Well, I’m at the 6 week mark, that means from here out I’ve been eating ONLY Keto Chow for longer than I’ve ever done before. I’m down a total of 22.7lbs right now (down 2.4 from yesterday, obviously all water weight).
I’ll be starting the controlled variable/science portion of the test on Friday with my first blood test.
Dinner was fun last night, we had some neighbors coming over so I tried cooking a bunch of southern/country style pork ribs (which are just big strips of fatty pork, no rib bones) in the crock pot Sunday morning. I checked them about 2 hours before dinner and the center part was still raw. Instant Pot to the rescue! After an hour in the instant pot they were literally falling apart: perfect! We got dinner ready and right about the time the couple we had invited over for dinner showed up, another neighbor (T1DM, she’s been on a previous Facebook live) showed up as well, it was just a jamboree! Lindsay, the T1, has been doing keto since Thanksgiving (and saving a TON on medication) and the dinner conversation was pretty much just all about keto. Our neighbors had recently read a book called Dirty, Lazy, Keto, so we talked about that and other fun stuff. I drank some chocolate Keto Chow that I heated up in a mug.
Today it showed more so I got to listen to Dr. Bret Scher interviewing Dr. Sarah Hallberg on my cool headphones while I was snow blowing the driveway. Keeps my ears warm and my mind entertained =). I’m just about done with the design of the new sample packaging with the new logo. I think as soon as it gets finished I’m going to put in a massive order so we don’t run out of samples ever again.
Short Sunday update. Just making “southern style” pork ribs in the instant pot for our dinner tonight, rather everyone else’s dinner ?
Smoked a brisket, didn’t eat any of it ?
It’s been quite the whirlwind day. Yesterday evening we went to Drew Manning’s house for the launch of his 2nd book. Drew is the “Fit 2 Fat 2 Fit” guy, in case you were unaware. They had a bunch of amazing keto food at the party, I was the chump that wasn’t eating anything, just drinking water. Might as well have just told people I was fasting =)
This morning I had to get up early, trim a brisket, put it in the smoker and then get ready for the rest of the day. The smoker was set for 235 and when the meat hit 150 I wrapped it in foil, then went to work for a few hours to finally get something done. Several of our children came as well and helped put together some of the Keto Chow sample bundles, I expect we’ll still need to make several on Monday morning to get all the orders out. Came home and helped make dippin’ dots using melted ice cream and liquid nitrogen – it’s what my daughter wanted to do for dessert before their school dance. Then I sliced up the brisket. Dang, that looked REALLY good and smelled amazing. I think I’ll make another one on April 14 =).
Yesterday was a little crazy. We finally got the samples back in stock and this morning it’s a bit of a mad-house around here getting the sample bundles put together so we can ship them out. I spent much of yesterday afternoon and evening constantly answering questions that kept coming in from very excited people that wanted to get samples!
I think, by far, my favorite post was this one from the /r/keto subreddit:
Folks with experience with Keto Chow – would you think they are out of sample packs because business is booming so hard that they can’t keep up – or is it just an operational issue the new entrepreneurs are grappling with? Dropping $65 on a bag of Chow that I don’t end up liking is NOT going to break the bank, but I’d really like to try several flavors to see which ones tickle my fancy.
Also – is their shake-it-up cup unique in some way – or can I get a few similar shake-it-up cups to have at home / office / yacht / helicopter?
My reply (typed out on my phone while at the Cub Scouts Blue and Gold Banquet where everyone else was eating a potato bar and I was drinking Root Beer Float Keto Chow):
I swear I didn’t put you up to this: we literally just got the sample packs back in stock today.
They should have never been out of stock, I had the packaging printed and ordered the components mixed in more than enough time but the company that puts the packaging around the powder (in a super awesome machine) was having production issues. I think we were promised to have the samples 6 different times starting in October. When the new delivery date was projected to be the beginning of February I started looking for other places that could do it. The best one that I found wanted an extra $1000 set up for each flavor and was charging 700% to package each sample.
We finally got them, but only half of the order. The rest are coming in March (maybe). I expect that we’ll be just about out of the ones we got today when the next batch comes so I’m already getting together another (far larger) order started next week with our new logo and package design… just as soon as I can spend about 3 hours of quality time with Adobe Illustrator.
Anyhow. To answer the question: it’s a combination of both fantastic growth and demand + stupid production issues beyond my control (my favorite kind, not). It’s been brutal without the samples. People want to try it because they’ve heard awesome things and I want them to be able to try it and blow their minds, but they couldn’t for the last while.
