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theladywintersoldier-blog · 7 years ago

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Progress Pitcures

I feel very nervous about posting these. This opens me up to all kinds of possible harassment but, oh well, f**k that. I’ve lost 21 friggin’ pounds mofos.

As you can see, my previous statements about me looking like a potato were not far off. And I still look like one, a potato that is, if slightly less lumpy. At first, I thought there would be more of a difference, I mean 20lbs is like three babies! or two dogs! or four cats or something! But the weight isn’t coming off where I thought it would come off, and I was pretty discouraged for a bit because as much as I’m doing this for my health, I’m also doing this because I want to look a certain way.

I wanted to highlight this particular pitfall. Healthy weight loss is not a quick fix. It’s slow and excruciating and the results can be pretty minor at first. That there on the left is me at 202lbs, and then on the right, that’s me at 182lbs. It seems like a lot, but in the grand scheme of things, it’s just the beginning. I don’t want to get discouraged now just because I’ve lost a bunch of weight but I STILL don’t look good in any of my clothes, (especially jeans man, freaking muffin tops are the worst!) and I hate seeing others give up or get discouraged because they’re not getting the results fast enough.

My advice, well, it comes in two parts. First, revisit that thing that motivates you. And if you don’t have a thing, find a thing. My thing is cosplaying the Winter Soldier, as you should probably know by now. When I’m feeling down about how slow the progress is, I go onto Pinterest or whatever and search up costume pieces.

Like this:

https://www.amazon.com/Winter-Soldier-Bucky-Barnes-Jacket/dp/B00QEAUVQ8/ref=sr_1_16?ie=UTF8&qid=1525119396&sr=8-16&keywords=winter+soldier+jacket

The sleeves come off, the front straps actually snap closed over the zipper like some sexy, straight jacket. It’s freaking amazing. After I use it for my cosplay I’m going to just wear it all the time. It’s Seattle, we wear jackets 310 days out of the year! I’m hyped all over again!

Of course, that being said, that’s not always going to work. Returning to your inspiration is helpful, and most of the time it does the trick, but let’s be real here, sometimes it’s not enough. Sometimes things are just too discouraging and it’s easier to slip back into old routines searching for some kind of comfort in familiarity.

So second, underneath the excitement and drive and inspiration from whatever it is that’s moving you, there has to be a core of self-motivation, a deep well of self-preservation. You can’t always rely on outside forces. They’ll help you, hell yeah they’ll help you, but you can’t let them be the only thing that’s getting you going. It has to first and foremost, come from inside.

Wow, that sounds so corny I’m going to gag.

BUT it’s true. Find it in yourself first, and then bolster that core drive with your inspiration.

My mantra is “You got this, of course you got this. Winter Soldier would have this, you f**king got this”.

#the winter soldier #winter soldier #sebastian stan #theladywintersoldier #health #text post #cosplay

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theladywintersoldier-blog · 7 years ago

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Introduction!

Hello, my name is Jenn.

This is a blog about how I changed my life, and about the fictional character that helped me do it.

First, let me start off with some stuff about myself. I’m 34 years old, I live in Washington state about 20 minutes north of Seattle. I’m ex-military, an army cook and truck driver for 6 years, I’m a mother of two girls, I adore animals, and consider myself a nerd.

Now, basically I’m going to tell you the story about how I discovered I was headed down an unhealthy and relatively sad path and decided to change things. I mean this all to be useful, as in, I hope my story, my struggles, and my victories might inspire someone else. That’s a huge goal of mine: to maybe help someone else out there. That being said, here we go.

Back in January of this year (2018) I attended a work Christmas party. Yes, a Christmas party in January, everyone was too busy to get together in December. Anyway, I had done my hair, bought a new shirt, I thought I was lookin’ good—I was feeling good. But about halfway through the party I went to use the ladies room, where they had a full-length mirror on the wall. I caught a glimpse of myself and was shocked by what I saw. I was a potato. I potato-shaped human, with too much skin and folds and just… extra. I looked unhealthy, I looked unhappy, and worst of all, I was a version of myself that I never thought I would be.

It was devastating.

Now, I always try to be body positive, but I also try and be realistic. I can tell the difference between big and beautiful, and large enough to be unhealthy. Diabetes runs in my family, high blood pressure, heart disease—I’m not a freaking doctor, but I know that being overweight exacerbates all these things. I have two young daughters, who are smart and beautiful and amazing, and I would like to be the best possible role model for them that I can possibly be.

