impact on me - alongside making sure that there's masses of low-cal healthy stuff around to eat. I am definitely a volume eater and it has been a big breakthrough realising I dont have to be hungry to lose weight.

Happy new year! Haven't been great over Christmas but have managed 1 fast day a week. @loveyouradvice I did really like your 'A's on the last thread, especially the Accessibility- makes all the difference for me and something to focus on! I need the right food in the house (which is what makes it hard when travelling but I could do with some tricks)
I got loads of chocolates for Christmas 🙈
Not sure what I have learnt but continuing to really enjoy my vegetables- sprouts and potatoes, especially together!! I do enjoy crunching on a bell pepper but christmas crisps are very hard to resist- it can be a lot easier if you just close your eating window at 6 and are strict on that. Going to try to be stricter on that in the new year.
Agree with volume eating too. On my fast days I will have a huge bowl of konjac rice or noodles and veg (courgette/bell pepper etc) with a little bit of tempeh or tofu protein with garlic and soy sauce for tea and it's really not many calories.
I had put on a kg or so when I weighed on Thursday but could have been much worse, just need to get into my Monday/Friday fasting routine and swap for other days when I have things on.
Thanks for all the support last year and looking forward to chatting more in 2026 ❤️

@tiredwitless these are all very similar aims to me (move Netflix to 10:45 though!). Definitely in the I know what to do but struggle to do it camp. Please post how you are doing!

i am also interested in volume eating - also a lot of the low calorie volume foods tend to have fibre etc and use a bit more energy to digest. I had Thermic effect of food calculation switched on on my calorie counting app and it gave me an extra 250 calories! I turned it off incase it was assuming foods were raw thst I planned to cook, but it shows a calorie is not a calorie!

I seemed to have magicked off my Christmas gain but it’s back again so must hsve been TotM or just a weird scale glitch 😭

sorry for multiple posts - next Christmas I might try calorie counting but eating what I want to maintenance cals and see if it makes any difference!

Today is me back in full swing of healthy eating and gently reversing festive damage... definitely gently as DC here til end of week before returning to uni, so still keen to be a bit festive!

Eating consciously is my watchword for today... starting with my favourite healthy breakfast... a large bowl of berries, yogourt, muesli + cold veggies, olives, baby tomatoes and a protein: smoked tofu today ... oh yes, and the treat: a square of dark chocolate and a couple of brazil nuts. It always feels just gently indulgent to have chocolate for breakfast!!

And I'm nudging my breakfast as late as pos at the mo to allow for DC late hours... so 1pm today!!

Me at the mo ... looking forward to seeing where I am on Friday:
SW: 14.2
CW: 11.3... five pounds up on pre Christmas but 1lb down on yesterday!
GW: 10.11... ideally by end of Jan, but relaxed...

Back on it for 2026 and braved the scales this morning to see a shocking 64.3kg, a gain of 3.6kg (half a stone!) from my pre-Christmas low of 60.7kg. That's even a kilo up from last Thursday but we have spent this weekend eating the remaining Christmas crap to get it out of the way! The bin would have been a better place for it but I find it really difficult to throw away food...

I have continued to log my calories as well as I could over the break, (some guesswork involved as lots of random eating and drinking) and I reckon I have over indulged to the tune of over 1000 calories a day over 2 weeks. I calculate that at most 2kg of that gain is actual weight gain and the rest is 'fluff' such as water retention etc. from too much salt and sugar.

I gave myself a break from Jillian so that hasn't helped; when I only have a dog walk as exercise my calories expended drops quite significantly, from around 2000 a day down to 1700.

Anyway, I'll aim to get this gain off pretty quickly by being back on IF, calorie counting, and I have started a new Jillian programme today. I want to be below 60kg by the end of February if possible.

Started well today with a 20 hour fast.

I'll go through my food diary later and reflect on what I enjoyed eating and drinking at Christmas, and what wasn't worth the weight gain (some things I really looked forward to were really meh...why did I bother?), so I can plan better for Christmas 2026 and this year as a whole.

Such an interesting question @ProfessorIDareSay ... is it better to put food in the bin or in your stomach? I've gone quite hardcore this year and decided it is absolutely best to throw out mince pies, open crisps, half eaten boxes of chocolate, etc rather than eat them... I find other things a bit tougher.

First time I have this as a NYResolution: to do a big tidy up of excess Christmas food during this week and advertise on the street Whatsapp that we would be delighted to take excess to the Food Bank on Mon 12 Jan... I already feel a glow inside at the idea of their pleasure in Lindt reindeer and other chocs and biscuits... and I will top up with some healthy tins of beans and tomatoes!

Congrats on 20h fast and Jillian @ProfessorIDareSay ... I'm going to bet you will be under 60kg by Feb! Like me, you seem to put on a chunk of "fluff" very fast - and the upside is that it comes off fast too, so long as we take action...

@ProfessorIDareSay i actually think maybe I respond better to exercise than I would credit - one day earlier this week I had done at least 12500 steps and the next day had dropped a few lbs. Yesterday I did very few steps according to my phone (obviously I don’t have my phone on me constantly so would be a bit more) and even though I had taken in approx 600 fewer calories the scale was up. Maybe it’s coincidence but actually I bet a lot of people get far less exercise in than usual over Christmas? I have always thought it was judt the food to blame for Christmas weight gain but maybe not?!

@loveyouradvice that is a lovely idea to collect things for the food bank. The one near us wants chunky veg soup apparently! ! I always pop in tinned fish at the supermarket but they must get too much of that as it wasn’t on the list!