experience

Days 014 & 015 – 100 days of Keto (Chow)

This entry is part 14 of 81 in the series 100 days of keto
  • Weight: 207.5
  • Blood ketones: 0.9 mmol/L

Wow, that’s a LOT of water weight! (3.5lbs) Having food with a lot of salt will do that to you I guess.

  • Weight: 206.0
  • Blood ketones: 0.2 mmol/L

There I go, back down =) Yesterday I made jello using keto chow and some sugar free jello. Put it in the fridge overnight and tried it for breakfast. Overall it turned out pretty well. I used vanilla Keto Chow and orange Jello. Not sure how other flavor combinations will turn out. I have some lime jello too.

By |2016-01-18T12:07:14-07:00January 18th, 2016|100 days of keto, Keto Chow|Comments Off on Days 014 & 015 – 100 days of Keto (Chow)
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Keto and Kidneys from a Golden Oldie, Senior citizen viewpoint

This entry is part 115 of 139 in the series Ketogenic Soylent

Here is a followup experience to an earlier post:

Caution is always advised when considering a new diet and I read all the studies, comments and concerns about

[moderate] protein/low carb combinations.  I did not factor in my response to the protein powder because I did not realize my kidney function was diminished.  I have had two painful episodes.  The first seemed attributable to dehydration, which should be avoided at all times.  The second hit me hard after limiting protein powder for 3 weeks and deciding my issues had been temporary.  They are permanent and very painful.  I am fortunate, that I appear to have recovered without serious damage.

I share this to help others be aware of the remote, but real, possibility of kidney problems.  My age could be a factor, since I am over 65, but husband is just a few months older and he has no problems.  Other health impairments could also contribute to the difficulty; but I have heard my body’s clear message and will try to find less intense ways to balance nutrition and protein intake.

I have not “found” the weight I lost during the two months on the keto diet.  It helped me become much more aware of the hidden sugars that lurk in commercially prepared foods.  Changing eating habits to better choices is beneficial and this continues to be my plan.

I personally, liked the Keto Chow approach and wish I could maintain it.  Keto Chow is simple, easy to prepare and delicious.  My husband will keep his schedule of enjoying 2-3 meals a day.  We see embracing sugar free living as a way to be kind to our aging bodies and not become diabetic.

Bottom line:  if you can tolerate the protein…try the Keto Chow.  It is amazing.

So there you go: if you have kidney problems, check carefully to make sure you can handle the protein; and specifically the protein powder

By |2016-10-13T07:27:55-06:00January 16th, 2016|Keto Chow|Comments Off on Keto and Kidneys from a Golden Oldie, Senior citizen viewpoint
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Day 012 – 100 days of Keto (Chow)

This entry is part 12 of 81 in the series 100 days of keto
  • Weight: 204.7
  • Blood ketones: >0.1 mmol/L

The plan was to do Keto Chow for 3 meals a day for 100 days though I decided I wasn’t going to kill myself or stress about it. Yesterday evening we went out to dinner at a Chinese Buffet. There was a Mongolian grill so I was able to find plenty of keto friendly fare. Despite that, this morning when I tested my blood ketones they were less than 0.1 mmol/L. Dunno if there were hidden carbs in the stuff I ate or if the major amount of protein I ate kicked off gluconeogenesis.

Anyway, today for lunch I made a “frosty” using the blender. I did have to put it in the freezer for 30 minutes for the salt crystals to dissolve fully and the rest of the flavors to equalize and mellow out. “Frosty” Keto Chow is yummy.

By |2016-01-15T14:44:23-07:00January 15th, 2016|100 days of keto, Keto Chow|4 Comments
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Day 011 – 100 days of Keto (Chow)

This entry is part 11 of 81 in the series 100 days of keto
  • Weight: 205.3
  • Blood ketones: 0.5 mmol/L

Looks like I’m properly hydrated again since my weight went up just a little. One thing I’ve noticed about losing weight and winter: I’m cold. Like all. the. time. This is odd since I used to be the big fat guy that wore shorts all winter. I bought a sweater and wore it to work today. I used to think people that wore sweaters were crazy, guess they just have less insulation. Didn’t do intermittent fasting today.

By |2016-01-14T12:23:24-07:00January 14th, 2016|100 days of keto, Keto Chow|Comments Off on Day 011 – 100 days of Keto (Chow)
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Interview I did about Keto Chow and Ketosis

This entry is part 113 of 139 in the series Ketogenic Soylent

I linked this in another post but didn’t want it to get lost in the shuffle, so it’s getting its own post! Check out the interview at http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/pellissier20160105

The interview was done via email, which was nice since it gave me time to think well about my answers and re-read them. My responses were largely completely unaltered, just some minor tense changes so it would fit an interview style. I should have added more hyperlinks =)

By |2016-01-07T04:50:09-07:00January 7th, 2016|Keto Chow, Ketogenic, Soylent, Weight Loss|Comments Off on Interview I did about Keto Chow and Ketosis
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Day 003 – 100 days of Keto (Chow)

This entry is part 4 of 81 in the series 100 days of keto
  • Weight: 208.9
  • Blood ketones: 0.4 mmol/L

