🌟LOSE IT!🌟Optimistic October 2026🌟

[TheRealHousewife]

⭐️OPEN TO ALL⭐️ Weight Loss, Wellbeing & Motivation Thread To Support Healthy Habits. Following on from 🌟LOSE IT!🌟Superfood September🌟

Goodness me, October already 😮! About 12 weekends of the year left!🎄

To reach optimum health and vitality 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 (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?

@SummerHolsFinished hormones rule here too unfortunately. Hope you find a way that helps.

My weight has been a disaster for the last 6 weeks. A change in medication and hormones plus perimenopause and life has absolutely tripped me up. I’m not sure I can manage a calorie deficit at the moment, but I’ll try my best!

Thank you @PipkinOfPepper - all really useful. I definitely struggle with carbs even when I’m eating relatively healthily. And I definitely have more days than not that I don’t drink enough water.

Hormones are my enemy (at least when they’re not working in my favour, which seems to be more often than not). Also my PMS is so much worse after giving birth last year and getting my cycle back (DC1). Typical!

I also suspect my thyroid meds might need upping. I’ve been feeling increasingly off mood and energy wise and haven’t had bloods done for a good while. I was supposed to get them done in September but the nurse was ill. I’m getting them done hopefully mid-month now 🙏 Anyone have any experience with this/red flags they have noticed when their thyroid meds need a look at?

Still 13 stone 12 this morning, which is a miracle considering the amount of bread and butter and digestive biscuits I've put away over the last few days!
Feeling more like myself today so I've made a buckwheat and lentil slice for dinner with vegetables and cheese sauce. (Bisto, I'm not fancy.)

I do find it very annoying that those simple changes really do make a big difference - means the ball is in our court to keep sticking at it! Good luck, those two things feel like manageable changes you could work toward?

Decent day here. Been out for a walk this morning, followed by some yoga. Baked some banana bread (at the request of DS!) this afternoon. So I’ll be having veg with my bolognese rather than pasta tonight, to stay within sensible calories.

Because I have had the coil for far too long I don’t have a monthly bleed which has made tracking this hard. I also need to record symptoms and emotions every day to see the pattern and when you are low on energy and feeling down, that’s really tricky to sustain. I always knew I was following a cycle of mood highs and lows but now I realise just how connected that is to my eating. I wouldn’t even say I’m an emotional eater as such it’s just lacking motivation and energy is deadly when it comes to making healthy food choices. A lot of the healthy foods I eat take preparation and planning. That’s really hard when you’re feeling down with no energy.

Now I have that figured out I need to start thinking about how to tackle this. I already do the good habits, drinking water, getting exercise, lots of sleep etc. what I need to find a solution to is my mood really dropping. I’m not even sure how much I can control that especially when hormones are at play.

I am very tempted to drop HRT I always seem to lose when I forget to take it!

I also keep having bad days at the moment and i genuinely think it’s because I am trying to include bread. I keep having low blood sugar feelings and then eating bread to sort it. Will try harder to skip it tomorrow but dc kept palming off untouched slices of toast on me today.

Good morning. Thank you for the October thread.

SW (02.09.26): 9st1
Current weight (Happy scale moving average): 8st12.8
Target weight: 8st0

However, my actual weight this morning was 8st12.3.

Wowed yesterday but forgot to post!
-0.2kg...slow and steady.

Made a big batch of spicy butternut squash soup yesterday to stock the freezer with lunches (roasted everything this time then blended with stock and warmed with coconut milk. 1 b.squash, red onions, head of garlic, tomatoes, all seasoned, then added a Thai yellow curry paste when blending).

Also made a cottage pie and stocked up to make a big batch of bolognese today. Finding it easier to resist temptation in the evenings at the moment. Spurred on by seeing and feeling a visible difference in my face/chest/stomach.

SW 79.1kg 10/08/26 (BMI 29.1)
CW 75.7kg (BMI 27.8)
GW1 67.9kg (for a BMI under 25)
GW2 63.5kg (BMI 23.3)

10/08/26 79.1kg
19/08/26 77.1kg
26/08/26 77.1kg
2/9/26 76.7kg
9/9/26 77.8kg
16/9/26 76.8kg
23/9/26 76.3kg
30/09/26 75.9kg
6/10/26 75.7kg

Hi all, signing in. Not WoWing but have managed two restrained days in lieu of OMAD this week.

