Future Foods

Keto Chow BlenderBottles are back in stock
Gallery
Keto Chow BlenderBottles are back in stock

Preparation, Keto Chow

Keto Chow BlenderBottles are back in stock

We ordered a bunch of Keto Chow branded BlenderBottles back in January to restock the ones we were using up rather quickly – we still ended up running out of stock on just about all the colors. Well, that’s over and we have all 10 colors back in stock, including black. We actually have another, even larger, order going already – it’s super fun trying to anticipate how much we’ll need 4-5 months in advance.

The previous 2 orders were small enough, we were able to simply drive 20 minutes to the BlenderBottle offices and pick it up, this order was three 8 foot pallets, so we had it delivered instead =) Anyhow, you can order them on https://store.ketochow.xyz/28-oz-keto-chow-blender-bottle/

By Chris|2017-05-08T07:48:33-06:00May 8th, 2017|Categories: Preparation, Keto Chow|Tags: portability, preparation, Keto Chow, BlenderBottle|0 Comments

Sometimes it’s just easiest to fast!
Gallery
Sometimes it’s just easiest to fast!

Keto Chow, On Tour, Ketogenic Diet

Sometimes it’s just easiest to fast!

This entry is part 75 of 131 in the series Ketogenic Diet

It’s February… again. That must mean it’s time for the #rootstech conference. Like last year, the last several days we’ve been setting up computers and the rest of the week (through Saturday) we’re running computer labs. Every year I’m always faced with the decision of what to do for food since there’s not any food at the conference that’s not carbs, carbs, carbs, with a little protein and fat. I can either bring Keto Chow in HydroFlasks, or I can just not worry about eating and Intermittent Fast instead – eating all my food when I get home. Today I’m opting for the fasting approach because sometimes it’s easier to not eat anything. I’ll be drinking water throughout the day and I have a bunch of Keto Chow at home for when I get done… at whatever time that is. I might drink 3 shakes or I might drink one and then melt a bunch of cheese and eat it with a fork.

By Chris|2017-02-08T09:22:04-07:00February 8th, 2017|Categories: Keto Chow, On Tour, Ketogenic Diet|Tags: Keto Chow, fasting, User Experiences, on location, portability, preparation|0 Comments

Update on Keto Chow 2.0 – another delay, but there’s hope!
Gallery
Update on Keto Chow 2.0 – another delay, but there’s hope!

Keto Chow, Future Foods, Ketogenic Diet

Update on Keto Chow 2.0 – another delay, but there’s hope!

To recap for those who don’t live and breathe this stuff:

I’m in the final stages of having Keto Chow produced at a contract manufacturer.
Keto Chow 2.0 differs from Keto Chow 1.9 on the protein/flavor/sweetener – I’m not able to get Dymatize Elite in 500KG batches so by necessity we have to get our own stuff to replace it. The most obvious difference will be the flavoring in KC2.0 will be our own stuff.

Anyhow, we ran into a problem with the manufacturing. I had the co-packer make me some new test batches and the flavors came back really weird. Initially, I thought it was the potassium chloride we added but after extensive testing, it turned out to be a problem in the protein powder. The initial tests they did were with a random equivalent protein powder and the new samples were straight from the bulk powder they purchased for our batches. We’ve gone back and tried some different flavoring and some bitter masking agents but to no avail.

I’m not going to sell a product I don’t love. It has to have a “wow, that was really good, I want more!” going for it or it’s not going to be released.

So, as of today, we’re going to use a different protein powder from a different manufacturer. It’s likely this will add some to the cost, I’m hoping it’s less than $1-2 and we’re still aiming to have KC2.0 cost less than KC1.9. This means that Keto Chow 2.0 is going to be delayed. If we can find a direct drop-in replacement for the protein powder it may be as little as a week before we get things going.

We’re coming up on almost a year since I decided to start this endeavor – I hope we can be shipping 2.0 well before Fed 15th.

Update!

This morning we headed down to the manufacturer to work on the problem. We brought along a Keto Chow 1.9 rich chocolate in powder form, a bag of Dymatize Rich Chocolate for comparison, and a blender bottle of mixed Chocolate Peanut Butter. He had complained that it didn’t taste very good and he didn’t feel confident evaluating the mixes so when he had the Chocolate Peanut Butter (with the heavy cream) he was astonished in the extreme “Oh wow, that’s actually really good” – yep that’s the goal! We did a bunch of various tests combining different stuff together but the most telling test was when we tasted the plain whey protein in water… and the bad taste was there! After that, he said he was going to go back to the distributor and get a refund and/or exchange it for a different protein. He said the protein guys may send out a food scientist to work on the problem but ideally, we may have a solution (maybe) quickly.

