Ralph's Weight-Loss Journey Part 2: Goal met and exceeded!

[RalphVboy]

Note: Apologies in advance to my facebook friends here, you probably have already seen me spamming these pics lol.

Hi everybody,

This is an update from my previous thread last month regarding my attempt at losing weight. As I said in my last update, I started off my journey in February '10 at 256 lbs on my short 5' 7" frame . My original goal was to lose 76 lbs. and make it down to 180. Since then, I checked in during July '10 having shed 60 lbs. and weighing in at 196 lbs. You can view before and after pics of that month here:

http://s15.photobucket.com/albums/a371/ ... ight-Loss/

A month and some change later, I come bearing the latest updated pics and numbers. Here is August '10 Ralph!

http://s15.photobucket.com/albums/a371/ ... -Loss%202/

The second picture shows you how I looked when I was first hired on at my job and how the uniform looked on me back then. The 3rd pic shows how I look now in the same exact uniform, and the rest of the pics show how I look today. Since last month I have managed to meet and exceed my goal of 180 lbs. by having lost another 23! That puts me at 173 lbs. as of today, making a total loss of 83 lbs.

What does this mean for me? It means I've gone from a 2XL shirt to a Medium. From a snug 40 waist / 30 inseam to a loose 34 waist/ 30 inseam. Now I'm finding myself having to replace my entire wardrobe, but I couldn't have a better reason to do so. And I'm starting to look as good as I feel At this point I'm not interested in losing much if any more weight, but maintaining and toning. We'll see how that goes!

I'm finally feeling confident enough to consider cosplaying soon as well. I've always wanted to, but being overweight really put a damper on my self-esteem and I thought I'd fail miserably at trying to portray any character. Currently there are no anime characters that I've been able to come up with that I could try and pull off (my hispanic tanned skin seems to rule out a lot of choices ). Anyone got any suggestions? Video game wise I've been considering Naked Snake from MGS3 or even Ezio for Assassin's Creed 2. Don't know if I'd make a decent version of either but they're characters I like and would like to try pulling them off

Well that's it for now. Sorry I was long-winded with this post, I just want to share my achievement and progress with the community. I'm hoping that anyone else on Beta that is striving to achieve goals is successful too

- RalphVboy

[Sky Rat]

Hey wow! Not only impressive weight loss, but you’ve got some pretty impressive muscles going on there too. Nice!!

I strongly encourage you to venture into cosplaying! It’s so much fun!! (And definitely more fun when you feel good and confident about yourself.)

Don’t limit the character you play based on ethnicity though. Having the right skin tone isn’t important at all. What counts is the craftsmanship of your costume and the attitude you wear it with.

I’m really into Weiß Kreuz cosplay (surprise surpise there) and the best Farfarello cosplayer I’ve ever seen is an African American girl (the character is a very pale skinned Irishman.) She managed to capture him dead-on in spite of having the completely wrong skin color.

It’s much more fun to cosplay a character you love rather than just one you closely physically resemble.

Well anyway, congratulations! ^__^

[tenzink]

Very well done! Did you do a specific program? Great work whatever the case, being healthy is always a good feeling and the best motivation to keep it up

[iwakuralain16]

Ralph, You are fucking awesome. You make me want to try to lose those last 20 pounds I need to lose. Either this or my trainer will make me do it.. HAHAHA Congratz!!

[RalphVboy]

Thanks y'all ^__^

It’s much more fun to cosplay a character you love rather than just one you closely physically resemble.

I'm starting to realize that, thank you for your input I probably would be much better off cosplaying a character that I'm very passionate about and devote more effort into the costume for. Because you're right, a lot of pulling off cosplay has to do with the attitude of the person cosplaying. That said, Big Boss is a fave and so is Ezio so I'd do them the best I could lol. Anime-wise I'm looking at perhaps trying to pull off Tawara Bunschichi from Tenjou Tenge

Very well done! Did you do a specific program? Great work whatever the case, being healthy is always a good feeling and the best motivation to keep it up

Agreed, being healthy is the best feeling ever! As far as programs, it's been just a strict regimen of diet and exercise. I gained the most useful information about dieting from the book "Sugarbusters". I highly recommend it to anyone wanting a better idea of what is best to eat for your body. I picked up my copy at Half-Price books for $7.50 and a few copies for my friends a few months later at $1.00 a piece on clearance lol. It's definitely out there and available

- RalphVboy