⭐️LOSE IT! January Jumpstart 2026⭐️

[TheRealHousewife]

⭐️ Open to All ⭐️

January 2026! Following on from LOSE IT! 8 Week Christmas Countdown

Fresh Start, New Habits! To reach optimum health and vitality (as well as a trim body) we need to focus not only on our food intake; but movement, our 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 have a 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) that’s based on several sensible principles including:-

1. Eat a variety of real whole foods such as fresh vegetables, salad, berries, beans, nuts, eggs, lean meat, good fats etc.

2. Reduce sugars, simple carbs, alcohol and UPFs.

3. Plan your meals & log your intake. Also be mindful of portion control.

4. Intermittent fasting - research suggests (Zoe study) that adhering to an eating window of 10 hours can have a positive effect on health, wellbeing and weight loss. I personally have a eating window of approximately 7hrs - 12:00 - 19:00.

5. Stay hydrated! 💧

6. Move as much as able. Particularly strength based exercise. Muscle keeps you strong as well as revs up your metabolism.

7. Get the fibre in! Great for your gut biome as well as 💩

8. SLEEP! Good sleep hygiene and a regularly sleep routine can be beneficial to weight loss. I’m always more hungry following poor sleep.

9. Be mindful about your own mental wellbeing and try not to eat your feelings. We’ve all been there!

10. Be kind to yourself. One or two slip ups won’t undo all your previous efforts. Just check-in with yourself, reinforce your good intentions and carry on.

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 9st 2lbs.

Are you in?😊 What food plan will you be following? What do you want to change and why? Any recipes/workouts that have worked for you, you’d like to share?

I'm not anticipating a loss tomorrow as was naughty over weekend, but under calories yesterday and today.

Yesterday's menu was:
Lunch - tomato soup plus a piece of cheese on toast

Dinner- spicy tomato and basil gnocchi with mozzarella

Rice pudding

Today's menu was:
Lunch - meat free kiev, vegetable rice, spinach and tomatoes

Dinner- banana and almond pancakes with coconut yoghurt, dried cranberries and chocolate chips

Snacks: dragon fruit

I'm not going to weigh tomorrow. I'm swollen from injury and bloated from antibiotics so I just wanted to give another week for that to settle and for me to really get into gear (and stop eating unplanned sweets 😬). Good luck to everyone stepping on the scales tomorrow! 🤞❤️

I weighed in at the weekend so I might skip
tomorrow and weigh next Wednesday to
get in sync with you all!
I've had an ok start to the week, we’ve just finished dinner and I’m planning to do a workout video once we’ve got the children in bed

On track to finish the Wed-Tue week bang on my calorie allowance, which I’m pleased with. Managed a bodycombat class today too. Fingers crossed that the scales reflect this tomorrow!

Well done on getting to your goal @TheWayTheLightFalls it’s a significant milestone no matter how you got there.

@ImALittlePea It depends on what your baseline calories includes. When I used mfp I never ate my exercise calories back because my daily calories included my average daily activity level. Now I use Nutracheck and it doesn’t include any activity level so my daily calories are criminally low and I need to eat any exercise calories I’ve earned.

I’m trying to find a balance. You’d have thought I’d have managed by now, but apparently not. I want to restrict calories to lose body fat, but at the same time I’m exercising because I’m training for a race and trying to build muscle. Some days I eat too little and feel tired and under fueled. Then other days I eat too much and my weight goes up and I feel disappointed and bloated. I know it’s possible to lose weight and build muscle at the same time, but finding that balance is not easy. Throw hormones, life and the weather into the mix and it’s a struggle.

Tomorrow is a new day.

I had PT today so did my weight and measurements then. Been focused hard on it this week and managed to lose 1.2lbs, I'm so pleased and feel really motivated to carry on. Aiming for 2lbs off next week. Ive been using the Pinch of Nom Air Fryer cookbook all week and the meals have actually been yummy. The bacon and cheese fritata was a personal fave, actually craving it tonight!!

@TheWayTheLightFalls 44lbs off is incredible. The last few being stress related doesn’t take away from your hard work. Hopefully Friday goes as smoothly as possible.

Thank you for the suggestions, i do seem to be over the worst of it. I have been out to get some daylight, and have also done lots of sitting on the couch watching American cop shows. @FridayNighFeeling I have vitamins in the cupboard which I never remember to take, so maybe I should start remembering!

