Shameless leg pictures and weight loss journey

Hey guys.  I lose weight. A bunch. Let's see that.

Summer 2014

Early 2015

 It's been a year now since I began my weight loss journey. Not really consciously though. I had not so much trouble with my body image apart from my familly telling me I looked fat (as always). I just kind of stopped eating for a bit out of sheer stress mostly due to school, then went along with it.

In early 2014 I was dangerously nearing the 70kg (at 159cm !) and felt really tight in my FR42 sized shorts. The thing is, every dresses kept fitting because I've never been over 67cm waist at my very largest. Between april and june 2014, by just controlling my calorie intake I dropped 5kg, just in time for Japan Expo.

Summer came, and I have the weird habit of not really eating when it's hot. It makes me dizzy, so I usually just drink a lot and eat water-filled fruits. Makes me feels lighter. I'm really not good at handling heat and I'm easily dehydrated.
It was apparently not efficient enough though. After coming back from my family trip in Thailand were I indulged myself with local cha num (thai style sweet tea) and a lot of fried rice, I stumbled across a few pictures of me, flabby arms and stretch marks everywhere.
Big wake up call.

I made a bunch of decision on my daily diet : unsweetened tea (I mostly drink "savory" tea now), less pastries, less milk (I need to drink whole milk for health reason but it's really fatty), no sugary bits.


After a few months eating only cherry tomatoes, carrots and cucumber (which is really a stupid thing to do, but that's basically my summer time regular diet) and almost turning into a turtle, I tried to make a few other changes.

 I consulted a ton of different forums, websites, books etc to try and control my calorie intake and my macro-nutriments according to my height, weigh and minimal daily "sport" (30min walk/day).

Sticky rice and green tea, the snack made in heaven

I freed myself from schedules and norms on my daily diet. It doesn't mean I'm constantly eating, it means I just don't follow the "rules". I wake up super early in the morning but my classes are at mid-day, so instead of taking a sugary breakfast and then a snack before going to class, I just make a savory brunch, have a snack in the middle of the afternoon and then I dine with my roommate.

Asian brunch with homemade Vietnam's emblematic pho

 I also reduced my portions, using small plates and avoiding pilling up food in it.
Finally I usually allow myself more or less a fat/sugary thing per day, could it be some pastries, cream-based recipes, a bubble tea, cheese etc. That way I don't feel forced to diet. I'm not in a diet. I'm just tweaking my habits around a bit.

Asian brunch with vegan take on a traditional Thai dish : stir fried veggies with cashew nuts

 Needless to say that as I always did, I cook at home to avoid unnecessary chemicals, fat and too much salt.
I found a good cop out to my sugary craves in asian cuisine, since they usually have a sweet'n'sour tinge to it. Otherwise, red pepper and carrots are really sugary and refreshing.
Also, since last year I walk a lot, everywhere I can, and sometimes go for solo day-long city tour usually lasting between four to seven hours.
I've also been adding a bit of stretching and yoga exercises routine for flexibility and I'm trying to come up with an efficient twice a week full body workout, but whether I'll be able to keep to it or not, time will tell.

 

At the end of the day I dropped 15kg, my waist is now around 58cm (just under 23inches), my taste buds are way finer than ever, I feel lighter and prettier and way less pudgy. Lately my legs have toned up a lot, even though they still retain their heavy top they're now way leaner. The only down side is that I dropped the baby face a bit, which I liked a lot, but since I'm orienting myself on a bit more goth style it's all good I suppose. Oh and since I dropped both in waist and bust, most of my lolita dresses are too big and I hate altering my clothes to an unexpected extend. But what's life eh ?

15 kg in less than a year. Yep. I'd like to lose a bit more on the leg area but that seems to be difficult. Forever thunder thighs I guess.

Your very definition of thunder thighs

Edit : after a two weeks of heavier workout (2x1h intense dance/week + 5x15min stretching/week) I can see direct effects on both my stamina and flexibility. I keep myself motivated with cute sport clothes. Way to go, me.

Wardrobe change and current obsessions

It's almost spring, yay !

