Putting Together Some Disney Duds

I've mentioned it in a few previous posts, but both Girl Scout Fiancée and I have lost quite a bit of weight since our engagement. Just comparing our engagement photo shoot with things like the profile photo I have up now makes it pretty obvious how much we've lost, but as of this writing I've lost 110 lbs. since we got engaged, and Girl Scout Fiancée has lost a proportional amount. Of course, this leaves us with something of a problem every few months: we don't have any clothes that fit us. Since summer ends in Seattle in August, the last time I wore all of my summer clothes was about 50 lbs. ago, and now even the shorts I was wearing just fall down around our ankles. We'll be heading to the heat of Florida in just a little over a week, and so this past weekend the time was right for us to do a major summer clothes shopping expedition, because neither of us wanted to walk around on our honeymoon looking like little kids dressed up in their parents' clothes. 

Like this, only not adorable.

Since we settled on Disney World for our wedding and honeymoon, Girl Scout Fiancée has been following a fashion blog called Disney Bound. The premise of the site is that they put together outfits inspired by characters from Disney movies, using color schemes for those characters paired with more modern fashion. Girl Scout Fiancée has taken the idea and run with it, and in the weeks leading up to our shopping expedition she put together an outfit based on Snow White, along with a couple of variants. We have dinners planned at four pretty nice restaurants at Disney World (Yachtsman Steakhouse, Victoria & Albert's, Jiko, and California Grille), and we're going to want to look nice on the nights that we go to those dinners. So, in addition to shopping for clothes to wear at the resort and around the parks, I decided to follow Girl Scout Fiancée's lead and put together a few outfits of my own. After all, if she's going to look that good, I've got to at least keep pace!

Mickey Mouse

How can you not love the mouse himself as inspiration for an outfit? Back at Halloween, I snagged a pair of red jeans and a black shirt for a Mickey Mouse costume, and my first thought was just to use that. However, it doesn't quite match Mickey's look, especially not how he appears in the parks. I did a little Internet research and found some photos of Mickey in Disney World, and used that as a starting point.

If you're going to dress like a Disney character, why not go for the Big Cheese himself?

At first, I'd planned to wear a white t-shirt under a black blazer, along with the red jeans and my black dress shoes. Despite the fact that a jacket-and-t-shirt-combo can look hip and trendy on Seattle hipsters, I just didn't feel like I was pulling it off (though, I'll admit that part of that is because both my jacket and my t-shirts were far too large for me, and made me look disheveled). During our shopping expedition, I came across a nice white dress shirt, and even found a great-looking black dinner jacket at a secondhand that looked amazing on me (it was the equivalent of a medium, where my existing jacket was an XL). Now the Mickey-inspired outfit involves the red jeans, black dress shoes, a white dress shirt, and the black dinner jacket; I may use the bowtie from my wedding outfit with this, too, depending on how hot it is and if I can stand to have my collar closed. I'm also considering going back to Kohl's on Sunday or Monday to grab one of the black vests they had on clearance; I won't wear the vest with the jacket, but instead replace the jacket with the vest for a different look that uses the bulk of the same clothing items. That gives me something to wear to Yachtsman Steakhouse, and then wear the other version of the outfit to California Grille.

Aladdin.

At one point, Girl Scout Fiancée pointed me toward an awesome outfit that was inspired by Aladdin on DisneyBound. Since Aladdin is my favorite Disney movie, it took no convincing to get me to pursue it. Even better, I already had many of the components for the DisneyBound version of the outfit.

Though I won't be buying a magic lamp.

All I needed was a brown dress shirt and some slacks, both of which were easy to come by and both of which I could wear to work after the honeymoon is over. My brown work shoes are a little scuffed and uneven in color, but a little shoe polish will take care of the scuffs, and may even make it look more like the "street rat" version of Aladdin that the outfit is inpired by. I picked up the shirt and slacks, along with a nice new belt, on our shopping expedition, and I'd planned on using the vest from my wedding outfit as the vest for this one. Then, at the same store where I found my dinner jacket, I also found a vest that I knew I had to grab: it was a deep, royal purple, easily one of the flashiest pieces of formalwear I'd ever seen, and I could only imagine that it was once part of an extremely fabulous suit worn by Jerome from Morris Day and the Time. It's a little big, but I'm going to wait and see how I'm feeling about the whole outfit the day that we go to Jiko before making the call on the navy vest vs. the purple vest. Even better, Girl Scout Fiancée found a blue dress that is almost the same shade as Jasmine's, so she's putting together a Jasmine-inspired outfit to wear that same night.

