From alpha testing to the QUERCUS 200

I thought I'd stop by! My first thought was that I would NOT be able to keep track of all those numbers haha. You have a really good system going here. It still blows my mind how much you can run. I'm jealous =P.

I saw you came up with some riddles, what were the answers? I can't figure them out. I find that when I'm trying to sleep my mind wanders a lot. I get such awesome ideas, but I need sleep, so I can't get up and write them down. I was told by an author friend of mine that the reason for our increased ability to formulate ideas is due to the relaxation of parts of our brain as we settle in for sleep. It's cool stuff! Exercise gives us crazy boosts to our hormones and allows us to relax more easily at the end of the night, too =D.
 
Answers below in red. I suppose the second one has an American bias. Sorry America's top hat.

My answer varies with each sundry query, but a look at my face shows no sign of ruse. What am I? A clock.

Pebbles and boulders rest on their shoulders. Great men their brows furrowed in time. What are they? Mount Rushmore


As far as tracking my numbers goes I don't have much of a system. I need to make a spreadsheet. Right now I am inputting from my phone into my diary and doing the math as I go. The phone app screws up my numbers when I store them so I can't rely on it.

I really appreciate the encouragement. Know that I started running at 330 and I'm still probably in the 320s now I imagine. I think that if you have patience, take it easy, and build gradually that you can run too. I need to run much faster to be considered average, but the speed will come with losing weight and with practice.
 
run
32 minutes
3.3 kilometers

Tonight was miserable. Cold, misting, and my legs felt like crap. I'm exhausted.I could barely make the half hour. Much harder than yesterday's 5K.
 
My body is beat. I had a couple miles of steep hills today and my legs were so tight and sore to start with. My calves cramped up despite being hydrated. I'm done with the exercise for the day. It was a couple miles of hiking and 6 hours of work total. I ate a big meal with alligator right after which was nice after getting so cold and hiking the hills. It was in the high 30s, but damp and windy. As far as I can remember that was the first meat I have eaten since having venison jerky on January 21st. I bet it helps me recover as it sounded super good and didn't make me feel bad when I ate it.

In other news. At least 2 (I haven't checked several) of the 8 pants that I got back into in January are now too loose to wear without a belt. I can take off and put on both pair without unbuttoning them. They may be relegated to fieldwork for a while as they are in really good condition. The 42s were already worn out, so I had no qualms with parting with them, but both of them are nearly new pants. I am conflicted by wanting to banish the larger sizes to commit to weight loss as a one way street and donating jeans in really good condition would be nice for the recipient and make me more reticent to replace them in the future, but the inverse is that I am cheap and want to wear my clothes out because I bought them. With money. That I had to work for.

Opinions welcome.
 
Wear them as knock arounds or ditch them, it really makes no difference. As long as you understand that their existence means nothing other than you were once bigger when you bought them, they shouldn't cause you any problems unless you're really stretched for closet space.

As for spending money on clothes only to no longer fit into them well before they are worn out...

...welcome to my world. I've got a $600 suit that I was able to wear to my sister's wedding in October 2012, get taken in, wear to a conference in March 2013 and it can't be taken in any more. So I got two uses for my $600 (plus the cost of the alteration). C'est la vie.
 
My entire "wardrobe" probably doesn't hit $600. I think about when I was struggling with being on the right track with exercise and diet. Someone whining about there clothes getting too big too quick would have elicited an internal response like "Cry me a river. Does this guy hear himself?". So on that note I will stop whining about progress. I'm going to donate the 2 pair soon. Hopefully someone in need of pants and a bargain will find them.

I'm going to try on pants this weekend and see where I am with the ones I've already moved back into the regular rotation and see if any more fit. I think I will replace the big ones with smaller jeans before I donate them, but that may already be possible.

I have had some sweets and snacks that weren't healthy for me while my wife has been recuperating. I bought them for her, but shared. I'm happy to be getting away from them, but I don't feel that I ate enough bad stuff to slow my progress noticeably.

On that note, I will say that leaving the scale alone has been great. I honestly don't care what I weigh at the moment. Obviously I need to weigh less and a lot less, but standing on a scale doesn't achieve of even facilitate loss. My calves are more muscular and larger than they have been in a very long time. I know that more of my lower body is doing the same. Muscle gain is part of the process of being healthy, but it is represented negatively on a scale. I don't really have a reason as for why my weight can stall for so long, but as long as I am wearing smaller clothing, running farther and/or faster, and feeling better I don't need the scale.

