Blog Posts

Tried Vanilla Keto Chow. I think it’s good enough, beta’s over: v1.0

Last night I mixed up 3 meals of vanilla flavored Keto Chow, it’s really good. My wife tried some and said “mmm, that’s good!” Later she asked about the possibility of me mixing her up a few blender bottles for her to have on hand for meals.

I’ve decided that after the most recent changes to the recipe I’m declaring it “version 1.0” (yay!). It will be more stable for a while with maybe a few minor changes here and there but it’s good enough for me.

After yesterday’s price changes I also went through the store part of the site and updated descriptions, links and other fun stuff. I also split the Keto Chow samples from the 1 week product so it’s easier to find the samples vs the 1 week.

By |2016-10-13T07:28:21-06:00January 7th, 2015|Keto Chow, Ketogenic, Soylent|1 Comment
Read More

Minor changes to Keto Chow recipe.

OK, so I drank Chocolate Mint Keto Chow for breakfast and Strawberry for lunch, how was it? Really good. I said it in my last post but I’m going to say it again: even if I wasn’t doing Keto I would drink this stuff instead of any other powdered food/DIY soylent/Official Soylent that I have tried. As of right now I’m planning on sticking with this recipe or a variation of it indefinitely. Yes, you understood correctly: I’m not going to go back to drinking People Chow, this is far better. If I get to the point that I don’t want to be so strict about carbs and doing Ketosis there’s no reason I can’t and won’t continue with ketogenic soylent as my primary food.

Anyhow. Like the post title says, after the batch I drank today I’m going to remove the coconut flour in favor of more psyllium husk powder so there will be no grittiness at all. I also tweaked the protein amounts and will up the xanthan gum from 1g to 1.5g.

One awesome thing about the removal of the coconut flour is the carb count is now obscenely low. I consider psyllum husk a non-soluble fiber since it doesn’t contribute any calories and isn’t digested, so I have it with the dietary fiber that is subtracted from the 27g total carbs to give 10.9g net carbs per day. Yeah, I can live with that.

The final change for the day is pricing. I recalculated my costs based on the current recipe. Even though the total cost for doing a day of Keto Chow is higher than doing People Chow, quite a bit of that cost is in Heavy Cream and MCT/Coconut Oil, both of which aren’t part of my costs since they are not included with the powder. I changed the prices on Keto Chow to be the same price as People Chow (without any added chocolate). The 1 meal sample of Keto Chow is now actually less expensive than  People Chow since it’s for a full meal (1/3 of a day) instead of 300 calories.

By |2016-10-13T07:28:22-06:00January 6th, 2015|Uncategorized|Comments Off on Minor changes to Keto Chow recipe.
Read More

A year in review

This entry is part 27 of 139 in the series Ketogenic Soylent

Weight for 2014

Hey, how about a “year in review” post? I started mixing soylent almost a year ago, starting January 13, 2014. You can read my full exploits Here (in chronological order!). It’s been an interesting year with a lot of downs and a few ups (most notably there in October when I gained back everything I lost in February. I’m approaching the lowest weight I’ve been since I started tracking in October 2006. When I hit 220 I’ll probably do a post with that graph for the morbidly curious =).

Doing a ketogenic diet has made a huge difference in my life. When I first started I said I’d probably get my weight down and then go back to People Chow but with the way Keto Chow is shaping up I think I’ll stick with Ketogenic soylent as my primary food. I probably won’t be as strict with snacks but with how good Keto Chow is I don’t see a need to switch back. Honestly it’s far better tasting that People Chow, less gritty and low carb to boot.

As they say on /r/keto: “Keep Calm and Keto On” (KCKO).

By |2016-10-13T07:28:22-06:00January 6th, 2015|Keto Chow, Ketogenic, Soylent, Weight Loss|Comments Off on A year in review
Read More

First batches of Keto Chow using Dynamize protein

This entry is part 26 of 139 in the series Ketogenic Soylent

Last night I mixed up the first batches of Keto Chow using the Dynamize whey protein I’m going to start using. An adventurous soul ordered week of mint chocolate and I did two smaller 1-day batches of strawberry and mint chocolate for testing.

Keto Chow Strawberry Sample

Keto Chow Strawberry Sample

Upon mixing, the Strawberry is a little pink but not much, and the chocolate mint is a bit… tan. You can tell the difference between the chocolate and strawberry but I think the cream is overruling a lot of the coloring it would have had if it was just protein and water. I took better measurements of the finished result (2 lb 8 oz and 9x7x2.5 inches) which will make shipping estimates better. I’m also going to see if I can squeeze it into a 1096L USPS shipping box instead of a Regional Rate A box that I could fit two weeks in.

