Reducing Costs on the Keto Carnivore Lifestyle

Want to slash hundreds off your grocery bill while your meals actually get tastier and more satisfying than ever? 

We’re kicking off an exciting new 3-part series on making the keto and carnivore lifestyle seriously affordable — and Part 1 hits you with five game-changing moves that start saving you money in the very first week!

We expose the sneaky budget killers most people miss: restaurant lunches, daily café runs, and those “just one snack” habits that quietly add up. Then we flip the script and show you how a stocked kitchen delivers better taste AND massive savings. 

Discover how cheap, tough cuts like brisket and chuck roast turn into melt-in-your-mouth masterpieces with a sous vide or pressure cooker — often half the price of ribeye. We even share plastic-free glass container hacks so you can skip the plastic waste. Upgrade your home coffee game and watch it pay for itself in months. 

Next, we unlock the ultimate money-saver: fewer meals. Intermittent fasting pairs perfectly with keto and carnivore — two deeply satisfying, protein-and-fat-packed meals kill snacking cold. You’ll hear real CGM insights, how to handle the dawn effect, and why a protein-first approach keeps blood sugar steady and cravings gone. Traveling? Fast smart on the road, dodge ultra-processed traps, and save your cash for one incredible dinner you’ll actually love. 

Finally, we dive into bulk-buying mastery: build real relationships with your butcher, grab a stand-up freezer for easy rotation, compare prices with reputable regenerative farms, and learn the red flags so you never get scammed. 

Walk away with a clear, practical plan to eat fewer (but way better) meals, master affordable cuts, and keep way more money in your pocket — all while staying in ketosis and loving every bite. 

If this episode fired you up, hit FOLLOW right now so you don’t miss Part 2 & 3, share it with a friend who’s tired of expensive keto, and leave a quick review: What’s the #1 money-saving habit you’re stealing this week?

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Transcript

Welcome And Series Setup

Introduction 0:00

Welcome to Lessons from the Ketoverse. Join Steven and Graham as they explore the keto lifestyle with tips, science, and stories to boost your health. This podcast isn't medical advice. Consult your healthcare advisor for any health-related issues. Get ready to fuel your primal power.

Graham 0:18

Welcome everyone to another episode of Lessons from the Ketoverse with Graham and Steven. Stephen, glad to have you uh on this discussion.

Stephen 0:26

Uh thank you. Looking forward to Graham you as well.

Why Eating Out Drains Your Budget

Graham 0:29

All right. So today uh we are starting the first of a three-part episode on reducing costs on the keto carnivore lifestyle. Food is a necessity of life. We know that. Uh it's as important as air and water, and and some would say uh Wi-Fi. Uh food is also expensive. Uh, we don't uh uh we uh most people understand that and it's not getting any cheaper. Um so uh what can we do if we're looking at a keto carnivore lifestyle? That's what we're gonna discuss today. Some of these uh you'll likely have already thought about, uh, some we've already mentioned, uh, others may spark ideas uh to keep more money in your pocket while still giving your body the essential uh nutrients it needs to survive and thrive. So, Stephen, would you like to begin uh on your first recommendation to save money on the keto carnivore way of living?

