Uncategorized

Alliance Paradigm 340RL media

visual comparison of the Alliance Paradigm 340RL and the 310RL

Visual comparison of the Alliance Paradigm 340RL and the 310RL

Above are a set of images taken with a DJI Mini 3 Pro drone – The yellow tape measure on the ground is exactly 10 feet, by the way.

These images were processed with a photogrammetry application to create a 3D model of the 340RL. It’s available in 3 versions: a GLB Model, and a STL Model. The GLM has a photorealistic texture image embedded, the STL file is only geometry.

GLB Model
By |2024-11-17T17:43:13-07:00November 17th, 2024|Uncategorized|Comments Off on Alliance Paradigm 340RL media

Science: Metabolic Effects of the Very-Low-Carbohydrate Diets: Misunderstood “Villains” of Human Metabolism

This entry is part 121 of 139 in the series Ketogenic Soylent

In a recent thread on reddit I was directed over to an excellent journal article from 2004 “Metabolic Effects of the Very-Low-Carbohydrate Diets: Misunderstood ‘Villains’ of Human Metabolism” – it does a really great job explaining some of the actual science behind a ketogenic diet and debunks several myths including “you need 100g of carbohydrates a day to survive”. I would recommend checking it out if you ever have a doctor question you about ketogenic diets (or just want to learn new stuff!)

Abstract

During very low carbohydrate intake, the regulated and controlled production of ketone bodies causes a harmless physiological state known as dietary ketosis. Ketone bodies flow from the liver to extra-hepatic tissues (e.g., brain) for use as a fuel; this spares glucose metabolism via a mechanism similar to the sparing of glucose by oxidation of fatty acids as an alternative fuel. In comparison with glucose, the ketone bodies are actually a very good respiratory fuel. Indeed, there is no clear requirement for dietary carbohydrates for human adults. Interestingly, the effects of ketone body metabolism suggest that mild ketosis may offer therapeutic potential in a variety of different common and rare disease states. Also, the recent landmark study showed that a very-low-carbohydrate diet resulted in a significant reduction in fat mass and a concomitant increase in lean body mass in normal-weight men. Contrary to popular belief, insulin is not needed for glucose uptake and utilization in man. Finally, both muscle fat and carbohydrate burn in an amino acid flame.

By |2016-10-13T07:27:51-06:00February 22nd, 2016|Ketogenic, Uncategorized|Comments Off on Science: Metabolic Effects of the Very-Low-Carbohydrate Diets: Misunderstood “Villains” of Human Metabolism

Making Keto Chow in a Hotel

This entry is part 95 of 139 in the series Ketogenic Soylent

Doing something like Keto Chow in a hotel room presents some interesting issues. I’ve done another “soylent” in hotels before and I’ve done Keto Chow while camping. I’m using a couple tools to make this all work in my hotel room.

  1. A refrigerator. Doesn’t come standard in the room though a quick call to the front desk and it’s happily chilling out.
  2. Shelf stable cream, specifically the Trader Joe’s brand. While it’s not the same fat content as the Heavy Cream I normally use, this travels well and you don’t have to worry about it. It comes in smallish 8 ounce containers and plugging the nutrition information from the package into the Recipe Editor on diy.soylent.me it says that I need to use all 236ml per day to get 1400 calories. This works out to 78ml per meal. So I open a box, split it 3 ways and I’m done with that box.
  3. I brought along two of the 18oz Hydro Flask insulated containers. These should keep lunch nicely chilled all day.
  4. I brought along a bottle brush and dish soap. You have to scrub out the hydro flasks (and blender bottles).
  5. I have 3 blender bottles. I’m going to mix in these and transfer 1 or 2 meals into the hydro flasks as needed.
  6. I stopped and grabbed a bottle of liquid coconut oil since my containers of MCT oil are the massive 64 ounce ones.
  7. Scale, measuring cups, a bowl to measure into and some fish oil pills.

Anyhow, should be interesting to see how it all works out. I have classes tomorrow and the included breakfast is bagels and pastries. No way am I eating that junk. Going to bring along my Keto Chow and if I’m lucky there will be a cheese tray during lunch.

By |2016-10-13T07:28:03-06:00September 12th, 2015|Keto Chow, Ketogenic, Preparation, On Tour, Soylent, Uncategorized|1 Comment

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.