By Chris|2017-01-30T14:34:41-07:00January 30th, 2017|Categories: Keto Chow, Future Foods, Ketogenic Diet|Tags: Keto Chow, flavors, ketochow2.0, Whey Protein Isolate, ingredient costs, Prices, recipe, ketogenic|2 Comments

3 years of powdered food – from People Chow to Keto Chow
Gallery
3 years of powdered food – from People Chow to Keto Chow

Keto Chow, Future Foods, Weight Lifting, Ketogenic Diet

3 years of powdered food – from People Chow to Keto Chow

This entry is part 34 of 35 in the series DIY Future Foods

On January 13, 2014 I did the first post on my blog about trying nutritionally complete “future foods”. It corresponds to my first submission on Reddit (my reddit “cake day” is January 9, 2014 BTW). The Image up top is of my very first batch of powdered food, People Chow 2.3.0 at the time (I still have all 3 of those blender bottles, used the yellow one yesterday). It’s been an interesting journey. You can read some of my earlier “in review” posts if you want the full story:

January 22nd, 2014: DIY soylent – Week 1
February 18th, 2014: 1 month on DIY nutritionally complete “future foods”
June 18th, 2014: My thoughts on (s)oylent – this one is interesting because it’s the first mention of a ketogenic diet
June 19th, 2014: First order in the shopping cart: Rob P. ordered a week of People Chow.
November 4th, 2014: The Nuclear Option: Ketogenic nutritionally complete “future foods”
November 18th, 2014: 1 month in doing Ketosis – Time for an update
December 23rd, 2014: 3 months of Keto – update
January 1st, 2015: New ketogenic recipe in development, it’s moar betterer – first mention of Keto Chow recipe
January 6th, 2015: A year in review – 365 days doing (mostly) nutritionally complete “future foods”
January 29th, 2015: Changing stuff around here – added credit card payments and announced I was stopping selling People Chow
April 21st, 2015: 6 months of Keto, I’m 81% the man I used to be
October 20th, 2015: 1 Year of Keto, 77% the man I used to be
September 21st, 2016: NMR Cholesterol Blood Test Results: I’m still alive (what a relief!) – 2.5 years of blood tests compared

3 years ago I weighed 260lbs (I’m 5′ 13″), my low point was at 200 in October 2015. I slacked off and did “lazy keto” without tracking my intake, just sticking to low-carb foods, and you can see that on my graph:

Recently I re-committed to getting back on track for realsies. It’s a bit pathetic: I know exactly what I need to do to lose weight – it’s rather simple so I should just do it, which I am. Since January 1, 2017, I haven’t eaten anything until after I logged it in Cron-O-Meter. Unsurprisingly, it’s working quite well. Guess I should have read my own stuff =) I was at a post-new year’s high of 223.7 and now I’m at 215 after a week and a half.

You can expect to see my weight graph more frequently now as it goes down further (and I’m less ashamed of the trend =). So there you have it: 3 years of blogging about “Engineered Staple Food” aka “soylent” – this post is number 371.

By Chris|2018-06-26T08:47:11-06:00January 13th, 2017|Categories: Keto Chow, Future Foods, Weight Lifting, Ketogenic Diet|Tags: Keto Chow, User Experiences, preparation, experience, Weight loss, results, ketogenic|0 Comments

Keto Chow branded Blender Bottles now available in 10 colors
Gallery
Keto Chow branded Blender Bottles now available in 10 colors

Keto Chow, On Tour, Preparation

Keto Chow branded Blender Bottles now available in 10 colors

This entry is part 70 of 131 in the series Ketogenic Diet

I’m happy (my wife is even happier!) to announce that we now have 10 colors of Keto Chow branded 28 oz. Blender Bottles (actual, genuine, Blender Bottles – not cheap knock offs) in stock and available. This comes after about 2 weeks of delays due to holidays and snowstorms. They all look pretty awesome with the Keto Chow logo. We’ve had black ones with the logo for a while but reserved those for the “Sample all the things” flavor sampler, now anyone can get them in a wide variety of colors:

We still have around 20 of the regular Pink Blender Bottles without the Keto Chow logo. We don’t have to observe the “minimum advertised price” rules with the ones that have our logo on them, but the plain ones can’t be advertised for any less than $7.79 – but if you order some and add coupon code PINKBB you might see that price drop $2.

