chris

About chris

Chris Bair is a computer geek and SalesForce.com system administrator for his "day job". He became involved in the powdered foods (aka "soylent") movement in January 2014, originally with a conventional recipe and later switching to a high fat, low carb "ketogenic" variant on October 2014. In January 2015 he created the recipe for Keto Chow and released it without restriction for anyone to use, at the same time he began mixing the recipe up for people that wanted a finished product and has seen steady growth in the business every month since. Conversely since starting Keto, he has added 6 new holes to his belt and recently bought a far smaller belt. He has also eaten far more bacon and cheese than in all his previous years combined trying to avoid fat but still slowly gaining weight. Chris has lived in Utah for most of his life, except for a few years living in Chile where he learned Castillian. Chris and his wife have two sets of twins with a couple singltons thrown in for good measure.
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Preparing Ketofood

This entry is part 6 of 139 in the series Ketogenic Soylent

So I’m doing ketogenic DIY soylent right now (the “nuclear option” for losing weight, as I like to call it). There’s info about ketosis in a previous post and info about how bad the “induction phase” recipe is in a different post (the “ongoing” one I’m using now is WAY better and quite tasty).

I’ve talked about some of the issues with doing ketogenic DIY before, one thing I didn’t cover much was how expensive it is. If you want to buy the stuff to start outright and don’t have any of the ingredients already it’s over $300 unless you can find smaller packages. The daily cost is around $5.50, which is quite a bit more than People Chow which is around $3.50.

What about preparing the stuff?

When I started on this I was dismayed that the official recipe doesn’t list how much water you need to mix it with(!), so I’ve had to wing it and come up with my own preparation methods.

700g of coconut flour for a week's worth

700g of coconut flour for a week’s worth, banana for scale

I’m using roughly the same mixing method that I still use for mixing up People Chow (I mix for others, the masa smells really good when you can’t eat carbs): a big giant Utz cheese puffs container with ingredients for a weeks worth.

That's a LOT of Chia seeds (pre-grinding)

That’s a LOT of Chia seeds (pre-grinding)

Unlike many other seeds, chia seeds are supposed to be just fine if eaten whole (you body can digest the hull). That said, you apparently don’t get the right Omega-3’s unless they are ground. So I bought a small coffee/spice grinder (cheapest I could find on Amazon with OK reviews) and run them through in batches grinding up the seeds. Another good reason to grind the seeds is so when the seeds soak up the water and form a gel (seriously, Google “chia gel”) it will be in smaller bits. Combine with the lecithin and you want it in small bits.

Ketofood all mixed up

Ketofood all mixed up

There’s really a lot of cocoa powder in the recipe too. Coupled with the coconut and a 1/2 teaspoon of pure stevia that I added and you get that “mounds” flavor I mentioned in an earlier post. The black flecks are ground chia.

MCT and Canola oils, plus my super handy measuring pump

One of the pillars of a ketogenic diet is the fat/oil. This recipe calls for 39.4ml of oils per meal which is 24 pumps of my newer, larger (hand lotion) measuring pump I got from Wal-Mart for $2. I just measure the weekly amount of MCT oil and Canola oil and pour both into an empty canola oil bottle I had. That gets put into my measuring pump as the pump gets low.

I found that I need to let the ketofood sit for a few hours for best consistency so I’m trying to mix it up the night before:

  1. Grab 3 blender bottles and remove the mixing ball or mixing screen or whatever
  2. Zero out my 0.1g scale and measure 81.4g of mixed powder into each one
  3. Put 24 pumps of the oil I previously mixed onto the powder
  4. Fill up the blender bottles about 3/4 of the way with water
  5. Mix it up really well with an immersion blender (I got this one from Walmart)
  6. Stick it in the fridge for tomorrow

I guess a progress update is in order:

2014-11-08 weight

 

By the way, did you know that even if you don’t have a Withings scale you can freely run their app, manually enter your weight from a different scale and get the cool graphs? It’s much less convenient and doesn’t have the other measurements their scale does but it will send weight data to other fitness apps like Up, Runkeeper, MyFitnessPal, Fitbit and others so you only have to enter data once. They also offer exceptionally easy CSV import and export of your data which is why my log goes back to 2006.

By |2016-10-13T07:28:27-06:00November 7th, 2014|Weight Loss, Soylent|4 Comments
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My Experience so far with Ketogenic soylent (2 weeks)

This entry is part 5 of 139 in the series Ketogenic Soylent

Well, I’ve been doing ketogenic soylent for 2 weeks now, sounds like time to write down my experience so far. I looked at various recipes and QuidNYC Ketofood seemed to be the most popular, was fairly simple, and didn’t sound horrible. I noticed that there was an “Induction Phase” variant with mostly the same ingredients and both used stuff I already had (Potassium Citrate, Choline etc…) So I decided to buy the ingredients to make the Induction Phase recipe, and planned on getting the stuff I needed for the “Ongoing” recipe in a week or so.

