Preparation

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:

Buy liquid fish oil, I recommend Cod Liver Oil Lemon mint flavor.
I sell a week’s worth of fish oil capsules (35 or 5 per day). If you don’t want to buy a giant bottle, this is a good option.
Buy a 400 capsule bottle from Costco or from Amazon and take 5 per day.

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 chris|2015-01-06T14:24:42-07:00January 2nd, 2015|Keto Chow, Ketogenic, Preparation, Soylent|Comments Off

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

Video – mixing up 3 meals of ketofood

This entry is part 14 of 139 in the series Ketogenic Soylent

I have this written up in text for on my Ketofood Preparation page, but I wanted to do a video showing the process. There’s a different video of measuring and mixing the dry ingredients.

As a follow-up, here is what it looks like the next morning after everything separates. Note that the oil didn’t separate, you mostly just have coconut floating and chia sinking. A quick shake and it was all mixed back together.

By chris|2016-10-13T07:28:25-06:00November 20th, 2014|Preparation, Soylent|Comments Off

New SupplementWarehouse.com shaker bottle design

I usually grab the free shaker bottle every time I do an order, the most recent one is a new design

The plastic is more clear and the lid is angular with a different spout and a loop. The plastic feels more sturdy too.

New, Old, Old (mixing up Ketofood)

Here are Tuesday’s meals, all mixed up and ready for the fridge:

By chris|2016-10-13T07:28:27-06:00November 18th, 2014|Preparation, Soylent|Comments Off

New video of mixing a week of People Chow

This entry is part 37 of 39 in the series DIY Soylent

I did a video several months ago on how I mix up a week of the dry ingredients for People Chow at a time. Lots of people liked it (a few didn’t, meh) and a bunch commented on my inability to do math =)

I now present to you, new and improved, better mixing video:

Notable changes include: I’m using a large scale to do the macro-nutrients, I have the recipe memorized now and the actual mixing is about 10 minutes now.

After mixing up the powder, the next step is making your actual bottles of mixed stuff. I have a few videos on that too.

By chris|2016-10-13T07:28:27-06:00November 17th, 2014|Preparation, Soylent|2 Comments

Video – Mixing up Ketofood, some more details about getting started with keto

This entry is part 10 of 139 in the series Ketogenic Soylent

Somebody asked me about the recipe that I’m using for ketosis. It’s the same as QuidNYCs for ongoing ketosis but with Canola oil instead of Olive, mostly because I have issues with the smell/flavor of Extra Virgin Olive Oil, you can see it here. The first tab is more of a general overview, you can get down to the nitty-gritty in the “Recipe Editor” tab including omega ratios and other specifics.

Along with that, yesterday I recorded a video of me mixing up a week of Ketofood. Normally it doesn’t take this long but I was ‘splainin’ stuff and taking my sweet time to do it (plus grinding those chia seeds is a pain).

So, there you go. Ideally it only takes me 15 minutes or so to mix up a batch. It’s not rocket science and really it’s easier than baking a cake from scratch: you just weigh stuff and stick it into a big container, then you measure oil.

Final thought: I was asked how quickly I got into ketosis. I started by using the QuidNYC induction phase recipe but I didn’t like it at all and jumped to the “ongoing” after 1 week. I didn’t get the Ketone test strips ($14 for 200 FTW!) I’m using until I was well into my second week so I can’t tell you exactly when I entered ketosis but I was feeling the dreaded ketosis flu by the 3rd day. By the time I got the test strips on Halloween (ordered on the 27th) and tested myself it was showing a level between 4 and 8.

By chris|2016-10-13T07:28:27-06:00November 16th, 2014|Preparation, Soylent, Weight Loss|Comments Off

Vacationing for a week (mostly) on DIY soylent
Gallery
Vacationing for a week (mostly) on DIY soylent

On Tour, Soylent, Preparation

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]

We’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 chris|2016-10-13T07:28:30-06:00September 17th, 2014|On Tour, Soylent, Preparation|Comments Off

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

Using a pump for oil measuring is awesome

This entry is part 32 of 39 in the series DIY Soylent

A few days ago there was a post on the Soylent Discourse forum about using a popcorn butter pump for oil. The one linked was far larger than I would like and is designed for gallon size containers. I wanted one that would hold a few days (or weeks) of oil and would be practical on my desk at work (and another at home). Last night I kicked around Wal-Mart and found what I was looking for. Oddly enough the dispensers I’ve found are marketed as lotion dispensers.

