Thursday, September 15, 2011

Weight Loss Progress

fat kid loves cake print
I Love You Like A Fat Kid Loves Cake - Eye Exam Chart Print by CJ Prints

For the past few years, I've been making false promises to myself to get my then-fat ass in gear and drop all of my college weight.

Backstory - In 2003, a fresh-faced Pokey arrived in San Francisco for art school, weighing in at 132lbs., and a size 7US juniors. By my last summer semester at AAU in 2007, SF has proven well in it's omnomnomy good eats as I had ballooned up to 210-220lbs. and was squeezing into a size 14-16US in womens. Curse you, SF for your deliciousness.

Got fed up, started out with baby steps by cutting back on the fatty foods, eliminating sodas from my diet. Started taking morning constitutionals in the Pac Heights region and managed to drop several inches total all over by December. Shortly after I graduated, my friends and I had to scramble together for the big move to the east coast, so wound up melting off more pounds from all of the packing, tossing out garbage and simply not eating enough.

Shortly after the great move in '08, I went to the doctor's office for my annual physical during my visit back to my hometown and weighed in at 182lbs. Found out my triglyceride levels were too high so the doc put me on a diet and ordered me to lose at least ten pounds. Fair enough, since I was trying for that anyway. Managed to lose the ten pounds...but that didn't last long.

From then up until March of this year, my weight kept yoyo-ing between 165-175lbs. and I kept hovering at a size 8-10US. I certainly had enough of that bs, so after my bitchfest/breakdown I opened up an account at MyFitnessPal and started calorie counting. Technically, I tried calorie counting before but pretty much half-assed it for a bit before giving it the boot. This time was permanent.

I also ended my gym contract since it didn't help me a whole lot (NOTE: I'm not hatin' on gym memberships, I just think I didn't achieve the best results from mine personally). Picked up a couple of Jillian Michael's dvds at the local Wally World and pushed myself through the circuit training, gradually progressing through each level. It also helped that I didn't have to deal with traffic when I used to go to said gym.

Combined with (mostly) healthy eating and cooking at home more often, I was pleasantly surprised to find my weight dropping and my clothes fitting looser. Of course, this was all over the course of several months, so it was gradual yet steady, losing an average of 4-5lbs. per month. Currently I'm at 146.8 and have lost 26lbs. (huzzah!). My clothing sizes are about 4-6US misses depending on brand and 5-7 juniors (also depending on brand). Still have a little more than 20lbs. to lose, but I know I can do it!

With that in mind, back in my SF days, I was discussing weight loss with a friend of mine and how I wanted to return to my former athletic high school physique. He responded with, "We rarely return to our glory days." True, but I still thought, 'Oh yeah? I'll fucking show ya.'

For those who are also trying to get into shape, a great method of motivation would be to buy a pair of jeans, a bikini, or whatever article of clothing fits your fancy in your goal size (or the next size down from your current) and hang it up on the wall in front of your bed. My mom suggested this to me a while back and it's been working fairly well as of late.

Also, get rid of your clothes as soon as they become too loose fitting for you. The purpose of this part is to discourage oneself from overeating and to assure that you won't need to revert back to your larger clothes again. And hey, if said bigger clothes are in decent condition, there are some thrift stores like Plato's Closet where you can turn them in for a bit of cash. Plus, there's also Ebay.

For those interested, I've kept a fitness log to track my measurements. Sorry if the calculations are a bit off, I had to readjust my new goal measurements and may have screwed up some of the numbers by accident.

OLD MEASUREMENTS (Summer '07):
Bust: 44" (lose 10")
Waist: 36" (lose 9")
Hips: 43" (lose 7")
Thigh: 25" (lose 6")
Upper Arm Cir.: 14" (lose 4")

12.3.07
Bust: 42" (lose 8")
Waist: 34" (lose 7")
Hips: 42" (lose 6")
Thigh: 23.75" (lose 4.75")
Arm Cir.: 13.25" (lose 3.25")

1.7.08
Bust: 40.5" (lose 6.5")
Waist: 34" (lose 7")
Hips: 41" (lose 5")
Thigh: 23.5" (lose 4.5")
Arm Cir.: 12.75" (lose 2.75")

02.21.08
Bust: 40" (lose 6")
Waist: 34" (lose 7")
Hips: 40.5" (lose 4.5")
Arm Cir: 12" (lose 2")

3.31.08
Bust: 39.5 (lose 5.5")
Waist: 33.5" (lose 6.5")
Hips: 40" (lose 4")
Thigh: 22" (lose 3")
Arm Cir: 11.5" lose 1.5"

4.29.08
Bust: 39" (lose 5")
Waist: 33" (lose 6")
Hips: 39" (lose 3")
Thigh: 22" (lose 3")
Arm Cir: 11.5" (lose 1.5")

5.21.08
Bust: 38" (lose 4")
Waist: 31.5" (lose 4.5")
Hips: 38" (Lose 2")

10.9.08
Bust: 37" (lose 3")
Waist: 31.5" (lose 4.5")
Hips: 38" (Lose 2")

(Notice the huge time gap between these entries. I was like, "fuck it!" and gave up measuring for a while, only relying on the scale.)