The Induction Phase DIY soylent is the most awful stuff I have ever tasted in my life.

I’m still not sure if it was the Soy Lecithin granules, the Chia seeds, the Psyllium Husk powder or what but I don’t like the flavor at all. By the end of the third day I was experiencing a gag reflex from the smell. At that point I didn’t care how long the induction phase was supposed to be, I was ready to move on (frankly I still don’t know how long it’s supposed to be) so I ordered the Coconut Flour, Raw Cocoa and other ingredients that would move me over to the ongoing recipe. I ended up on the induction formula for 7.5 days. There are a few things to note: One of the key components of most ketogenic diets is MCT oil. This stuff is crazy expensive and isn’t something most people are ready for in the quantities specified in the induction recipe. It’s Medium Chain Triglyceride oil and it’s made from Coconut Oil but is liquid even when refrigerated. MCT can more easily be turned into ketones and it will get you into ketosis quicker and more effectively than using any other oil. Did I mention it’s expensive? It is and it’s something you can’t swap out for something else, like MOAR canola or olive oil.

If I was going to start ketosis again I would skip the induction recipe and go straight for the ongoing one.

Since I didn’t have a control group I can’t say definitively what was caused just by going into ketosis and what was caused by the nasty experience of hating what I was drinking. I can say that a commonly known side effect of ketosis is the “ketogenic flu” where going into ketosis will make a person exhibit flu-like symptoms. I started on a 4 day weekend and am exceptionally happy that I did. Another common side effect is constipation, I apparently bucked the trend and went the other way (likely thanks to the oil is my guess). Took about a week to get into the <5 on the Bristol Scale (and I’m done with this subject now).

OK, so the induction recipe and experience was awful, how’s the ongoing… going?

The change in the recipe flavor was massive. I have no way to describe the induction one, the ongoing is overwhelmingly coconut, chocolate and cinnamon (in that order). I added a tiny amount of stevia to help the taste be less bitter (raw cocoa FTW!) and it now tastes an awful lot like a “Mounds” bar (Almond Joy without the almond) that somehow got the sugar taken out and was put through a blender. If I don’t swallow it directly I end up with a mouth full of coconut that’s entertaining to chew for a bit; I usually swallow it directly though.

How long am I planning on continuing this madness? For a while. I’m down 13 lbs in these 2 weeks and it’ll be “fun” to keep it up during Thanksgiving and Christmas.

By |2016-10-13T07:28:28-06:00November 6th, 2014|Weight Loss, Soylent|3 Comments
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Ketogenic Diet, what is it?

This entry is part 4 of 139 in the series Ketogenic Soylent

So yesterday I posted about starting Ketogenic soylent, I thought I’d take a little time to explain what that is and what’s going on. DISCLAIMER: This post will contain some generalizations to simplify things, if you want to do real actual research you’ll want more specifics elsewhere.

The cells in your body like glucose. A LOT. Given a choice between glucose and other energy sources, your cells will say “come back when you’re glucose and we’ll talk.” You get glucose from sugars, starches; in general: from carbohydrates. If your body has glucose to burn, it’s going to use that first (for the most part). If your body *doesn’t* have glucose to burn, it’s going to need a different fuel source. It can break down muscle that’s not being used into glucose, it can also process fatty acids into “Ketone Bodies” that your mitochondria can use for fuel.

Burning fatty acids as fuel through varied levels of ketosis is really the only way to lose excess fat since it doesn’t magically turn into glucose. Apparently normal people will naturally switch into a mild ketogenic state while they’re sleeping and the supply of glucose is low, then they eat breakfast and it goes away. One other place you see ketosis happening, though not in a good way, is with Diabetes. Without the right amount of insulin to help with the glucose, your body freaks out and goes into ketosis overdrive. While a ketogenic diet aims for 0.5-3 millimolar of ketone bodies in your blood, uncontrolled ketosis ends up as ketoacidosis in the 15+ range. At high levels, the slightly acidic ketones pose a significant problem, lowering the pH of your blood, damaging tissue and de-mineralizing bones. Not a good thing. I bought some ketone test strips off Amazon so I could check my levels.

The crucial element to a Ketogenic Diet is to give your body as few carbohydrates as possible, like less than 30 grams a day (which should be around 120 calories). Instead, you feed your body enough protein so that it’s happy and not tearing apart your muscles for fuel, and… a lot of fats and oils. Sounds like the Atkins diet because the Atkins diet is a modified ketogenic diet.

