User Experiences

100 Days of Keto (Chow) Day 07

This entry is part 13 of 107 in the series 100 Days of Keto Chow

Week 1 down. 13.2 to go! My daughter made some amazing keto food in the Instant Pot last night – didn’t eat it =( Had some heated up chocolate Keto Chow instead. Today I’m going to try to get another test batch of the in-development savory flavors going. Want to be able to have those far along by the time I’m hitting around day 80 so I can use them in my tests. Speaking of product development and availability: we talked to the company packaging the samples yesterday. It’s looking like we won’t be getting onto the machine until late January or early February. Miriam got a little… “agitated” and told them “we’re dying here!” It was good to have her on the call =) They are trying to do everything they can to squeeze us in wherever they can and a second packaging machine is going to be coming online in February as well so this shouldn’t happen again. We’ll see.

We’re going to be doing our weekly Facebook Live tonight – it’s scheduled for 7:30 pm, mountain time but may start a little late, we have a concert for our kids and I’m not sure what time it will end.

I can report that what I’m eating (3 meals of Keto Chow) is most definitively supportive of a ketogenic diet – I tested my blood ketones at 2.4 mmol/dL this morning with 14.2 ppm on my breath acetone. So, what do those numbers mean? In my own personal opinion: anything over 0.3 mmol/dL of blood ketones means you’re doing really well. You’re producing ketones (ketogenic) and you’re burning ketones (ketosis) as well as fat. Are higher numbers better? They can be if you have a neurological condition that benefits from higher ketones (dementia, Alzheimers, epilepsy, depression, autism, etc…) – higher ketone levels correlate with higher ketone metabolism in the brain so you’d want “therapeutic levels” of ketones. This is also the group that can see potential benefits from using exogenous ketones.

For those that do not have a neurological condition, higher ketones just mean that you have higher ketones. It is academically interesting but it isn’t a predictor of faster weight loss. What I’m eating, combined with how my liver is working, I’m getting relatively high numbers. I like seeing those higher numbers because it assures me personally that the diet I’m eating is A-OK for keto (in the “Chris Bair metabolic model”) beyond a shadow of a doubt, which makes me feel good about recommending it to people as a meal that’s a good idea when doing keto. I’d still be happy if I was at 0.5 or 1.2, or even higher. All of this is why it’s said to “chase results, not ketones” – I’ve gotten my ketones up to 5.8 mmol/dL before (3 meals of Keto Chow a day, only avocado oil, no heavy cream, a little MCT oil) and likely will again during the science portion of this 100 day experiment. It did (and likely will) put my brain into overdrive – which was great as I was doing classes at the time – again: neurological benefit, not necessarily weight loss benefit.

Dr. Berry happened to post a video today that’s also about who should use exogenous ketones:

By |2019-01-08T14:56:00-07:00January 8th, 2019|Categories: Weight Loss, 100 Days of Keto Chow|Tags: , , , , , |0 Comments

100 Days of Keto (Chow) Day 06

This entry is part 12 of 107 in the series 100 Days of Keto Chow

Checked my blood ketones just now, I’m at 2.4 mmol/dL. Strangely enough, I’m only at 8.9 ppm on my breath acetone, I would have expected it to be higher. Miriam and I were discussing this morning how there’s an offset between when we started doing the p90 workouts in the morning (December 31) and when I started the 100 days of Keto Chow challenge (January 2), we’re on week 2 of working out but only week 1 of the challenge. I guess I just need to look at what date it is and subtract 1: 7-1=6.

Had a good weekend with no issues at all sticking to only Keto Chow for all my meals. I only got around to drinking 2 meals of Keto Chow yesterday. I baked salmon for the kids, turned out fantastic and looked super yummy. I had hot Chocolate Keto Chow instead of the salmon because that’s what I’m doing right now. Last night I also mixed up 20 blender bottles of Keto Chow. 18 for me (6 days worth at 3 a day) and two for the Keto Chow storefront so that people who come into the store can try some of the flavors. This morning I mixed up a third one so if you happen to come by our store in South Jordan, Utah this week, you can try: Snickerdoodle, Root Beer Float, or Chocolate Peanut Butter. On a completely unrelated note, we have a fridge for Oh Hello Bakery up front now too that they’ll be stocking up with baked keto treats. Right now we only have some of their keto double chocolate chip cookies. To answer the obvious question: no, they can’t be shipped – it’s local only for now but they’re working on getting shipping nailed down.

