Keto Chow

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!

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.

Quick Sunday update, getting snacks ready for my family to enjoy while watching the game.

Well, the DietBet is all finalized and done. Looks like each person that lost 4% or more of their body weight ended up getting a grand total of $13.41 from their $10 entry fee. what is that? A 34% return after 4 weeks? It’s not a TON of money but it’s better than nothing I guess. I did another challenge that was $30 entry and I won $36.16 and the 3rd one I did was a $100 entry and I got back $100 – I’m guessing that means that enough people “Won” that the split for each person was less than the entry so DietBet was true to their word and we got back all of the entry fee.

I’ve been going through and verifying everyone’s weights to determine the 3 Keto Chow prize winners – I’m waiting just a little bit longer for any stragglers. If you still need to put in your entry, please hurry! Here is the form: https://goo.gl/forms/ybjOvsYjG5jsNfB32

For any that have met up at trade shows: Steve is now working here at Keto Chow full-time. We have some stuff coming down the pipeline in the next few months and we need to get ready to go so we’re not slammed =). Steve thinks we need a smoker here at the office.

Day 30. I had someone on Reddit ask how it’s been doing an all-liquid diet for the last month. Really the only issue I’ve had is that I needed to take a probiotic to deal with the digestive issues that cropped up (finally did that on day 16). Other than that, it’s gone just fine. I haven’t overeaten anything, I occasionally get hungry until I get distracted by work or something and then finally eat like 6 hours later when I remember I was “hungry” (actually more like I was BORED). I haven’t had to take vitamins, though I do still need to take magnesium due to a fun family trait of needing rather hefty supplementation of magnesium. My beard was getting longer until I trimmed it, don’t think that has anything to do with my diet though. As of yesterday, I was down 18.3 lbs since I started all this. All-in-all I think the experiment is going quite well. I did remember yesterday that I’m planning on doing some longer fasts right before the final weigh-in for the city contest. Guess I need to get working on preparation for that.