Keto Success Stories & Experiments

42 Days of Keto Chow – Day 30, “fun” with coconut oil (actually MCT oil)
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42 Days of Keto Chow – Day 30, “fun” with coconut oil (actually MCT oil)

42 days of Keto Chow Experiment

42 Days of Keto Chow – Day 30, “fun” with coconut oil (actually MCT oil)

This entry is part 30 of 44 in the series 42 days of Keto Chow Experiment

So yesterday was my first day doing Coconut Oil, the package of the one I was using said “93% MCTs” so I should have seen this coming. About 20 minutes after I drank my first one I felt a bit weird and dizzy… and ran to the bathroom. Second One a few hours later was kinda the same story. The third one last night I felt really dizzy, so much so that I had to sit on the sofa instead of playing Munchkin which made Levi really sad.

So today I’m switching to a different liquid coconut oil: Carrington Farms. I’ve used it in the past and didn’t have any gastrointestinal issues. I’m hoping that it works well. I ran to my local “Walmart Neighborhood Market” this morning not knowing if they would have it, turns out they had 3 different brands of liquid coconut oil! That was unexpected. Anyhow, if this doesn’t work I’ll switch to using less coconut oil and some heavy cream since this week is all about saturated fat.

By Chris|2018-02-05T08:35:53-07:00February 3rd, 2018|Categories: 42 days of Keto Chow Experiment|Tags: 42dayExperiment, experience, Coconut Oil, saturated fat|0 Comments

42 Days of Keto Chow – Day 29, starting coconut oil!
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42 Days of Keto Chow – Day 29, starting coconut oil!

42 days of Keto Chow Experiment

42 Days of Keto Chow – Day 29, starting coconut oil!

This entry is part 29 of 44 in the series 42 days of Keto Chow Experiment

OK, turns out liquid coconut oil tastes pretty good. That’s a relief! So I’ll be using it as anticipated for this week. I got a blood test this morning to cap off the week of macadamia nut oil. Unlike previous weeks, there were few people there and no hint of civil unrest =)

Last night I discovered I was late to a Cub Scout Blue and Gold Banquet for my youngest son. It was nice to simply grab the final blender bottle of macadamia Keto Chow and run. They had taco salad and nachos, I could have done keto with the food there but didn’t need to as I was packing my own =)

In unrelated news, this morning there was a facebook post by a bakery a few minutes South of here:

KETO in the BAKERY! As promised, today we feature Lemon Curd Cheesecake Trifle and Chocolate Salted Caramel Cheesecake. Sugar free, less than 4 net carbs. Naturally gluten free. We will launch new products every week if demand is high. It’s up to you people!! Spread the word! #keto #ketobaker #glutenfree #sugarfree #ketorocks #healthylife #lehibakery #sugarhighconfections

I talked to the owner of the bakery (who is on a keto diet). They currently do the lemon curd trifle and salted caramel cheesecake and will be coming out with cookies and cupcakes soon. The sweetener used is Truvia (Erythritol). “The cheesecake is simply cream cheese, heavy cream and Truvia. The almond short crust is almond flour and butter with a bit a sea salt. The lemon curd is lemon juice, egg yolks and Truvia. The caramel sauce is just caramelized Truvia” 4 net carbs for the lemon, 2 for the cheesecake. I won’t be eating any of it anytime soon but my kids are going to love it!

By Chris|2018-02-05T08:35:44-07:00February 2nd, 2018|Categories: 42 days of Keto Chow Experiment|Tags: Coconut Oil, 42dayExperiment, Macadamia Nut Oil, blood test|0 Comments

42 Days of Keto Chow – Day 28
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42 Days of Keto Chow – Day 28

42 days of Keto Chow Experiment

42 Days of Keto Chow – Day 28

This entry is part 28 of 44 in the series 42 days of Keto Chow Experiment

Huh, I’ve been doing this experiment for 4 weeks now. That’s funny, I hadn’t even realized that until I started this post and wrote down what day it was. It seems that the previous 4 week experiment I did was WAY harder to do, maybe because I wasn’t chewing gum or drinking diet soda. Last night I mixed up the final 3 meals with Macadamia Nut Oil and also mixed up tomorrow’s Coconut Oil ones. I’m really looking forward to switching!