The shaker cups are 28 ounce Blender Bottle Classic Loop cups that happen to have the (old) Keto Chow logo on them. If you already have shaker cups, you go right ahead and use those. Dang, I gotta get a yacht. Does a 1996 Yamaha wave runner count? I bought it off Craigslist for $500 a few years ago.
If you order $100 of stuff from us, the shopping cart will give you a $6 discount on a blender bottle, bringing the cost down to $1. I really like Blender Bottle cups and am still using several I bought in 2014. We constantly get cheap shaker cup companies that blather about how much they can save us by using theirs instead but they always suck compared to the original. We’re getting new cups with the new Keto Chow logo around the 20th of this month.
I did finally get over to weigh-in for the city weight loss challenge. I also noticed that the guy’s tracking sheet went out to 9 weeks. Dunno how I missed this but unlike previous years where the challenge was 6 weeks, this year it’s 9 weeks. So I’m not finishing next Wednesday, I’m finishing on February 28. OK, that changes some stuff! I guess that means I won’t be doing a 3+ day fast next week, just before the end because I’ll already be into the science portion of my 100 days of Keto Chow and will be controlling variables tightly. Though that means I get 3 additional weeks of nice and steady weight loss.
As for today, I need to head over to a welding supply store and fill up my 6L Dewar with liquid nitrogen so my daughter can make “Dippin Dots” for a school dance, and then I get to buy a brisket so I can smoke that for their dinner (which I won’t be eating). Fun Stuff!
Done with the video shoot, time to get back to work! (ever had one of those days when you feel like you’re drowning in projects that need to get done, you start on one but can’t finish because a new “#1 priority” keeps popping up every 15 minutes?)
On set yesterday they caterer was super nice and had a bunch of great keto food ready for us… that I didn’t eat =) Miriam did, though – he even specifically made her some garlic butter shrimp scampi. We forgot to eat dinner again last night, which was fine as we didn’t get home until 10:30 and I really don’t like eating that late. I wasn’t really hungry either so that worked out fine. It was cool teaching all the cast and crew about Keto.
I tried to weigh in for the Riverton weight loss challenge yesterday but the building was closed because of the snow that fell yesterday. I tried again this morning and the office was closed for a “mandatory employee meeting” until 9:30. Good thing I took nearly an hour to drive the 5 miles to and from the city office in the snow this morning.
In closing, here’s a photo from yesterday’s shoot. The sucker weighs 5lbs!
So, my wonderful husband lost 6.8 pounds in January for the DietBet challenge!! He did not “win” because he lost less than 4% of his weight but 6.8 pounds is a lot and I am so proud of him. I considered joining another keto DietBet challenge but decided that probably was not a very good idea because it is highly unlikely that I would be able to lose another 4% in a month. I am not willing to part with my cash easily. ;)
You have certainly heard many keto people talk about their concerns regarding nutrients, macros, and supplements. (Sometimes that concern is actually the thing that leads them to Keto Chow because it is nutritionally complete!) Personally, I was never before concerned about nutrients and never tracked my macros. I never even counted my carbs before starting on Keto Chow. I just knew what foods were low carb foods, and I ate those foods – as much as I wanted to eat. (Don’t knock it – I lost about 80 pounds that way!) Becoming a customer of Keto Chow though led me on a path to understanding of electrolytes, macros, and calories.
For years, I had a shoebox full of vitamins and minerals that I took twice a day without fail, but I honestly didn’t know the reason why I took most of them. After educating myself by reading everything on the Keto Chow website and all of the books and links that were referenced, I decided to enter into Cronometer an entire day’s worth of every single thing I was consuming. It was eye-opening! I realized just how many things I was over-consuming and where I was lacking. I immediately made adjustments. The supplements I take now are fish oil (1600 mg Omega 3), iron (27 mg), potassium (90 mg), and a probiotic. The most important thing for me has been the increase of sodium. Without extra sodium (substantially more than Keto Chow provides), I feel weak and shaky. Now that the Fasting Drops are in stock, I am planning to order some of those!