This is the one I found. They were $1.88 each and hold 11 fluid ounces or 325ml – that should last almost 6 days with my current recipe. I wanted one that was see-through so I could monitor the oil level. I’m considering the possibility of adding them as an add-in for the mixed up People Chow I sell simply because it makes measuring so much easier and there’s enough room in the boxes for the pump.

If you are concerned about weird stuff in the plastic getting into the oil you could go with something with glass and stainless steel like this or just search for “glass lotion dispenser” on Amazon. I decided to put it onto a plate to make sure I didn’t lose any onto the counter while I filled it up.

Bottle full. It was actually really easy to fill. I thought I was going to need a funnel since the oil bottle has a massive opening and the dispenser is tiny but it went in without a spill…

… on the first bottle. On the second bottle I learned a valuable lesson I would like to pass on: DO NOT fill up the bottle close to all-the-way. Leave a solid inch or more at the top or when you put the pump in it will displace liquid and you will have a mess. I could tell this was about to happen so I tried to draw some oil into the pump as I put it in the bottle but the effort failed (as shown above).

Measuring how many pumps I needed to get my oil right was a simple affair. I’m measuring mine by volume so I just saw how many full pumps it took to fill up the appropriate measuring spoon(s). If you are measuring your oil by weight, you would just zero out a container on your scale and pump oil until you hit the right weight.

Measuring like this has the added benefit of running some oil through the mechanism to get out any possible residue left over from manufacturing.

After measuring mine I determined that with the specific pumps I have, I need 11 pumps to get the 3.5 teaspoons of oil necessary for each of the 4 “meals” of regular People Chow I’m currently consuming. It took all of 2 seconds to come up with a way to remember that.

And for an added bonus: I’m still laughing at the thought that someone might mistake it for hand soap and try to wash their hands with it.

Insert Dr. Horrible evil laugh here.

By chris|2016-10-13T07:28:30-06:00August 8th, 2014|Preparation, Soylent|4 Comments

SupplementWarehouse shaker bottle

This entry is part 31 of 39 in the series DIY Soylent

So I’ve been getting some of my supplies from supplementwarehouse.com lately and they have a promo for a free shaker cup with purchase. It does add to the shipping cost if you have a small order but the difference has been negligible on the orders I’m doing. If you want more than the free one you can also order them outright for $0.75 – once again there’s shipping. 4 of them is $3 with $14 shipping from Wisconsin to Utah where I live. So how do they compare to the $7 blender bottles you can get from Amazon?

Overall: Pretty favorably.

They aren’t as rigid – the plastic is somewhat thinner and has more flex in it.
It’s has a smoother finish. The bottom of the bottle says it’s Polypropylene and further states it’s BPA and DEHP free. Blender bottles have the same recycle codes and are probably also Polypropylene.
Because it’s smoother, the powder doesn’t cling to the bottom as much as a BlenderBottle so it’s significantly easier to mix up. This really surprised me a lot.
A little hard to keep hold of if it’s wet.
It’s the same height, diameter and overall size as the “28 ounce” blender bottle; even though it’s listed as being 25 ounces. The lids would even be interchangeable if the thread spacing and angle were the same (but they’re not).
Whereas the lid sealing the spout of a blender bottle has 3 states (wide open, closed enough for you to think it’s sealed but will pop open and dump soylent on you when you shake it, and closed), this one has just 2: open and sealed. It’s a little awkward to open and close it, you bend the lid a little near the hinge when you do it. The result is I don’t accidentally think it’s closed when it isn’t since it’s decidedly obvious what state it’s in though opening it one-handed is harder.
The “fan blades” mixer works well enough. Probably wouldn’t mix in peanut butter like you can do with a blender bottle but it also won’t inexplicably wrap its self around another blender ball or the dishwasher rack. Nor will it make an annoying springy noise when you have an empty bottle in your bag.

So there you have it. If you’re just getting into (s)oylent and need mixing bottles the free ones are great and even if you do pay (shipping) for them, they’re actually pretty good. Full disclosure: I’m writing this up on my own – the only thing supplementwarehouse has given me is a decent price on Cal/Mag/D3 and my last order was delayed 2 days for no reason (not that I’m still bitter about that, my other orders were OK).

Pics (or it didn’t happen): click to enbiggen.