I have found it so far to be liberating to not weigh in. I cannot help but be frustrated by the numbers when I weigh myself with poor results. My goal is to be lean and healthy. I'm nowhere near that goal, but I am steadily heading in the right direction and I don't need a number to validate that fact. I'm measuring my food, exercise, belly, and clothes. I don't need any other measure to reach my goal. Part of my hangup with my weight is the scale.

"I've never stayed below 300."

"If I could just get below 300 it will be so much easier."

"If I could just get to the 3teens then <300 seems possible."

"I need to get back to 275 like before and all my clothes will fit."

All of these statements swim in my head when I am focused on the weight and they hurt my efforts. I'm "wasting my time" if my Saturday weigh in isn't lower than the week before. WHY? If I eat a vegan diet, run 5 days a week even with work in the field, and fit better in my clothes than the previous week why the hell should the number on a scale dictate my feelings of success or failure?

I'm not doing it. I know a scale is a crucial part to many peoples' success here so I'm not making a blanket judgement, but for those of you that struggle with the scale like I did give it some consideration.

I'll start posting calories and belly measurements and pant size to keep me accountable to the measurements I am tracking, but I will likely be away from the scale for a long while or for good.

I also found a cheap bluetooth heartrate monitor and found that the GPS and running app still function on my old smartphone so I will be set for running for a while and may not get a GPS watch at all.

I will likely not run tonight as yesterday was rough on my legs and they still need a break. I also had breathing troubles last night so I only slept for a few hours and that poorly. You are a true friend strong coffee!
 
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Ugh, 54" for this morning's belly measurement. I ate over calories and ate a lot of salt and beans yesterday so I may see a pretty quick reduction at first. That's 5" bigger than the lowest since 12/12, but still 6" lower than my biggest. I happened to measure in front of the mirror and I found that what I thought was snug but not constricting was in fact constricting a bit, so I may have underestimated my measurements by a bit in the past.

I ate 2,500 calories yesterday which is still an acceptable amount of calories. I don't know where I got the idea for 1,800 calories, but it's well below what any of the calculators say I should eat for fat loss. I haven't been counting calories for the last week, but I need to make a reasonable range of calories to stick to.
 
Well obviously having clothes get too big is all good, otherwise why bother with any of this. But for us cheap folk it still sucks to have spent the money.

Changing from the scale to how your clothes fit is probably an excellent idea. It's an adjustment I'm in the process of making now, though I think that process will still involve me loosing at least 15 more pounds, probably a little more (25 would be my best guess). But if I get down to a size 32 and still weigh like 195 pounds, well then 195 pounds it is.
 
I think I will need the measuring tape and clothes together so I don't feel it's subjective. I don't have a set pants size in mind. I carry my weight in my gut and torso and my hip area is where I wear my pants. I can't wear most jeans higher because even if they fit around my gut the crotch length and inseam are always too short. So size 36 pants and xl shirts is certainly reasonable for me, but at 6' 3" longsleeve xl and even most longsleeve xlt shirts are too short in at least the sleeves.

Those 42s I ditched were really baggy and had a long crotch length so I could wear them high, but towards the end I had real highwaters going on.

After some consideration and assistance from weight loss expert MrVee I have elected to go with 2,300 calories a day. Hopefully that is a nice balance between loss rate and ease of accomplishing. I also think it will help me to recover from workouts quicker.
 
Hey I am right there with you as far as the scale goes! I know that I am putting the work in and am eating well. If I step on the scale the next week and see a higher weight, it does a number on my mentality and makes me try less hard. So I totally agree with you. I admire your discipline and approach to this. Keep up the great work.
 
Hey, thanks Camila!

I really wanted to run this evening, but it's snowing and sleeting so I have to settle for messing around with the dumbbells for exercise. My wife noticed that I was a bit grumpy on the drive home and I realized it was because I knew I couldn't run. I'm "That Guy"?! Never thought it was possible to hav feelings towards running other than animosity until I started doing it.

I ate a little less than 2,300 calories because i had only eatn 1,500 by dinner and was stuffed before I could eat 800 calories. Fine with me.
 
belly 53.5" average of 3 like initial
run
30 minutes
1.68 miles 2.70 KM
avg hr 149

That's at the peak aerobic HR and I had to really slow up to make that. My HR was 20-30 bpm higher than normal before the run. Odd day, but I got the work done and it didn't feel very taxing. I need to stick to 30 minutes in the aerobic zone.