3.9.11
Bust: 37" (lose 3")
Waist: 32" (lose 5") :(
Hips: 38" (lose 2")
Thigh: 22" (lose 3")
Arm Cir.: 12" (lose 2") :(

3.23.11
Bust: 37" (lose 3")
Waist: 31.5" (lose 4.5")
Hips: 37.5" (lose 1.5")
Thigh: 21" (lose 2")
Arm Cir.: 11" (lose 1")

4.26.11
Bust: 36.5" (lose 2.5")
Waist: 31" (lose 4")
Hips: 37" (lose 1")
Thigh: 21" (lose 2")
Arm Cir.: 11" (lose 1")

8.4.11
Bust: 36" (lose 2")
Waist: 30" (lose 3")
Hips: 35.5" (reached goal)
Thigh: 20" (lose 1")
Arm Cir.: 11" (lose 1")

8.19.11
Bust: 35.5" (lose 1.5")
Waist: 29.5" (lose 2.5")
Hips: 35" (reached goal)
Thigh: 20" (lose 1")
Arm Cir.: 11" (lose 1")

9.15.11
Bust: 35" (lose 1")
Waist: 29.5" (lose 2.5")
Hips: 35" (reached goal)
Thigh: 20" (lose 1")
Arm Cir.: 11" (lose 1")

GOAL MEASUREMENTS BY 06.03.12:
Bust: 34"
Waist: 27"
Hips: 36"
Thigh: 19"
Arm Cir.: 10"

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Plague Doctor!

In preparation for Halloween, I wanted to do a piece that will fit the atmosphere of the holiday and I've been itching to sketch up some plague doctor art for a while. Actually, I did draw several pieces on the subject earlier this year but they didn't turn out the way I wanted, so they wound up in the ever-growing reject pile.

But now I got it down right this time! At least I think so...the results are below:


The work-in-progress version. Credit is due to my awesome-possum Connor for the hand modeling. Initially, I shaded in the eyes with vertical stroke marks but replaced them with circular strokes to give the doc a more piercing gaze.


Aaaaand the finished version (both posted pics are intentionally lower res). Background has been darkened some since the scarlet in the WIP just wasn't cutting it for the end result. I've also toned down on the glow of the flame to accentuate the warm tones. Overall, I'm quite pleased with how the shading turned out on his proto-bio hazard suit, hat and gloves.

However, I'm also on the fence on whether to add in texture to the background (or overlay it over the entire illustration) or to leave it solid like some of my other Fidget Art! pieces. Thoughts?

Saturday, September 10, 2011

Hardwood Flooring Update

Sorry it's been a while since I've last posted, guys. Life's been hectic as of late, which included shop-related things. Since Etsy's relevancy switch, I've been seeing a LOT more sales (yay!) which has been keeping me busy. I've also spent practically the entirety of August working on the third outfit for my friend, Cortana for PAX 2011 (pics for that coming later).

And now onto the hardwood flooring!


As you can obviously see, it's still a work-in-progress and it's almost finished (yay again!).

I used Roberts Black Jack underlayment for laminate and engineered wood flooring (purchased from Home Depot). It was easy to cut and lay out, and was even more pleased to find no hollow noise when I did a test walk on the installed flooring portion. For the plank adhesive, I used Lumber Liquidator's Tongue and Groove adhesive. Application was a cinch, leaving very little mess, although I may need to pick up a third bottle to finish the job.

After I took these pics, I've installed a couple more rows and laid out the last row of underlayment. Yes, I'm uber-slow at installation...don't judge me. What little spare time I had to devote to this project, I was lucky to get in two rows at most each time. But overall, the floating method was much, much easier than I thought it would be. The Bosch jigsaw has been serving me well *strokes it like a Bond villain stroking his cat.*

After putting in the last few rows, I still need to stain the quarter round trim, purchase the threshold and stain those and rent a miter saw to cut the corners. I think that's all that's left to do, and I can finally move all my crap back in the family room and not have to stay cooped up in the bedroom!