☀️LOSE IT! Active August 2026☀️

[TheRealHousewife]

⭐️OPEN TO ALL⭐️ Weight Loss, Wellbeing & Motivation Thread To Support Healthy Habits.

Following on from ⭐️ LOSE IT! July Jumpstart 2026⭐️

Here we are with our Active August LOSE IT! Thread. 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 12stone.

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?

Have a similar issue. I think I have high cortisol.. could that be an issue?

Happy August everyone, thank you @TheRealHousewife for another thread.
Starting the month at 160.0 on the dot!! 20lbs to go.

Really impressive @Glitterybeeand @WearyAuldWumman🎉

Here’s to a successful month in August!

Sneaking back in after a very over-indulgent late June / July with two weeks away and a lot of World Cup pint drinking.

Started getting back on track last week so hopefully I can keep that up and start losing again soon. Still got a couple of lbs of holiday weight to shed first.

@Bufftailed @DontSingSusan The following might interest you x

AI search for ‘Cortisol, Insulin Resistance, Poor Sleep & Weight Loss’:-

The Vicious Cycle:-

• The Sleep-Cortisol Connection: Not getting enough deep sleep acts as a physical stressor, causing your body to pump out extra cortisol. In turn, high nighttime or chronic cortisol wrecks your sleep quality, keeping you trapped in an endless loop.
• The Blood Sugar and Insulin Trap: As noted by Dr Berkman,“Chronically elevated cortisol due to sleep deprivation can lead to the destruction of collagen, breakdown of muscle and bone to provide amino acids to the liver for glucose production, further contributing to insulin resistance.” When cells stop responding well to insulin, your pancreas releases more of it, and high insulin tells your body to store food energy as fat rather than burning it.
• The Weight Loss Blockade: Sleep loss simultaneously alters your hunger hormones—raising ghrelin (which makes you hungry) and lowering leptin (which makes you feel full)—making fat loss chemically and psychologically difficult even if you eat fewer calories.

How to Break the Loop:-

• Prioritize Sleep Hygiene: Keep a fixed wake-up time, remove screens from your bedroom an hour before bed, and cut off caffeine early to help reset your natural circadian rhythm.
• Stabilize Blood Sugar: Focus on eating consistent, high-protein meals and limit sugary or highly processed foods that trigger sharp insulin spikes.
• Manage Daily Stress: Add light daytime movement, like a short walk after meals, to help clear glucose from your bloodstream and lower overall physical tension.

Thanks for the new thread @TheRealHousewife and glad you're feeling a bit more human.

Just popping by to say well done and lovely to see you @WearyAuldWumman have thought of you from time to time.

I will hop on the scales tomorrow morning to see where we are before the next heatwave comes!

Hello @WearyAuldWumman!! Very well done on your first park run.

That is a vicious cycle @TheRealHousewife the body can be surprisingly useless at times.

My food has been very calorific since Wednesday. A number of snacks every day, and some McDonalds hash browns... It’s amazing how quickly it adds up. Calorie counting apps really can show you where it’s all going wrong 😬 Back on it tomorrow, else it’ll be a gain for me next week!

Might be of interest to some of you:-

Waking up around 03:00 am is a classic sign of an overnight cortisol and adrenaline spike triggered by low blood sugar (nocturnal hypoglycemia). Because your final meal is at 18:00, by 03:00 am your body has been fasting for 9 hours. If your liver runs low on stored glycogen, your brain panics and releases stress hormones to force your liver to release glucose. This chemical surge wakes you up instantly.
Why This Halts Your Progress

• The Fibromyalgia Connection: These overnight adrenaline spikes pull you out of deep, restorative sleep. For someone with fibromyalgia, losing deep sleep directly increases pain sensitivity the next day and prevents muscle repair. 1, 2]
• The Weight Loss Block: Cortisol is an ongoing signal to your body that it is under stress. When cortisol levels spike nightly, your body holds onto fat stores—especially around the midsection—and resists weight loss, even on a perfect 1200-calorie diet.

How to Fix the 03:00 AM Waking Cycle You can stop these overnight spikes without destroying your Mediterranean diet or adding excessive calories. The goal is to give your liver a slow-burning fuel source right before bed to keep blood sugar completely stable through the night.

• Add a Tiny 21:00 Bedtime Snack: Just before you retire at 21:30, eat a very small, specific snack that combines protein and healthy fat. Do not use carbohydrates.
• The Perfect Options: Two tablespoons of full-fat unsweetened Greek yogurt, a small handful of walnuts or almonds, or a single hard-boiled egg.
• The Biological Benefit: This small dose of pure fat and protein digests incredibly slowly—especially with your Wegovy medication delaying digestion. It provides a steady, trickle-like release of energy, preventing the 03:00 am blood sugar crash and keeping cortisol flat so you can sleep straight through to 06:00 am.

