⭐️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?

Hello Everyone. First Wednesday weigh in and I was relieved to discover I haven't increased in weight since the week before Christmas. I've logged calories on myfitnesspal for the past 3 days, staying below 1400 ( I'm only 1.57m tall), done a weight training session, ensured I get 5k steps in, and having reined back from mindless eating has improved my mood.

I prefer to post any weight loss, not my actual weight, so I'm starting at ZERO kg.

My goal is to take better care of myself, cut upf's from my diet, improve my blood results before my next check up in 6 months, and lose 3kg.

Good luck to Everyone, thanks for letting me join in.

Good luck on your journey. That is a tough diagnosis to take on board. I hope your weight loss journey improves your health.

Morning, I checked out of dieting in December. Weighed myself today and I'm 75.4kg. 4kg heavier than normal. I've been quite conscious on my food past couple of weeks until I went back to work yesterday and ate lots of leftovers Christmas food there. It's a gain of 0.4kg some of that is premenstrual.

Hiya
I am here to sign up to what looks like will be a great supportive thread. I am getting married in May, only just booked it and I've loads to lose..like stones...but would be happy with a couple stone off before then. I just want to look and feel great on the day.

Ill weigh and take measurements today.

My plan:
✅️ 2 litres water a day
✅️ average 1700 cals and 100g protein a day
✅️ 6k steps a day to start then increase up to 10k

Let's do this 👌

Edit it's a 0.4 kg gain, not 4kg

My first weigh in is 14st 6, I’ve lost 1lb since I started dieting on Monday which is good, but still lots to lose!

Aiming for around 1400 calories a day which gives me a bit of leeway if I treat myself so that I’m still under my maintenance calories.

Strugging to find the time to exercise lately going to try either going at lunchtime or straight after work, either doing a Grow With Jo video or go for a run (goal for the next few months is to complete C25K)

Then aiming to get minimum 8000 steps a day, as currently managing about 2000 lol

my wow looks like this and I’ll post stats from last January and then wipe the slate clean from next week for the last bit.

SW 13.13
CW 11.5

I have put on 2.5lbs since mid December. So my GW is now 11stone to start with, I know it’s only 5 lbs but I’ve been trying to crack that last 5lbs since September.

I am really nervous about restarting and struggling again. The last three months did my brain in so I am very conscious that I don’t want that to happen again. Nervous about what calories to eat and I get confused about what exercise bracket I should choose so I am not eating too little. I think after nine months my body just resisted anymore loss so I hope I’ve kick started my metabolism by eating normally as it were.
I have nothing over a size 12 left in my wardrobe as I sold it all so I do need to really focus as I cannot replace my wardrobe again 😂.
I will be starting properly on Sunday as I have some leave and plans first

Keep going @socks1107 . I love that you’ve decluttered your wardrobe of your big clothes. I live in 3 jumper dresses and a pair of jeans because I hit size 18 last year and refused to buy bigger clothes. I cant wait to either get back into my smaller clothes or to buy new ones.

Today’s weight is 187.2lb a decrease of .8lbs since last Wednesday. I’m delighted to have lost my Xmas gains. I didn’t go too mad at Christmas but don’t feel I denied myself too much either.

Starting weight 30 October - 197
Today - 187.2

I’m going to set myself a target to be 181 in 6 weeks - so roughly Valentine’s Day. I have no plans for Valentine’s Day but it just seems like a day I’ll remember whenever I feel like going into a cafe for cake! 181 will be in the 12 stones zone. When I started I was probably in the 14s and too scared to weigh myself!

Made some poor food choices yesterday, with all the Christmas goodies still lurking in the house. However, have had extra long dog walks all week as I'm not at work and am just off for my second visit to the gym this week. My mantra for today is 'progress not perfection!' Here's to achieving our 2026 goals!

Slightly up today but still in the 53kg bracket so I’m happy with that. It’s all the salty things I ate the last couple of days.

