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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Day 065 – 100 days of Keto (Chow)

This entry is part 53 of 81 in the series 100 days of keto
  • Weight: 207.1
  • Blood ketones: 0.4 mmol/L

There was a party over at my sister’s house last night, along with bringing the pastries she asked for we also brought smoked salmon, veggies and a bunch of cheese. I did this because my mom, my dad, my brother, my wife and I are all doing keto and it’s nice to have something to snack on.

I’ve been testing the vitamin pre-mix for the last few days. Everyone says they think it tastes fine but I’m still getting hung up on the metallic after taste that apparently only I can taste. I’m not going to introduce a product I don’t like, I requested formulation #3: this time without and magnesium, choline or calcium phosphate. I’ll add those myself and see if the was one of those 3.

By |2016-03-09T07:02:46-07:00March 8th, 2016|Keto Chow, 100 days of keto|Comments Off on Day 065 – 100 days of Keto (Chow)
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Days 063 & 064 – 100 days of Keto (Chow)

This entry is part 52 of 81 in the series 100 days of keto
  • Weight: 206.6
  • Blood ketones: <0.1 mmol/L
  • Weight: 207.3
  • Blood ketones: 0.6 mmol/L

Um, that’s the wrong way. +2.7lbs since Friday? You’d almost think I got too many hidden carbs on Saturday (which is likely exactly what happened, went to dinner with my parents and I’m guessing the “sugar free jello” at the buffet wasn’t low carb… or something). The weird thing is that even though my blood ketone levels bottomed out Sunday morning due to my largess on Saturday, they’re back up to 0.6 again this morning.

Anyway, this week should be good, I’m testing out the new vitamin/mineral pre-mix. It uses magnesium citrate instead of magnesium chloride and tastes much better. The first one I drank did have a slight metallic after taste but since then it’s been fine. I’m probably going to make a batch with the remainder and have other people test it out. Of the 3 people that have tasted it, 2 think it tastes exactly the same (I was the outlier).

Looks like the DEXA scan place nearby does offer quantity discounts: the first one is $99 – subsequent scans are $75. It’s probably since you’re already in the system and they’re just adding additional data point(s).

By |2016-03-07T06:39:18-07:00March 7th, 2016|Keto Chow, 100 days of keto|Comments Off on Days 063 & 064 – 100 days of Keto (Chow)
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Interesting NPR article about Keto and cancer

This entry is part 122 of 139 in the series Ketogenic Soylent

There’s an interesting reddit thread over on /r/keto about a NPR article that talks about the potential of keto for cancer treatment. The basic premise is: cancer cells aren’t doing what they are supposed to do, particularly metabolically. If you deprive them of readily available glucose they don’t grow/shrink. More research is needed but it’s not the type that’s likely to get funded since drug companies can’t make money off a diet, especially one like keto. In the Reddit thread there are some good anecdotes about effects seen first-hand on cancer with keto.

Now, the cool thing about all this is: “hedging your bets” is easy: dealing with cancer? there’s nothing stopping you from doing the traditional treatments but also consuming a ketogenic diet. In fact the only drawback I can see in this approach would be that since you are introducing simultaneous variables it will be difficult to determine which is helping more. I’d say that is a good problem to have. I highly doubt an oncologist would balk at eliminating sugar and refined carbohydrates from your diet =)

“The drugs we have now are so toxic and there’s no reason people should have to be poisoned to be healthy. There are a number of studies, including those we’ve published, showing a direct relationship between the ketogenic diet and slowed tumor growth,” says Seyfried, also citing the work of Dr. Valter Longo, of the University of Southern California’s Davis School of Gerontology. That work shows that low-calorie diets are linked with slowed tumor growth and improved response to chemotherapy. “Why spend all this money going after all these different pathways involved in cancer when you can simply go after the key fuels?” Seyfried asks.

…

Even Seyfried acknowledges, despite his zeal for treating cancer by tinkering with calories, that in all likelihood diet and nutrient-based cancer treatments will serve as adjuncts to existing therapies. But what would be wrong with that? “We’re slowing the tumor down and making it extremely vulnerable to lower, less-toxic doses of available drugs,” he says, “When people are locked into an ideology created by a dogma they tend not to focus on rational alternatives.”

