⭐️LOSE IT!⭐️Optimistic October & 12 Week Countdown to Christmas⭐️

[TheRealHousewife]

Following on from ⭐️LOSE IT!⭐️ Slimmimg September 2025⭐️

⭐️OPEN TO ALL⭐️

Where did September go? There is a definite chill in the air some mornings now 🥶 I always feel when October is here it’s the start of the 12 week countdown to Christmas!

It’s never too late to make a change, to make a difference and feel confident in your body. To reach optimum health and vitality we need to focus not only on our food intake; but movement, mental health and sleep quality too!

Who doesn’t want to feel good and energetic as well looking great! Get on board to reset & refresh and become a healthier version of yourself.

These threads are for those who’d like to lose weight and those who wish to maintain whilst eating a healthy varied diet.

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 generally eat twice a day. Im a long time healthy eater and overall I’ve lost around 45lbs.

I’m mainly maintaining but I would like to get back into the 8’s 🤞(I briefly dipped into the 8’s last month but the scale showing 9st 1lb this morning)

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

New members … Give it a go; it’s never too late! You'll be pleased you did 😊

@WearyAuldWummansadly not my own patch! A farm with all the Halloween trimmings - pumpkin everything, haunted maze, bouncy castles, tractor rides, straw bale climbing etc. A 7 yr old boy’s dream!

We’re baking tomorrow before the pumpkin patch, but we’ve promised to drop some of it off at local friends so there’s no chance of me eating the entire bake 😂

Managed the gym today, it’s half term so we are going to be eating out a bit unfortunately. Hoping my weight is down tomorrow in preparation

Morning! It’s my OMAD day here today but I slept badly and had a last meal (at a lovely restaurant, tbf) later than I usually do yesterday, so I’m battling a bit. Aiming for steak and veggies around 10.30am, then just coffee etc.

Morning ladies hope you all are well and best of health. Ive not been doing great with my diet its been messed up. Due to car breaking down and need replacing washer broke down last week needed replacing. In a big debt to pay both off and I will. To pay debt off taken on more hours. Hopefully this week I should have a better approach to my eating.

I did well all weekend and was the lowest on the scales yet. I’ve done exactly 49lbs loss now and feel my plateau has broken - only took 8 weeks! Proud I’d held firm though. Got a goal for Xmas day and hoping I can do it as it’s only 5lbs between now and then.
hapoy Monday to all, enjoy half term if you have school kids

@TealSloth good luck for the week ahead and sorry to hear about your breakdowns..... it's rubbish when things start going awry.
and well done @socks1107 for breaking through the plateau 🎉
I managed not to have a high carbs meal last night - we decided on veggie chilli instead of pizza, (will save the pizza for this coming weekend!) so am pleased that haven't gone completely off track!
Am thinking that I should put a goal in place for 7 weeks time .... just before we fly out to see my mum for the holidays, so I have something more concrete and short term to aim for....
I'll have a think.

Had a bit of a wobbly weekend- not terrible but not great and not tracked 😬 I'd still be inputting the ingredients now if I tried to work out how many calories my portion of dinner last night was! I'm hoping it was very salty and that's explaining the whopping gain I saw on the scales this morning when I took a peek 🫣

I have let my water intake slide so today I'm refocusing on that & increasing my veg. We've got lots of leftovers from the weekends cooking so I'm sure dinner will be another guesstimate but I'm trying!

Well done everyone!
That's amazing loss @socks1107
Hope you are OK @WearyAuldWumman

I'm going to call yesterday a re-feed day 🤣🤣🤣
Although I stuck to my plan for B/L/D I also ate like 3 cookies, 2 bits of cake and half a pack of marshmallows 😳 so anyway back to normal today.
Today has been super busy first day of half term so I have had a banana protein shake for breakfast, nakd bar when on the go and a late lunch of baked eggs with celeriac reheated. Not sure what plan is for dinner yet.

Keep going everyone!!

Well done everyone! @TealSloth sorry to hear about all of that, it’s so stressful and everything always seems to happen at once doesn’t it? Look after yourself and do your best, you can’t do any more 💜

I’m back from my weekend glamping - it was very nippy as the log burner wasn’t very efficient! I didn’t track at all and imagine I ate well over my deficit calories but it was a really lovely weekend and will be back to normal eating tomorrow. I had a couple of dreadful snacky days before that so fully expecting a gain this week which is a pain, but not terminal, and worth it for a lovely family trip.