Keto Chow Chocolate Mint packaged (bottle not included =)

Keto Chow Chocolate Mint packaged (bottle not included =)

I tasted the results about an hour after mixing and it was pretty good. It tasted like it could still use some time for stuff to dissolve but in a time crunch it would be just fine. I would have tried it for realsies this morning but I’m going to get a “Comprehensive Metabolic Panel” blood test and I’m supposed to be fasting. As soon as that’s done (and I’m done with my dentist appointment that’s right after, might as well double up) I’ll give it a better taste test.

It’ll be interesting to see what my blood work shows when I get it sometime later this week or next week. I had it done back in March 2014 (9 months ago?) after doing People Chow for 2 months and those results weren’t bad at all. I’m looking forward to seeing what cutting out carbohydrates and living on mostly fat and some protein has done =).

By |2016-10-13T07:28:24-06:00January 6th, 2015|Keto Chow, Ketogenic, Soylent|Comments Off on First batches of Keto Chow using Dynamize protein
Read More

Mixed up some chocolate Keto Chow

This entry is part 25 of 139 in the series Ketogenic Soylent

A commenter on my last post asked if it’s possible to mix up without any coconut flour at all. Yes but you have to increase the psyllum husk to 18g. I wasn’t sure what that would taste like but I was interested to try it. Unfortunately my shipment of Chocolate Mint, Strawberry and Vanilla proteins will not be arriving until Monday. So I mixed up some keto chow using the little chocolate flavored protein I still had, but without any coconut flour.

Keto Chow powder (1 day)

1 day of Keto Chow. There isn’t much to it, only about 140g of stuff.

It’s still funny how small it is, less than 150g of powder that you mix with around a half cup of heavy cream, some MCT oil and… that’s your daily nutrients!

Keto Chow - 3 meals in blender bottles

3 different bottles with Keto Chow mixed up.

I put it in the refrigerator and let it hang out for a while. As expected, the psyllum husk powder absorbed a lot of water and thickened up the mixture a little bit. I might not need so much Xanthan Gum, I’ll probably cut it in half for my next batch. It feels smooth and creamy in my mouth and tastes like… well, a bit like slightly watered down chocolate milk. I think it maybe can use some additional chocolate flavoring, my wife disagrees and thinks it tastes great as it is. It should work well with the different flavored protein powders that are coming on Monday. Here’s a close up of the mixed stuff after refrigeration and a few hours:

Keto Food after 3 hours

Keto Chow after 3 hours

The psyllum goes nearly transparent and it’s the majority of the bits you see in the mixture. Notably there isn’t hardly any separation whereas Ketofood does quite a bit:

Ketofood separation

Ketofood after 4 hours.

OK, let’s look a little closer!

A spoon dipped in Ketofood, no chia seeds here

A spoon dipped in Ketofood, no chia seeds for a change

Spoon dipped in Keto Chow. It's mostly bubbles and psyllum that you see.

Spoon dipped in Keto Chow. It’s mostly bubbles and psyllum that you see.

And here’s the same test in video format:

My next batch will probably be strawberry or vanilla, have half the xanthan gum and I might put back in some of the coconut flour to see what it does to the flavor and texture.

By |2016-10-13T07:28:24-06:00January 3rd, 2015|Keto Chow, Ketogenic, Preparation, Soylent|3 Comments
Read More

Updates on Keto Chow

This entry is part 24 of 139 in the series Ketogenic Soylent

One cool thing about Keto Chow is the recipe has the added benefit of being customizable for people with different caloric requirements. Without any oil or cream it’s right around 500 calories/day and still hits all the right nutrients except calories (obviously), protein, and the different fatty acids. Following the directions you’ll get 1355 calories/day (woohoo, deficit!) but you can raise that up to whatever level you want by increasing the heavy cream and/or the oil (I vote for the cream). It’s super flexible.

Did I mention that bodybuilding.com is awesome? I ordered a bunch of protein yesterday (a holiday), got my tracking number around noon and I might get the package tomorrow or Monday.

In my last post I was debating what to do about the fish oil for Keto Chow since it needs 5ml of fish oil to get the right Omega 3s. My solution is to give people a choice, they can go 3 ways for the fish oil:

Not the ideal solution but it’s the best I could come up with, so it’ll probably upset everyone =). “Crap, I have to take 5 oil pills PLUS a multivitamin and you’re not even including the oil pills unless I pay extra? You suck Trebeck!”. Well, at least that’s what I would say initially. Personally I’m not certain which route I’m going to do myself: the pills or the liquid oil mixed in. Guess I’ll find out sometime early next week (or tomorrow, come on OnTrack!).