By |2016-10-13T07:27:44-06:00March 6th, 2016|Ketogenic|Comments Off on Interesting NPR article about Keto and cancer
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Day 062 – 100 days of Keto (Chow)

This entry is part 51 of 81 in the series 100 days of keto
  • Weight: 205.0
  • Blood ketones: 0.6 mmol/L

Did a really good job at not chewing anything all day yesterday… until I made jalapeno  poppers wrapped in bacon for my wife – I ate a couple of those. Bad idea, my jaw hurts again now =(

We finished up a marathon session mixing last night, We’re almost completely out of protein powder to mix now but we should be completely stocked up for the coming week. It’s nice to have some evenings for other stuff =).

By |2016-03-08T10:12:06-07:00March 5th, 2016|Keto Chow, 100 days of keto|Comments Off on Day 062 – 100 days of Keto (Chow)
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Day 061 – 100 days of Keto (Chow)

This entry is part 50 of 81 in the series 100 days of keto
  • Weight: 204.6
  • Blood ketones: 0.4 mmol/L

Again with the running! I went to my dentist yesterday to see if the pain in my jaw was tooth related, got a panoramic x-ray and everything looks good. Based on my description and the way my jaw was closing, the dentist posits that I hurt the “disc” in my jaw somehow and it needs some time to get better. He prescribed 800mg of ibuprofen and told me that although it would be hard, I needed to try to limit biting down for a week or more “try to stick to soft foods”. I literally laughed out loud and then had to do a really rough explanation about my mostly liquid diet =). So for future reference, Keto Chow works quite well when you have dental/jaw problems.

I did awesome yesterday and the only non-keto chow calories I consumed was a little bit of cheese, I’ll see if I can act on the advice of my dentist.

Last night I was reading a post on the /r/ketochow sub-reddit where someone had gotten a DEXA scan. Down the rabbit hole I went! A while later I had found a company here locally that does them, they charge $99 for 1 scan and have in the past given discounts if you sign up for multiple ones at a time, so I have an appointment for Monday, March 14 (Pi day). EDIT: I was looking at their “Sample Report” and laughed out loud at “Android fat is associated with visceral (unhealthy) fat” – that darn android fat!

On a final note, today there was a new “study” published that claims a high fat diet (in mice) causes cancer. There is an excellent discussion over on /r/ketoscience about it but the TL; DR is

Low quality fat sources: 55% lard and 5.5% soybean oil. 32% of the fat is PUFA, omega6:3 ratio is 14:1.

Low quality protein sources: 20% casein that is poor in glycine and taurine, which are needed for metabolic health.

Low quality carbohydrate sources: 12% maltodextrin and 7% sugar that are completely unnecessary and just there to hinder fat metabolism.

Turns out that if you put mice on a diet of sugar and lard, the mice get fat and sick.

By |2016-10-13T07:27:47-06:00March 4th, 2016|Keto Chow, 100 days of keto|Comments Off on Day 061 – 100 days of Keto (Chow)
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Day 060 – 100 days of Keto (Chow)

This entry is part 49 of 81 in the series 100 days of keto
  • Weight: 204.9
  • Blood ketones: 0.2 mmol/L

Ran again last night, there was a comment yesterday about my routine, Looks like I’m doing a 4 minute warm up, then 5 rounds of 2 minutes running+2 minutes walking, followed by a final 2 minutes of running with a sprint and then 4 more cool down. I use a program that makes the sounds necessary to control certain treadmills that I did a screen recording of so I can play the video on an old Samsung S3. Works pretty well. For kicks I’ve combined a screen capture of the routine along with a heart rate graph as recorded by my Fitbit Charge HR.

Did 3 keto chows again yesterday and I’m planning on it today too. I’ve got some odd pain in my right jaw, near my ear. Since I’m doing a almost completely liquid diet it hasn’t really bothered me too bad, it only hurts when I bite down or open my mouth really wide (when I do something crazy like yawning). Anyway, it feels like a muscle issue but it’s been going on long enough (5 days) I’m going to the dentist today.