Hidden Costs Of Daily Lunches And Coffee

Stephen 1:21

Sure, great, thanks, Graham. To begin, I'm gonna look at uh cooking at home versus restaurant meals. And I know for uh from my time that I've spent living in the US, that uh the US in particular is a very strong culture of uh about going out to restaurants at night. Uh the same applies in French, Canadian, Quebec. Uh Quebec is very much uh a culture, especially like breakfasts on Sundays and that sort of thing. It's all part of, you know, the uh the culture. So um with that being uh the way it is, the reality is that it's not like it was 25, 30 years ago and restaurants are quite expensive. You're not getting a breakfast with a bottomless coffee for $2.99 anymore. It's it's hard to come away from uh the good breakfast shops for less than $35 uh Canadian. So um you know, we you and I have talked about this offline before, but um one of the things to keep in mind when you're looking at the difference um between the two is um look at what you're spending on uh in terms of money on a getaway weekend or special occasions and um only occasionally. And also keep in mind when you're doing that uh to to have an eye to um sort of capturing what it is that you're spending in these cases because a lot of people don't count that coffee that they stop for, oh honey, I'm I'm tired, I'm gonna grab a coffee, but it's not a coffee, it's a coffee in a bagel, and then the kids want a sandwich, and next thing you know, you s you've you spend another 40-50 bucks. So I think what we're really suggesting here is um going old school, you know, the way that things were in the for at least for me as a kid in the 70s and and 80s is you know, when we went somewhere, including going skiing for the weekend, the ticket was expensive enough um based on our income that you know mom packed a lunch, you know, we took a lunch with us. It was carrots, it was celery, it was, you know, a decent sandwich, um, the drink was water, it wasn't pop, you know, or soda. So um, you know, I think that's where we drove out a lot of costs. But our culture as we've evolved, oh, I'm busy, I'm gonna go to my favorite pizza joint or what have you, and these things really add up. So the point that it's I think what we're driving at here, Graham, is that if you're cooking at home, you can drive a lot of these costs out. You know, even for myself, like if I look and get can get even at the grocery store a gourmet soup, and the whole jar is holding, you know, two, possibly three servings of soup, and it's $7.99 Canadian. Uh, I just had the same soup in a restaurant because I was traveling last week, and that same soup was about $15. Yeah, sure, it had a few more dashes of this and that uh in it. It's a little nutmeg and what have you. But at the end of the day, I'm paying $15 plus tax plus a tip now on a s on on one serving of soup. Um, so right there, that's 33% difference in price, right? To heat up soup.

