🥳LOSE IT! 🥳Christmas 2023 Countdown Thread 🥳

[TheRealHousewife]

CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN EDITION.

8 week countdown to Christmas. November brings a fresh new month to become a healthier version of yourself. If you’re up for being your best self in time for the festivities you’ve come to the right place.

These threads are for those who’d like to stay healthy, lose weight as well as those who wish to maintain; to encourage a healthy & varied diet and to exercise.

As no one size fits all, members need to follow their own way of eating. This thread aims to offer guidance, support and a bit of hand holding.

We generally have WOW (weigh on Wednesday) day each week. However post and share your progress as often or as little as you prefer. Do what works for you.

The important thing is not to think of it as a diet (based on deprivation and unsustainable) but more a way of life (sustainable & enjoyable).

I calorie count based on a lower carb Mediterranean diet. I intermittent fast and eat twice a day. Im a long time healthy eater and overall I’ve lost over 3 stone. After having been on the wrong side of 12st Im now hovering around 8st 12lbs. I had a blip a couple of years ago when my thyroid went wonky but now back (mainly) on track. I Would love to wave bye to another few lbs 😬 The main thing is to never give up! Keep going!

Are you in😊 What food plan will you be following? What do you want to change and why?

PS - Positive thought:- If you were to lose on average of a 1lb - 2lbs per week you could be a half a stone to a stone lighter by Christmas 🎄🥳

Up by one pound this week. I've got a bit careless. I added up my daily carbs, and shocked to find it's nearer 200g when I include lattes. I've been getting careless about my IF window, and took a latte to bed several evenings.

Bags of prepared salad leaves and lots of fresh fruit arriving in tomorrow's supermarket order, also cans of tuna and plain chicken. Also maybe a beef tea to heat me up instead of coffee. Need to keep it simple or my thoughts spin out into chaos.

@GonnaGetGoingReturns How exciting! 2 great shows! Lucky you 👍

@2Early4Breakfast It’s surprising how daily ‘incidentals’ soon mount up and sabotage our endeavours. I really like my black americano decaf coffee ☕️. I used to have daily home made lattes, which are an occasional treat now as I try to not drink my calories if I can help it.

Morning! Weekend was a mixed bag - there was pizza, crisps, a (small) McDonald's (if that makes a difference!?) and the like, and some wine Friday/Saturday night, but there was also a lot of walking both Saturday and Sunday, and I would normally finish whatever wine was leftover in the fridge on a Sunday evening, but I chose not to.

Today is going to be a tricky one, it's my DS's routine hospital check up which is a full day of driving and appointments in London. I've not had any chance to prep or pack any food so just got to be careful with choices as much as I can when I'm there. Morning will be the same - will fit a quick cuppa in before we set off and that'll be it until lunchtime. Need to set a robust food plan for the remainder of the week as these appointment days can be the start of a slippery slope with food and drink (depending how they go, of course!)

Wishing everyone a positive, motivated week.... Is it only five weeks until Christmas day?!

Good Morning All

@ImALittlePea Sounds like you have a busy day/week ahead of you. Hope it all goes smoothly and ds is ok.

Menu
Meal 1 - Stir fried Brussels sprouts, red onion and chestnuts 😋
Meal 1 - Spicy mince beef, carrots, peas and rice.
Tea, black coffee, water.

Hope everyone stays toasty and dry …. So much rain about ☔️

Thankyou for the welcomes, everyone 😊

I feel I am off to a fairly good start today. Breakfast is porridge with raspberries and a small glass of orange juice. I plan to have a couple of low fat sausages some hoops and pickled onions for lunch and a prawn curry for tea.

The weekend for me wasn't the best but also could have been a lot worse. I think what I need to do is focus on the week days for now.

@TheRealHousewife your first meal sounds very Christmassy 😃

It's not my weigh in yet, but I have a not scales related win. I tried on my jeans that I couldn't close over a month ago. Here is before and after (1st of October vs today). Lighting and angle are different, but it's the same jeans!

Spoke to my bro yesterday and he and SIL are doing SW together to lose weight. She's lost 7lb in 3 weeks and he's lost 12!!!!! Weight loss competition is ON for Christmas Day 😂Though they usually drink an enormous amount and have cut right back (I've been teetotal since January) so guessing they're going to lose a lot more than me! I'm currently down 8lb in 5 weeks.

We are doing a group challenge at school (have to walk a certain number of kilometres to a particular European city with some swimming and cycling kms allowed) with the first team there in the next 2 weeks winning - so think this will help me get some steps in!

