40 Pounds and 100,000 Rings

Llamabean

Llamabean

New member
Hello all-

This is Ashley – starting again. I was here about a year and half ago and lost quite a bit for a costume I was building. I got down to 178 from 213 and was thrilled with how I was doing. Then, last October I fell in love, moved in with my boyfriend and started eating out a lot. Next thing I know I’m sitting here at 200 again and quite upset about my backwards progress. My boyfriend has been quite supportive and understanding of my gain, but I’m frustrated and want to get back going again.

I’ve started building another costume of Susan Pevensie from Prince Caspian. I’m working on it for next year’s renaissance faire – the beginning of February. I’m doing the chainmaille shirt by hand – which should take about 100,000 rings to complete. I’m already done with the back of it – I’ll post a picture when I get a chance. Just the back took me about 6 weeks (!) I would like to be down to 160 by then - if for no other reason than that the chain shirt will have to cover less area!

Our entire group of friends is quite heavy and we are all frustrated with it. Last week we started doing a Biggest Loser amongst ourselves – each putting in $2 a week. Each week the biggest loser for the week gets $1 from each of us, and the other $1 goes into a grand prize pot. The first week we lost a total of 25 pounds among us and we’re all pretty proud. I wasn’t the biggest loser by a lot. There is another girl who was my exact starting weight and lost 6 pounds where I lost 3. This week I’m gonna smash her in the face though – cause there is no way she can keep that up. Something about slow and steady winning the race, right?!

It’s good to be back. This is a great forum and I look forward to getting to know everybody again.
 
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Welcome back Ashley! Glad you are getting things under control once again. I love that you and your friends are doing your own BL contest! Hopefully you have a good eating plan and exercise on the go, too.

Best wishes as you pursue your fitness goals,
ABBA
ps. how cool about the Renaissance costume!!! You are very neat indeed.:biggrinjester:
 
Very cool about the chainmail shirt. I have one that I bought about 15 years ago, and I only now can fit into it again. I have no idea how many rings, but it weighs about 40 pounds. My son weighs about 55 pounds and likes to wear it to see how much he can do.

Good luck with the restart.
 
Thanks for the support Abba and Trops!

I'm making my shirt out of itty-bitty rings - it will be useless as armor but will look awesome. Think more mithril than chain armor. My boyfriend made a real chain shirt - the steel type, and that totally weighs 40 pounds. He struts when he wears it - it's funny.

I'll post again later with my daily updates, etc.
 
i remembeer your last costume - it was quite adorable -you're new one is going to be awesome...

welcome back.. and much success getting to where you want to be
 
I went to the gym again this morning! Hooray getting-in-the-habit!

The last time I posted here much I was working for my church. In June 2006 I left working for the church and started temping. I temped in a number of places, but the beginning of this year things got tough. I went a total of 3 months unemployed, and it ate through all my savings and most of my credit too. Luckily, last July I got a job working for a tour company and I absolutely love it. Tough times – my boyfriend got laid off 3 weeks ago – it feels like we’ll never get ahead.

My new job is going well and it is wonderful for working out. My schedule changes daily, ranging from 7:00-4:00 to 9:30-6:30. The great thing is that on my early days I feel like I have plenty of time to go home, fix dinner, and hit the gym – and on my late days I have plenty of time to sleep in and still hit the gym before work.

I’ve recently discovered Fresh and Easy – if you guys have access to this grocery store I highly recommend it. The food is cheap – like almost Wal-Mart prices, but is fresh and looks good like sprouts. It’s my new favorite place. I have started to become quite the cook. Tonight I’m trying out two new recipes – Chicken A La Orange and Quinoa with Black Beans. I’ll let ya’ll know how it goes.

I’m getting kind of nervous. I’m about 1.5 weeks in to doing well again, and I usually crap out around week 2 or 3. I don’t want to crap out this time – I want to finish and learn how to maintain. Another motivator – I think my boyfriend will propose sometime soon. Next couple of months anyway. <squee!>
 
great work getting into the habit of going to the gym :jump:

the furthest have ever gotten was one arm of steel chain before i gave up, now i just stick to hardened leather lol.

thanks for dropping in to my diary :)
 
OK - so today was a bit frustrating. This entire week I've been hovering around the same weight even though I've been doing fairly well. If this keeps up I'm going to stop checking the scale so much. I mean - I was proud of myself until I saw an arbitrary number. Stupid scales!

I'm playing hookie from work today. This is the first job that I have sick time at in 4 years and it's fun to get a random day off.

I'm going to head to the gym soon. I'm just doing 30 minutes of cardio - and I know that doesn't feel like all that much, but I'm tired and sweaty by the end, and I think I'll get frustrated if I push myself to do a bunch right now. I have to think of what I can see myself continuing for my life.
 
The scale will do what it will, but getting to the gym each day to do something, well that will do it in the end. Keep on.:patriot:
 
Well - just after I said that turns out I stayed at the gym for an hour. The last half hour I just walked on a treadmill, but I set the incline so that my heart rate was still up (though not as high as it was on the elliptical).