Planning, Packing, And Better Gear

Invest In Quality Coffee At Home

Cheaper Cuts Turned Gourmet With Sous Vide

Graham 4:07

Yeah, I I I'm glad you brought that up around um this idea that you know people and I had this conversation with somebody once who um said, you know, I don't eat out at restaurants very much. And halfway through the conversation he goes, Oh, you're including lunch. Um Yeah. And in his in his opinion, it was going out to dinners. Um, but he eats out almost every day uh for lunch. And not that there's anything wrong with that, if that's what you want to do, if you can afford it, it's your budget, whatever. Um, but he said, Yeah, it's it's you know getting up there to $15 a day. And we did quick math. He you know, he does it when he's at work, and um, that's gonna be, you know, uh times 20 uh working or 21 working days in a month. Uh you're you're talking about hundreds and hundreds of dollars a month um that that he was spending that he didn't count as part of his grocery bill. Um, and so I think uh that that's one thing. The the second is around, you know, I don't have the time. Well, uh that I I completely understand that. I think everybody does, um, but it's a matter of priorities. So um, you know, we'll uh uh for the most part our family takes food uh when they need to eat in the middle of the day. Um it's significantly cheaper. And for uh the parents, um, we want to make sure that there are uh you know relatively inexpensive foods that are nutritious that they can take on the go. Uh we we have really good uh travel um you know meal containers um that are you know made of glass. Um and so it's actually kind of it turns it into a fun scenario as opposed to the paper bag that uh you know the jelly and peanut butter sandwich starts to get soggy by the middle of the day. And anyone who's been to camp knows exactly what I'm talking about. And so um it it's it's around planning. And so for parents, uh it's you know, have really delicious meals, even if it has to be, you know, these um meals in a box where um you know you take it to work and and you warm it up, that's still likely going to be cheaper than going to the restaurant and picking something up for lunch, as an example. So um the more, the easier you make it uh for yourself and others by planning ahead, whether that, like I said, that's um ordering boxes of uh you know food in a box that comes in a box delivered to your door that you just heat up, uh, or even better, you're prepping meals um that are delicious that uh you know your kids would actually like to take a work and then make it easy for them. Um, you know, we have little travel uh, you know, real forks, knives, and spoons that we have little kits, so they grab that with them. They're not eating uh with a plastic fork. All of those things are going to increase the enjoyment and increase the incentive. And I'll use one other example which uh isn't food, but we do uh uh ingest it, and that's coffee. So in our house, um we had those um currig pods, and I was always kind of bothered by how much garbage um it was producing. And you know, I don't care what anybody says, those things aren't getting recycled. I've worked in the materials recovery facility, most of that stuff ends up um you know burnt or overseas and you know, potentially in our water systems. And so I sat down with a family and I said, you know, how much are you um how many coffees are you buying, you know, at Starbucks? That was their favorite place to go. And uh I said, you know, not there's no judgment here, just want to figure out the math. And and it it worked out to, I think, somewhere around $60 or $70 a week for the family to go and actually buy coffees at these places. And the reason is because the coffee at Starbucks was better than these Currig machines, and so that's fair enough. And you can get these fancy machines, but I think the math still um makes sense. And so what I did is I said, you know, we're spending a few thousand dollars a year as a family on coffee. What I recommend is we buy a really, really good coffee maker, and people are gonna, you know, um shiver when they hear, you know, we're talking a couple of thousand bucks for a really good coffee maker that's fun to use, that makes every single kind of coffee that you want, it frosts your milk, um, it grinds the coffee beans from scratch. And the um you know they were kind of like taken aback. How are we gonna spend all this money? And um the fact is this coffee machine um paid for itself in about seven months, uh, maybe eight months. Um, and so it had already paid for itself in eight months. Of course, there's the ongoing cost of buying coffee beans, but that is pales in comparison to how much money we were spending on the actual coffee. And so now when I asked the family how often do you uh do you eat out or do you order coffees out, it's almost never. And the reason is because our coffee machine is actually significantly better tasting than the coffees you buy at Starbucks. And so my kids have gotten um really good at kind of um mimicking and you know their favorite drinks at Starbucks. Um and my you know, my wife absolutely loves the coffee that comes out of this coffee machine. And so even though we spent a lot of money up front, over time we have saved a considerable amount of money as a family. And so um, you know, we're we're we have uh an extra grand, let's call it, in our pocket uh a year, maybe two. Um but we did have to do that initial investment. So these are the some of the ways where you look and you go, how can I replicate the awesomeness of eating out? Um but uh you know, and that is learning how to cook really well at home so that your food tastes better than anybody else's, um, and disciplining yourself to get prepared, and then maybe having to make decisions on the kind of equipment that you have in the house that potentially can save money over time. So uh let's jump on to number two. It's a favorite of mine, um, something that took me a while to learn about, but that is buying cheaper cuts of meat, these tough cuts that we think about, turn, you know, briskets, chucks, shanks, turning those into gourmet meals. And how do you do that? Um, there's a couple of ways. You can you know smoke them on the barbecue, but there's certainly a time investment in that and a monitoring investment in that. Uh, what I've chosen to do is uh sous vid these meats. Um, and so I will buy, not only do I cook brisket, but I'll buy like five kilometers eight-pound brisket, uh, which is enormous. I'll have my my local butcher cut it up into chunks that are small enough for uh you know either food for myself or food for the family. Um that was step one. You cook that for 24 hours, 30 hours, and that brisket goes from something that's almost inedible to uh, you know, I would compare it to a ribeye. Some of the best meat you'll ever have. It's fall off the bone, it's incredible. And what bothered me for a long time was sous vidting in these plastic bags, a because you know, I don't like to produce waste on a regular basis, and I do uh cook sous vid, you know, usually twice a week, maybe three times a week. Um, so I always have something going uh because it you know, there's planning ahead of time. You've got to thaw out the brisket, you've got to season it, and then you've got to get it um uh cooking. But of course, once you put it in that machine and you press the on button, you don't have to think about it uh for another 30 hours. So there is some planning involved. Um, however, um the you know ribeye might be 26 bucks a pound. Um, whereas I'm getting these massive uh amounts of um brisket for seven, eight dollars a pound. So it's you know less than a third of the price of those br of those ribeyes, I can then turn that meat into something that tastes as good as a ribeye that's just as nutritious as a rib a ribeye without spending a lot of money. So what I ended up doing was researching how can I cook uh briskets not in that uh sealed plastic, but can I come up with a way to cook it in glass? And I actually found a way to do it. Um, if people are interested, uh just Google Zwillings Z-W-I-L-L-I-N-G-S, fresh and save, and you'll find the glass containers, and you can actually vacuum. So again, there's a bit of an investment up front, but I no longer have to buy any plastic, so it's gonna pay for itself over time. And so I end up putting the brisket in that glass, um, I seal it, uh vacuum seal it, I tie some uh rib uh elastics around it and um silicone bands around it, and then I let it cook in that glass so I can reuse that uh that glass and and lid, and the lid actually has um uh the ability to release pressure without letting in water. So there's there actually is uh a group of people that are sous-vitting. I had to find a machine that actually fit this glass container, but I'm happy to say that I've gotten to a point now where I think I'm probably on ribeye, or it's uh uh brisket number 10. Um, it comes out incredibly well. There's no waste. I throw the glass in the dishwasher, it's clean for the next time I need to use it, and um I'm I'm able to get these uh you know cheap uh tough cuts of meat at a significantly lower price. And now it's just a really fun exercise to go through. But again, there's some planning involved. Stephen, I know you've got a lot of uh experience in something I don't have much experience in, and that's uh pressure cookers.