Water weight is so fun, up and down daily. I’m not too concerned, my blood ketones are still going up. I ended up drinking three blender bottles of banana (keto chow) mixed with chocolate (keto chow) yesterday. Ran on the treadmill again and the heart rate monitor was still acting up. The contacts kept not working or something so it only recorded my actual heart rate half of the time. It was pretty funny though, I had 3 phones on the “magazine” section:

  • Galaxy S3 running a video that controls the treadmill via an audio cable (I used Camtasia to record the screen of  i2Workout so I could have a nice portable video file)
  • Galaxy S5 that was trying to track heart rate
  • Nexus 6P that was playing video (Limitless Season 1, Episode 8 in case you’re wondering)
By |2016-10-13T07:27:56-06:00January 6th, 2016|100 days of keto, Weight Loss|4 Comments
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100 days of Keto – starting January 4

This entry is part 2 of 81 in the series 100 days of keto

This was cross-posted to /r/keto earlier this week and I’ve decided I’m going to do it, mostly just for kicks (I haven’t done a “cheat day” since January 2015) but also to get losing weight more better-er. I’m planning on doing a post every day, both here and on /r/100DaysofKeto (in the daily post). Anybody want to join in? There’s more info in the side-bar of https://www.reddit.com/r/100DaysofKeto and the form to sign up is here.

By |2015-12-10T07:26:11-07:00December 10th, 2015|100 days of keto, Ketogenic|2 Comments
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My Graduation Pants are WAY too big

This entry is part 109 of 139 in the series Ketogenic Soylent

I was going through my closet last night and an old pair of pants fell out. They’re the Guess jeans I wore the last day of High School – way back in June 1995. Guys signed my year book, girls wrote on the pants. Yes I know, not the best idea. We’re all stupid in retrospect and I really need to throw them away now that they’ve apparently served their purpose (and before my kids read some of the stuff written on them).

Anyhow, I hadn’t looked at them in years and was surprised to find what size they were: 38. I must have carried the weight differently back then because I’m fairly certain I weighed about 220 at the time and 38 is the size pants I was wearing last year when I weighed 250. Decided I might as well try them on one last time and do a “bathroom mirror selfie”

Graduation Pants

Yep. WAY too big! I’m currently wearing 34 and even those are starting to get big. I doubt I’ll ever get to 30 but you never know.

By |2016-10-13T07:27:58-06:00December 2nd, 2015|Weight Loss|1 Comment
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“Golden Oldies: Impressions and comments on the keto chow solution for Senior citizens.”

This entry is part 108 of 139 in the series Ketogenic Soylent

I have another user experience to share (with permission):

  • Gender: Woman
  • Age: 66
  • Length of time on keto chow: 4 weeks.
  • Results: very positive.

A favorite blouse fits so much better than it did a month ago, just before starting Keto Chow.  I tried the Atkins diet several years ago and was moderately successful. Losing weight is much different than maintaining a lower weight. We are hopeful that this approach will do two things, keep weight off and avoid diabetes.

I have often called myself a sugar addict and restricting carbs has clearly put my addiction in the spotlight.  The flavors and formulas of keto chow have made the transition less traumatic and I have not experienced “keto flu”, to date.  Mood swings and any food challenges seem to be resulting from extended family problems more than dietary adjustments.   My former knee jerk reaction to self medicate with sugar has been offset with the immediate benefits.  Swelling has gone down in my face, hands and feet.  I can hear better, too.
My husband has joined me in this lifestyle change and the mutual support is a tremendous benefit.  We encourage each other, rather than trying to sabotage improvements.  We also did a month of preparation.  We cleaned non compliant foods out of the cupboards and freezers, except for snacks to feed grandchildren.  We studied the keto chow blog to grasp preparation, and bought helpful equipment such as shaker bottles.  My first challenge was to decide how much “real” food to eat and how many keto chow to consume.  This is probably very subjective, according to the weight loss goals.  I settled on one to two shakes a day, leaning toward one.   Fasting is less difficult, because I do not feel as hungry when I have not had anything to eat.
Favorite flavors:  Pina colada, cinnamon bun, toffee and strawberry blast.
I will continue to do periodic updates on my progress.  No weight posts, taboo to ask a lady what she weighs.
By |2016-10-13T07:27:59-06:00November 30th, 2015|Keto Chow, Ketogenic, Weight Loss|3 Comments
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1 Year of Keto, 77% the man I used to be

This entry is part 102 of 139 in the series Ketogenic Soylent

I started Keto on October 20, 2014 and started posting my experiences on November 4, 2014. A lot has happened in a year, I’m 77% the man I used to be; so let’s do a retrospective.

Weight Log 1 year of Keto

I initially started keto without having done the right research and didn’t know what “keto flu” was or how to avoid it; but I did know that I needed to get my weight under control and get healthy. I never got tested but based on how my body was acting, I was pre-diabetic or at least insulin resistant. Keto was exactly what I needed. I feel this burning desire to make little business cards and hand them out to teenagers that… well, look like I did at that age:

keto business card

The changes go beyond just weight loss. For the first time in years the cells in my body have adequate fuel since it’s not being shoved into fat cells by insulin. I go to a class and don’t fall into a “carb coma” after lunch. My blood tests are awesome and my blood sugar is normalized.