Victoria & Albert's

Not every outfit I put together for our trip is inspired by a Disney character. Leading up to our shopping trip, I was getting very nervous about what I was going to wear to Victoria & Albert's. On the one hand, the dress code specifically calls out dinner jackets for me, which are not the same as a blazer, or even a simple suit jacket. On the other hand, I'd read a lot of posts by men who had simply worn their business suits, or even just slacks and a blazer, to Victoria & Albert's. Also, we're going to be sitting at the Chef's Table, not out in the main dining room, and I've seen enough reviews to know that it's a much more relaxed environment. Even still, there's something about me (guess I'm Lawful Good after all) that doesn't like breaking the rules, so I felt an insane amount of relief when I found the dinner jacket during our shopping trip. Girl Scout Fiancée showed me the dress that she plans to wear that night (she also wore it out for her bachelorette party), and it mostly black and pink. Since my dinner jacket and pants are black, I found a pink dress shirt at Kohl's and got a nice tie to go with it at Nordstrom Rack, putting together a pretty nice outfit that not only matches what Girl Scout Fiancée is going to wear but also didn't break the bank in the process.

Failed Outfit: Prince Charming.

There was one other outfit that I wanted to put together for the trip, but failed to do so. On the DisneyBound page I found a great looking inspiration for a Prince Charming outfit, which would have looked nice at any of our fancy dinners, or would have been perfect the night we went to Cinerella's Royal Table (though I'd probably want to run back to the Boardwalk to change after a day at the parks, since I wouldn't want to wear it all around the park that day).

This guy is definitely Doing It Right.

Unlike my other outfits that I put together, I'd need to obtain a lot of more expensive items for this one. I planned to start with the same red jeans and white dress shirt that would be a part of my Mickey Mouse-inspired outfit, then add a tan vest, a gold tie, and a gold belt, plus some nice brown dress shoes. Unfortunately, all of the components I needed were expensive. There weren't any tan vests at the secondhand stores, so I would have had to buy new, and none of the places I looked for vests had anything in the right color. My fallback would have been a jacket (though I wasn't thrilled at the idea of doing the jacket with no vest), but jackets are even more expensive. I ended up abandoning this outfit (for now; there's always the anniversary trip next year), and will stick with the three really nice ones I put together already.

Three-Quarters the Man I Used to Be

With apologies to Nirvana for the title, it's time for another of my (very rare) health and weight loss updates. Back in January, Girl Scout Fiancée decided that we wanted to look good in our wedding photos, which was the perfect excuse for us to undertake some changes to the way we eat and live that we should have done for our health a long time ago, but always seemed to put off. Back in May, I posted an update that I was one-third of the way to my 120 lb weight loss goal, having lost 40 lbs. I can now happily say that I've reached the next milestone, which is 80 lbs lost. That puts me two-thirds of the way to my goal, and only a couple of weeks behind schedule (though, admittedly, I had an ambitious schedule to begin with).

It's a bit weird to look at a photo of myself and actually like how it looks.

I'm also happy to report that Girl Scout Fiancée has been doing a great job as well; though I'm not foolish enough to ask my dear fiancée about her weight, I know that she's been doing a great job of sticking to her plan, going to the gym, and, together, we've been eating healthier. I'm really proud of her, and I know she is happy about her progress as well. Proportionally, she has lost about the same percentage of her body weight as I have, so we're both looking a lot better. Girl Scout Fiancée has also been having a lot of luck with a program called DietBet, which she has done repeatedly over the course of the last few months, hitting her goals and getting her share of the pot each time. She's tried to get me to join in, but there's something superstitious in me that believes that the moment I sign up for something like that is the moment I stop losing weight.

It can be tough to feel like I'm progressing at times, especially on those weeks where the scale just doesn't seem to move. I still see only my physical flaws when I look in the mirror, and since I still have another 40 lbs to go before I hit my target weight, I still only see a chubby guy staring back at me. Yet, when I look at photos of myself from the last few years, even I can see a difference. Plus, there's nothing like putting on a T-shirt you got your freshman year of college, only to discover that it is starting to get a little baggy on you. I'm starting to harbor a little hope that I might actually look pretty good in my wedding photos!

1/3rd of the Way to Weight Goal

Full Disclosure: This is a backdated post. I wrote it after the blog was created, but have written it in the style of an in-progress blog so that anyone reading from the beginning will get a more sensible narrative than time-jumping like Kyle Reese through our wedding planning.

Even though my last blog post was about the massive amounts of amazing food we plan to eat on the honeymoon, I thought this might be a good opportunity to post an update to our weight loss efforts. Back in January we started changing our lifestyles, and I gave myself a weight loss goal of losing 120 lbs. I'm happy to report that as of today, four months into the journey, I'm now one-third of my way to my goal. I've lost 40 lbs. in the last four months, and already I'm starting to notice the difference. Girl Scout Fiancée has been doing great as well, and has lost over 35 lbs. up to this point (I had a lot more to lose, so mine is burning off faster).