Stephen 13:46

Yeah, I was involved uh professionally with uh the folks that created the Instapot in their early days of launch and became a fan along with two million subscribers that have their own Facebook page. So um yeah, they're they're quite amazing actually because you know people complain, look, I'd love to do what you're saying, Graham and and Steven. Sounds great, but you don't live my life, you you don't walk in my shoes. I gotta be in and out the door, you know, uh quickly. I don't have time. I barely have time to go through the drive-thru at McDonald's. So um our response to that is we've been there, done that. Our kids are you know uh thinking between the the two of us we have we can fill more than a hockey team. Um we got seven kids between us. So um we we've been through that, so we understand where you're coming from. But the uh beauty with these pressure cookers is they can take a a raw chicken with some seasoning and cook it in like nine, eleven minutes, depending on how how you want to cook. You drop the whole thing in there and um you know, go prepare something else, maybe add some carrots and peas. And if you're into starches, which Ram and I are not, you could be adding in potatoes or yam or something. Um just watch the glycemic index on those things for my fellow diabetics that are out there. But the point is that it's very quick, it's it's easy to to uh to clean. You do get a bit of a rush when you're releasing the steam valve on these Instant Pots. So um that's always uh my favorite part of it outside of eating the meal is watching my wife's reaction and releasing it. And um and yeah, so uh uh there are many that are made out there now that are similar and compete with the Instant Pot. But I've had a lot of success with that. Um you can put a decent sized uh chicken in there. Um there's like again, there's for those who are interested in this is not you know a plug for the Instant Pot, but a Facebook page literally has millions of recipes. Uh so there'll be no limit to what you can do, and um you can focus on those those recipes that that uh suit your palate, especially for keto carnivore. I haven't been on there for a little while, but I'm quite convinced you'll probably find uh there's a group that's uh promoting that kind of a lifestyle. What do you think of that, Graham?

Plastic-Free Sous Vide And Setup Tips

Graham 15:53

Yeah, I I I I actually do want to try one. Um I'm trying to limit the amount of stuff that I have in the kitchen, but that would absolutely be very, very high on the list. And I I should have mentioned um for those people who don't understand what Sous Vid is, I'll very quickly talk about um the science behind it. So essentially Sous vid is uh a French for underwater, cook underwater. And essentially what you do is you have this um machine um that almost looks like a hand mixer, um, and you submerge it in the water, you put your meats in the water. Um, obviously, you want to make sure that you've got some kind of protection. So uh some people do vacuum-sealed plastic, some people do um uh the way I do it in the glass. Um, so the meat isn't actually touching the water, but what you're doing is you're setting that temperature, let's say 140, 137, 167, everybody's got a different um sort of preference. Um, what happens uh with these tougher meats uh with the connective tissue is after about 20 hours under that water in that 140 to 160 range, the connective tissue actually melts. So you're getting rid of the thing that's actually really hard to eat. Um, and that connective tissue, of course, is is absolutely um very nutritious for us. So I'll make uh I'll use that uh leftover uh juice uh and put it in a slow cooker, uh like a crock pot um to cook other kinds of meats, that kind of thing, or drink it, or just you know, mix it with my eggs and um it it levels things up very nicely. So just wanted to mention kind of what that uh sous vid thing is all about. You're setting a temperature, you're cooking it for a very long time, and the meat comes out exactly the way you want. And the nice thing is if you're not ready exactly when your sous vid machine is ready, so let's say you put it in for 24 hours, you can just leave it in there for an extra couple hours. It doesn't matter if the meat's gonna come out great. You don't want to leave it in there for more than you know, 30 hours, 35 hours, because then the the meat starts to get a little too soft. Um, but you've got a wide range of um of window there for those people that you know stuff comes up. I gotta pick the kids up, I gotta do this, I gotta drop something off. It it's one of those things where you don't actually need to pay much attention to it. Um and so it can be very forgiving for those people that are having a hard time uh planning around exactly when they're ready to eat their meal. Steven, did you want to jump on number three?

