⭐️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 hope you're feeling a bit better and not in so much pain this morning @TheRealHousewife 💐

@TheRealHousewife sorry it didn’t go well, I hope you rested overnight.

@biscuitcat I’ve been on the mini-pill since DS was born, so haven’t had a proper cycle in many years now either! I do follow a woman on instagram who talks a lot about how her cycle affects her eating and training, and she talks about feeling like she could eat the fridge during her period! Lots of people agreeing with her.

Weight is going down steadily which is good - I am carefully tracking on nutracheck. Only 0.5lbs away from pre-December weight now.

Good luck for today @TheWayTheLightFalls 💐

I started the week off well but the past couple of days have been a write off, I’ve overeaten and not exercised. Going to try to get back on track today, it’s my day off so planning a long walk while the children are at school and I’ll get a casserole in the slow cooker for dinner this evening. Happy Friday all 😊

Thank you 😘

@biscuitcat Well I’m due on in a few days and my cravings yesterday were terrible. I’d been doing so well and actually not finding the big healthy switch-up too hard so far, but yesterday I had allllllll the food noise and cravings coming back. So I Googled about periods and appetite and apparently it’s quite common for it to shoot up due to hormone fluctuations. I am gonna try to eat a big healthy and filling breakfast today and hope that serves me better because yesterday I just started small and just wanted to peck on things all day.

@TheRealHousewife I hope you feel better soon ❤️‍🩹

Hope you are feeling better @TheRealHousewifeand well down everyone else who is keeping going and seeing losses!

In my new daily weighing adventures scales are now showing 9st 8lbs which makes me happier - hopefully the higher values were period related! I really do like how easy it is to just step on and then my phone logs it all.

L - vegetable soup and a slice of sourdough toast
D - out for dinner tonight and haven’t really banked a lot of spare calories for it this week so I’ll probably go over, will aim for picking something low carb at least but still tasty!

Ok, sort of caught up with the thread...ish! Hope youre doing okay today @TheRealHousewife

So Im 181...need to really lose 45lbs, so a long way to go! Ive had a terrible bug for a few weeks, although I didnt seem to lose any weight from being ill. Shame! Haha

Ive had 2 coffees and a cheese/onion toastie gor lunch. Im aiming to eat between 12pm and 8pm as my window and sticking to a calorie deficit.

My plan is to walk 10k steps daily and do some form of other exercise (gym, yoga, pilates) so I don't overdo it and its sustainable. Kind of a very loose 75 hard i suppose! Moving twice a day.

Im booked in for a strength gym class later this evening, so looking forward to it!

The tricky bit for me is sorting out my sleep. Im awful for doom scrolling or binge watching things late at night...that needs to stop. If anyone has any tips, I'd be grateful.

Thanks @moondip and @LegoTherapy! Period is officially back today so I think my mega-snacking a couple of days ago was probably linked to that. At the same time I was really retaining weight despite eating within calories so probably all tied together. Who’d be a woman, eh!

Today’s menu:

B - pain au chocolat (I don’t usually have, but bless DH he had put some in the oven before I got up and I didn’t have the heart to say no)
L - bacon, eggs and a piece of sourdough
D - caponata with crusty bread and ricotta

I hope everything has gone well @TheWayTheLightFalls

I accidentally fasted til lunch today, as an online catch up went on for a lot longer than planned. I have evened it out this evening with a bit of chocolate 😂

There were a few of us on Monday who said that the weekend was a difficult couple of days to stay on track. With that in mind, I’m checking in now to be accountable. I’m just within calories today so the kitchen is closed.

Plan for the weekend is- keep in my routine, do some exercise, don’t mindlessly eat whatever the DC are eating. Don’t overeat just because it’s the weekend. Keep in mind I don’t want to cancel out all the effort I put in Monday-Friday.

Thanks @LemonDrizzle23 - all went fine and I am up and about. (And presumably lighter??! Should’ve asked them to weigh my boobs!)

Just having fruit salad for dessert after dinner here, and have ordered a good amount of high protein meals and biltong for home. Feeling good. Can’t wait for a coffee in the morning.

Still struggling with this flu bug thsts been going around and was slightly up this morning, probably the inactivity and eating chocolate! Kept myself active today though so hopefully turning a corner. Fustrated as we were also sick at Christmas.

Have really struggled to get back into the swing of things since Christmas but have finally weighed myself today and have only put on 3/4 of a pound in that period which is great. Next target will be to hit 12st 6lbs. Need to get back to intermittent fasting more strictly.

New job at the end of last year has meant a much longer commute which is sapping my motivation and energy to exercise but does involve around 5 thousand steps a day which must count for something. Will try to add a two yoga videos in next week.

Weekend food struggles are real. It’s cold and grey and I want to eat.

Happy Saturday!

I didn't log anything yesterday, the day ran away with me and we then had Chinese takeaway at a parents house.