Only eating Keto Chow for this experiment hasn’t been terribly difficult aside from the social aspect. I was at the store today buying food and such for my family (without a dishwasher and with the kitchen under construction, we go through a lot of paper plates and such… we also go through a 5lb bag of shredded cheese a week it seems). Anyhow, I passed by the frozen chicken wings and was a little sad that I wasn’t going to be making any chicken wings for the Superb Owl get together we’ll be having this Sunday – you know, the one where everybody watches a bunch of rather funny advertisements with some football sprinkled between? We’ve kinda made it a family tradition with my parents, and often my brother, coming over. We have a bunch of amazing snacks, predominantly keto ones for the last 2 years, and have fun. This year my dad and I are both only eating Keto Chow and we’re the only ones that eat the wings, so none of those this year. I think one of my kids is going to try making Keto Peanut Butter Bars – I might help her a bit =)

By Chris|2018-02-01T12:19:56-07:00February 1st, 2018|Categories: 42 days of Keto Chow Experiment|Tags: experience, Oil, Keto Chow, 42dayExperiment, Macadamia Nut Oil|0 Comments

42 Days of Keto Chow – Day 27, bunch of blood tests back
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42 Days of Keto Chow – Day 27, bunch of blood tests back

42 days of Keto Chow Experiment

42 Days of Keto Chow – Day 27, bunch of blood tests back

This entry is part 27 of 44 in the series 42 days of Keto Chow Experiment

I’m on my second-to-last day of macadamia nut oil. I need to mix up 3 meals worth for tomorrow and then it’s time for coconut oil! woohoo! The experiment is still going well, haven’t had any problems at all in the last while. My tooth still hurts from getting a crown, though not as bad – so it’s still a good thing that I’m doing a liquid diet. My wife finished up the 4 week Keto Chow only experiment she was doing last Friday so she’s been making meals from Maria Emmerich’s 30 Day Ketogenic Cleanse – yesterday it was pork chops, they did indeed smell good but I soldiered on and drank my macadamia nut oil… I mean Keto Chow (that tastes like macadamia nut oil).

Today we got a bunch of blood test results back. You can see my results for this current experiment by visiting the results spreadsheet on the “Chris” tab in columns N-S. It’s interesting to compare Heavy Cream to Grape Seed Oil to Heavy Cream. My LDL came back up and so did my fasting insulin.

I put together the packaging we’ll be using for the “Sample The NEW Things!” bundle, check it out:

By Chris|2018-01-31T11:03:26-07:00January 31st, 2018|Categories: 42 days of Keto Chow Experiment|Tags: Macadamia Nut Oil, experience, Weight loss, video, blood test, 42dayExperiment|0 Comments

42 Days of Keto Chow – Day 26

This entry is part 26 of 44 in the series 42 days of Keto Chow Experiment

Spent most of the day working on packaging for Keto Chow 2.1. I also made a centralized page with details about 2.1 so I can have a single point of ~~failure~~ information about the changes and timeline. I’ll update that page as we go along.

Let’s talk a little about packaging, because: why not?

The individual samples of Keto Chow 2.0 are in a REALLY large stick-pack package. It’s very similar to the tear open drink mixes but as big as they can make them. They work well but are a bit weird to open and people mistake them for a protein bar. With Keto Chow 2.1 we’re switching to a square-ish pouch package that looks rather like a protein shake package. This gives us a better form factor and we can run them easier. The stick pack was a necessity with our smaller batch sizes we did with 2.0, we’re going bigger with 2.1. Now, here’s a fun one: what about the packaging material? I looked into using something less expensive, maybe an opaque plastic? Nope. The thick foil we’re going to continue using offers significantly longer shelf life. That means you can buy them, put them somewhere and not have to worry about using them in 2 months. I consider that a better product so it’s what we’re sticking with.

By Chris|2018-01-30T15:16:28-07:00January 30th, 2018|Categories: 42 days of Keto Chow Experiment|Tags: 42dayExperiment, Macadamia Nut Oil|0 Comments

42 Days of Keto Chow – Day 25

This entry is part 25 of 44 in the series 42 days of Keto Chow Experiment

I recorded a podcast yesterday, won’t be out for a few weeks though. Today I’ve been working to get things lined up for Keto Chow 2.1 which is now even more imperative as Chocolate Peanut Butter and Cookies & Cream 2.0.2 are out of stock and won’t be resupplied until 2.1 comes out.

By Chris|2018-01-29T14:39:21-07:00January 29th, 2018|Categories: 42 days of Keto Chow Experiment|Tags: experience, 42dayExperiment, ketochow2.1, Macadamia Nut Oil|5 Comments

42 Days of Keto Chow – Day 24

This entry is part 24 of 44 in the series 42 days of Keto Chow Experiment

This is a few hours late so I’ll backdate it =) No video from today, I actually recorded a podcast today with Steve Swanson of FanPress. He says it’ll be posted in a few weeks, mine is episode #3 and he’s about to post #2. It was supposed to be 30 minutes but after 90 minutes of awesomeness, we called it a wrap.

I added 2x the amount of flavoring to my macadamia nut oil shakes – it’s better than before but still REALLY heavy on the macadamia nut flavor. 4 days left =)

By Chris|2018-01-29T07:31:21-07:00January 28th, 2018|Categories: 42 days of Keto Chow Experiment|Tags: 42dayExperiment, Macadamia Nut Oil|0 Comments

42 Days of Keto Chow – Day 23

This entry is part 23 of 44 in the series 42 days of Keto Chow Experiment

Really quick update, not much to report other than that the Macadamia nut oil has a VERY strong flavor. Would not recommend using it to anyone but it’s what I’m doing and I have another 5 days of it. So goes life.