When I wrote my post last week, January hadn’t quite ended. I can now report that my official weight loss for January was 3.6 pounds with an initial weigh-in on January 2 of 135.6 and a February 1 weigh-in of 132. It is sooooo difficult to be excited about 3.6 pounds but I am trying to be. Losing (almost) one pound per week is great but it does not sound like much. :(
Times like this, I have to remind myself of how far I have come. I recently posted this picture on Reddit. My mother had said to me in December, “Could you have ever imagined you would look like this at 50?” Heck, no! I have been struggling with obesity since fifth grade! Her comment really hit me and made me start thinking about how I felt about myself and about my life when I was 40 and made me take this comparison photo. When I was 40, I could have never imagined so much could change in my life. Now at 50, I am so grateful to realize that big changes can occur at any stage in life.
When I was heavier and yo-yo dieting, slow/small results would have sent me on a sugar binge cycle that resulted in certain weight gain and possible derailment of further efforts for weeks or even months or sometimes years. It did not take much to make me think that efforts were not worth the results. I finally possess the maturity (hopefully) and the wisdom (only by experience) in life to continue making the same choices each day as I would have if I had lost two or three times as much last month. Being on a liquid diet is hard work though. It takes determination and commitment to face the challenges of social discomfort, hunger, lack of variety, absence of chewing motion, mourning of snacks… seeing results is what makes those challenges worth it. I am trying to remind myself that persistence will be the key.
This week, I have really struggled with “hunger”. I just want to eat! During the day at work, I feel like I think about snacks all day long. When I was at a Mexican restaurant with my husband on Sunday, I was overwhelmed by the smells and the sizzling plates. But I keep on powering through. Maybe I need to buy some sugar free gum… My meal times continue to be 4:00 pm, 6:00-7:00 pm, and 8:00 pm. And I am getting plenty of calories. But I do miss eating. Here again, I have to remind myself of previous times in life. Last time I did a liquid diet (November 2017 to February 2018), I was doing 900 calories a day. So what I am doing now is much easier than that was. (The results I saw during that time were awesome though – I lost 50 pounds in four months!)
Tomorrow morning, I am headed out of town to visit one of my sisters. I have been fretting a bit about how I am going to manage my liquid diet while being away from home for four days. Baggies of Keto Chow samples and bouillon cubes will be with me, and I will be fine. My focus and attention will be on my sister and her family rather than on the food (or lack thereof). I am so excited to go spend time with them!
Quick update today. Yesterday was spend on-set for a video we’re having made. The caterer had bacon and eggs for breakfast and brisket for lunch specifically to accommodate us… except I wasn’t eating anything but Keto Chow =(. Still, Miriam got some and was able to bring her Keto Chow home that was supposed to be her lunch. Driving home in a blizzard and then doing our Facebook Live with Branda Zorn we both completely forgot to have any dinner. So goes Keto =)
The video shoot was cool, especially awesome was this conversation:
Producer: Hey Melanie, do you need a spit cup for that? We’re doing a lot of takes.
Main character: Oh no, it’s really good, I like drinking it!
You know that’s right =) I’ll have more details about what is going on later, until then I’ll leave you with this:
Everything is still going great, We’re going to be at a video shoot all day which means either: fast, or pack Keto Chow in HydroFlasks. We went for the latter option so we wouldn’t be fretting about food and can concentrate on the shoot instead. I’m guessing it’ll be similar to when we did the taste test: absolutely captivating for us, would be terribly boring for anyone else because it’s not “their baby” =)
We’ll be doing our Facebook Live tonight, though I’m not sure if we’ll be doing it in the car while driving back from the shoot or doing a really quick one DURING the shoot, or what – the schedule has it going until late this evening so… your guess is as good as mine.
On a happy note: all of the samples are done packaging except for the Eggnog and that’s running today. I’m not sure when we’ll be getting the truck loads of samples, it could be today, could be tomorrow, could be Thursday. If you’re subscribed to the Keto Chow email newsletter (it’s at the bottom of every page on our site) you’ll know just as soon as we have them ready.
Didn’t even realize yesterday that I was at the 1/3 mark of my 100 days =) Anyhow I successfully didn’t eat any of the snacks we made for the game yesterday and I’m moving right along without a problem on my 100 days. Today is crazy busy, I’m finalizing some of the package design incorporating the new logo and we’re getting ready for a video shoot tomorrow.
The content of this website is not intended for the treatment or prevention of disease, nor as a substitute for medical treatment, nor as an alternative to medical advice. Use of recommendations is at the choice and risk of the reader. If you are on any medication, please consult with your family doctor before starting any new eating plan. Keto Chow is not intended to treat, cure or prevent any disease. Pregnant or breast feeding women should consult their health care professional before consuming.
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