Keto Grinder

We have some excellent news, the Ketofest Kickstarter has been fully funded!  That means Ketofest will happen this summer.  I'm looking forward to taking part in the festivities this year.  One of the great things about Ketofest is that a few hundred people converge on a town with similar dietary requirements.  That means you won't feel like the odd one out with weird requests.  Everyone goes to Hot Rod's Cafe and orders a pint of bacon, or gets extra butter for their steak.

However not all vacations are quite so easy.  In April I'll be going on a 9-day cruise.  I've been on 5 cruises in the past, but I haven't been on one since I started keto.  And while I'm familiar with the food that is available, I haven't thought about it with a keto point of view.

Breakfasts (if I eat any) should be easy, eggs and omelets, and bacon are great keto fare.  There should be burgers without buns and salads available for lunch.  And dinners should have at least one or tw…

The April meetup for the Minnesota Ketonians meetup group has been schedule for April 7, 2018 from 9:30 AM to 11:30 AM at the Champlin Library.  This will be the third official meetup of the Minnesota Ketonians group.  I'm experimenting with adding a little bit of structure to the agenda based upon some excellent feedback from Donna, one of the attendees of the last meeting.  I thought we needed a little more structure and she had some good ideas to try out.

The first meeting had 10 attendees the second one had 20.  So continuing that pattern we should get either 30 or 40.  Are we growing by 10 or doubling?  😄 More realistically, I wouldn't be surprised to have 21 or 22 attendees.  Below is our planned agenda.
AGENDA 9:30 AM - Small talk while people get settled
9:40 AM - Introductions - Introduction question: What is one of your favorite things about the ketogenic diet?
10:00 AM - Share keto treats if any (none required, but feel free to share if desired)
10:05 AM - Help sp…

I thought maybe it was time to share a few tips I've learned about extended fasting.  Much of this information I have obtained through my membership with the Intensive Dietary Management coaching program.  I would recommend considering signing up if you are serious about introducing fasting into your routine.  Assume most of what I say here originally comes from Dr. Fung, Megan Ramos or Nadia Pateguana. Thanks IDM!

If you are already lean, and do not have excess fat stores, then extended fasting may not be for you.  You might not have adequate fat repositories to fuel yourself over an extended fast.  You may want to consider sticking to intermittent fasting (IF) instead. IF is the practice of not snacking between meals and trying to concentrate your meals into a fairly tight 6-8 hour window daily.If you are taking any medication to manage your blood sugar, make sure  you work with your physician to adjust your doses.  Fasting will lower your blood glucose levels, and if you are tak…

The keto community is really amazing.  There are so many people that are putting out content explaining how they make keto work for themselves.  There are podcasts and blogs and recipe sites and forums and videos and conferences and books and the list keeps on going.

I would not have been nearly as successful without all of these resources. They have all helped me to improve my health immensely.  Here are a few of the improvements I have seen:
I've lost over 140 pounds.I've started an exercise program and have gained quite a bit of strength.I've been able to stop taking insulin (120 units of Lantus daily) and Bydureon.I no longer have acid re-flux.I have more energy and feel better.I feel that good health may now be achievable, where before I thought it would forever elude my grasp. There have been literally hundreds of people, that have helped me on my journey.  If you are helping your fellow people, I want to sincerely thank you.  And this is why I want to give back to the…

On Saturday, March 10 we had the second meeting of the Minnesota Ketonians meetup group with 20 people attending.  There were some new faces in addition to several returning people.  One couple started keto since the last meetup group. The attendees were fantastic and there was lots of good conversation.  You can read a recap of the meeting here.  This is a decent growth for our second meeting.  People seemed genuinely enthusiastic for the next meeting.  I have to admit that I am too!

Of course it’s also great to have Brenda Zorn as a member of the group.  She has been doing keto and fasting for a few years and is very knowledgeable about the diet.  Also she has started working with Dr. Jason Fung’s Intensive Dietary Management group and will be an excellent resource for local Ketonians.

I’ve also created a website for the meetup group at https://MinnesotaKetonians.com.  The twitter is @MNKetonians.  You can also send emails to MinnesotaKetonians@gmail.com.  I think this group could b…

First I should mention some that between March 1 and March 2 I gained an additional 7 pounds back.  I'm attributing that to more dehydration that I previously guessed. I obviously wasn't thrilled about that, but Fasting February was an experiment and I wanted to see what would happen.

But then I got my DexaScan results.  I lost 13 pounds of body fat between scans.  Given that I fasted for about 23 days, this matches up with Dr. Fung's statement that people tend to lose about 1/2 pound of fat each fasting day.  1 pound of that fat was visceral fat. This is the fat around internal organs in the abdominal cavity and is the most dangerous place to have excess fat.  So I was very happy to lose a pound there.

I also gained 7.4 pounds of lean body mass over Fasting February.  More evidence that it is possible to gain muscle while losing fat.   Even while fasting!

Dexa Scan ResultsDateWeight (lbs)% Body FatFat Tissue (lbs)Lean Tissue (lbs)BMCVisceral Fat (lbs)20-Nov-2017268…

I've blogged about my trip to Ketofest in 2017, a truly excellent experience.  Ketofest is planned to return to New London, Connecticut July 20-22.  Carl Franklin has started a Kickstarter campaign in order to secure $80,000 in pre-sales tickets by March 31.  If those tickets are not pre-sold, Ketofest will not take place.  So I encourage anyone that is planning on going to order your ticket now at ketofest.com.  This year they are planning on doubling the 300 attendees from last year.

I've already reserved two VIP tickets for Ketofest which includes a VIP dinner with the speakers Friday night.  This year's Ketofest will include:

Tours (for an additional cost):A walking tour of New London. (I did this last year, it was very interesting.)Segway tours of New London.Fasting Friday - Megan Ramos from IDM  (Intensive Dietary Management) will host a free event where she shares the latest data on the science of fastingVIP dinner party at Carl Franklin's house - Space is limite…

Fasting February has come to an end and it is time to look back upon my results.  I ended up having 5 different extended fasts in February.  My shortest was 46 hours and my longest was 309 hours.  I was on an extended fast for a total of 554 hours, or just over 23 days.  I had to accommodate having the flu early in the month which made it a little tricky. But I managed to persevere and exceeded my goal of 20 days of fasting in February.

I had been plateaued at 260-265 pounds for two months prior to the start of February.  I broke through that plateau and am currently at 242 pounds, 20 pounds down from the 262 pounds at the start of the month.  I feel like I learned quite a bit.  I think 7 days is long enough for my longest extended fasts.  3-5 days is probably my sweet spot.  I also reaffirmed that fasting is a great tool to have in my tool belt.  It helped me shatter that plateau.

I also realize how hard it was to keep up with my electrolytes and hydration after 7 days.  Despite me t…