Back in the north now.

I feel like I've eaten so much this weekend! It was lovely though.

Not going to weigh until WOW now and it's TOTM for me so I'm expecting a gain! Happy birthday to me for tomorrow haha. What great timing. Oh well. I'm trying to stay positive!

Hope you are all doing okay! 🩷

@Vapeaddict well done for keeping trying! I've had a terrible weekend of calorie counting too.

Well done @socks1107that's a biiig loss. Good job on sticking with it through the plateau!

@TealSloth sorry to hear about your stuff breaking. It's so frustrating 😒

1lb down, very happy as totm. 4lb down in the last month, nice and steady. I’d like to lose up to another 7lb, so nearly there.

Today has been good, I’ve not felt very hungry tbh. Yoghurt/berries/almonds for breakfast, lunch was sweet potato & red pepper soup and ryvita, dinner chicken stir fry.

Hope OMAD went ok @TheWayTheLightFalls

It's always one thing after another isn't it @TealSloth but well done for sorting finances - sometimes life gets in the way!

Well done @socks1107 You've done so well and I'm sure you will give it your everything up to Christmas.

It can feel impossible to track home made meals @Vapeaddict - I made cottage pie and just put a ready meal equivalent into MFP as I don't worry about every single detail... Had a wobbly weekend too!

@frostedshreddie sounds like a hungry day, sometimes it just happens that way.

Difficult when away/trying to enjoy family time @biscuitcat Hopefully you'll get back on track and it'll come off again.

Happy birthday for tomorrow @Marshmellowbunny I can confirm that it's not a good idea to weigh - 1 1/2lb from Friday (TOTM & eating maintenance over the weekend)

Fantastic @Poisonwood

3 days of maintenance calories here - Fri, Sat and Sun, today back to normal... clock change so trying to get my sleep and eating window etc back to normal too. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

@Captainladder
I read somewhere that at a plateau of weight loss going into feast mode and then back to "fasting" (ie eating less) can help to kickstart weight loss again. No idea if that's real or not though!

I've been away for a few weeks and slunk back to catch up and your post above ^ caught my eye. I think I have been feasting for the past few weeks 😂

Have been stuck between 75.5 and 76ish the last 10 days and today suddenly dropped to 75.1kg.
Struggling with snacking in the evening (not crisps but cheese, cream crackers, fruit, salted nuts) which is totally unnecessary. My body is reacting badly to darkness and I'm feeling shattered with the shift in light/temperature.

But just maybe if I really watch what I'm eating I can get to my next step of being under 75kg by the end of the month. Am out for dinner on Thursday and will have to take it easy.

generally meals have been home cooked and balanced, though too much red meat and pasta portion often too much. And have had 2 takeaways the last 10 days (chips one weekend and sushi the next). At home the last week: Chx korma with rice and carrots yesterday, spaghetti bolognese today, meatballs in tomato sauce with pasta, chipolotas with cauliflower cheese/roasties, tinned tomato soup with added noodles/veg and bread, chx casserole with rice/peas.

Still have lots of yummy food in the freezer (korma, bhuna, beef rendang, pea soup) and have been having soup for lunch and ditching the bread on the side (spicy pumpkin or potato and leek).

Have to get my steps up and just generally get in gear and move.

Listened to a really interesting podcast episode with Oliver Burkeman - lots of food for thought on making meaningful changes without perfectionism. Going to go back and listen to it again and may get his book.

Will catch up today on the thread!

@PatienceOfEngels Welcome back! I've read both of the Oliver Burke man books. They're so good. Going to find/download some podcasts with him now!

Thank you @FridayNighFeeling ok I'm definitely not weighing 👍🏻 and I'm going to treat myself to a bacon sandwich 🤭

@biscuitcatsounds like we had a similar attitude over the weekend. Glad you had a good time. Life is way too short to not have fun when you can!

@frostedshreddie I'm going to copy you and call it a re-feed weekend 😎

@Vapeaddict hope you've managed to up the water a bit! I need to the same. I usually only drink water (and tea) but I've been drinking a lot of 7up zero over the weekend!! 🤣🙈 Not terrible, but not water.