But how was I supposed to be a good role model? I was unhappy, might even go as far as to say I was depressed. I was sluggish and tired all the time, didn’t have the energy to play or go out or anything sometimes. That’s not fair to my kids, that’s not the kind of parent I wanted to be.

So, I knew then, standing there, looking at that mirror, I would have to change.

I lay awake that night thinking about what I wanted. I had the desire to do it, but unfortunately, I didn’t really have the motivation. The goals I had in my mind, the weight loss, the better diet, the exercise, it was all great but how was I going to get there?

About two weeks later, towards the end of January, I decided to do a Captain America marathon, because that’s a thing that I do sometimes. The Captain America movies are my favorite in the MCU, specifically the first one. Being prior military, especially army, that movie resonates for me more than any of the others. Also, Bucky is my favorite Marvel character, so that’s a bonus. I was in the middle of The Winter Solder, when Bucky jumps down from the bridge and murder walks off the car, and I thought to myself, “What a badass. It would be so cool to cosplay Winter Soldier. That freaking arm, and the mask, and that cool outfit. Jeeze, that would be so awesome!” But the more I thought about it, the more I felt, “Nah, I’m too big. I’d be too embarrassed.” There’s nothing wrong with big people cosplaying, I actually encourage that, but personally, if I was going to cosplay something as amazing as Winter Soldier, I would want to look my absolute best.

Then it hit me.

I wanted to cosplay Winter Soldier.

Holy shit. I really, really wanted to cosplay Winter Soldier.

And there was my motivation. It came in fast and hard like some kind of tropical storm. It was incredible. I finally had a goal, something to focus my efforts into. It would be fun and exciting and the payoff I knew would be amazing.

So, I started the next day. I got an app on my phone called myfitnesspal, which I will talk about at length in later posts, trust me it’s amazing. Then I went to the gym down the street to get a membership. I got a tour by one of the front-end guys, he tried to sell me a bunch of stuff but I wasn’t really interested. He sounded like a recording when he was talking to me, a kind of muscled automaton trying to get me to buy protein shakes and vitamins that at insanely jacked up prices. I was not interested. I did however take him up on the offer of a few complementary personal training lessons.

I came back a few days later and met Ian, who walked me through some of the equipment and showed me how to use it. Then, we sat down and he asked me “What are your goals?” I remember sitting there for a few seconds thinking, “Oh man, should I tell him? It’s really nerdy. Is he not going to take me seriously anymore?” Then I decided, screw it. I’ll tell him.

Ian blinked at me for a second and then said, “That’s the BEST IDEA I’VE EVER HEARD TO GET INTO SHAPE!”

Turns out, Ian is a big nerd too. Score.

So it’s been like that every time I’ve gone to the gym for the last few months. Ian is always excited and motivating. We talk about Marvel and video games and whatever else, while he pushes me to my limits and then beyond. The best part is, when I need to do one more, and I think I can’t, Ian will lean in and whisper “The Winter Soldier could do it” and then of course, I end up having to do two or three more, because reasons.

Okay, so, now we’re caught up.

Avengers Infinity War came out this week so I thought now would be a good time to post this. I was going to do it earlier, I wanted to start this blog right at the beginning, right when I started dieting and working out, but I wanted to do it a little bit before I put it out on the internet, make sure it was actually going to happen. I began this journey January 29th, and today is April 27th, so about 12 weeks. Here are some stats so far:

- I started at 202lbs and am now 181lbs as of today, so 21lbs lost.

- I was 78% bodyfat, now I’m 66%.

- I’ve lost 2 inches from my waist, and 4 from my hips.

- Dropped an inch from both my biceps and thighs, and then gained it back in muscle.

As you can see, it’s working. I was a very large potato, and now I’m a slightly slimmer potato. It’s happening for real, and I want to share it. Especially when the motivation is something fun like Winter Soldier.

I also need to point out that Sebastian Stan, the actor that plays Bucky/Winter Soldier, is a huge part of this as well, but that’s a story for the next post. Seb needs his own introduction, so I’ll leave that for later. Stay tuned.

Thank you for reading, if you did in fact read. I’m going to put up a video I made talking about the same things here in a bit. I could just do the videos, but I like writing. It helps me form and organize my thoughts a little better. The videos are just my way of making it all a little more personal.

Anyway, okay.

Let’s do this.

- Theladywintersoldier

#the winter soldier #sebastian stan #theladywintersoldier #health #introduction

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