Pressure Cookers For Fast Keto Meals

Stephen 18:18

Sure. Yeah, so this one is obviously near and dear to my my heart because uh my critical path to reversing my type 2 diabetes included uh intermittent fasting. So we're talking about reducing meal frequency. So some of you may have heard the acronym um OMAD, which is one meal a day. Uh I I'm a two-meal a day person and I like to uh maintain um a degree of um uh r metabolic responsiveness. Um so sometimes I'll I'll have a hearty breakfast. If um I uh I uh wake up, I usually wait um to eat before I typically don't eat before noon, but occasionally I'll I'll decide, okay, today I'm gonna have a uh breakfast. It's going to be eggs and bacon, the usual things that you and I eat. Um and then I won't eat again for 12 uh 12, 13 hours. So part of the idea is is to put your body in a state where it's consuming calories in an efficient way. It'll burn um ideally visceral fat. Uh in and by the way, when we're talking about this, there's tons and tons of information around the benefits of intermittent fasting. I can speak to specifically what I see on my CGM, and that is my glucose. It's called the more uh the dawn phenomenogram. We've talked about this before your glucose will rise in the morning. You add caffeine to it, it's gonna rise some more. So for me, for instance, my sugar was like 8.3 this morning after I had a coffee, which is is relatively high. Um, so what did I do? I abstained from eating, I I fasted, I went straight to the gym, I burned that sugar off. I came back at noon, 12.30, and I had my breakfast then, and my sugar's been very low and stable. So um that metabolic responsiveness using a combination of intermittent fasting. Uh the choice to go down to one meal a day, uh, as long as you're getting, um, and I can hear my naturopath in my ear right now, as long as you're getting an an appropriate amount of um calories, because you're not um you're not doing an intermittent fasting is different from a prolonged fast. So prolonged fast is the mechanisms for that are a little bit different. The biggest I the biggest thing with with uh like a long fast, so we're talking like 72 hours or longer, so we're talking three days. Uh one of the key things there is you'll see from Dr. Dr. Berg talking about it and others, that it's it's absolutely essential you stay hydrated with sodium as well, because one of the issues is um you can go uh you can actually do more harm than good. Um and and of course, um we are what we eat. So as uh the sugar uh goddess would say, she's a uh you can go Google her too. She'll say the the meal that you the first meal that you eat during the day defines what your blood sugar is going to be for the balance of the day, and I see that all the time. So if you're gonna honker down like you're at uh Willy Wonka and start into the the candy and the chocolate bars and um uh with the hoopaloops, um handing you all that stuff, you it will take at least um a day or two before your sugar will regulate again. So the be the beauty with intermittent fasting is it allows you to use the sugar that's already in your body. If you're like me and you're monitoring it, you can sort of equate between where you're at that craving state with uh fasting, which is often a false, it's a like it's a false flag. Uh all you're you're doing at that point is the engine is switching over and you're into a different state where you're consuming fat, which is highly efficient and burns at a different rate in your body in terms of calorie burn and efficiency. And that's the stuff you want to be touching when you're in the gym because it gives you a nice balanced glucose. Um you're not gonna crash, you know, coming out of the gym, they won't find you face down in the parking lot because you've been, you know, uh drinking uh sugary drinks like you know, Red Bull and others while you're working. I always sh I always shiver when I see that because you're literally uh tempting your body into a state uh into a shocking state. State with that crash. So be mindful about what you put in a bot your body and when. You're not going to collapse in the gym if you haven't eaten for 12, 14 hours. I've been doing it for nine years. So I don't know if I missed anything there. You want to add something, Graham?