By |2015-01-06T14:24:42-07:00January 2nd, 2015|Preparation, Keto Chow, Ketogenic, Soylent|Comments Off on Updates on Keto Chow
Read More

New ketogenic soylent recipe in development, it’s moar betterer

This entry is part 23 of 139 in the series Ketogenic Soylent

Several weeks ago /u/kennufs posted his current Ketogenic soylent recipe. I ordered some of the ingredients and gave it a try recently. It’s so superior to KetoFood it’s kinda silly, probably because it doesn’t have chia seeds and does use a generous amount of heavy cream. I did that recipe for about a week and a half whilst changing stuff around before I ran out of the NutraBio whey protein isolate he specifies. That particular WPI is unique in that it doesn’t have any carbohydrate sources in it, like none at all, which keeps the net carbs down.

The problem with the NutraBio is where I’m living (Utah) it takes 9 business days to get a shipment of it from New Jersey. With a 2lb tub lasting approximately 10 days this makes sourcing it and keeping it on hand a logistical nightmare. It’s the same problem I have with getting Cal/Mag/D3 from supplementwarehouse.com: sometimes it takes them 2 weeks to get me stuff. I’m also working to replace the ketofood I mix on this site with a recipe along the same lines as Kennufs’ so I’ve been searching for a viable alternative to the protein and I think I finally have it.

I wanted to find something that I can buy at bodybuilding.com – they may not have the absolute lowest prices but my proximity to their central warehouse (Boise Idaho) makes for crazy fast shipping times, like 2 days at the longest with a few orders arriving the day after I ordered. Seriously, they are great; especially in the states surrounding Idaho =). Anyhow I found two possibilities: IsoPure Zero Carb and Dymatize Elite. Initially it looked like the Isopure would work but they include vitamins in their powder making it terribly difficult to get the right micronutrient mix. I had overage on some stuff and hardly anything on others (Iron, Vitamin C) that required adding an additional specific supplement.

Since I have the day off work today, obviously I woke up early and my brain switched on. So I started looking again and found the Dymatize Elite. It comes in a variety of flavors but I’m only going to mess with the ones that come in the 10lb size: Chocolate, Strawberry, Vanilla  and Chocolate Mint. I took the groundwork that Kennufs laid, fixed some ingredients that showed different nutritional values, updated prices, copied over a bunch of the ingredients from my People Chow and my KetoFood recipes and the end result is what I’m going to call Keto Chow 0.7. Feel free to clone it, abuse it, whatever =)

In a few days (or hours, who knows?) I’ll add it as an orderable product on the site with the caveat that it’s going to be changing as it’s very much in active development. UPDATE: that was quick. At first you might even get some NutraBio WPI since I still have a bunch of that en-route. Additionally, except one flavor, I haven’t actually tasted the Dymatize WPI yet so some of the flavors might be awesome or might be completely awful. I’m also still trying to figure out what to do with the fish oil. To hit the right omega 3’s you need 5ml (1 tsp.) per day. You can get that from liquid cod liver oil in a big bottle or you can get it in gelatin capsules and take 5 a day along with the daily multivitamin. Any feedback on which you like better?

Anyhow, how’s that for a New Years update?

By |2015-11-05T13:49:38-07:00January 1st, 2015|Weight Loss, Preparation, Soylent, Keto Chow|2 Comments
Read More

Just a quick (nice) rant

I’ve long maintained that participating in this community and also working along with the community is really nice. Overall (and in most instances specifically) everyone is super agreeable and just gets along. When enough people asked that I decided to I start mixing people chow for people one of my major concerns was dealing with jerks.

To date I have YET to deal with a jerk, I can’t decisively say that fear was unfounded but it seems so. I have always maintained that I seem to be dealing with a bunch of people that are pretty similar to me and I’ve always tried to operate the selling stuff as if I was one of the customers. There’s a delay? Send an email. Send tracking info for all packages. Don’t be a jerk (myself to the people I’m mixing for).
So here’s where this rant comes from (background over): Yesterday I got an order from a guy with a note saying that I had accidentally sent him an extra week and the order was paying for the extra week and was therefore already complete, have a nice day.

I was stunned.

I hope we can all be that awesome. Anyhow, rant over. Thanks for not being jerks and being cool.

By |2014-12-28T13:05:25-07:00December 28th, 2014|Soylent|2 Comments
Read More

3 months of Keto – update

This entry is part 22 of 139 in the series Ketogenic Soylent

I hit my 3 month mark on ketosis yesterday (while eating a lettuce wrapped hamburger at Carl’s Jr.) and It’s time for an update.

Weight Oct - Dec 2014

Weight Oct – Dec 2014

In total I’m down almost 24 lbs. I’m going to be getting a “comprehensive metabolic panel” sometime next week. It will be interesting to compare it to my results from May (when I was eating mostly People Chow). Now to get through Christmas and it’s chocolate oranges with my ketosis intact…

By |2016-10-13T07:28:24-06:00December 23rd, 2014|Soylent, Weight Loss|Comments Off on 3 months of Keto – update
Read More
Toggle Sliding Bar Area