Progress, not perfection

Hello and welcome back to Tobias Talks.

I did it! For anyone that has read my first two blogs that will make sense and will no doubt be cheering for me! For anyone that hasn't read my blogs, why not? Anyway, here they are Week 1 and Week 2. Caught up? Great!

This week I have officially begun my weight loss journey as I'm 2lb's down. only another 68 to go, but I'll worry about that later. For now let's talk about what worked, what I did well and what I didn't.

My goal is to lose 2lb's a week every week until I weigh 210 lbs. I am doing this with a mixture of CICO and Resistance Training and Rucking.

I am following CICO as I completely subscribe to the scientific principle that as long as you burn more calories than you take in then you will lose weight. If I mix that with a high protein diet and weight lifting then the weight I lose will hopefully be fat and not muscle.

This week I have had a few failings, I ate a pizza two nights in a row, I also had attended a local beer festival and sampled quite a few of the offerings. Now for those that don't know, there is almost nothing worse for your weight loss than alcohol.

I have gone into more detail in one of our articles but for now I'll just put it simply, your body doesn't want alcohol in it so it will burn it off as quickly as possible, but whilst its' on burning off alcohol it's not burning off any calories from food. This essentially halts any weight loss, think of it as a bully pushing to the front of the line. It's going to get served first and everyone hates it.

I have also failed my goal to ruck for 30 mins a day, but I have taken part in a longer 2 hour walk over the weekend.

Now why do you think I'm listing all my failures?

Because I failed over and over again, and I still lost weight, I was just about good enough to lose weight this week, though I know it won't continue this way unless I rein my diet in and dial up the exercise. For now, the fat loss gods have smiled upon me and the 2lbs have gone.

You don't have to perfect to lose weight, this isn't going to be 2 hours a day in the gym and nothing for dinner but chicken, rice and broccoli, I've been there and done that and frankly, it works, for the short term, it's not sustainable and then I fall of the wagon and binge on all the foods that I've denied myself and I balloon back up.

I am focussing on all the little pains and aches in my body, I'm using yoga and stretching to make my body stronger. I had a sports massage this week and feel so much better already so I have arranged for massages every month. hopefully this should help stave off any injuries and niggles in my body.

I will always aim to keep certain foods in my fridge/freezer, things that easily become a meal. Turkey bacon, eggs and chicken breast (follow the link for some delicious recipes I will be using) are constants in my fridge and I will always have frozen veg in my freezer, I commonly have a mixture of peas and carrots as well some sort of microwaveable vegetable bag.

All of these things are doing the same thing. Taking away my excuses, I can push harder as I will be exercising in a smart way, I don't need that take away as I'll always have a healthy meal when I need it.

This time, the name of the game is patience, consistency and determination. I will reach my goal!

If anything I have said has resonated with you, please do reach out to me on social media. I am always happy to help.

Your friend, Tobias