These days I felt weighted down by a bunch of thing, so I decided to clean up my wardrobe a bit and make a list of what I needed. It's a pretty literal way to feel lighter.

I first started by airing out all my dresses, hanging them on the curtain-rod to take a good look at them.

I love this picture

skirts, blouses and tops

 I then choose the one I didn't wear enought and tried them on. A lot of these were actually too big from me loosing a bunch of weight last year, so I separated them into three piles "to give", "to sell" and "to use as fabric". A few things are going on sale on my facebook right now.

I already used an old silk dress as an accent fabric on the new bonnet I just finished. It's been a while I didn't go full crafty lolita, and that's the first bonnet I entirely made from scratch. I used cardboard, tape and wire as a basis and attached the fabric with a glue gun and some handstitching. Good enough for me, but not good enough to be sold imo. I'm bad with finitions.

Excuse the Instagram filter

Bonnet are my favourite lolita headwear but it's been an eternity I didn't wear one. I sold my Innocent World one some times ago, it was too childlish and wide fore me, and the straw one I made is at my parent's and most certainly need a little bit of revisiting. One or two Victorian Maiden bonnets in darker shades would be a nice addition  to my wardrobe.

I did a small list of what I needed next, both for my muggle wardrobe and my lolita one.
For lolita, I'd like to find an ouji outfit (I'm eyeing a few things on Bodyline since I'm too chub for brand), a white op, a black jsk and some more long-sleeved blouses. I also need to replace some of my shoes.

As spring is around the corner, my obsession for Natural-kei and aprons is taking away the best of me once again.

I have a reconstructed gingham apron dress waiting to be worn, but the under-dress I first made back when I was fifteen is not up to my standard of quality anymore. I need to re-do one and maybe complete the dress itself. It's been a few season I didn't wear it but I can't bring myself to let it go. It was one of my first lolita crafting project : turning my favourite summer dress in a lolita appropriate piece. Sadly, red gingham is a bit difficult to coordinate with something else than white, so my hopes lay in the form of a white onepiece. Also, finding the right gingham pattern to complete the dress proves to be near impossible, and I would rather avoid the Baby's way of doing everything satin or grosgrain.

Desperetly tried to find a not too unflatering picture 

I feel like this was overall a productive day. I've been pretty productive these days I must say.
I had my last day on the set, recording a super secret video. I cooked a lot. I practiced editing. I've been writing a few things too.  Better than lying in front of my laptop all day as I did previously, so this is pretty positive. Maybe spring is giving me my wings back again ?

If the weather is nice I'm soon gonna be able to start my photographic adventures in Paris. Now that I got a new SD card, this is gonna be good.

See you soon guys !

Meet ups

I feel like I have to astrain myself to post once a week for at least the few next monthes, or I'll have way too much things to say and will forget stuff...

Anyway, last saturday I was on a day out with darling Myriam and her friends Kourai, Aelin, Angélique and Peggy. Myriam was recording with TV Tokyo for a show about France, her segment was about Japan loving french people. We first met at Baby (I was sooo late, sorry once again girls ;_;) and took group pictures as well as some footage. I got interviewed, and answered all in japanese ! I was so stressed out my voice became super high pitched, I'm totally gonna look and sound stupid.

Kourai, Myriam, Angélique (did I mention her dress was handmade ? She is such and amazing seamstress !) and I

We then walked to Princess Crepe (it's a real lolita hq) and my feet were aching because I went with stupidly high heels despite Myriam's warning (I'm not a clever person ok ?). I was happy to have the occasion of talking a bit more to Aelin ! We've been in the same community for years and years, crossing each other multiple times and never really met, which is a shame. Sadly she had to leave earlier for work related reason, but what a pleasure chatting with her.

At Princess Crepe the lovely crew offered to pay for our crepes and we were soon joined by Loliz, who had a wonderfully soft and elegant outfit that day.

Loliz, Myriam, I, Peggy, Kourai and Angélique

Yummy princess crepe with vanilla ice cream, straberry, raspberry, cheesecake, whipped cream and chocolate sauce.