By Chris|2019-05-23T08:21:33-06:00January 5th, 2017|Categories: Keto Chow, On Tour, Preparation|Tags: Keto Chow, Blender Bottle, portability, preparation|0 Comments

New site feature: Custom Calorie Calculator
Gallery
New site feature: Custom Calorie Calculator

Ketogenic Diet, Keto Chow, Preparation

New site feature: Custom Calorie Calculator

This entry is part 64 of 131 in the series Ketogenic Diet

I just added a new tool to the Nutrition Information page: a calorie customizer.

It’s simple to use, just put in the calories you want for the day and it’ll tell you how much heavy cream and/or oil to use. It will also tell you how many grams of carbs, protein, and fat you’ll be getting in each meal. It’s pretty awesome =) One thing to note: some of the fine details are different from what you’d get on the nutrition labels – among other things I discovered the protein content and calories for the heavy cream were off by a tiny amount. This calculator is using all the latest information I have available and using the USDA values for Heavy Cream. The heavy cream you use may have slightly different values too (which I think is what happened, I probably had values in for the “Darigold 40” I get from Costco).

For fun, it’s also right here:

By Chris|2019-01-03T10:47:03-07:00October 27th, 2016|Categories: Ketogenic Diet, Keto Chow, Preparation|Tags: Keto Chow, nutrition|6 Comments

Keto at a Conference, round 2
Gallery
Keto at a Conference, round 2

Ketogenic Diet, Keto Chow, On Tour

Keto at a Conference, round 2

This entry is part 62 of 131 in the series Ketogenic Diet

A year ago I detailed how I used HydroFlask insulated containers to keep my Keto Chow nice and cold while I was attending classes at the DreamForce Conference in San Francisco. I did it again a few months ago when I used a similar tactic on a trip to DisneyLand. Well, last week was DreamForce again – but this time, I had a new trick in my arsenal: Keto Chow muffins. I used the “brownie” recipe since it makes nice, substantial, muffins that stood up quite well to being in a backpack for a few days. I cooked 12 meals worth a day before I left and froze them so they would last longer out of the fridge. When we reached the AirBNB (that was half way to San Jose, it was nuts) I put my bags of muffins in the fridge along with the Trader Joe’s shelf-stable whipping cream.

For liquid Keto Chow, I brought along 4 days worth of Cookies & Cream in day packs – made for easy transport and since I was mixing up 3 blender bottles at a time, I used a carton of cream and a day pack of Keto Chow in their entirety each time. The blender bottles would go in the fridge for overnight chilling and most of the time I just kept it in the blender bottle and had that for breakfast with 2 meals worth of the muffins in ziploc bags in my backpack (along with keto snacks). Here’s my backpack ready for a day of class:

The muffins were nice and flexible since they should last unrefrigerated for at least 3 days. If I ended up having something keto at a restaurant, the muffins would go back into the fridge when I got home for the next days’ meals. In all, it worked out great: I stayed in ketosis, didn’t gain any weight on the trip, and didn’t have to worry about meals. This last point was really important as our AirBNB sucked for finding a place to eat. One of the guys I was traveling with ended up having several of my muffins on several occasions rather than going out for food after a long day walking around.

I ate Keto Chow in class, in line, walking down the street, I even ate two of the muffins on Alcatraz island (in the area where food is permitted, naturally).

By Chris|2016-10-14T07:17:50-06:00October 12th, 2016|Categories: Ketogenic Diet, Keto Chow, On Tour|Tags: on location, easy meals, portability, preparation, experience, Keto Chow, User Experiences|0 Comments

Never fear, I’m packing my own food =)
Gallery
Never fear, I’m packing my own food =)

Future Foods, On Tour, Ketogenic Diet, Keto Chow

Never fear, I’m packing my own food =)

Attending a class this morning, it lasts 3 days. As expected, the “breakfast” consisted of pastries, juice and other stuff I will not eat. Good thing I have Keto Chow in my backpack (plus a bunch of snacks and stuff)

I have breakfast and lunch in Hydro Flask insulated containers and dinner is a bag of Keto Chow brownie muffins. I mixed up the liquid Keto Chow last night before going to bed and made the muffins back on Thursday night when I froze them for better travel.