I’m in.
Totally lost the plot last few months and didn’t do much walking (usually do the number of km in the year) missed it for the first time in five years this year. Clocked daily 5.1km avg versus 5.6ish ever other year.
Now weigh 92.5kg which puts me in obese category. So I definitely need to sort it out.
Plan is fast 800 reset for 3 weeks starting today to put me under 90kg. Start back on walking. Bike ride tomorrow.
Then slowly reduce and maybe start running again in March - at moment it’s too hard on my knees so I haven’t been doing any.

Good luck everyone

I don't think I want to put my weight down so I'll record loss (hopefully) instead and start myself on 0 with the aim of getting to minus 30lb

I’m in. Started today at 162.4 aiming for 119 as I’m short so a long way to go. First goal is 159 which I want to do by the end of January. I’m aiming to up the walking, do couch to fit and stop any evening eating. Good luck everyone.

I've started dry jan today. Need to lose a few pounds and get back to the gym 3 days a week.

i’m in!

Hello Everyone

Heres hoping you’re all having a peaceful and reflective New Years Eve!

I did it! My trimmings are down and our home is spic & span ready for the New Year 2026 🎇 Even my other half said he’s glad all the trimmings are away and going forward it will be our new tradition.

In other news I’ve Joined Zoe for one year. Several years ago I went on the wait list for the Study but was refused at the gate due to being Celiac. Now it’s been restructured it doesn’t matter if your celiac or not. It tracks your logged foods and awards a health score between 0-100. You can also photo a food and it calculates its macros (I added weights/amounts to make it fully accurate) It steers you away from UPFs although I don’t have many of those. You can scan stuff when shopping and it’ll give you a score to help you choose the healthier options. I’ve also ordered the Gut Micro Biome test to see where I’m at gut bug wise.

WOW - 9st 1lb (1lb loss) My aim for this year is to return to the 8’s and stay there 🤞

Menu
Meal 1 - 2 Boiled Eggs & 3 Brazil Nuts. ZS 84
Meal 2 - Spicy roast veg, sweetcorn & coconut milk soup. ZS 77
Drinks - Tea ZS83, black coffee ZS100, hibiscus tea ZS100 & water.

I'm starting today too. 1st day of 1st month & this year is It.
I've downloaded MFP & have logged all my info in there & jotted down what I have eaten so far. A Keto style of eating has helped previously but maybe I'm not as focused on that as the kg's are not budging this time around.
I have about 15 kg (2 stone ??) to lose so here I go :)

Up a stone since this time last year. Same pattern of losing during the first half of the year, slowing down, then gaining from October onwards.

I weigh twice what I should. 19.03. Last month’s checkup showed kidneys functioning at half what they should be. Under doctor’s orders to drink minimum of two litres daily. Doing my best to lower salt intake and avoid all upfs. I do reasonably well, then get stressed and binge to avoid the uncomfortable emotions.

I have a couple of days on my own, and I intend sorting out my kitchen and my food plan.

Really interested to hear more about your Zoe experience @TheRealHousewife, I'm wanting to do this once I'm past the baby and young toddler stage. Listen to the Zoe podcast most weeks. I'm tentatively starting today as well but as I said in my first post, it'll be slow due to broken sleep and pretty dire fitness levels. I've signed up to a 12 week postnatal workout rehab plan so will be setting aside 15 mins today for the first workout. Love how short they are to fit in around baby, might actually manage to stick at this 🙏🏻 and then I'm going to challenge myself to close up the kitchen after dinner and not have any snacks before bed as that's always my downfall!

Happy new year ladies! Did everyone have a nice evening? Ours was very low key (spent a good half hour of it researching robot hoovers!), but we ate a very tasty spanakopita with salad and tiramisu as I’d been feeling like cooking. And now I’m on as little sleep as I’d have had at 22, but because I was up with the baby in the night then at 6am rather than because I was out partying!

I weigh each day anyway, and thought it would be particularly useful to have a 1st January weight - so for me starting the year:

SW - 15st10.5
CW - 12st12
Goal - I’m going to assess how I feel and look at 11 stone (which has me at a healthy BMI) and decide how much further I’d like to go, I think I’d like to end up somewhere between 10 and 10.5 stone.

