More Vanilla for breakfast, lunch and dinner today, that’s all pretty unremarkable. The fun part for today is I just launched a new home page. Hopefully this should give people more information in a nicer format. Let me know what you think!
Yesterday evening I spent some time discussing the possible packaging for “Keto Chow 2.0” with my wife. The company I’ll likely be using can package into “Stick Pack” and tubs/bottles, they aren’t able to handle the stand-up pouches I’m currently using (“yet”) so it’s likely I’ll be using tubs for bulk size and stick packs for the samples. The question now comes to what to do for the days – I don’t have a good solution for that yet. A smaller “day” tub would cost almost as much as the large bulk one, both the cost of the container and the cost of putting it into the container (but x7). I think the solution is going to be to up the volume of the sample size (the “single meal”) enough that the cost of 3 meals is lower than what the “day” used to cost – and just eliminate it entirely because it wouldn’t be necessary.
We’re also hitting some issues with the bulk size container. 7 days/21 meals for most of the flavors is a little too much to fit into a half-gallon size bottle. It fits into a standard 1 gallon (2 lb of protein) size bottle but there’s a bunch of extra space at the top. Since Peanut Butter is the “largest” flavor by volume I used it as my “worst case scenario” trial and found that I could actually get 10 days/30 meals of chocolate peanut butter into a gallon size container. Likely that is what we will do: no more “weeks” – they would be 30 meal/10 day packages. A round gallon size container is an awful waste of space as far as shipping goes so we’re looking into using “square” bottles instead, like these:
This all presents a problem though: Shipping. We currently use a LOT of USPS flat rate boxes; they’re free(ish) and offer low shipping rates where we don’t have to care how much stuff weighs, only how big it is. With these larger, fixed dimension, containers we would be able to fit half as many bottles into the same box as the week bags. A Medium FRB would hold 1 instead of 2-3. A Large FRB would only hold 2 bottles instead of the current 4 weeks (20 days worth compared to 28). It’s likely we’ll have to find our own boxes that fit 1, 2, 3 and 4 of the bottles. It kinda sucks but will be better for FedEx and possibly UPS shipping with all 3 services using the same boxes. Time will tell.
We also hashed out the flavors that will be part of the initial round: Chocolate, Vanilla, Chocolate Peanut butter, Cookie & Cream and Strawberry.
Those first five represent 73% of the total sales of Keto Chow all by themselves, so I think it’s a good starting point; especially with the apparent discontinuation of the different flavors by Dymatize. I found some Chocolate Fudge and some Butter Cream Toffee yesterday but still no joy with Banana and Piña Colada, it may not be long before They go out of stock in the weeks, though we have a nice inventory of days and samples. Cinnamon bun is currently down to just samples remaining, the last day pack sold on Saturday.
Probably going to I.F. (Intermittent Fasting) until this afternoon, might not though – we’ll see if I get hungry or not. The revised formulation of my custom vitamin mix is ordered (with magnesium citrate instead of chloride to see if that removes the metallic aftertaste), hopefully it gets here soon!
I recently switched over to using ShipStation for order logistics and it seems to be working quite well so far. It has some really nice features and speeds up the process of shipping stuff out. It also supports multiple carriers which hasn’t been an issue but is nice just in case I need it down the line. There was only one really big issue I saw: I’m using woocommerce product bundles for the “build a week”, “build a month” and “sample all the things” bundles and they kept coming through into shipstation with a “Part of: Sample all the things” tagged onto them. It was all well and good until we tried to use the ShipStation picking list – the list that gives you a run-down of all the inventory you need to fill the current orders. The problem was the bundled products showed up separately from the non-bundled items so we would end up with something like the image at the top of this post, but for every flavor and size permutation. Didn’t fly and we went back to using the old “variation report” (on a side note, I’ve sat through enough aquanauts that we’ve taken to calling it the “creature report” – it’s a whole syllable shorter).
I got a response from the WooCommerce support guys on a ticket I opened and they gave me some code that disables the bundle metadata. The basic premise is you follow this guide and add the following code, using whichever of the 3 methods you prefer:
add_filter( 'woocommerce_bundles_filter_order_items_part_of_meta', 'wc_ninja_disable_bundled_part_of_meta', 15 );
function wc_ninja_disable_bundled_part_of_meta() {
return false;
}
I ended up doing the “write a custom plugin” option since it can easily be activated/deactivated and will survive changes in themes and other tomfoolery. In case some random internet search led you here because you have the same problem, here’s a handy plugin, ready to go: woocommerce-disable-bundles-filter.zip
Ran on the treadmill last night and I’m down 0.1 lbs today =) Today will be another weigh-in for the city weight loss competition. Dunno if I’ll be down this time.