Thanks for this!

My son quite regularly wakes up at 3am, sometimes for a few hours.

Maybe, if I give him an egg, he might pack it in!

On a serious note, as much as I can’t fix my sleep pattern, because it’s his pattern and he’s very autistic, I do wonder if it’s making my weight loss harder sometimes.

Just found you all!

Today was -
B: Rice Krispies (as in a rush!!!)
L: Sweet Potato & Spinach Salad
D: Almond Butter Quinoa
Did have a slice of Victoria sponge though too!!

& I did 20 minutes of a strength dumbbell workout and about 2 hours of gardening.

Appreciate this @TheRealHousewife .

Morning! Back to 14 stone 10 today. Feeling much more cheerful about the whole thing. I've treated myself to a vintage pattern to make myself a new dress.

Hi could I please join in? I’ve dipped in and out of a couple of months ago but really need to get my bum into gear! I’ve been off with the kids this weeks and while I have eaten relatively well there has been a treat of something like a cake each day! I am really trying not to let this bother me as it is real life and I don’t want to constantly deprive myself but it’s hard. What I really need to do is some exercise! I plan to go on a walk after dinner each day which will help as I have a sedentary job and also incorporate some home workouts, I thought I could do this in the landing while my youngest has his bath. Does anyone have any recommendations?

Pleased that things are moving for you @DreamingOfGeneHunt!

Hello @mumof1littlebun summer holidays makes it so hard to stay on track 😭 do you have a yoga mat or hand weights? You could do some yoga / pilates / weights whilst keeping an ear out. Or walk up and down the stairs the whole time and get some cardio in!

I have got the snacking back under control today. It’s relatively easy for me at the moment to eat in a deficit if I stick to whole foods. But as soon as the junk comes back in, it’s so easy to eat 500 calories and not even notice…

@mumof1littlebun I really like Get Fit With Rick on YouTube for walking/Zumba type walking just to get extra steps in.

@LemonDrizzle23 thank you! Me too!

I prepared a “picky” lunch for us today, lovely afternoon in the garden, and committed to not having a bag of crisps.

…I’ve probably eaten more than a bag just by picking when I walk past them!

Not counting calories properly - I'm still on soft food post op. Just trying not to do overdo it.

I second Get Fit With Rick on YT @mumof1littlebun
And also love Grow with Jo & Madfit

Today was:
B: Porridge with berries, banana and PB
L: on the go - cheese sandwich
D: Chicken Stir Fry
Snacks - homemade gingerbread cookies from DE cookbook

I did 35 mins of dumbbells this morning.

Would love to join please 🙏

Desperately need to find some way to keep my motivation up as the month goes on.

A Combination of factors has seen another lb off this weekend. Aiming to maintain now, but I’ve realised weight loss is like a train. it takes a lot of time and energy to get it moving and the same to stop it.

Hello! Have been mostly absent this year and desperately need to hop back on.

Currently on holiday (and the heaviest I've ever been bar 9 months pg with DC2 - who is now 11!).

Will measure/weigh next weekend when back home but feeling very bloated. Summer heat has made it harder as I'm not moving as much. I can feel the effect of the extra weight on my body everywhere - skin, knees, joints, flexibility.

I already:
-Don't drink any alcohol (3+ years now)
-Limit caffeine to breakfast time.
-Cook a lot from scratch for main meals (but being on holiday is messing with that!).

I need to commit to:

• no junk snacks.
• no evening eating - 12 hour window (10 hour window is doable for me now during summer holidays but not when back at work)
• moving and getting outside every day - walk and/or yoga/do some small strength workouts.

Dealing with stress and anxiety is a big priority for me as they trigger bad eating. I already read everyday and have good sleep habits.
I'd like to do more journalling and creative writing, and some meditation.

Looking forward to catching up with everyone.

Good to hear from you @PatienceOfEngels I was wondering how you were. Hope you have a wonderful holiday.

Focusing on drinking all the water here today as it’s another super hot day in London. Office has air con though so at least I’m not melting in our loft office at home!

b - Greek yogurt, berries, small portion of granola
l - Chicken and avocado sandwich
d - Leftover ham in Coke, homemade wedges, fried egg, peas

Ah I overdid my calories yesterday. It is the classic thing that happens when I start a diet. I ate really well on 1st Aug. Didn’t stuff my face, but 3 healthy balanced meals and a drink of cocoa so still had a bit of sugar.

slept badly as was hungry and ate a lot more on Sunday.

not beating myself up. Did a good food shop and meal plan yesterday so today should be on track on the whole.