They then asked us who hasn't been in Japan yet, and the three of us who didn't had to say why did they want to go. I said that I wanted to learn more about folk culture and fashion in Japan. They filmed a bit more, then payed us good bye after gifting each of use a nice tenugi (japanese fabric handkerchief).
From my understanding, the show will be aired on 04/14 20:00 JPtime on TV Tokyo, so check it out !

After that, we went to Axes Femme.

Our adorable star of the day, so pretty !

 It was super funny hanging out with you all girls ! Can't wait to see how the show will look like ! (thanks Peggy for the group pictures)

My OOTD

On sunday I organized a tea-tasting meetup in one of my favourite tea place in the whole city : la Maison des Trois Thés, a chinese tea room specialised in Pu-er auctions. The place is downright gorgeous and so soothing ! It was quite an uncommon place for a tea party, but definitely a one of a kind experiment.

I warned before hand the guest that this was not your regular tea party, no cakes or cookies on the table and no sugar in your tea. Instead, the nice employees guide you through a menu of dozens and dozens of precious chinese tea, providing a tasting experiment tailored to your desires and perfectly accessible to non-experts.

250 years old chinese tea bowl

White jasmine tea

Gong fu cha for oolong

We were a table of eight and settled up for a jasmine white tea as a starter then two different oolong, a Ti Kuan Yin (roasted, heavy oolong with cerealy notes) for half the guest and a lighter, green oolong with at first a mimosa then a slight coconut and caramel after taste for the other half (Jin Shuan ?).

 The nice waitress demonstrated each type of infusion while explaining in details what happened and then assisted us in our first infusion. A second waitress was in charge of refilling the four heavy kettles and braseros of the table. They also had us try one of their limited series of Taiwanese fruit jam. It was litteraly to die for.

(thanks Sam for these two pictures)
Myriam, Sandra, I, Clarimonde, Ercylla, Sam, Caméllia and Chloé

After that we took a few outfit pictures in the Jardin des Plantes not so far, and we parted up. A few of us wanted to eat an Angel Cake at Ciel, but infortunaly they didn't have any room for us.

I'm really an anxious person so I tend to avoid organizing meets, but I had so much fun and everything went so smoothly I'm already working on a few new things. I'm trying to think outside of the box and avoid touristic spots/rehashed themes and places. I've got a few ideas already, need to proof-test them firstly though.

It was a super nice day thanks to you all gals ! I'm happy you enjoyed this place as much as I did and I look forward to see you all again <3

忙しい

Guys, I feel like I'm doing so many things these days. Ever since LVER I ran all around Paris with my dear friends and I didn't stop. I'm literally having sore muscles !

Last friday I had a night out with my dearie Andrea/Umako from Bordeaux and her lovely friends (Lucile, Tanguy and Aurélien, am I right ?) 'till midnight, then the day after and for all the week-end I visited Paris with Trang darling.

On Saturday we did Notre-Dame, half the Louvre, Baby Paris, part of the Seine banks, Ladurée for lunch then part of Le Marais and Princess Crepe !

At Notre-Dame

OOTD :
Hat, necklace : handmade
Blouse : Surface Spell
JSK : AatP

W/ Andrea darling at Baby Paris

Sunday, Versailles ! We did the whole thing, the main castle, the gardens, the two Trianon and the queen's Hamlet. Soooo tired !

Wonderful costumes of royal footmen

It was awesome ! I was happy to see you, Trang !

 
Also, these days I'm working on a music video with the french singer Emma Kemy. It's an awesome experiment, working with such a nice crew in a professional setting ! I already did two days of shooting, maybe one or two more and it'll be complete.

I keep bothering the director with movie-related question since I'm so curious about the movie industry and barely ever come across a professional. I'm way too curious about how everything works, especially post-production work !
You can see more updates about this on my instagram account (@roseopaline). Stay tuned for the release date and the release party invitation !


Also, this is totally too early to speak about it, but I'm super excited since I might work in the future with super talented designers from Ikian. I'm a huge fan of their works, and if you love minimalistic/avant-garde style you should definitively check out their kimono based clothes and especially these awesome unisex ninja boots !

I'll be attending tons of meetups in the next week (and I have nothing to wear), so brace yourself for a lot of pictures. See ya !