I’ve been meaning to get better product photos for a while since the old ones were pretty blurry when you looked at them closely; also they still had the little bags of vitamins which are now included in the mixture. I even bought a better camera so I could take the new photos but just wasn’t getting around to it. My wife reminded me that my dad is a professional photographer, DUH! Last night he set up the lighting and backdrop and we did new photos (well, except for the samples, I forgot to bring those so I’ll be going back soon – I need to see if my mom can hem some suit pants anyway). Funny how much better the photos turn out when you have a pro with the right gear taking the pictures.
For those that didn’t know: I’m working towards significantly scaling up my operation. Like full-on industrial manufacturing using a co-packer. Today I finally got pricing for a vitamin/mineral pre-mix. There are a bunch of reasons for this but to name a few:
Anyhow several months ago I contacted a few vitamin pre-mix people to see if it was possible for them to make a replacement for the Kirkland Signature Multi-vitamins I’m currently using in my mix. The few places that responded told me they had a minimum order of 100 kg. Back then I balked and let the inquiry die because 100 kg in 10g/week increments would make 9,293 “week” (21 meal) bags of Keto Chow! Now that I’m looking into co-packing I need to be able to get all my stuff in massive bulk quantities so I’m not grinding several hundred pounds of vitamin capsules, it would be a full time job. In my inquiries about co-packing I was put in touch with a place that does nutrient pre-mixes. While hashing out the mix we eventually ended up incorporating several of the ingredients into the pre-mix. Turns out several of the ingredients are particularly hygroscopic and needs to be paired with something to keep it dry. So if you want Choline Bitatrate you have to add Calcium Phosphate or it won’t last 6 months. We have the formulation formalized on paper and I’ll be getting a sample in 2 weeks or so to test out. In the end we’re replacing
The best part is it actually costs slightly less than what I’m currently using ( $0.20859/day compared to $0.27655/day) even if I get it in the smallest quantity I can order. If I scale up to 2500kg I can save even more =).
Friday I finally got a sample of psyllium husk that I can get in 55lb and 2000lb bags, it was more finely ground than the NOW psyllum powder, I’m super excited about it! Still don’t have pricing yet though =(
The next step that I’m working on is getting a replacement for the Dymatize protein powder I’m using. It’s gotten harder and harder to find the various flavors and some (Pina Colada, Banana, Cinnamon Bun) I haven’t found in several weeks and don’t think I ever will be able to get again – 2 of my suppliers have indicated the Pina Colada has been discontinued by the manufacturer. I’m working with a lady locally that formulates flavors to come up with suitable replacements. Hopefully I’ll have this ready in the next month and before the Dymatize goes completely unavailable (which I doubt Rich Chocolate and the other really popular flavors will disappear but I haven’t been able to get them in 10lb boxes for months).
So what does this mean for the future of Keto Chow, the recipe? Well, I’ll have Keto Chow 1.0.4 open for anyone to use still, that’s not changing. I’m also going to open the new recipe (tentatively called Keto Chow 2.0) but it likely won’t be something a regular person can make themselves since it’ll require a custom vitamin pre-mix along with using a custom protein powder and custom flavorings. For the most part you’ll still be able to make 1.0.4 yourself but whatever flavors I come up with (along with the expected ones I’m planning on trying for plain and savory flavors!) will only be available from me, but one of the goals in all this is also to reduce the cost and therefore the price of the stuff I’m selling. Better quality, easier to get, less expensive – that’s the plan.
Don’t hold your breath unless you can do so for a long while but that’s the plan for the future. At some point I’m going to check out some of the manufacturers I found that specialize in aseptic packaging of mixed liquids. Pre-mixed Keto Chow in a bottle with the cream and oil already mixed in and doesn’t require refrigeration? Yeah that would be awesome!