By Chris|2018-01-27T21:51:33-07:00January 27th, 2018|Categories: 42 days of Keto Chow Experiment|Tags: experience, 42dayExperiment, Macadamia Nut Oil|0 Comments

42 Days of Keto Chow – Day 22, Macadamia Nut Oil, ruminations on Magnesium

This entry is part 22 of 44 in the series 42 days of Keto Chow Experiment

Day 22, past the half-way point! I started Macadamia Nut oil today. It REALLY adds a roasted macadamia nut flavor to the shake. The one I’m drinking now, the flavor is completely overpowered by the oil. I like macadamia nuts but I’m guessing that by the end of this week of doing the oil, I’m not going to want to eat the nuts for a few months, which is a shame. Got my blood tested today, sometime on Wednesday or so I’ll have those results and add them to the spreadsheet.

Let’s talk about Magnesium. Keto Chow 0.9 up to 1.5 used an off-the-shelf Magnesium/Calcium Citrate+D3 powder. Starting with version 1.9 and up through 2.0.2, we’ve been having magnesium citrate mixed in with the vitamin/mineral mix. Magnesium citrate has good bioavailability but has a downfall: in high doses (higher than you get doing Keto Chow 3x a day), it acts as a laxative. People who are sensitive to this effect, or are already on the edge of having “bowel issues” can have problems with the citrate. To fight that, we are switching from citrate to magnesium malate in Keto Chow 2.1. On top of that, I’m increasing the amount of magnesium. Keto Chow 1.9 had 693.3mg a day, 2.0 has 736mg a day, and 2.1 is slated to have 806mg a day. Essentially it’s 2.0 plus the amount of magnesium I was getting in the magnesium malate pills I took before bed. Yes, it’s entirely for my own personal benefit so I don’t have to take an extra pill at night =)

So why Malate? Well, the most common form of magnesium supplements is magnesium oxide. By weight, magnesium oxide is 60% magnesium which means you add 1000mg to your product and you can legitimately claim on the label that it contains 600mg of magnesium. It’s also exceedingly cheap. And… it sucks. Only about 4% of its elemental magnesium is absorbed from magnesium oxide. Let’s take the 736mg of magnesium a day in Keto Chow 2.0 – 4% of that would only be 29.4mg that your body would be able to actually absorb. The citrate version we currently use and the malate version of the future both are readily bioavailable and nearly completely absorbed. If you see a “health” product that uses magnesium oxide, put it down and run away because they plainly don’t care about your health and only want to make the label look good.

By Chris|2018-01-26T11:05:32-07:00January 26th, 2018|Categories: 42 days of Keto Chow Experiment|Tags: 42dayExperiment, Macadamia Nut Oil, Magnesium, Oil, blood test|4 Comments

42 Days of Keto Chow – Day 21, Running on (almost) empty
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42 Days of Keto Chow – Day 21, Running on (almost) empty

42 days of Keto Chow Experiment

42 Days of Keto Chow – Day 21, Running on (almost) empty

This entry is part 21 of 44 in the series 42 days of Keto Chow Experiment

Yesterday afternoon I went to San Francisco. I was running a little late, made it to the gate just in time for boarding (I actually ran a lot of the way with a big backpack and roll display)… and just as I got there, my phone buzzed to let me know that the plane was delayed due to weather. Instead of leaving at 3, we left at 4:30. So I relaxed for a bit… and was nearly an hour late for the event I was going to SF for. That sucked.

I was able to mix up a 4 meal pitcher of Vanilla, Salted, Caramel, and Chocolate with heavy cream (that I brought in my bags) plus another pitcher with avocado oil. I got to talk to a few people, it might have been worth it, dunno yet. Funnily, the people that tried the samples the most and that I talked to the most were the other vendors. I kept getting “Wow, this actually tastes really good!” Shouldn’t be so surprised but I’ll accept it as a compliment =) I packed everything back up and took BART back to the airport, where I proceeded to wait from 10 pm to 4 am so I could check my bags and get to the gate for my 6 am flight.

I’m really quite tired. I slept for about 30 minutes around 11 pm and for about 2 hours between 2 and 4. Got back home at 10 am, took a shower and checked my ketones. As I mentioned yesterday, instead of dealing with bringing food I just ate all 3 meals before I left and fasted until I got home. When I checked my levels I was at 3.5 mmol/dL – that’s pretty high for doing heavy cream!

Anyway, I’m here at work, just like I was 24 hours ago, waiting for the USPS truck to come and pick up the mail, wishing I was asleep but I have too much to do and my brain is on so I wouldn’t be able to anyway (plus our bedroom is getting holes in the drywall sanded right now and everything is covered by sheets so I couldn’t sleep there if I wanted to (which I do).

By Chris|2018-01-25T12:27:59-07:00January 25th, 2018|Categories: 42 days of Keto Chow Experiment|Tags: preparation, experience, 42dayExperiment|1 Comment