From alpha testing to the QUERCUS 200

LaMa I have 3 turtle skulls I believe. I should have some more lizard skulls come Spring as I've decided to experiment with cleaning small skulls with everything my cats kill and leave lying around. Should be moles and gophers too.

LJ I assume you are asking LaMa? My skulls are unaltered. Just part of my collection.

Thanks Clarissa!

Thanks Serge!

Yes we do Oaks. We have videos from that we do together at home. Our house is too big. We wanted a house that was already built and one that didn't need any fixing up. We also wanted some land. All of the small houses that were available with land weren't nice and needed something done to them. So we decided to buy a house with land that was well built and pretty new, but it's too big. We've managed to fill it of course. The living room, dining room, and kitchen are an open floor plan and there is a wide open space between the living and dining rooms that is the entryway to the house and we can both put down mats and do yoga without moving anything.

This morning I did the elliptical while my wife did strength training. My back has been spasming a little so the elliptical seemed the wise choice. I did 30 minutes with 117 BPM average.

I have a very hard time getting my heart rate high enough of the thing. I need to figure out the instructions and get some programs that are at better levels. In part it's just that early morning hard to push thing happening.

281 this morning. I had 2,270 calories yesterday, but I ate salty food for dinner. I have the gym bag packed so I may end up having another workout today.

Happy Friday!
 
So does your wife let you display the skulls in the house....or does she make you keep them outside? I have to know. haha!

You're doing great, Q!!
 
My wife is a biologist too Jen so the skulls are in the house and outside. Most of them live in my room, but they are in our glasstop coffee table, on window sills, and tables at the moment. She does block prints and photography and uses things that i bring home and that she finds in the woods for the focus and for props in product photos.

Shameless plug for her shop:



You can even buy me as a notebook. No one has bought it yet. :(

My wife and I are going to run at least a mile a day from Thanksgiving until new year's day.



I've posted this in the dusty old run thread if anyone wants to join in?

You still get rest by running the minimum distance slowly on days when you need it. It's recommended that you have been running regularly for at least 6 months.

It's just for fun and to keep the running habit going during the holiday season. It's a new goal and a great way to combat the holiday eating temptations.
 
I'm jealous of that open floor plan. We've got way more space than we need, too, but all the rooms are closed off and full of furniture. I'm hoping to get a monitor or small TV for the one room that has enough space sometime in the near future. Otherwise I'm going to have to start doing yoga in the kitchen.
 
I fixed the links LaMa.

Oaks, we set my laptop on a chest to watch the videos. We lucked out with our house. It was better than I would have designed for myself, but it matched our tastes and needs very well other than being too big.
 
Thanks and thanks Vee!

PM run
2.3 miles
134 bpm
30 mins

Just a moderate pace on the indoor track this evening. The front of my hips were sore from the elliptical this morning. First 2x cardio day and I'm pretty tired.
 
I also made 8 half pints of beautyberry (Callicarpa americana) jelly. The powdered pectine clumped together and I had to strain it out so I actually probably have 2 quarts of syrup. I picked the berries last night by headlamp. If it tastes good I will buy some better pectine and make more. At 50 calories per tablespoon it will be easy to track.

It came out a nice dark color and tasted good hot.

Beautyberry%20'American'.jpg

Here's what the plant looks like.
 
I didn´t even know you can eat those, they do look lovely. Does the taste resemble anything I might know?
 
280.4 again this morning with about 2,200 calories yesterday. I was hoping for a new low after the double cardio yesterday, but I'm really moving towards an attitude of just watching the scale, celebrate the new milestones, but just let the process happen.

11\1\2014 287.8
11\8\2014 282.4 -5.4
11\15\2014 283.6 +1.2
11\20\2014 280.4 -3.2

That's 2.5 pounds per week average loss this month so far and 3.3 pounds per week so far since counting calories.

This is the first time I've made the jelly. I was taught that the berries were poisonous as a kid and only recently learned differently. The leaves are poisonous, but the berries are not. The leaves deter browsing so much of the fruit is left until the leaves fall off.

LaMa The species that I am eating is only found in the southeastern Untied States so I can't speak to the edibility of a Callicarpa species that you might have. The species japonica is pretty common in ornamental gardening, but there was no clear information on whether they were safe. It has a unique flavor. Kind of a fruit and spice combo. Maybe mulberry and sarsaparilla combined. That's not right, but it's the closest thing I can come up with.

Clarissa, those are actually super common around here. I got about 1.5 liters of the little berries standing in the same spot. I could easily gather more berries than I could ever eat jelly. Eating it one measured tablespoon at a time and rarely eating bread my small batch will last a very long time.

I did not realize that I needed lemon juice until mid process. The pectin clumped together because of the high pH and I had to strain it off. Consequently the jelly is rather thin. It's a very thick syrup or a very runny jelly. Next batch I will use liquid pectin and hopefully I can make it set. It still tastes good so for my first jelly making I will call it a success.
 
Good losses Quercus, well done.

I made blackcurrent cordial last year, but cooked it too long and it ended up like a thin jelly. You can always reboil your jelly with the pectin when you get it.
 
Sounds good! Will do some research before I start raiding people gardens though ;) I´m not much of a jelly person but in winter it´s good in my occasional buckwheat/quinoa porridge when good fresh fruit is too expensive for use in hot dishes.
 
Thanks Anna! I heated it for a long time trying to get the pectin to dissolve so I probably will forgo cooking in longer. The thinness doesn't hurt it in the breakfast cereal. It actually makes it easier to measure accurately.

LaMa, I had the jelly in my breakfast of oats and chia seeds with soy milk and peanut butter. It was tasty. Ginger, cinnamon, and vanilla go well with the jelly.
 
Hi Risty! They are tasty too. The jelly set in the fridge so I guess it just needed to be chilled.

278.6 this morning for a nice big drop and new low.

New stats:

Achieved:

- 121 pounds from all time HW (~400)

-30% from all time HW

-70.6 from WLF join weight (349.2)

-20% from WLF join weight

-54.6 for the year

-16% for the year

-25.6 since October 1st

-8.4% since October 1st

Class 1 obesity (280 is the lowest for my height/gender at Class 2)

270s

-1.2 lb/week for the year

-3.7 lb/week since October 1st

Achieving:

3.7 pounds from new adult low (274.9) with 1 exception (below)

4.6 pounds from 10% lost from my October weight

12.5 pounds from being halfway to 199

28.5 pounds from all time adult low (previous was with bad prescription drugs)

38.7 pounds until I'm overweight rather than obese

79.6 pounds until I am at goal (199)

I don't usually talk about my heavy weight since it was quite a few years back and therefore not part of this weightloss journey, but the stats are legit so I decided to throw them in.
 
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Those are some awesome stats! I don´t care how much time has passed since max weight, losing that many pounds is amazing.
 
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