In bed by 10 with a book here @biscuitcat . I’m boring and I own it!

Happy new year everyone.

Happy new year! Last night involved homemade Chinese, cocktails and vaguely unwillingly staying up past midnight. DS woke us at 6:45am as usual, so today is going to be hard 😫

SW: 15 st 8
CW: 13 st 12
15%: 13 st 3

Food today will still be pretty full on, so back to normal routine will start tomorrow…

Long one, ladies:

Biting the bullet and posting my weight as of yesterday (Weds - 31/12/25) morning - in the hope that being brave and honest will let me be more accountable. It was 102.1kg, which makes my BMI 35.3 and well into the obese category. This is better than I expected (which I know sounds mad) - simply because I haven’t weighed myself in weeks, and this was about what I weighed the last time I did. I was almost expecting to see something more like 105-110.

Moving forward, I will stop trying to find excuses for myself (Sertraline and how that affects my appetite; hypothyroidism and how that makes weight loss harder; etc.). While there’s always “reasons,” I need to feel empowered to lose weight, and these factors have made me feel trapped or like I can depend on e.g. coming off Sertraline in the future to somehow fix my weight problems. One thing I do know that I need to work on is my automatic, mindless emotional eating… I asked ChatGPT about the science (hormonal, neuroscientific, psychological) behind emotional eating and will start with some exercises it suggested to take pause and reassess whenever I find myself reaching for food without physical hunger. I liked this from ChatGPT: “Emotional eating is not a problem to eliminate. It’s a signal that regulation is needed. You’re not trying to “out-discipline” it. You’re out-supporting it.“
So, I’m challenging myself to find new ways to support and regulate my emotions like breathing exercises, walks, etc. I started this yesterday by doing 10 minutes on the exercise bike while my baby was sat in her floor chair watching me. I have left my trainers and her chair next to the bike to encourage me to periodically go and do some minutes on the bike throughout the day. We are both sick at the moment so won’t be factoring in big walks to my exercise plan until we feel better.

Historically I’d rely on keto whenever I needed to lose some weight, and it’s always been effective for me. BUT I’m breastfeeding (not exclusively) at the moment and don’t want keto to tank my already low supply, which I’ve heard it could. I’d be interested to hear from any ladies that managed to diet while breastfeeding without it significantly lowering their supply. Baby is starting on solids now, and tbh I’m inclined to reframe things and put my weight and health first (before benefits of continued breastfeeding when I’m not even EBF) since my baby needs a healthy mum who feels confident in herself and not limited in terms of the kinds do activities I can do with baby. I also don’t want to model unhealthy eating habits for her.

I need to be around 75kg to be back at a healthy BMI. The last time I was there was in 2022. For now, I’ll set my goal weights by 10kg increments (90kg -> 80kg -> 70kg).

SW: 102.1kg
CW: 102.1kg
GW: 90kg

@moondip I’m another one with very young children, hypothyroidism, various medications. In the first place what I’d say is if you’ve got a baby who’s about to start weaning then you’re maybe, what, six months postpartum? That is still very new and your body may rightly just be trying to recalibrate. You need to be gentle with yourself and your expectations.

I have now lost close to 20 kg and frankly exercise has not helped one bit. It obviously helps with toning up, appearance, may be feeling better about myself, but when it comes to weight loss, it has all been diet. All. So I would encourage you to think of small, sustainable changes you can make to your diet over time. Start eating an hour later in the morning. Finish an hour earlier, and brush teeth so you are less tempted to snack. Swap out one high calorie snack for something better. And so on.

Happy new year everyone!! I spent last night ill and had woken up ill. Ahhhhh

Looking fwd to Sunday when the calorie counting restarts properly. Welcome to everyone new were a fab bunch here and the last year and my loss has shown that and hi to all the ones from 2025 we are back for more and to support our new joiners 😊