WOW tomorrow. No idea what the scales will say, but will be weighing in. Hopefully back on my yoga tomorrow too!

Weight is holding steady but DD has brought a bad cold home from college and I’ve been feeling rough. Spent most of the day resting and eating too much. So annoyed as was really positive about being in the gym again after being sick at Christmas.

I’ve just had time to catch up on the thread properly - @TheWayTheLightFalls huge congratulations on reaching your goal. I know you won’t be feeling especially celebratory, but it’s a fantastic achievement.

@ImALittlePea I try to stay within the food calories nutracheck allocated me. With two ‘easier’ days at the weekend, that’s around 1300 calories a day during the week and 1900 calories on my easier days. I tend to keep an eye on calories over the course of the week using the week view (I have my week set from Wed - Tue to match up with WOW) so if I go over one day, I can rein it back in over the course of the week. If I know that I am going to have a very calorific weekend, I will try and increase my exercise because I know that I will eat into (ahem) my exercise calories. During the week I try and keep breakfast to around 300 cals, lunch between 300-400, and dinner no more than 500. We use a lot of low calorie recipes weekdays from the likes of pinch of nom, hairy biker diet / healthy books, Jamie Oliver’s healthier recipe books, that kind of thing. We have a lot of home made soup for lunch! Of course, this is the plan when I’m motivated and focussed. This was lacking over the last year, so re-starting this year!

Sorry to hear about all the winter bugs that are going around. I hope everyone is on the mend soon, and not diverted from their goals for too long.

Good morning WOW-ers! Thanks to littlest DS my weigh in was done and dusted pre-6am…

But after a few disappointing and frustrating weeks, I’m finally below my pre-Christmas low with 2lbs off this week. I’ve found avoiding snacking really challenging recently so actually used ChatGPT as a weight loss coach, and found it pretty helpful in terms of thinking about the underlying reasons for snacking and finding ways both to reduce it overall (eg, having something small but satiating before giving the kids their dinner, which definitely helps in avoiding eating their stuff) as well as exploring what some of the reasons for doing it are.

SW - 15st10.5
CW - 12st11

I’m really hoping to crack the 3st barrier this week, and have 1.4kg to go to get into the 70s - if I can keep on top of my snacking, I’d like to do that this month. It would be a psychological boost I think, as it’ll mean only 1 10kg barrier left to go, as my final goal will be somewhere in the 60s.

Hope everyone has a lovely day!

Morning! 70.6 this morning, all ok. I’m off to work, no idea about food today - eek.

Good luck Wowers!

WoW
starting weight 92.5
today 91.1kg

I’m happy with that, I’ve mostly stuck to my planned meals and overall in my calorie allowance. Still tricky to get the protein in sufficient quantities but around 100g a day now.

I’ve stuck to my target average daily walking distance of 6km. One or two days I was under but made up for it by much more walking on other days.

ive done two Pilates classes a week and a couple of other short online HIIT or weight sessions as well as as my PT once a week.

It’s slow but I feel sustainable as I’m not hungry at all and I don’t feel deprived.

Weighing in - movement after staying the same last week! Feeling good and sustainable at the moment.

SW (1/1/26): 90.5 kg (BMI 28.6)
CW: 89.5 kg
Initial GW: 85 kg (BMI 26.8)
Ultimate GW: 75 kg (BMI 23.7)

Last week : 11st 1lb / 70.31kg
This week: 10 st 13lb / 69.4 kg

Whoop! I have no doubt a lot of that is shedding the water retention from the festive period, but great to see the scales come under 11st. Onwards to that 10st goal!

Well done all the ‘losers’ so far, and good luck to other WOWers!

Well done WOWers! Good luck to everyone weighing. I’m weighing in today 1.5lbs down. Hopefully not entirely stomach bug related, as I have been watching calories carefully!

SW: 15 st 8
CW: 13 st 11

Next goal in my head is 13 st 8 which would be two stone off. Nearly got there before December. Hope to see it in the next few weeks.