For any that are morbidly curious: I’m down to a 5 on the Bristol scale now, looks like I didn’t need to use any probiotics this time when going all Keto Chow for all my meals. I also installed front and rear dashcams in my car on Saturday, looks like they work well. Here’s my drive from home(ish) to work. Yes, I’m WAY behind on my podcast listening =(

By |2019-01-07T11:33:20-07:00January 7th, 2019|Categories: 100 Days of Keto Chow, Weight Loss|Tags: , , , , , |2 Comments

100 Days of Keto (Chow) Day 05

This entry is part 11 of 107 in the series 100 Days of Keto Chow

Really small update today. It’s day 5, I think my digestive tract has quieted down, surprisingly I didn’t really have any issues this time even though I didn’t take a probiotic or anything to help.

See you tomorrow!

By |2019-01-06T20:55:18-07:00January 6th, 2019|Categories: 100 Days of Keto Chow, Weight Loss|Tags: , , , , , |0 Comments

100 Days of Keto (Chow) Day 04

This entry is part 10 of 107 in the series 100 Days of Keto Chow

Day 4 is complete. First day being home. I was expecting it to be a little harder to not eat anything else since I’m at home but thus far I haven’t had any issues at all. I did go to Costco and buy groceries for the family, along with 3 gallons (6 two-quart containers) of 40% fat heavy cream. That’ll last a bit =)

We did another blind taste test, similar to what we did yesterday, with our children today. One of them did NOT prefer Keto Chow, the other 5 did. That brings the total between the 2 tests to 12 individuals, 11 preferring Keto Chow.

By |2019-01-05T17:12:54-07:00January 5th, 2019|Categories: 100 Days of Keto Chow, Weight Loss|Tags: , , , , , |0 Comments

2018 year in review, National Keto Day discount

In case you were unaware, January 5 is “National Keto Day.” Sure it’s a bit contrived and all but whatever! In celebration of National Keto Day, here’s a coupon for 5% off any single order: KetoDay2019 (only works once per person and expires tomorrow night, January 6 – midnight central time I think). Go eat some bacon and avocados today… unless you’re doing like I am and only eating Keto Chow for the next 96 days =)

2018 was an interesting year for all of us at Keto Chow.

More stuff happened, this is what I easily found by looking through my blog posts! I’m suspecting that 2019 will be just as exciting.

100 Days of Keto (Chow) Day 03

This entry is part 9 of 107 in the series 100 Days of Keto Chow

Yesterday I completely forgot to eat breakfast until about 3:00 PM – so I ate breakfast at 3, lunch at 5, and dinner at 7. Ended up with about a 4.5 hour eating window. I hadn’t planned on doing time-restricted feeding (also known by some as Intermittent Fasting) but I guess it just happened. I’ve noticed that I’m a little hungry once I start eating but not hungry at all before I start eating, doing a compressed eating window was extremely satisfying. I felt super full and satisfied – stuffed, really.

I did notice some rumbling in my intestines last night. This morning I didn’t quite have diarrhea – more of a 6 on the Bristol scale. Still doing OK on that front =) Might start taking the probiotics tonight if the rumbling continues.

We are going to be using a local market research company to do some blind taste tests next week, comparing Keto Chow with 4 of our competitors. Should be really interesting to see the results! Anyhow, there was some question about how the different sweeteners would interact. In some previous tests we’ve done, if you taste sucralose after monk fruit it amplifies the sweetness substantially. This morning I wanted to test and see if that would be a problem for the taste test which will be randomized for statistical relevancy. I mixed up all 5 of the ones we will be testing next week according to the manufacturer’s directions and using their recommended amounts for water, oil, etc… I want to give all of them a fair chance and if people like one better than Keto Chow, I want to know it and I want to figure out how I could improve.