Wow @DomesticElf that's an enormous win!

6 weeks @ImALittlePea !

Off to a good start today:

-boiled egg and rye toast, coffee
-melon, satsuma, apple, carrots for morning snack
-mashed potato, red cabbage, homemade meatballs and red wine gravy for lunch (1st 2 leftover from yesterday and last 2 pulled out the freezer)
-no idea what's for dinner as DH is cooking. Going by the fridge, probably shoarma with rice/veg or crispy chicken with veg and...(neither my first choice as I find shoarma quite fatty, especially as we had ribs yesterday, and chicken is UPF not homemade...but never mind - tomorrow it's my turn to choose!)

Feeling slightly disheartened as weighed and not much off at all.

Breakfast:- porridge with water and splash skimmed milk and blueberries
Snack:- 17g bbq pop chips
lunch will be:- Chinese chicken knorr soup with 3 Ryvita, 2 with spread and marmite, 1 with spread, 3 cherry tomatoes
will also have 1 large plum and 2 tangerines but no idea what’s for dinner

@DomesticElf well done! 👏 it’s always great when you see a result.

@PatienceOfEngels impressive and tasty menu. Your fitness challenge sounds good too!

@DomesticElf amazing results!
@PatienceOfEngels sounds like a really good challenge!
Loving hearing what everyone is eating for their meals -very inspiring.
I am going to try and get a YouTube workout in at some point later on.

Oh my goodness @DomesticElf that is fantastic progress! Well done 👏👏👏👏

@PatienceOfEngels Healthy competition will help to motivate you all 👍😬 May the best person win 🥇 (I’m rooting for PoE)

@LeftyLou I really enjoyed my stir fried sliced Brussels sprouts, chestnuts, halloumi and red pepper. Scrummy scran 😋

@GonnaGetGoingReturns If you’re eating in calorie deficit you will lose weight overall but it can stall at times. Keep going, you’ll be pleased you didn’t give in/up ❤️

I've had a sneaky after nights weigh as I've just got out of bed. I'm a pound and a half down from Friday morning so I need to keep up the momentum to this Friday (that's my weigh day). I'm feeling a lot more in control with CC than with SW this time. Usually it's the other way round but whatever it is it seems to be working, I just need to be consistent and not self-sabotage!

Right, tone to get a grip and start caring about my dietary intake and my sleep. I'm reading Robert Galbraith's latest and sleep is coming second. Diet is excellent today and I've inputted everything into mfp so no eating after dinner. Homemade lentil soup for dinner, porridge and chia for breakfast and Greek yogurt honey and raspberries for lunch with a buttered muffin. Ok so the buttered muffin isn't part of the excellent bit it was fresh from Waitrose today and they are my favourite luxury food item. Coming in at 1410 calories and 8 miles walking. I'd do more but getting the bus today due to the high winds. Lots of old trees here that I'm worried might fall on me.

Some great progress on here-well done!!

@JustACountryMusicGirlInCowboyBoots Great update! Thanks for sharing 👍

I swapped rice for boiled new potatoes sautéed in ghee & spices.

@TheRealHousewife loving the food pics. Do you use particular recipes or do you come up with them yourself? Your lunch sounded so good I love chestnuts haven’t thought to put them in a salad before!

I made a chicken curry this evening and had a lot less rice and a lot more veggies on the side than usual so this is an improvement.

@secondtimemumma Thank you. I sometimes use recipes or versions of them amended to suit our taste etc. My lunch today was just a made up stir fry. I did use a recipe (adapted) for the mince beef this evening. I can post a photo of the recipe tomorrow if you like. I came to bed at 7:00 as my back is agony and I'm not walking very well at the moment.

I don't think I've ever had a chestnut. I'd like to see recipes on here from posters. I need inspiration!
Hope your back is better soon TheRealHousewife. I find a hot water bottle helps along with the good drugs.
I've just got into bed with my hot water bottles and a stomach that is missing the usual snacks. I brushed my teeth after dinner and I know that once the first night is done every night after will be easier. The oats and chia are soaking overnight ready for breakfast.
Cutting down on snacks automatically cuts a lot of salt from my diet. I don't eat loads of it and don't add it to anything I cook but I do love crisp tyke snacks and someone mentioned nuts-I'd eat a whole big bag of nuts to myself quite happily. Honey roasted cashews are lovely. I really want nuts now! Ill get some for Christmas and look forward to them instead. I think if things were sold in individual portions instead of huge bags of everything it would be much better. Portioning out whatever a portion is when you know you've got a big bag of them tempting you is no fun. Nuts have good fats though and loads of protein so balance and that 😁 Who mentioned nut roast? I'd quite like one this year for Christmas dinner. I can't remember who made them but there's a nut burger that's really nice that I loved.