Anyway. I started doing Keto using a recipe of ketogenic “soylent” called KetoFood. Initially with the “induction phase” one and quickly switching over to the “ongoing phase” recipe because the induction one was really, really gross. KetoFood served me well for the time but still wasn’t very pleasant and had a horrible texture since it’s primarily coconut flour, chia seeds and raw cocoa powder (with a bunch or oil). To this day I still gag when I smell chia seeds. In early December after I had been choking down KetoFood for about 6 weeks I was sent a sample of KetoSoy by Ted Tieken. It was far and away so much better than KetoFood I couldn’t believe it – MIND BLOWN. See, most people do a ketogenic diet using “real food” (instead of “fake hippie garbage“) but I have an unhealthy relationship with food and on top of that, doing food replacement shakes is really convenient – and that convenience and the results I was already getting had me resigned to the notion that ketogenic soylent was going to be barely palatable.

Around the same time a new keto soylent recipe was published by Kenneth Swanson. Instead of copious amounts of oils for the calories, Ken’s recipe used heavy cream. It was far smoother than anything else I had tried at that point too which was a nice respite for my “gritted-out” palate. I had enough supplies to make roughly 10 days of this recipe and ordered more of the protein powder too late for it to arrive in time for a second batch before I ran out. So I was forced to go back on KetoFood for a week. It was at that point I decided I was going to kill off my KetoFood and create a new recipe. I was still selling People Chow pre-mixed for people but didn’t have my heart in it. I eventually abandoned all of the other recipes in favor of the new one I was working on. January 1, 2015 I posted for the first time about what would become Keto Chow. I had finally worked out a suitable protein powder and over the next month or so I messed around with the recipe ingredients to further cut down on gritty texture and simplify the ingredient list. I posted the recipe for Keto Chow 0.7 for anyone to use and abuse. Not opening the recipe didn’t even occur to me: we’re all in this together and frankly there’s no way I could mix up enough Keto Chow for all the people that are mixing their own (plus it would be kinda a jerk-move since I was pulling ingredients and concepts from Ken’s Recipe, KetoFood and even People Chow).

Oddly enough, right about the time I was launching Keto Chow, I participated in a community weight loss challenge and to prepare for it I indulged in my very first “cheat” (week). The thing with ketogenic diets is it’s kinda binary: you’re either under your carb goal and in ketosis… or you’re not. If you “cheat” and eat food with sugar or the like (including fruit) then you won’t be in ketosis. Anyhow I ate carbs with reckless abandon, gained a ton of water weight thanks to glycogen and ultimately ended up getting second place. Fortunately that was the last time time I did that and I’m not planning on doing it again. The longer I go without eating carbs, the less appealing to me they become. Nothing tastes as good as I remember it and the few things I have tasted I usually end up spitting out without swallowing and eat some bacon instead.

Speaking of bacon, I don’t exclusively live off keto chow, far from it; but I do stick to keto. With my wife doing keto too now (along with a growing list of family and friends) my kids are even getting less carbs. Nobody ever complains when I make sausage, bacon or eggs and cover everything with liberal amounts of cheese. This Saturday we’re doing a neighborhood Haloween party with a chili cook off and I’ll be bringing a giant batch of Caveman Keto Chili (though I use sausage instead of ground pork). The one thing I do need to cut back on though is sugar alcohol treats – stuff like Quest Bars and the like. You can see on my weight graph from the beginning of this post the plateaus where I’ve stopped losing weight (like the last 2 weeks). If I knuckle down and stick to eating only Keto Chow and ultra low carb foods then it picks back up.

One thing I have noticed over the past month or so is that I’m losing fat in my arms and legs. My quadriceps are getting pretty crazy looking and I’m starting to get veins popping out on my biceps. This is especially interesting because I stopped exercising when I tried to drill a hole in my leg back in June. Before I started keto I was exercising 1-2 times a day, either on the elliptical or running yet I was still gaining weight. The big change was stopping eating carbohydrates. Exercise just makes me hungry (unless I have excess energy).

So here are shirtless before and after pics. You’ve been warned. I’m 258lbs in the one on the left (November 2014), 210 in the middle (April 2015) and just barely under 200 on the right (October 2015)

[print_gllr id=7612]

In the end, I’m 77% the man I used to be but my wife still likes me =)

If you’re interested, here is the body fat percentage graph for the last 11 months or so since I got a withings scale that tracks that.

Fat Log 1 year of Keto

…and if you’re really interested, here is my weight history going all the way back to October 2006.

2015-10-20 09_51_12-Health Mate

The first dip was doing the “Shangri-La diet” The second big dip was when my wife and I did a program where we removed sugar, flour and other foods from our diet. As obvious as it is now I didn’t make the connection then. The second to the last small dip right before keto was the 9 months I was doing People Chow.

By |2016-10-13T07:28:01-06:00October 20th, 2015|Keto Chow, Ketogenic, Soylent, Weight Loss|Comments Off on 1 Year of Keto, 77% the man I used to be
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