Battling a bit to balance my desire to keep my weight in check with the need to eat in a surplus to build muscle, as I am doing more and more weightlifting. Let’s see.

Good luck WoWers.

Morning! Signing in for WOW. Wasn't weighing regularly throughout September with so much time away, but scales currently saying 13 st 8. Definitely a gain somewhere along the way.

But I’m back on it for October. Being back down to 13.5 by the end of October is my goal. Feels like such a waste of time having to re-lose weight you’ve already lost once 😫

SW: 15 st 8.5
CW: 13 st 8
Next goal: 13 st 5

I completely relate to this. It feels so difficult to find the right balance of calories to fuel workouts/build muscle but not gain body fat.

Checking in for WOW, good luck to everyone.

SW: 111.05 kg (January)
CW: 85.45 kg
GW: Would love to get to around 80 by next Jan then we’ll see

Today’s weigh in means I’ve officially lost 4 stone (25.6kg) which I’m very happy with. Feel a bit emotional tbh - a mix of sadness I didn’t do this sooner, worry I won’t be able to keep it off for good, and joy that I’m finally looking after myself (and it’s showing). Have gone from a size 22 to a comfortable 16 which is pretty life-changing.

Need to keep at it and not get complacent - will keep weighing daily for accountability.

Well done - I think I’m going to do the same today and batch cook a big soup and another healthy meal.

Morning all. Starting to think I might be able to stay on track again for now 🥹🙏

SW: 102.1kg
CW: 88.65kg
Next GW: 80kg

Congratulations @PipkinOfPepper that’s an inspiring update!

I STS again 😆 it’s actually funny now. I think I need to up the exercise. I can’t cut any more food and I’m happy with what it is I’m eating. It’s just finding the time…

Back from a week’s all inclusive on Thursday last week so missed weigh in, I had gone up to 15st 1lbs after the holiday.

Must have been largely water weight because it’s gone! Back down to my pre-holiday weight, 14st 11lbs. 1lb to go for 2st!

SW: 16st 10lb / 234 lb / 106.14 kg
CW : 14st 11lb / 207 lb / 93.89 kg
Total Lost: 1st 13lb / 27lb / 12.25 kg

Well done wowers.

I gasped at the scales today, not a great wow! Highest for about 6 months.

Morning! 13 stone 12. Back to work today.

Does anyone have any effective exercises to tone bingo wings?? Mine are absolutely awful. Daughter said last night that they're like a turkey's neck. (She didn't mean to be hurtful but it wasn't very nice.)

Hello all, I realise I haven't signed on for October! I need to catch up with everyone's posts and news - I'm really looking forward to doing that in a bit.

I thought I'd post my WOW whilst I've got a moment to myself. I'm starting October at 10st (I'm still on my plateau). My goal for the end of October is 9st12lbs, which should be doable.

Last week I was really proud of myself: I completed a 2 mile (slow) jog on three days in a row! Obviously my dogey diet has meant I haven't lost anything, but it has made me feel so much better about my body.

Think I might dig my herbal teas out of the cupboard today and enjoy some of those. I'll also try to eat an apple today and some porridge.

Woops, I'm not sure how to edit my last post, but should clarify that I want to include an apple and porridge in my diet... By no means will that be it in its entirety! 😅

Good morning all, I’ve made a decision to stop weighing myself for a while.
i got to goal just before holiday last month, I think I’d maybe like another 7lbs off taking me into the 9s but as it took a year to do the last stone I need to manage the stress and scale nose so am just calorie counting, exercising and will look at the scales in six months I think. After 21 months of daily weighing I feel a bit free!

Hope everyone is doing well

That sounds like a good plan @socks1107 and an opportunity to tune into non-scale victories a bit more. I also find when I get into daily weighing it’s almost like all I can think about while the day is coming to an end, I’m getting ready for bed, etc. is the idea of weighing myself in the morning. Somewhat miserable!