By Chris|2016-10-14T07:17:50-06:00October 1st, 2016|Categories: Future Foods, On Tour, Ketogenic Diet, Keto Chow|Tags: on location, portability, preparation, Salesforce, Keto Chow, User Experiences|0 Comments

Revised Keto Chow Brownie/Muffin recipe
Gallery
Revised Keto Chow Brownie/Muffin recipe

Preparation, Ketogenic Diet, Keto Chow

Revised Keto Chow Brownie/Muffin recipe

This entry is part 60 of 131 in the series Ketogenic Diet

My original Keto Chow brownie/bar recipe was a bit of a hack, luckily one of my readers refined the recipe and shared his changes. The result is a much better “brownie” recipe that also makes extremely good muffins. Here is the updated recipe, and here are some photos from last night:

I’ve made it “Brownie” style in a pan and then cut up but I ended up with an uncooked center section. Splitting it up into “muffins” removes that problem entirely and makes it less crumbly so it’s easier to transport. I made 6 “meals” with 3 muffins being a meal.

Personally, I like this better than the muffins made with the pancake/muffin recipe since they don’t collapse after cooling. I’m planning on making a batch next time I’m traveling since it doesn’t absolutely require refrigeration for a few days and transports easily.

By Chris|2019-05-23T08:17:16-06:00September 22nd, 2016|Categories: Preparation, Ketogenic Diet, Keto Chow|Tags: portability, preparation, recipe, ketogenic, Keto Chow, on location, User Experiences, easy meals|0 Comments

Random Photos and Fun (plus an update on KC2.0)
Gallery
Random Photos and Fun (plus an update on KC2.0)

On Tour, Keto Chow

Random Photos and Fun (plus an update on KC2.0)

This entry is part 55 of 131 in the series Ketogenic Diet

We went camping over the weekend. As usual, we ate a lot of bacon, sausage, and eggs (with hash browns for the kids, who aren’t doing keto). We were at Willard Bay, a freshwater reservoir that was built adjacent to the Great Salt Lake by erecting a dike – essentially a dam around the entire area. The water is relatively warm and it’s not very busy. The main thing is: it’s close to us and since we were taking a camp trailer PLUS wave runners (super awesome 1996 Polaris ones I got for cheap on Craig’s list – hey, they work) I didn’t want to go very far. I had Keto Chow for lunch at the water (which was far more tasty than the sandwiches the kids were eating), as did my wife (see photo above).

Last night my wife pointed out a box one of my kids has drawn on. Apparently, he thinks we need to introduce a new flavor. I especially like the logo and the QR code.

This morning my “daily movie quote” calendar was full of awesome. Soylent Green is people; Keto Chow is ground-up low-carb hippies.

Finally an update on Keto Chow 2.0: Yesterday I went to visit the co-packing place to pick up a new batch of flavor tests. Overall they’re excellent. Vanilla, Strawberry, and Chocolate are awesome (strawberry needs some more pink color which is unrelated to taste but whatever). The Cookie and Cream flavor was buttery tasting with not enough “oreo” aspect, maybe needs some chocolate? It’s still good though, more like a butter cookie. The Chocolate Peanut Butter is interesting.

The Chocolate Peanut Butter is interesting. The facility has an employee that’s allergic to peanuts. This means that using actual peanut flour at that location isn’t an option. The first solution is to have a different facility do the packaging of the Chocolate Peanut Butter, we’re looking at that. The second solution is to use a peanut butter flavor that doesn’t contain any of the problematic proteins. We tried some of that and there was a slight hint of peanut taste but nothing like what we currently get with the chocolate peanut butter flavor using real peanut flour. With this being my #1 favorite flavor you can be assured that I will not compromise on anything less than “this is yummy enough to drink for a month straight, I want MOAR!”. He also gave me a mocha (I think coffee anything smells like burnt toast so I got a guy testing it for me). The Snickerdoodle flavor wasn’t ready yet, I’m thinking about adding a Salted Carmel and maybe a Banana flavor – dunno. In all, it’s a definitive step in the right direction!

By Chris|2016-10-14T07:17:51-06:00August 16th, 2016|Categories: On Tour, Keto Chow|Tags: on location, preparation, experience, Keto Chow, ketochow2.0|1 Comment