There’s a subreddit called /r/subredditsimulator where automated reddit robots can go around and “play”, generating random posts based on probability. Regular users can’t even post there. Yesterday I hit the big time because /u/keto_ss decided to tag me in a post
I am a bit more willpower than average, so when I ordered the sampler, /u/chrisbair told me to stop drinking water, from nausea to headaches to lethargy.
Don’t know why I would have done that =) Then again, I don’t think robots should drink water so I suppose it’s accurate. The bot has posted other fun stuff like
You have to take a new picture. I’ve tried them all and then reheat them in the oven for a minute or 2 and then gained back 100 lb. It’s easy to make with a food scale, so I am going for.
Ok!
With the (maybe temporary) demise of Mocha, I decided to bring on a new flavor for Keto Chow so there would still be 12. Introducing SnickerDoodle! It tastes very much like one of the cookies with a much better flavor than cinnamon bun. Personally I’ve never liked cinnamon bun but others do. This one is decidedly good. We’re finishing up the Day packages and have about 2 dozen of the Week packages already done. In a few minutes we’ll be starting on samples too.
The photo is about half of the Peanut Butter packages we mixed last night, waiting to be sealed. I decided it looked kinda cool so I took a picture, they last longer.
Something that I’ve been concerned about lately is the availability of the various flavors of Dymatize (which is a central component of Keto Chow – it’s what sets the flavor). My preferred supplier is out of stock on all the 10lb boxes and most of the 5lb bottles. My secondary, tertiary and other suppliers are also pretty much completely out of stock. My guess is it has to do with Dymatize closing its Texas production plant and contracting with “co-packer” facilities and they’re not coming on-line as quickly as they would like.
I’ve had 2 flavors go out of stock now: Strawberry (update: it’s back in stock) and Mocha (completely out of stock except day packages). I’m still looking to find some place that has either of these but it’s not looking very good with most places reporting they should have some stock in about 10 days. Rich Chocolate has been particularly fun to maintain stock since it’s what I use for Chocolate Peanut Butter as well as the regular Rich Chocolate, the 3rd and 1st most popular flavors (#2 is vanilla). I’ve taken to buying out the inventory of any place I can find 10lb or 5lb containers. Last night I had a friend helping me get some Keto Chow mixed up. If I remember correctly, we mixed 220lbs of Rich Chocolate (half was for peanut butter), 80lbs of Vanilla, 30lbs of Cookies and Cream. With any luck that will be enough to hold us over past Thanksgiving but I’m suspecting it won’t.
I get this question frequently enough I’m going to post this so I can have a convenient place to copy and paste from.
The credit card verification I use is pretty strict (as of November 2015 I haven’t EVER had a charge back or fraudulent transaction). Your billing address has to EXACTLY match what your credit card company has on file (if in doubt, pull up your card statement and see where they think you live). If it fails to verify you might still see an “Authorize” transaction on your card, this is from Stripe (the guys I use) saying
“hey dude, does this person have enough money to cover the charge? cool, by the way here is their address, does it match what you have? No? OK, never mind”.
If it does match then it does what’s termed a “Capture” transaction – this is where your card gets for realsies actually charged.
So the good news is: you don’t get charged for the AUTH transactions but they DO usually temporarily count towards your credit limit. After a few days, depending on the bank, the pending charges will drop off your account and all will be right with the world. Now if you need to you can usually call the bank and get them to release an AUTH early.
So it’s been about a month since I started putting the vitamins into the powder mixture. All of the packages I have mixed up have the vitamins included so the “vitamins are included” stickers are a bit redundant. I’m running low on the stickers and don’t want to make more so as soon as I run out of the ones I have I’m going to stop putting the stickers on. If you order one of the more popular flavors like vanilla, rich chocolate or cookies & cream you might get a package without the sticker as early as next week, less popular flavors will have them for a while. On a related note, last night I was updating the labels and noticed that the day packs still said to take a vitamin pill doh! So I fixed that.
Final note, my preferred DNS registrar recently had a sale on .xyz domains so you can now get to this site by going to ketochow.xyz (you can also use keto-chow.com and ketochow.net).
Why don’t I have ketochow.com (without a dash)? well, that’s a fun story involving a domain squatter who saw me register @ketochow on twitter, found the guy in England that owned ketochow.com, bought it for about $160 and then turned around and tried to shake me down for $6000. I declined and he then tried to sell it to my “competitors” whom all flatly refused to work with him (thanks guys!).
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