A lot of people have asked how I've done it, so I thought it might be good to share that here. First, I can't overstate how integral the MyFitnessPal app has been to the process. Being able to accurately track my calorie intake accounts for the larger portion of the weight loss. The contest that Girl Scout Fiancée and I have been having to stay under our calorie goals each day has been key the process as well, as neither one of us has failed to come in under our calorie goals a single day since we began this back in mid-January. We both realized that the first person to flinch is going to get stuck with chores for the next month, so it's quite the standoff.

I also have a morning routine that I stick to nearly every morning that helps a lot. First, I get up around 6 AM, go downstairs, turn on the coffee pot (a critical step) and then eat a banana. I stretch, and then head out for a walk. I started out walking a little over a mile, but now I walk about 3 1/2 miles around my neighborhood. Critical to making this possible is the fact that I have gotten an Audible subscription, and listen to audiobooks while I walk. I seriously could not have done it without them, because they distract me enough that I don't get bored walking out, and, since I refuse to allow myself to listen to the audiobook except when I'm walking, always lures me outside for the walk. When I get back inside, I eat 100 calories worth of almonds and drink a cup of coffee (the banana burns off during the walk, kickstarting my metabolism for the day and ensure I burn more calories, and the almonds replenish the protein I burn off during my walk and repair my muscles). Then I shower and head to work, and about 10 AM I have another cup of coffee (using the carafes that Girl Scout Fiancée bought me for Christmas) and have a peanut butter Clif bar (again, high protein to keep my energy and metabolism up) to tide me over until lunch.

At night, Girl Scout Fiancée has done an awesome job of finding low-calorie meals for us that both taste great and are filling; turns out, having a professionally-trained cook in your house makes things a bit easier when you're trying to change your diet. We also allow ourselves one cheat day a week where we're allowed to go over our daily calorie allotment, so long as that doesn't take us over our weekly calorie allotment. This also helps keep our metabolisms from fully adjusting to the reduced calorie intake during the week, and keeps our bodies on high calorie burn.

The first month or so was pretty rough as my body adjusted to a drastically reduced calorie intake, but now, four months in, it's not so bad. The workouts earn back enough calories for me to have a light snack in the afternoon (some more almonds, a rice cake, or some hummus if it's handy) and the pounds are melting off.

I would encourage anyone thinking about losing weight to try these steps. I don't do anything crazy for workouts, just walking around my neighborhood. The biggest part of it is adjusting to a different calorie intake, but once that's done it's actually pretty easy to keep your calorie count down.

So, 40 lbs. down, 80 to go...but I'm on pace to hit that mark well before the wedding, assuming I can stick to it!

The Great Lifestyle Change

Full Disclosure: This is a backdated post. I wrote it after the blog was created, but have written it in the style of an in-progress blog so that anyone reading from the beginning will get a more sensible narrative than time-jumping like Sawyer, Jin, Juliet, Miles, and Daniel through our wedding planning.

As it turns out, our decision to wait 18 months to get married has more benefits than just the financial ones. Girl Scout Fiancée and I have been talking it over, and neither of us is happy with our weight right now. Neither of us wants to be this size when we get married, because we want to be able to look back on this point in our lives and be totally happy with how things were. Of course, I want Girl Scout Fiancée to feel like a Disney Princess at our wedding and on our honeymoon, and if I'm going to look a little more like Prince Charming and a little less like the humans from Wall-E, I'm going to have to put a lot of hard work into it. So, with that said, I'm committing myself to a weight loss goal of losing 120 lbs. before our wedding, which is 15 months from now. That will put me at about 160 (I am at 283 right now) and would be close to my weight when I graduated from high school. It's going to be tough, but it will be worth it.

More or less the opposite of what we want our honeymoon to look like.

Of course, losing not quite 1/2 my body weight isn't going to be easy, but I've got a plan. First, I'm going to use an app to track my calorie intake. A while back I signed up for the MyFitnessPal app on my iPhone (yes, I live in Seattle and have an iPhone, try not to faint from shock) and have been absolutely awful about actually using it. So, today, I weighed myself and set the app's settings to calculate a weight loss rate of 2 lbs. per week. I'll be counting calories and inputting everything I eat, and to help me stick to the plan (and keep me from going over my calorie budget each day), Girl Scout Fiancée and I are going to have a competition. She's also going to be doing something similar with her own app, and each day that one of us stays under his or her calorie count, that person gets 1 point. At the end of the month, the person with the fewest points for the month has to do some chore for the next month. We've chosen laundry as our first chore, because we both hate it.

In a few weeks I plan to start exercising, but for now I want to get my body accustomed to the reduced calorie intake. There's nothing wrong with easing into a big lifestyle change like this, and I refuse to allow myself to be completely miserable. I want to be happy about losing weight, not resentful. Fortunately, I've got a pretty awesome partner in crime for this one, and we're going to be supporting each other throughout the process.

Here are a few relatively current pictures to show you our starting points.

Girl Scout Fiancée and I at my brother's wedding.

Girl Scout Fiancée and I at her parents' house for Christmas.

Girl Scout Fiancée and I in our engagement photos.