Ketogenic Diets have been around for a long time, but using it for weight loss is relatively new. Personally, I first heard about it in 2009 as a potential treatment for seizures if my son continued to not respond to anti-consultants (which he responded just fine and has been seizure free for 5+ years). A myriad of studies have shown outstanding results with ketogenic diets for the treatment of seizures, it’s just *really* hard to do with traditional food and involves an awful lot of heavy cream.

Anyhow, there’s a little about the diet. You can read more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketosis and the links that come off it.

By |2014-11-05T11:06:52-07:00November 5th, 2014|Weight Loss, Soylent|4 Comments
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The Nuclear Option: Ketogenic soylent.

This entry is part 3 of 139 in the series Ketogenic Soylent

I started consuming People Chow back in January 2014 for a variety of reasons, but primarily to lose weight. Initially it did an excellent job of doing just that with around 14 pounds going away over about a month. The main reason for the loss was I was exceptionally good about only eating People Chow with maybe 100-200 calories of other stuff a week. Unfortunately I didn’t continue losing weight because I got lax in my adherence to People Chow only. I did do a fairly good job of maintaining my weight for the next several months with a sharp uptick more recently due to a bunch of parties. I had been planning on trying a Ketogenic diet for some time and the imminent Halloween-Thanksgiving-Christmas trifecta of overeating seemed like a good time to start.

The last year in review

The last year in review

It’s pretty easy to see where I started People Chow, where I failed utterly to lose weight in mid-October (thanks Dreamforce parties) and where I started Ketogenic soylent. The most fun was one day when I weighed 4.2 lbs less than the day before (yes, that would be water).

Last Month

Just up-to and the start of Ketogenic soylent

I’m going to do a series of posts about my experience thus far with Ketogenic soylent, Ketosis and other factors. Let me clarify one thing though: doing a ketogenic diet, using soylent or regular “muggle” food is kinda a big deal and not something you can or should do willy-nilly. If you go for ketosis, you’re going to run into “ketosis flu” which feels a lot like having the flu. It’s a difficult diet to maintain with all of society blissfully chowing down on sugar and carbs. Let me put this into perspective: if you’ve heard about Atkins, South Beach or any other carbohydrate restrictive diet: those are modified Ketogenic diets (though they emphasize protein too much). The closest thing I’ve had to candy for the last 2 weeks was a single raisin that I ate without thinking.

Anyhow, be ready for some Ketogenic diet, ketosis and ketone information; whether you want it or not!

 

By |2016-10-13T07:28:30-06:00November 4th, 2014|Weight Loss, Soylent|1 Comment
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Back from Dreamforce, added Bitcoin payment

This entry is part 36 of 39 in the series DIY Soylent

While I was gone I got a question about adding Bitcoin as a payment option. It turned out to be fairly straightforward, so that’s now an option along with Paypal.

I’m back from the Dreamforce conference! It was a week of soylent fueled learning stuff (there might have also been a few concerts and parties that I may or may not have gone to). I packed my People Chow in the GNC containers I have everywhere at my house now. I figured the TSA would be more affable if it was in a labeled container that (somewhat) represented what was inside. I didn’t have a problem at all though.

soylent at the airport

soylent at the airport

Dreamforce was great though and I added an additional certification, so now in addition to being a Certified SalesForce Administrator I’m also now a Certified SalesForce Cloud Consultant. I guess the next step is getting my Advanced Admin.

SFDC Admin SFDC SCC

Yeah, I’ve had most of these conversations. Apparently I do… computers.

 

Sketch

Sketch from a vendor booth

By |2016-10-13T07:28:30-06:00October 22nd, 2014|Soylent, On Tour|2 Comments
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Shipping delay redux – going to a conference

I’m going to be in San Francisco from October 11 to the 17th for Dreamforce. I plan to ship out all current orders on Friday the 10th before I leave and will ship any new ones that come in on Saturday the 18th when I get back. There are a few people with active weekly subscriptions that will renew in the middle of the week and I’m planning on having their orders mixed on Friday too. Ideally my wife will be able to take them to the post office without a hitch.