My back has been really sore for the last several weeks. I'm not sure what the deal is - but I'm not happy about it.

Tonight I tried a recipe again - slightly differently - and it turned out great. Its called Portabello Pesto Pasta - for those who are interested I'll post the recipe over in the recipes area.

I found an action figure of the costume I'm working on today. I'm going to put it on my desk at work for motivation.
 
Well nevermind - looks like the recipe thread is closed. Didn't know that.

If anybody wants it:

Portabello Pesto Pasta
4 oz angel hair pasta
2 spoonfulls prepared pesto
6 oz reduced fat bulk sausage (1/2 tube)
1 pkg sliced mushrooms (preferably portabello)
1/2 bag fresh spinach
Parmesan cheese

Cook the pasta according to directions
Cook the sausage and set aside
In same pan, saute mushrooms (the fat left over from the sausage should be more than enough) for about 4 min
Add spinach, saute for another minute or so (until cooked)
Add sausage back to pan
Mix together pesto and pasta
Top with sausage/mushroom/spinach mixture
Top with Parmesan cheese

makes 2 servings

Only the pasta, pesto and the sausage have any significant number of calories. I estimate the total calories per serving to be between 500-600.
 
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Well, there was some small result on the scale today - down to 198.8. It’s funny how disappointing numbers can be when in all reality they are quite good and reasonable. I was up to 203 3 weeks ago. I’m losing at a reasonable pace. It just feels like not much because my other friends participating in the biggest loser are dropping way bigger numbers than I am with what seems like less effort. I have to keep reminding myself that I’m going to be doing this for good – and I’m going to look awesome at the end.

So what my numbers are disappointing! What am I going to do about it – quit? Heck no! I’m feeling good about my efforts and I’m going to be out of the 190s before I know it. I have a whole storage tub full of clothes that I bought to wear when I lost all my weight last time – I want to get back into it!
 
Mmm.. that sounds yummy!! Might have to try it!

I never did get to see your costume! *pout* ;) I'm going to have to dig around a bit, eh. :D:D tiny itty bitty rings?? I'd go nuts!! I saw a guy making chain mail on Discovery a while back and it looked mind numbing. I'm making a bit of a costume of my own for February, a greek inspired wedding dress. Chris & I are going to complete our hand fasting ceremony on the steps of the Parthenon in TN. (part of why I'm back)

So, WELCOME BACK GIRLY!! lol... Men *sigh* they throw everything off don't they. ;) Chris is very supportive about my weight.. almost too supportive. I mean, he's dead right in that I definitely need to accept and love my body. No Doubt, but it's just not healthy and I feel better physically when I weight less.

Anyway...
Congrats on the loss! Don't get frustrated, the numbers on the scale aren't as important about how you feel. You'll get there. :D:D


Edit: OMG! Your costume is just too frickin' awesome!!! Wow!!
 
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pequin said:
. I'm making a bit of a costume of my own for February, a greek inspired wedding dress. Chris & I are going to complete our hand fasting ceremony on the steps of the Parthenon in TN. (part of why I'm back)
Click to expand...

Congrats!!!!!! How exciting! Greek-inspired sounds just beautiful. Do you have your pattern picked out? I'm not sure if you've found this place already - but renstore.com has lots of handfasting supplies. I use them for a some of my costuming gear.

And thanks for the costume compliments :) I'll be sure to post pictures of the new one.

I think my guy is going to be asking me to marry him soon. We're going to do a game themed wedding, and I'm going to do my best to recreate . I've had it picked out for years, but I know it's gonna take me 4 or 5 tries to get it right.
 
Congrats in advance on the potential hitching!! Oh wow that wedding dress.. that's just gorgeous! It actually gave me goose bumps!! The white, strapless one is my favorite.

Chris has his costume all picked out, a black cassock (we're importing it from greece) with a black & red senate style toga over it. Unfortunately, I'm at a loss for my dress. I need to sit down and make some sketches. I don't think it will be too hard if I can get the draping just right. Kudos to the Ancient Greeks for their fairly simple to make clothing. :D

Thanks for the link, that will definitely come in handy.

Edit: Here's a sketch of what I'm thinking..
View attachment 7728
 
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So I went out to lunch with my boyfriend to Fridays. I kind of splurged a bit and went with the california club sandwich - lunch portion. I took off the avacado and tomatoes (which I don't really care for) but gobbled down most of the rest. Looked it up after I got home - I ate about 900 calories. Oops. But - not as bad as it could have been (I'm thinking of you - chili's monterey chicken!)

I was feeling down so I haven't gone to the gym yet, but I plan to go after my evening shift tonight (I take the phones at work on Friday evenings from 6:30-9:30)

It's crazy - I know so much what I ought to do, but I don't do it. I'd better just not eat out for a while!
 
I didn't see Friday's on the list, but they have Chili's



It's a new favorite resource of mine. Tonight I took the kids to Panara, but I didn't check before hand. I decided to just skip and I'm glad I did.
 
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