⭐️LOSE IT! February Fitness 2026⭐️

[TheRealHousewife]

⭐️OPEN TO ALL⭐️

Following on from ⭐️LOSE IT! January Jumpstart 2026 ⭐️

January has absolutely flown by!

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 4lbs.
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?

Thanks for the new thread and the lovely opening post as always @TheRealHousewife and wishing you well with your health.

I'm so happy its February, the sun is shining here so it feels like spring, looking forward to getting back to healthy ways after a January of flu and low energy.

Best of luck everyone ❤️

Place making

Good Morning Everyone & Happy February 🙂

@TheWayTheLightFalls I think unless your diet is particularly poor the Zoe app/subscription isn’t the way to go if your primary goal is weight loss. If you’ve an interest in establishing what kind of state your gut microbiome is in I’d go for the Chuckling Goat Gut Test. Albeit it’s more expensive but you receive a more comprehensive report and list of recommendations that are personal to you and not a generic list based on previous studies (Zoe). I did do the Chuckling Goat test in 2019 and I’ve skimmed reread my 80 page report again and it’s very comprehensive. 👍 I think when I’m a bit more flush I’ll invest in another CG test to see where I am. Personally I feel the Zoe one is far too commercialised and geared towards hooking you into expensive subscriptions and repeat tests.

@WearyAuldWumman Welcome back ❤️ The increase in your lifting weight is impressive 👍👌👏

Welcome to the new thread @WoodlandDragon Great update you’ve shared and pleased to see you on board again. 👍

@LBB2020 Im insulin resistant and I absolutely have to avoid sugar. Hope you find yourself back into the healthy eating groove soon! Only you can do it and you’re worth it👍

Welcome to the thread @Daffydoll. Impressive step count and positive start with your 3lb loss 👍

Welcome @JumpLeadsForTwo I listen to the Zoe podcasts too. I find them interesting and informative. Occasionally one of the guest experts will emphasise that calorie count DOES matter and Jonathan Wolf never really responds 😬. Going for a walk after meals is one of the best things you can do to flatten any sugar spikes and help metabolise what you’ve eaten 👍

@PatienceOfEngels I too am starting to dislike January … so gloomy damp and dark. Roll on spring ☀️

@LemonDrizzle23 I love it when my food shop arrives and feel set for the week.

@socks1107 Fantastic! Well done! 👌👏👍

Welcome @RedBlackBlue and you’re very welcome x

Amazing update @biscuitcat 👍👏👌

@CinnamonSweet73 You’re welcome … can you send some of your sun over, I only want a little bit ☀️ 😬

Welcome @Onitforfeb

Menu
Meal 1 - Butterbeans & feta on seed bread.
Meal 2 - Roast Lamb dinner. Strawberries & Greek yoghurt.
Drinks - Tea, black coffee, hibiscus tea & water.

Yay to February!!

Sorry to hear about your Zoe experience @TheRealHousewife but I suppose at least you know and can have the resolute faith in your own approach now 😊 I'm sure you'll be back in control soon.

Well.done @socks1107 on the milestone start!

I didn't weigh end of Jan as I've not been well, on all sorts of meds, and can't actually fully weight bare on one of my feet and for some reason I didn't want to weigh one-footed 😂

Finding it hard to set my intentions for the month for this reason as I was centring my focus around all the lovely classes I've already booked, but I'm having to cancel the first week at least until I'm back to normal. So I'll have to focus on intake instead - I'd like to stay 95% off the booze again (at least), and have lots of homemade and batch cooked meals supplemented with veg.

We've got what I think is a good meal plan for the week, although it half depends on my foot being well enough to spend decent stretches in the kitchen. Yesterday I thought it was better and I immediately did too much, and suffered for it in the evening and overnight. Lesson learned. But as such, I'm not sure what we're doing for dinner tonight as it may need DH to step in, and he doesn't cook the more complicated meals. Once he's back from his training run we'll plan.

Lunch will likely be one slice of toast, a small spoon of beans and a fried egg. It'll have to be in a tiny splash of oil as I have no spray - I know we've discussed scrambling eggs in water... I wonder if this works for frying too?!

Best wishes to everyone else for the month ❤️

Sorry to hear you’ve been unwell @ImALittlePea , hope you’re soon recovered ❤️ Why not do a poached egg, that’s in water 👍

I’ve had a dreadful January of sickness and DD being sick. I think I’ve been to the gym a handful of times.
I haven’t put on loads at least. So frustrating.
Still not 100% yet still so going to try and be good with food.