By |2016-03-03T08:22:35-07:00March 3rd, 2016|100 days of keto, Keto Chow|2 Comments
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Day 059 – 100 days of Keto (Chow)

This entry is part 48 of 81 in the series 100 days of keto
  • Weight: 204.5
  • Blood ketones: 0.3 mmol/L

Not much to report today, drank 3 keto chows yesterday (Peanut Butter & Cookies and Cream). My weight is still coming down nicely. I was able to run last night, I’m doing the slightly more intense workout now: running for 2 minutes then walking for 2 (last week was run 1 walk 3). One of my friends doing keto got his blood tests back yesterday, I’m working to get him to make a blog post about it.

By |2016-10-13T07:27:48-06:00March 2nd, 2016|Keto Chow, 100 days of keto|6 Comments
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Day 058 – 100 days of Keto (Chow)

This entry is part 47 of 81 in the series 100 days of keto
  • Weight: 205.1
  • Blood ketones: 0.1 mmol/L

I like finding reviews of my stuff around teh Intrawebs. This morning I was looking through my server logs and found Hey Keto Mama’s review of Keto Chow, along with her recipe for a Keto Chow “Shamrock Shake” (which is the photo for today’s post) – seriously, go read the review. I’ll wait.

I finally ate “breakfast” yesterday around 1 or 2 pm. I did almost make a serious mistake: I needed to go to home depot to get conduit and wires to hook up the RV power box I wanted to wire up on my house. I had already gone to several stores (including Dunford Bakers to get bread, and some doughnuts, for the kids – I haven’t had a doughnut in like 18 months) while fasting and decided it was time to eat. Drank a Chocolate Peanut Butter keto chow in the car, I even remembered to take it out of the car, but I left it next to the wood pile where I was drilling holes in my house to attach the box. about 3 hours later when I came back (after my second trip to Home Depot, naturally) I saw the mostly empty bottle on the ground and washed it out immediately. Leaving a blender bottle with traces of Keto Chow on it is a very bad idea.

By |2016-10-13T07:27:48-06:00March 1st, 2016|Keto Chow, 100 days of keto|2 Comments
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Days 055, 056 & 057 – 100 days of Keto (Chow)

This entry is part 46 of 81 in the series 100 days of keto
  • Weight: 204.8
  • Blood ketones: 0.3 mmol/L
  • Weight: 204.1
  • Blood ketones: 0.3 mmol/L
  • Weight: 205.7
  • Blood ketones: 0.2 mmol/L

This weekend went great, mixed a bunch of Keto Chow powder and completely filled up all my recycle bins with Dymatize 5lb tubs (the picture is after I was already half done crushing the ones from Saturday). I finished off a week consistently losing weight by… gaining some water weight. Meh, I’ll have that gone in a few days easily. Today I’m doing stuff in the yard and I completely forgot to eat breakfast until just now, maybe I’ll use that to my advantage and just Intermittent Fast today.

By |2016-02-29T08:54:40-07:00February 29th, 2016|Keto Chow, 100 days of keto|Comments Off on Days 055, 056 & 057 – 100 days of Keto (Chow)
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Day 054 – 100 days of Keto (Chow)

This entry is part 45 of 81 in the series 100 days of keto
  • Weight: 205.0
  • Blood ketones: 0.2 mmol/L

Weight stayed the same, I’ll take it. I totally called it with the food yesterday, lunch was a bunch of food trucks – while I’m sure it was yummy, everything either had a sugar glaze or whatever. The only ray of light was breakfast there was a giant bowl of bacon (and no plates) so I grabbed a half dozen slices in a cup and ate those. I was happy I had brought my own food =)

Today I have off my “day job” so I’m just at home prepping ingredients for Keto Chow. Went through eight 12lb bags of psyllium husk already – fun times!

By |2016-03-01T06:54:29-07:00February 26th, 2016|100 days of keto, Keto Chow|Comments Off on Day 054 – 100 days of Keto (Chow)
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