A few hours later we did our own blind taste test with the employees (and one customer who happened to come in during the test =) here at Keto Chow. The results were interesting, everyone liked the Keto Chow best – ultimately it wasn’t much of a contest. Like I said: I made sure all were prepared exactly the way recommended by the manufacturer.

By |2019-01-04T14:58:42-07:00January 4th, 2019|Categories: 100 Days of Keto Chow, Weight Loss|Tags: , , , , , |0 Comments

100 Days of Keto (Chow) Day 02

This entry is part 8 of 107 in the series 100 Days of Keto Chow

The first day of Keto Chow only is done, and the initial weigh-in for the city contest is done! I’ll be able to base my progress off that, though the clothes add some additional weight compared to when I weigh myself in the morning. I forgot to check my blood ketones yesterday, so I’ll be missing one data point. I do have breath acetone levels for yesterday though.

Yesterday we went over to my Mom’s house to help her take down Christmas. She made keto fajitas for everyone, I got to drink my Raspberry Cheesecake. So goes the 100 days =) This morning I mixed up 3 days worth of Keto Chow for me (9) and 4 extras for the teenagers that will be inevitably stealing the mixed Keto Chow – I labeled the ones for me because they have 1 tablespoon of MCT in them (and higher calories).

No GI issues to report yet. In the past, when I’ve gone from 2/3 of my meals as Keto Chow to 3/3 as Keto Chow, I’ve had 1-2 days of diarrhea – taking a probiotic usually fixes that quickly. Dunno if it’s the liquid aspect, the fat, or the liquid fat but there seems to be a big difference between mostly and all the way Keto Chow. That said: people who start a keto diet, irrespective of using Keto Chow or not, frequently have issues with “loose stool” – just search the Keto subreddit for “never trust a fart” and you’ll see the reports =)

 

By |2019-01-03T10:26:41-07:00January 3rd, 2019|Categories: 100 Days of Keto Chow, Weight Loss|Tags: , , , , , |0 Comments

Beverly and Her Day 1

This entry is part 1 of 16 in the series 100 Days of Keto Chow - Beverly's Experience

Hi everyone, I’m Beverly!

I am here because keto has changed my life and because Keto Chow has been a defining element in my personal journey from lifelong obesity and yo-yo dieting to an almost-normal weight for the first time at 50 years old.

This morning, I started my own 100-day challenge that I will be doing alongside Chris as he does his.  I will be sharing my weekly experiences and my story with you along the way.

When I read Chris’s blog last Friday, I said, “OH, I WANT TO DO THIS!!” practically before I read his entire post.  In my excitement, honestly, I did miss a few of his important points.  Oops!  Since I work in accounting, I’m a bit of a numbers junkie so that helps.

My weigh-in weight today for the DietBet challenge was 140.6.  I am overwhelmingly grateful to already weigh 120 pounds less than I weighed at my heaviest weight of 261.  This fact made it difficult for me to determine at what calorie point to start this challenge.  According to the Ankerl keto calculator, my maintenance point is 1300 calories per day.  However, I am a very lazy ketoer who has not recently tracked my food and does not know if that predictive number rings true for me.

Another critical point is that I do not have a goal weight.  Weight charts say that I am overweight but I am so much less overweight than I used to be that I just simply don’t know how much I should weigh.  I have never weighed less than 130 which is a number I briefly saw in May of this year.  Therefore, I will just use 1300 as my starting point (at least for a few days) and see what happens!  I’ll be keeping track in Cronometer.  Maybe I won’t even lose any weight on this venture.  We will find out as we go along!

I started living with a low carb diet (I mean this in the permanent sense of “how I eat” rather than in the temporary sense typically used) in May 2016.  By February 2017, I had lost about 80 pounds with “lazy keto” and leveled off around the weight of 180 without any effort or change in my eating habits.  When my husband started a medically-supervised weight loss plan in November 2017, I matched my efforts to his by using Keto Chow meal replacement shakes to keep my calories low like his.

Whoa!!  What happened?!?  My body, which had never weighed less than 170-180 since junior high, dropped about 50 more pounds in four months.  I was astonished as the weight loss occurred and I continue to be astonished to this day that my body was capable of such change and that Keto Chow was the right tool to help make it happen.