Morning all. Wasn't sure whether to weigh today as I don't feel I've made much progress, although I do feel better for eating less rubbish which is important in itself! But I bit the bullet and it's come in at 73.9kg. Not exactly sure of my starting point, I was 75kg at some point in Nov/Dec so I've definitely lost a little since then! Going to call this my new starting point and work towards an initial goal of 70kg, then 65, then eventually 60 (I need to break it down for it to feel achievable mentally). Well done to everyone seeing good progress, especially those of you with health setbacks 👏

My first Wow of the year -

CW 76.2kg
SW 77kg (end August 25)
GW 68.5kg

A long way to go. Feeling full and sluggish, creaky. Managed a walk and yoga yesterday. Didn't stick to my eating plan with snacks in the evening, polishing off birthday shortbread during the day. Lunch was soup, dinner was meatballs and spaghetti.

Today:
-boiled egg, rye toast w butter, 2 x coffee w milk
-leftover spaghetti (with pesto and sweetcorn)
-chicken bhuna with rice (didn't end up eating this on Monday...had beef stew instead).

Going to get a walk in, some yoga today, and feed my soul with some reading, crafts, and calm with a little decluttering.

Thank you for your message @TheRealHousewife and @FridayNighFeeling 💕.

Wow 11st 7lbs.
2lbs off.

Have a good weigh in and week everyone

Wow

SW 13.13
CW 11.4.8
GW 11

2lbs off for me this week so that’s almost back at pre Xmas weight

Last week 81.5 kg
This week 81.6 kg

I'm sulking 😂
I think there is a bit of post-exercise/PMT/carb heavy dinner last night water retention going on, so I will keep plodding on.

My weekend was derailed by taking DS back to uni so spending far too many hours in the car, missing my usual gym, and relying on motorway sercice stations for food...

Back on it this week and trying to (mostly) stick to the healthy eating.

Morning all, feeling fed up after my weigh in this morning and have stayed the same. Was really hoping for a pound or 2 off after what seems like an ‘on plan’ week. Oh well will lift my chin up and carry on, I haven’t been calorie counting so maybe that’s next… good luck with everyone’s weigh ins and commiserations to anyone who has put on or stayed the same - don’t give up 💪🏻

Morning all & good luck WOWers,

I am happy with what I see on the scales this morning after being a bit stricter than last week with staying within or only slightly over the calorie intake that NutraCheck recommends for me:

SW: 102.1kg
CW: 99.05kg (no idea why my scales give two decimal places but ok - it makes me feel better seeing this than 99.1kg!)

@Runssometimes I know what you mean about it being tricky to pack enough protein in. I’ve found Heinz lentil soup useful - not super high in protein but not bad for how low-calorie it is. Also tofu and white fish are high in protein but low fat so calories aren’t crazy. I do have the occasional protein bar, the most delicious of which is Eat Natural’s dark choc & peanut protein bar - I could eat those until the end of time I think 🤣

Also @Runssometimes I’ve substituted any bready options for higher-protein ones. Warburtons do a protein range with bagels, sandwich thins, and pittas that are under 200kcal and 8g of protein a pop. Also “Dr. Karg’s pumpkin seeds protein thins” have been really helpful! (Sorry if I’ve missed anywhere that you’re gluten-free.)

Well done Wowers. Amazing turn out and great progress.

I’ve maintained so far this week. Pretty happy with that considering I’m holding some water today from food and exercise.

Well done WoWers!

Thanks @WhatWouldTheDoctorDo and another PP on thoughts on tracking exercise calories! I have set my own calorie target in NC, maybe I'll see if I can get the app to calculate what it thinks I should have and I'll make a judgement call. But I think I'm not going to track steps in general, but I will add workouts.

I was listening to Paddy McG on the radio this morning talking about his recent 75 day challenge. I don't think that exact challenge is my thing but I think I might develop my own challenge once I've recovered from my injury. Something to motivate me to move more meaningfully every day. I'll keep you posted 👀

Plan for today:
L - cup-a-soup lunch (soup, crispbread, houmous, lots of cucumber, tomato and pepper), and greek yogurt with plenty of fruit and a drizzle of honey - 438 cals
D - baked potato, ham and salad - 397 cals (unless I decide to add cheese!)

Yesterday I fancied a snack and had some lentil puffs, and only clocked after how high in fat and sat fat they were! Low cal but a big fat red on that value. I'll make sure to have a banana and/or apple today instead.

Off sick/on recovery still today but the sun is shining so I will try and get a gentle walk round the block before school run today.