Teh Snappy is back!

Something that’s been bugging me is how slow my own site (right here) got after I upgraded WooCommerce to 2.2. It got excruciatingly slow and it was super frustrating to me and (I suspect) to people coming here. I did a major upgrade of the server infrastructure yesterday and the site is now running extremely well with 1-2 second response times instead of the 9-15+ seconds ones I was experiencing before. So teh snappy is back and I’m super happy about it.

Yay!

By |2014-11-11T08:28:32-07:00November 11th, 2014|Uncategorized|2 Comments

About the Concrete Countertops

So, the concrete countertop in the kitchen is mostly done, just need to put on the backsplash. This post is to sum up what we did and what we used.

For the forms we used the Ogee edges from Z-CounterformsOgee Profile

The forms come in a pack that’s big enough to do 2 kitchens the size of ours (64 linear feet of front edge and 48 linear feet of back edge) – so we have enough to also do all our bathrooms, which means we could do a test before going all-in on the kitchen. This turned out to be a good thing and we got some valuable experience, learning things like: “put in the right amount of water” and “use a real mixer not a drill paddle”. Along with the edges we also bought the Sink form, the faucet knockouts, 3 different color samples (amber, wheat and ebony) of the concrete stain, and the AquaPoxy sealer. When we did the bathroom I first tried using Sakrete 5000 since it’s billed as being usable for counters…. if (I didn’t notice this until later) you add additional cement, plastisizers, reducers and fiberglass fibers to it. I could have bought pre-packaged stuff to do that but it was easier to get the Quickrete Countertop Mix that’s all ready to go. You have to special order it from Lowes over the phone but (here in Salt Lake at least) you can just go will-call it at the Quickrete plant if you’re in a hurry. I planned out what we would need rather well I think: 8.4 bags of concrete, two 4×8 sheets of OSB and three 3×5 sheets of cement board (those based on my Planning Drawing) – I got 10 bags just to be safe.

Anyhow, the first try for the bathroom counter (alpha test) I used the Sakrete 5000 without the right amount of water (too dry) and not mixed enough (drill paddle that bent). It was an absolute failure that I had to break apart and throw away before it set all the way. So we got the Quickrete a few days later and the beta test went much smoother once I got a real cement mixer – I made my drill start to smoke when I tried to mix it up using a new mixing paddle. My sister came and did the staining, we sealed it and it turned out great.

2014-03-21 10.22.14

 

We used up most of the wheat and amber concrete stain on the bathroom counter so we ordered the larger bottles for the kitchen. The next step was to demolish the old nasty tile countertop.

Demolition in progress

Demolition in progress

Once demolished we needed to build up the new counter (and replace the drywall I tore out when removing the old backsplash)

Unfortunately the time lapse stopped right when we started to assemble the OSB and cement board.

Assembling the counter

Assembling the counter

We originally planned to pour the cement that same day but it was way too late by then so we waited until a big group could come and help. I also got 2 additional bags since I used up 2 of the original 10 on the bathroom and my spreadsheet told me I needed 8.4 bags to finish. Ended up with 1.5 bags – spot on.

Concrete Poured

Concrete Poured

Starting to cure

Starting to cure

Mostly cured

Mostly cured

Staining in progress

Staining in progress

Stained

Stained

Sealed

Sealed

So there you go! It will look nicer once the backsplash is in place. As for costs: the forms were $200, the other stains and stuff we bought added another $100 or so. The cement was around $200 for the 12 bags. Had to get a compound miter saw and a few other tools. Random stuff at lowes plus $220 in travertine for the backsplash. $170 for the sink. $80 for the faucet. All in all it’s close to $1000 for everything (if labor is free =). A guy I was talking to said he was able to get this guy to do granite counters for around $2000  which is a lot less than the $5000 – 6000 we were quoted but I haven’t verified if the guy is even in business. I also enjoy building and doing stuff (because that’s what computer geeks do…. right? no? well, I’m breaking that mold!) and it leaves me with terribly useful skills: tile skills, drywall skills, plumbing skills, tetherball skills… Then there is the WAF (wife acceptance factor); she’s able to customize it within the realm of what we can afford and it’s uniquely hers.

By |2016-10-13T07:28:37-06:00April 2nd, 2014|Uncategorized|1 Comment