For this 2019 challenge, I am nervously sharing the following side-by-side photos which were taken this morning with a timer in my employer’s restroom.  After the last photo was taken, I hurriedly put my sweater back on before returning to my desk.  I never show my upper arms in public – and rarely even in private – so this submission is about keeping it real so that true progress (or lack thereof) can be seen in the end.

Yes, I have some loose skin after losing 120+ pounds!  Oh well . . . !  Thank goodness for shirts with ¾-length sleeves.

As I write this, I have nearly completed Day 1.  I have had two coffees with heavy cream and sweetener, two iced teas with sweetener, and three Diet Cokes – along with two Keto Chow shakes made with heavy cream (½ Chocolate + ½ Salted Caramel = one of my favorite combinations).  My not-yet-empty bag of roasted & salted almonds from last week sure looked tempting earlier so I promptly gave them to a co-worker.

I am looking forward to warming my third shake of the day in my huge soup mug and enjoying it as I unwind and talk to my wonderful husband about the day.

By |2019-03-20T14:52:00-06:00January 2nd, 2019|Categories: 100 Days of Keto Chow|Tags: , , , |1 Comment

100 Days of Keto (Chow) Day 01

This entry is part 7 of 107 in the series 100 Days of Keto Chow

And so it begins! Today is Day 1 of my 100 days of just eating Keto Chow for all my meals. I’ll be heading over to the Riverton City offices this afternoon to do the weigh-in for their 6 week weight loss challenge and yesterday I did the weigh-in for the DietBet challenge I’m doing as well – there’s still time for you to join in the fun on that one if you need some motivation for 2019.

Today I need to contact a bunch of people that have been away during Christmas vacation – it’ll be nice to get things rolling again on the various projects we have!

By |2019-01-02T10:46:09-07:00January 2nd, 2019|Categories: 100 Days of Keto Chow, Weight Loss|Tags: , , , , , |0 Comments

100 Days of Keto (Chow) Day -1

This entry is part 5 of 107 in the series 100 Days of Keto Chow

I did just learn that UPS isn’t going to be picking up the packages we shipped today, that’ll delay those packages by 1 business day but 2 actual days. Guess I should have known that since it’s on their website. Bunch of slackers!

We are having our traditional “Keto New Year’s” party tonight with our family and some friends. There are 2 boxes of crackers for the children that aren’t doing keto but the rest of the food will be ultra low carb (and delicious!). It’s also the last party I’ll be having any food at for about 4 months, so I gotta make it count =) Here’s what we’re planning on:

  • Bacon wrapped Jalapeno poppers
  • Little Smokies in “G Hughes” BBQ sauce
  • Shrimp (with low carb cocktail sauce – it’s sugar free ketchup and horseradish)
  • Diet soda with heavy cream
  • Keto Eggnog
  • Bacon Ranch Cheese ball with crackers
  • Spinach artichoke dip
  • Deviled eggs

Just to be clear: I’m not trying to gain any weight before the contest, that’ll just be more to lose.  I actually lost weight this morning according to my scale. I’m just enjoying some fantastic keto foods before the experiment starts up. Speaking of the weight loss challenge: there are 136 people doing the Keto Chow DietBet challenge, that’s more than I anticipated, cool!

On a COMPLETELY unrelated note: I needed to do some bulk editing of the draft posts for the 100 days of Keto Chow (I used a plugin and a CSV to pre-populate them so I won’t mess things up), ALMOST everything came through right except for the order the posts would appear in the series. They popped into what looked like a completely random order. That meant I got to dust off my SQL skills and do a JOIN query to get all of the postmeta.meta_value for all the posts.post_title LIKE ‘100 Days of Keto (Chow)%’ then I got to change the value and re-populate them into the database with the right number. This was the kind of thing I used to do ALL DAY back in 2009-2014, it’s amazing how quickly I have to go back to StackExchange and get the correct syntax.

 

By |2018-12-31T15:41:32-07:00December 31st, 2018|Categories: Weight Loss, 100 Days of Keto Chow|Tags: , , , , , |0 Comments