I think the 5Ks without the monitor was too much too soon. I can run a 5K in 43:20 or less, but I shouldn't try 3 5ks in 9 days again. Not yet anyway. 30 minutes in the aerobic zone will let me run most days. I can try a 5K again in a couple-few weeks if I feel the itch. I'll get to 5K in my 30 minutes eventually.

Today was a pretty poor showing, but I'm about 60% speed for what I need to get a 30 minute 5K within the aerobic zone. My starting speed was 52% speed of a 30 min 5K in the aerobic zone. So my speed has improved about 8% in less than a month. Couple that with the fact that I don't need to stay in the aerobic zone for an actual 5K race and I predict that I will do a 30 min 5K this summer. Let's make it a goal. 30 minute 5K by July 23, 2014. That's my birthday. I could really use some speed and leaness if you're looking for gift ideas. That's different from my long term gol of 30 minute 5Ks in the aerobic zone almost 5-7 day a week, but it will certainly be somehing.
 
Well, if you’re going to get expert advice from someone, MrVee would be the guy! I hope his method works as well for you as it does for him. I’m anxious to see the results.

Sorry to hear that you didn’t get your run in last night. Hopefully you got one in tonight. The weather should be changing soon too. Hopefully you’ll have a great spring. If you’re anything like me summer is no good. It’s just too darn hot! Bleh…
 
I really can't wait for the weather to turn, I want to go back outside and get walking. I miss that feeling it gives. I feel so exhausted having to bundle up and walk home. When I can walk with just a t-shirt and shorts I feel on top of the world!

I really wish I could give up the scale like you. It bums me out sometimes, but I crave seeing the number go down. I'm addicted to it!

I hope I get your mentality toward exercise...right now it's "I COULD do this but...I'd rather do that". It's a real effort to get myself active.
 
That's awesome that you're "that guy" with the exercise... minus the grumpy part of course. I hope I get to that point one day. Right now I'm just pleased with not dreading every minute of it. lol! I hope you got your run in tonight! :)
 
Thanks everybody! It was only wintery for Friday. It was warmer for tonight's run than last night.

I was going to run during the day, but I got too caught up doing yardwork and housework. I raked leaves for about 3 hours and got a good bit done in the house too.

I'm pretty sure the raking was mostly in the aerobic zone so that's good. Lots of wet leaves to rake and drag out into the woods.

run
1.7 miles
avg hr 148

I'm not sure about the new app or the old phone. Tonight seemed a hell of a lot easier and it said I went the same distance. I will try the same app on my new phone and the old app on my new phone and see how they compare. Doesn't really matter. I'l just keep getting my runs in. I need to bring home the measuring wheel from work and measure a distance between landmarks and then I'll have a set distance.

My lovely wife is back at work and doing stuff around the house. She is looking forward to getting active.
 
That leaf raking will burn some calories, especially for three hours. My last house had a huge oak tree in the front and two in the back, so for 6 years I was doing that raking every Spring (Florida is weird, and the oak leaves were never shed until March).
I like your new approach though of pant and belly size and running performance, instead of the scale!
 
We have an oak here that holds on to it's dead leaves until spring (southern red oak Quercus falcata). You are in a different subregion of the Atlantic Gulf Coast Plains than me in your part of Florida. Northwest Florida has a lot of the same species as northeast Texas, but St. Augustine is in the Florida peninsula subregion with inland scrub as the dominant vegetation and I don't know much about it.

Florida is a very cool place for wetland science and I would like to work there someday, but Mississippi is as close as work has taken me so far.

I have 10 acres of woods and a fairly small yard so there are tons of leaves. The winter mix had melted from Friday and it was all soggy and heavy making it slow work. I also dragged the leaves to a different part of my property on a tarp to keep the leaf litter from being too deep at the yard edge. I prefer heavy sloppy leaves to dry dusty ones as it is hell on my allergies.

I think my new method of measuring progress will emphasis long term change and make me learn patience. I get very impatient when it comes to weightloss which is a sure recipe for failure.
 
We struggle with leaves too, Q. Our land is only three acres, but we're right up against national forest land so we're surrounded on three of four sides with trees, and lots of them. We've mostly resorted to mowing them rather than raking. :/
 
-Cory- said:
We struggle with leaves too, Q. Our land is only three acres, but we're right up against national forest land so we're surrounded on three of four sides with trees, and lots of them. We've mostly resorted to mowing them rather than raking. :/
Click to expand...

I struggle with leaves too. I feel soooo bad for the maintenance guy who has to do it for us (we live in an apartment). I mean, it's just so unfair. Why do I have to be exposed to such sympathy?!?!
 
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