I’m in the final stages of doing some changes to the Keto Chow recipe (v2.1) and I wanted to do a “burn-in” test to make sure that everything is working properly. Might as well experiment on myself, right? My plan for the next 4 weeks is to ONLY eat Keto Chow, drink only water, take fish pills, and have some salt if necessary. On Friday I went over to my local LabCorp and had 14 vials of blood drawn for 25 tests. Around vial 9, the vein in my left arm gave up and they had to pull the remainder from my right arm. Here’s what I got:
| GGT | Cortisol | Heavy Metals | Lipid Panel | Thyroid Cascade Profile |
| Apolipoprotein A-1 | C-Reactive Protein | Hemoglobin A1c | Lp-PLA2 Activity | Uric Acid |
| Apolipoprotein B | Fasting Insulin | Homocyst(e)ine | NMR LipoProf +Graph | Vitamin A and E |
| CBC | Ferritin, Serum | IGF-1 | Reverse T3, Serum | Vitamin D |
| Comp. Metabolic Panel | Free Fatty Acids | Iron | T3Free | Zinc, RBC |
My plan is to have 6 other tests done every Friday for the next 4 weeks:
| NMR LipoProf +Graph | Lipid Panel | Comp. Metabolic Panel | CBC With Diff. | Fasting Insulin | C-Reactive Protein |
Today I’m running a test on my Postprandial glucose after eating. It’s something I’ve done before but it was time for an update I’ll probably report on that tomorrow.
Now, here’s where it gets fun: I started my experiment yesterday and it’s going well so far. Then I started thinking about what’s going on in the near future and realized I’m going to be heading off to San Francisco for the DreamForce conference in 2 weeks. Crap. “That’s like the worst timing ever for a test!” I thought, then I thought “Might actually be good timing for a test” The likelihood of me breaking keto traveling while I’m doing a nuts-o test on myself like this is actually lower.
Big problem is: the “hotel” I’ll be staying at does not have refrigeration available. I’m going to need to come up with a game plan during the 5 days I’ll be traveling. Here’s what I have so far:
- I’m going to use avocado and MCT oil instead of heavy cream.
- I’m going to portion out the powder for meals into individual bags ahead of time.
- This week I’m going to test to see how adding the oil to the powder beforehand affects storage and taste.
- If that works, I’ll put the oil right into each bag, making a sort of thin oily paste.
- I’ll triple-bag the mix =)
- I’m going to find a place that has ice and ice water available (they have it all over the place at the conference) and mix my keto chow in HydroFlasks, they should stay good for several hours, more than long enough for the “just mixed” taste to go away (which takes like 30 minutes).
- I suspect I’m going to do some kind of intermittent fasting, maybe I’ll leave all of the stuff at my hotel and just eat 3 meals in a small window.
- I’ll bring soap and a bottle brush and wash out my HydroFlasks every night.
- I’ll have my magnesium supplements handy along with some salt. I’m planning on mixing salt with water to drink during the day if I feel like I need it.
Anyhow, that’s the plan. I’m posting this ahead of time to further decrease the likelyhood of me failing (accountability FTW!!!)
I would not recommend mixing the oil in the bag with the powder. Two reasons:
1. There will be an unknown quantity of oil/powder left inside the bag when you try to get it out. Is it 2ml? 5ml? Proper testing is impossible if you can’t control what you’re testing.
2. It will be difficult to squeeze all those liquidy ziploc bags together into your suitcase, and risk one or more opening up (even with triple-bagging). Easier to just bring a single well-sealed flask of oil and a measuring spoon. (You can calculate how much total oil you need, to minimize weight/space)
It will be interesting to see your testing results.
(I’m using avocado oil instead of cream, and it seems to work well.)
Very valid points there. I’ve also bandied around the idea of putting together several meals and pre-mixing the oil and powder, then measuring out the mix. Problem with that one is you can’t ensure a consistent mixture. I likely will just do as you’re proposing, maybe even buy the avocado oil at my destination.
Chris,
I used this last time I traveled without fridge: http://a.co/ijcNUI2 Though, a hotel without fridge is quite rare. Did you explain to them you have medically required foods that need to be chilled? That’s what I usually say and that suddenly makes a fridge appear in my room.
Yeah, put in a request, dunno how it’ll go. I’m going to plan for the worst.
Look forward to hearing how this goes for you. I’m considering bringing my chow with me on my next work trip to South Africa and I know in the rural regions I’ll have to bring everything and may not have a fridge. If its my meal, I’ll deal with the off flavor from not refridgerating. Bringing over enough avocado and MCT oil for a 2 week TDY might be odd looking though.
Chris you might want to look into getting a large irrigation syringe with measurements on it for oil mixing! They sell them for first aid kits on amazon for about a buck.
I travel for work as an airline pilot and if my hotel room has a fridge what I have been doing is pouring my mixed chow into an empty water bottle from the day at work and putting it in the fridge, then mixing a second batch in my bottle and putting that in the fridge. When I wake up I have a fresh ketochow breakfast, slam some coffee, wash out the blender bottle and I have the meal in a water bottle for the road. I carry a small lunch bag that is insulated for snacks and the lunch chow. I like this better than the blender bottle or insulated bottle for midday because it doesn’t dry out and get gross after use-before getting to hotel.
If you don’t have a fridge I like your flask/ice idea.
Being keto adapted I often skip breakfast but I can really tell the difference when I have a nice keto meal first thing in the AM, especially when it’s an early start and I have to function at a high level!! (u know, flying a jet and all)
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