Reflecting on the journey

Hello and welcome back to Tobias Talks.

It's an unusual benefit of this blog that I get to look back on all the things I've accomplished, and mistakes along the way. This year I have climbed several mountains, in the UK and abroad. i've hiked hundreds of miles with hundreds of kilograms on my back. Through blisters, swollen joints, rain, fog and even the odd bit of snow.

It's been a hell of a journey, and physically I feel I have had periods of good fitness and strength, although currently I feel less fit than I have all year!

I wish I had started this blog earlier and managed to record my thoughts and feelings on my most recent successful period from October '21 to February '22. At that point I had lost a few stone, was stronger than I had been for years and I was feeling good. And it's that last point I miss the most. Feeling good is such an intangible idea and yet it's very real at the same time.

I feel it's important to note that at this point that through the vast majority of the year my weight has barely changed, at most it's been 5lbs either way. Yet my overall health, both physical and mental has changed dramatically. With Freya having left the company and her blog "off the scale" having ended with her, perhaps it's my duty to take up the mantle of the non-scale victory or NSV.

An NSV is a goal that's achieved that doesn't relate to the read out on a scale, or a bodyweight change, but instead focuses on overall fitness or mental health improvements or even small achievements such as clothes being a bit looser. I think it's important to remember that the scale doesn't always give an accurate representation of health and instead we should focus on these "NSV's".

My goal now is to feel good, in whatever guise that comes in, I will be reading, meditating, reducing screen time to a minimum (essentially zero outside of work hours), I will go for more regular walks, regardless of weather and I will eat only home cooked food, not including the occasional restaurant visit.

I am not setting any more specific goals right now, I don't want to distract from the main target.

Thanks as always for reading.

Your friend, Tobias