Sorry to hear that @BlackCatFanClub Hope you and your dear children are over the worst. Be kind to yourself x

Hello! Hadn't realised there was a new thread. Was having a particularly bad day yesterday when I posted on the previous thread but the point remains that I am struggling to balance eating well with the other demands on my time at the moment. Just trusting that slow and steady is better than nothing at all! And like a few others, I'll do better when we get into spring. I always feel very sluggish at this time of year. I don't mind February half as much as January though - noticeably lighter nights and my birthday is this month.

Slow and steady is the way to go every time👍 Pleased you’ve found us all 🙂

Thanks for starting the new thread @TheRealHousewife and for your insights into Zoe. I’m following many of their principles but also calorie counting but now I feel like I don’t need to give them any of my money!

I lost 4lbs in January which is slow but steady. I set a mini goal to be 181 lbs by Valentine’s Day which will bring me into the 12s so hopefully I’ll get there.

You’re very welcome @stealthninjamum and here’s to you reaching your goal for 14th February. Are you celebrating? 🥳

Ha ha. Dp is also on a diet (he’s doing it with mountjaro) so I suspect any Valentine’s Day celebrations will involve chicken and lots of vegetables! Maybe I’ll celebrate more when I get in the 11s 🥳

Friendly February 2026 Calendar from Action For Happiness website.

The first of my birthday events, dinner at a Turkish restaurant with my lovely family, ate well and filled myself up in very successfully. I have no idea how much I ate or what half of it was... But I'd only had 700 calories (of 1800 goal for weight loss / 2500 TDEE). Think I'll just write it off as "I can't physically have eaten so much that I'm massively over my TDEE, and try to adjust the rest of the week to conservative calorie counting? Not much else I can do now really, but what does anyone else do with this kind of meal? I probably should have regulated better but I was having fun and the food was very tasty.

Checking in for Feb.

some really amazing progress well done everyone.

Omad today! I’m off for lunch with a friend so it’ll be a good midday meal and that’s that.

I’ve managed to curtail my overnight snacking somewhat. I find it helpful if when I do grab something overnight while up with DD, I add it to the Breakfast section of NutraCheck rather than Snacks. That way I have to adjust my breakfast the next day and feel accountable to the snacking rather than just shoving it to the bottom of NutraCheck so it’s out of sight/out of mind. I’ve also managed to up my walking a fair bit the past few days, which has come at a time when I really have to take DD out for a walk every single day - even if it’s raining buckets - as she just gets too bored and bossy cooped indoors.

Well done everyone for keeping going. It’s so great to have a place where we can all come together even though we aren’t all following the same eating habits or goals! X

And in more “places only my brain seems to go” I’ve just had 370ml of fluid drained so that had better bloody show up on the scales tomorrow

Good Morning All.

@TheWayTheLightFalls Enjoy your lunch … and yes your scales better be good!

@moondip Well done on curtailing your snacky snacks and I agree it’s a good idea for any snacks to be added to breakfast 👍

Welcome to February @Fellsbells x

@WoodlandDragon Sounds like you had a lovely time with loved ones, that’s worth any number of calories ❤️

Menu
Meal 1 - Butterbeans, feta, leeks on seeded bread. Sauerkraut & Rocket salad.
Meal 2 - Chicken thigh traybake with sweet potatoes, carrots, onions, red peppers & garlic. Fage, kefir & chia seeds.
Drinks - Tea, black coffee, hibiscus tea & water.

Photo of sunny skies in case any of you have forgotten ☀️

Good job @moondip - reducing snacking is my downfall too, sounds like you’ve got a good system there.

My little victory for today is fitting into the size 12 jeans which I bought! They’re an M&S 12 (so probably more generous than some!) and still a little tight, but my goodness that would have been unimaginable a few months ago. My overall aim is to be a comfortable 10 I think - I’m curvy so I think being an 8 would look wrong on me, and I also think it would be far harder to sustain. Can’t believe that I’m within a size/a size and a half of where I’d like to be.

Today’s menu:

L - quesadilla with raspberries
D - pasta with tomato and chilli sauce

Not brilliant on protein tbh, but the sauce for the pasta is very veg heavy so it’s meeting other nutrient goals.

Have had a great reset day!
Yoga and cardio done.
A load of batch cooking done.
Four loads of laundry done and the house sorted.
Calories on track for the day.

Recent lunches … looking back they all seem a bit ‘samey’ 🤔

I’ve been trying to get into the 10s since end of September and today it all happened!! I’m so happy! Set my new goal for March and will carry on but just owning this. It’s a year of being in a deficit and exercising and I’m so close now to where I want to be 😊

Absolutely fantastic @socks1107! congratulations 🥳👍👏👌🥳

Sometimes samey is good! They look pretty delicious from here.