Moving on to today...
L - cup-a-soup, veggies, sweet chilli houmous. Small bowl of fancy crisps 😬 and a slice of cake from a lovely local deli 😬😬 (bit actually only ate half the cake as it wasn't as nice as normal!) - 600 cals!!!!
D - planning chicken curry + sides

Looking like I'll be over cals for the day. Annoyed with myself for eating so much of the cake when it wasn't that enjoyable.

On the flip side - still zero wine or evening snacking. So a decent amount of calories being saved there!

Thinking ahead to next week about things I can change. I've been having a small handful of sweets most nights, even though I don't generally have a sweet tooth. Need to swap these for something else. I've also had a bagel every day this week, and I'd like to cut out bread as much as possible moving forwards, so looking at lunches that will be satisfying and satiating.

Injury is getting much better now so I'm really hoping I can get back to exercise this week 🤞

Hope you are doing OK @TheWayTheLightFalls

I've been off the rails. Something stressful that the timeline of is completely out of my control... no excuse really but we know emotional eating is a thing...

Today has been better, so hoping I can reign it in and weigh on Monday to see what the scales say.

@TheWayTheLightFalls
Wishing you all the very best and hoping all goes well for you xx
I went to my Slimming world meeting this morning and I have lost one pound
Not really intentional as wanting to maintain but I will take it 😀
It's a grey day here so it's a steak with vegetables and will do some Slimming world style chips
The air fryer is really the best way to go to keep the calories at minimum
Have a lovely weekend everyone
Good luck to you all xx

As per the earlier posters, am definitely feeling the cold and wanting to eat.

Meals have been ok today, but for some reason there has been a lot of chocolate! (The reason is I bought some from M&S on a whim…)

Lots of DIY and pottering around today but very little exercise. Day in town tomorrow, so there will be some walking. Will try and fit my yoga in as well.

Morning all! I didn’t log properly Friday evening because I went out for dinner and don’t know the calories in the exact meal but I know I must have gone over calories for the day because I had dessert as well! I didn’t log yesterday either, probably went slightly over because I had a McDonalds breakfast and steak with a largish portion of potato wedges for dinner but will get back to logging today and we’ll see, I might just try and estimate Friday calories. Then I can try and finish today with fewer calories, got healthy food planned so should be okay - no treats today for sure though 😂

L - Scrambled egg on sourdough
D - Jerk sweet potato and black bean stew

And forgot to say I’ve stuck with my dry Jan despite the evening out so that’s good and calories saved 😊👍🏻

I am currently reading the thread and catching up on how everyone's going.
Would like to join you if I may.
My first weigh in was on the 9th where I weighed more than I was expecting and was just about in the overweight category. First goal therefore is to return to healthy weight.
Week 1 loss- 1.1kg
Week 2 loss so far- 200g

400g to go to return to a healthy weight.

I have been sticking to approx 1200-1400 calories a day. And do a medium amount of exercise.
Goals for today are to again be on 1300 calories, drink 2litres of water and do some yoga.

Morning.

I didn't finish logging my calories yesterday.. I'll try and do it retrospectively today but I know I'm over 🙁

Today's plan is yet tbc. Have family over for dinner, it'll be something with veg on the side but not sure what yet. They love pie but after going over on Friday and Saturday I want something leaner.....

Welcome @Positivepositron! Sounds like you've made a great start to the year.

Really impressed with the balanced approach everyone's taking - steadily working on this is definitely my preferred approach and I'm trying not to get worked up about individual meals /days but see the big picture and the long term.

People were talking about periods up above - this is something I've been paying attention to and I think it's helping me manage it without going off the rails. I'm just about due my period and for me (early 40s perimenopausal) about 4-5 days before I have a day of extreme fatigue, then I get quite hot at night and don't sleep well, all of this is completely normal but seems to end up with me craving sugar and chocolate. Now I've noticed that I letting myself have some chocolate in those days, within calories and integrated into my normal meals as dessert, and not letting myself get into situations where I could buy e.g. a massive bar of fruit and nut and scoff it all in the car in secret and then feel guilty and ashamed of myself. On the flip side in the week after my period finishes I feel strong and amazing and can be super active etc. So I think knowing a bit more about the different stages and how they affect us is really helpful for weight loss and can mean staying encouraged when the scale gets stuck etc. There are some good podcasts on BBC sounds about the menstrual cycle in general (28ish days later I listened to all of recently, it's from a few years ago but I thought it was really good - one 15 min episode for each day of the cycle).

Ok, off to get on with Sunday now. Making spaghetti and meatballs for dinner tonight which is a family fave, I need to work out how much parmesan is reasonable! Have had overnight oats, berries and Greek yogurt for breakfast and we're having soup and bread for lunch, so should be a fairly ok day calories-wise. Went to the gym yesterday so hoping to get out for a walk later if the rain stops.