Sorry if I've missed messaging anyone! There were a lot of messages to read. 🤣🙈 Hope you're all keeping on keeping on! 💖

Weight is back up this morning and moving average back up which means back to that weight range I’ve been stuck in for 9 weeks. I’m so down this morning.
I do absolutely everything and nothing seems to shift it at the moment, I’ve had a refeed week, I work out, I keep hydrated etc etc etc. it’ll be another missed goal I set myself at this rate.
aaaahhhhh

@MarshmellowbunnyHappy Birthday!
Calories don't count on birthdays 😬

Working today and plan is:
B: red pepper roast
L: Feta salad
D: chicken and salad

Haven't managed to do any workouts for last 5 days or so.
Need to get back into the swing of it but aside from my re-feed day (🤭) I have been eating to plan!

Have a good Tuesday everyone!

Happy Birthday @Marshmellowbunny . Hope you have a great day.

Last week of October! That went so quick...
Hopefully another little loss this week but we will see.

Hope everyone has a good week.

Thank you, all

@frostedshreddie if only that were true. I'm eating what I want anyway!

NSV a relative said I looked skinny again so I'm feeling kinda good 😊

Worried about ruining it now though! 🤣🙈

8.8kg 19 1/4lbs down! Whoohoo. That's about 3/4 of a lb since before my period.
Good luck for Wow tomorrow

@socks1107 have you had your thyroid checked? Don't know how old you are. Is peri/meno a possible factor?

Happy birthday @Marshmellowbunny hope you've had a lovely day! I've increased water but not feeling better for it 😬

Yes @FridayNighFeeling I've been doing similar re tracking a ready meal/equivalent in MFP- I've tried to err on the side of overestimating but who knows how accurate I've been. If I could stop bloody grazing it'd be a lot easier, odd crisps here and there, a bite of this etc, I just need to stop.

My habits are slipping again- combination of half term and struggling a bit with mood- I'm blaming the clock change and a particularly tough time at work but it means I'm back to grazing, eating too much sugar and tempted to hit the vape again which would be a disaster! Managed to drive past the petrol station today in stead of going in and buying one so I'm taking that as a major win today.

The iron supplement I've had to start taking, that promised to be gentle on my stomach, is making me feel really lousy, I'm not hopeful for WOW as my digestive system seems to have ground to a halt!

On a foodie note, I have half a roast butternut squash languishing in the fridge, any ideas? I was thinking soup but open to suggestions/favourites!

@Marshmellowbunny Happy Birthday 🎈

I was unexpectedly stuck in a traffic jam for over two hours today due to an overturned lorry, has put me out of kilter and left everything rushed/cancelled. Bit of a stomach ache too, so I’ve eaten very little. Trying to keep fluids up, tomorrow is another day.

Thank you @Vapeaddictyou've just reminded me to drink some, so I've gone and got a pint 👍🏻 I've been drinking the alcohol free beers instead. Not the healthiest but better than actual beer I suppose.
Well done on avoiding the vape! You're doing awesome with that. Keep it up 😱 I'm sorry that you're not feeling so good though.

Thanks as well @Poisonwood I'm sorry you're not feeling good either.

I hope you both feel better soon.

I've eaten and not counted calories today 🙈😱 had potato cakes, a bacon butty, half a garlic/cheese flatbread and about to eat some rump steak and sweet potato fries. Ah well, I'll get back on it properly tomorrow!

I just got ID'd at the pub for an alcohol free beer 🤣🙈 so I'm feeling pretty smug. He did say it was Think 25 but even so, I'm a long way over 25 🤣🙈 good birthday present though!

Hope you've all had a good day.

What a nice feeling @Marshmellowbunny !

@Vapeaddict definitely the clock change and half term. I did a lovely roast dinner and then ate a Twix after that I didn't need self sabotage is real

I love BNS and roasted red pepper soup (I also add bacon and onion and garlic) or a warm salad BNS, brussel sprouts, nuts and cranberries - Pintrest your friend here.

I'd have weed myself @Poisonwood well done for making it home.

PS either iron or magnesium oxide for constipation @Vapeaddict

Pumpkin pancakes @Vapeaddict ! Look up hairy dieters recipe. You can freeze them too. Lovely for lunch with Greek yoghurt and a drizzle of honey.

Ahh I’m very envious of you being ID-d @Marshmellowbunny! I still find myself panicking if I buy alcohol at the supermarket and don’t have mine with me, despite the fact that it’s a good few years since anyone has asked me 😂

My victory for today was that DH was away and I didn’t hit the snacks once the kids were in bed! I think tomorrow’s weight will still be up from last week as one day of eating in deficit will not undo 6 days of overeating - but given it’s usually a big struggle for me I’ll take that.