I'm finding getting back on the wagon hard and my weight is pretty stable so I've lost the impetus to stick to it all. However I've done the first day and it's been easy (apart from the current but craving) and I'm hoping that by Christmas I'll have kicked a few pounds back off.

I had a couple of buiscuits after my tea. They were M&S version of foxes and oh so nice! Usually when I have something like biscuits it leads to sweets, then chocolate, then crisps then more biscuits etc. So sticking to those two feels like a victory. 😆

I am not hungry right now but I am looking forward to breakfast. Porridge with a little maple syrup and raspberries on top.

Hope everyone is okay 😊

Wow @DomesticElf incredible update!

Ooh thanks for the extra week @PatienceOfEngels 🎄😂 and obviously rooting for you in your mini comp!

Thank you so much @TheRealHousewife his appointments are always a bit upsetting; what adult likes regular blood tests, let alone a child!? But he did so incredibly well, safe to say I'm proud. Touch wood on happy results now.

Also safe to say, diet not great today. Nothing horrendous; no major extra snacks etc - just convenience throughout. Back to it tomorrow. Plan is my standard lunch and risotto for dinner, but I'll MFP input and update tomorrow with the reality, if it changes.

Night night team ❤️

Oh that is food restraint @LeftyLou I nearly opened a 'sharing' (lol) choc bar tonight, but tis indeed a slippery slope so I left it where it was.

Also forgot my weekend NSV - I bought two new pair of jeans, H&M size 10! Normally, even when I'm a 10 everywhere else, I'm a 12-14 at H&M. But they fit!! I was after some different styles as well, and I'm soooooo pleased with them!

Thanks @PatienceOfEngels for the directions to the new thread, I was still lost in October!

I'm back on track this week with longer overnight fasts and low calorie days to get me started over. I'm also doing some yoga every day at home in addition to my other exercise. It makes me feel.korw in control of my life!

@JustACountryMusicGirlInCowboyBoots I hear you on too big bags. The only way I find myself able to enjoy small portions of something really moreish is to have a small bag or hand the rest of the bag straight to my kids/DH to finish! Where I live single packets of crisps are not the norm, so I would find myself finishing a family sized bag on a Friday night in the bad old days, another on Saturday (I have no idea why I put on so much weight 😉).

Well done on new jeans @ImALittlePea . I noticed my current size 14 (from Fat Face) are really big on me (and super unflattering, even though I feel more comfortable in loose fit) so might look through my wardrobe today for a 12 in something.

Don't think I'm going to lose much this week, might just stay the same but happy with that as long as I keep going.

Dinner last night was tomato soup with macaroni, extra veg added and leftover rib meat from Sunday.

Today:
-boiled egg, rye toast
-something with spinach (maybe with rice, egg and satay sauce?) Will make enough for tomorrow's lunch as well.
-breaded chicken that DH bought (and that I'd rather not eat as it's ultra-processed...have told him not to buy it so often!) with mini jacket potatoes and broccoli
-I tend not to snack on fruit on non-working days as much (50% of the time, the other 50% I crumble and eat junk if there's any to hand). Hoping to get out for a walk this morning and will take my water bottle with me.

Need to up my water.

56.85kg this morning. I'm going to be really good today and drink lots of water and hopefully see a loss tomorrow. We were supposed to be having homemade pizza and chips for dinner but I'll do that another day when it's not weigh day then following day.
Hope everyone has a great day!

Thank you for all the love and birthday wishes, team!
@TheRealHousewife hope your back is better. It's pants when health is not playing ball.
@ImALittlePea fingers crossed for good news from bloods tests for your little one. It always hits differently when it's your child, isn't it. And big congratulations on size 10 H&M jeans! It's a great feeling.

I was going to tag more folk, but my brain is like a sieve and I can't remember who said what 😬

I am admiring all self restraint on here when it comes to biscuits and other big bags of sharing things. Self restraint is not something I am guilty of, so I try just not buy those anymore 🙈

Weigh in day for me:
SW 70kg
CW 62kg
GW 50kg

So that's 0.5kg loss. Not bad given it was a birthday week with cake and pizza. Back to it now.