By |2014-10-06T15:02:40-06:00October 6th, 2014|Soylent|Comments Off on Shipping delay redux – going to a conference
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Change in recipe – adding Xanthan Gum

Beginning today, all of the mixed People Chow I’m sending out will have 4g of Xanthan Gum per week. I’ve been testing it in my own batches and there’s a marked improvement in the texture of the final product. I was going to wait on this for a bit longer but on Monday I shipped out a batch that included some samples. It was past midnight (technically Tuesday then) and I didn’t want to mix up an additional batch… so I made the samples from my own batch I had just mixed up that night. If I want to keep the samples accurate then I need to have the final product be the same thing. I’ve updated the recipes on diy.soylent.me as well to reflect the change:

By |2014-09-25T08:05:51-06:00September 25th, 2014|Soylent, Ingredients|2 Comments
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Vacationing for a week (mostly) on DIY soylent

This entry is part 35 of 39 in the series DIY Soylent

This week I’m down in Arches National Park helping my dad do a nighttime photography workshop. Mostly my job consists of running around and setting up lights and carrying stuff (though I did press the shutter for him a few times when he was light painting, I joke that I’m going to claim copyright on those ones).

[print_gllr id=636]

A week of DIYWe’re living out of a hotel room which has made for some interesting logistical issues. I brought a week worth of People Chow and a bunch of blender bottles but I still need to wash the containers. Before I left, my wife told me to bring along a small container of dish soap and I wish I would have done that along with a scrub brush. Instead I’ve had to use washcloths and whatever soap I can source. Soap is absolutely necessary because of the oil. Hot water will get much of the residue but you need something to get the oil off and only soap will do it.

As expected, eating soylent has been (except for needing to wash the containers) exceptionally convenient. It’s also forced my dad to stick to his diet since I’m not eating fast food with him (though I did make an exception and had biscuits and gravy with the workshop group this morning =). I’ve found that the kind of hiking we’ve been doing works fine with soylent, I’ve been mixing up enough containers to last me however long we’re going to be out and either mix it with a bunch of ice or refrigerate it for a few hours to get it cold enough to last. Tonight we’re going to be going up to Delicate Arch just before sunset and staying until around midnight so I’ll drink a blender bottle of people chow around 4:00pm and bring one up with me to drink while waiting for the sky to get dark enough.

This experience has been good for an additional reason: next month I’m going to be going to San Francisco for 7 days for the DreamForce conference. I’m planning to pack about 8 days worth (just in case), a little in a carry-on and the rest in a checked bag. I’m also going to bring a little soap and a brush =)

By |2016-10-13T07:28:30-06:00September 17th, 2014|Soylent, On Tour, Preparation|Comments Off on Vacationing for a week (mostly) on DIY soylent
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Vacation Delay, Other Stuff, Price Changes

Just wanted to let everyone know that I won’t be shipping any orders next week. I’m planning on shipping out everything that comes in before noon on Saturday, September 13th and won’t be doing another round of shipments until Saturday September 20th. I’ll be helping my dad with http://www.meetup.com/NightScape-Photography/events/154916402/ I get to be the pack mule to lug around lighting equipment and such, then I get to shine lights at stuff. It’s something we’ve done for the last 3 years. You can see some of my previous work:

On a side note: they say never tell people you’ll be out of your house so you won’t get robbed. I personally be gone but the house will be far from empty and the neighbors tend to notice people coming and going so don’t try to rob me OK?

I also raised prices on the mixed People Chow a bit and put on a small handling fee to the shipping, people with subscriptions in place will not be affected. The reasoning for this: my wife told me to do it, that’s reason enough for me.

By |2016-10-13T07:28:30-06:00September 8th, 2014|Soylent|Comments Off on Vacation Delay, Other Stuff, Price Changes
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Video of mixing a meal and using pump to measure oil

This entry is part 34 of 39 in the series DIY Soylent

After my post about using a pump to measure oil some people on the reddit thread were wondering why use a pump instead of a measuring cup or even a turkey baster. It hadn’t even occured to me that people would wonder about this! Since I’m mixing up a meal of people chow 4 times a day, dealing with cleaning up the oil measuring was a real pain and the benefits seemed obvious to me. Apparently I was in error. Here’s one of the responses I gave to why I’m using the pump:

One word:

cleanup

Oil isn’t like water (obviously) and doesn’t magically go away. You usually need to use soap to get it off stuff. If you try using a turkey baster you’re going to need to find a way to either store it covered in oil so you can use it in that state next time, or you need to wash it… evertime. It gets old fast. After only a few days with the other best alternative I could find (paper towel to wipe off a measuring spoon) the tedium started to gnaw at me. With this method there is no cleanup, I actuate the pump 11 times (takes about 2 seconds) and that’s it. Works just as well on my desk at work that’s far from soap and water as it works in my kitchen at home.

And so, this morning I had some extra time before heading for the bus and decided to once again have my lovely wife record another video; this time of preparing a meal of people chow using the pump for measuring the oil.

By |2016-10-13T07:28:30-06:00August 13th, 2014|Preparation, Soylent|1 Comment
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