How Sous Vide Works And Timing

Graham 22:14

No, I I think you summarized it really nicely. I I do the same. I was a snacker all day long, and people don't necessarily um equate grabbing a cookie as a meal. But you know, for those people who want to be honest with themselves, really uh eat the eat the way you normally do for a couple of days and see how many times you actually go and grab something to eat. That means you're constantly snacking. Um the the especially you know late at night just before bed, um, you're setting yourself up for your body not being able to go into a state of autophagy, which is trying to turn old crappy cells into new uh you know healthy cells. I'm generally now so so I understand this idea of I could never possibly do two meals a day or one meal a day. Um I do two meals a day, um, and we'll talk about in the you know in the next uh uh number four here how we're able to actually do two meals a day. But I'm generally somewhere between 11 and 12, I eat my first meal. Somewhere between kind of five and six, I have my seven my second meal, which means I'm uh fasting for about 16, 17 hours every single day. Um, and so I I find that to be a benefit, but um the important thing is here, how do we do that? How do we get ourselves into a situation uh where we don't need to snack? And I think that uh is a great segue to number four, Steven.

Stephen 23:37

Yeah, so I was just gonna add some on that one um before we before you move to uh to uh number four, and that is that I think it's worth pointing out that if you go do two meals a day, uh you're spending um a third less than you would normally spend if you were a three-meal-a-day person. And to your point, if you start cutting out snacks, like I mean, this is this is a really good point you're mentioning because if you go back to the beginning of this conversation about restaurants and people not counting breakfast, I mean, these are habits that we fall into. Oh, you know, I don't count the money I just spent at the coffee shop, you know, and bagels and other things like that. Or, you know, it's I'm just grabbing the kids something quick. I had a few of their fries. As far as your body's concerned, that's a meal. And when you mention the cookie, again, my my hair goes up because the cookie is a naked cart, and so there's nothing to cushion that sugar spike. You eat that cookie, your sugar is not going up in in in 30 minutes or 40 minutes like it would when you're eating a well-satiating meal like steak or what have you. It's going up instantly. As soon as it touches your palate and your mouth, it is already um going to make it rise. I can feel it, even though my CGM is is on a 15-minute delay. I can feel it when I've had something that's a little bit, even if it's dark chocolate, I'll I'll I know that it's gonna go out. So again, key points here. Um, watch what you eat when you eat. Um, fasting, uh, whether you follow a 16-8 like me, where I'll fast for 16 hours or you go to a 12-12. Try different things to see how your body responds. If you're monitoring, great. Keep in mind one of the added bonuses of this is you just cut your grocery bill by by at least a third if you're doing just two meals a day instead of three, and maybe even more to your point, Graham, if you're snacking, because you got to add that on top of your total costs.

Intermittent Fasting To Cut Costs

Graham 25:19

Yeah, um, well said. And I think that really connects with number four because uh if you told me you know three, four years ago, um, only eat two meals a day, I would have looked like uh looked at you like you had three heads um because there's no way I can make it more than two hours without eating something. But um what did we change? Well, we we switched over, and this is number four on the list. The higher uh the satiety of foods, um, in other words, you're giving your your body the nutrients that it needs in the quantities that it needs it. And I've always said, you know, a gram of protein, for example, for every pound of ideal weight uh is a is a nice reference to start with, and then you make adjustments from there. But if I'm gonna eat uh pancake breakfast, I'm guaranteed uh to do to do two things. One, I'm gonna uh drive my blood sugar up. It don't get me wrong, it's incredibly tasty. I I think maybe the syrup and the butter are the reason I think it's incredibly tasty because uh without those things I don't actually like them. Um but you are uh it's a sugar bomb. And so a couple of things are happening. One, you're driving up your uh glucose levels, uh, which of course is going to drive up your insulin levels to try and uh get that glucose out of the bloodstream and into your cells, uh, otherwise you're doing damage to yourself. And then uh number two, you are you're not getting any of the nutrients that your body needs. There's nothing in uh syrup and pancakes that's giving you any nutrients that your body needs. Uh and number three, you're guaranteed to uh come down to a hypoglycemia situation in a couple hours, and now your body's saying, I need to eat or I'm gonna die. And so it's it's alerting you that you need to go snack. And generally, when you get uh that feeling, most of us are gonna go grab foods that are tasty and easy to make, and that's gonna be a cookie, a sandwich, peanut butter, whatever it is, um, as opposed to something that's more satiating. So, for example, in the morning, so in the morning between 11 and 12, my first meal is always gonna be eggs, and I'll generally have four to six eggs, uh, and then it's gonna be uh some kind of uh beef. Um, and most of the time it's you know uh a meal that I've I've prepped ahead of time, so I get four or five meals out of it. If I eat enough of that, I am not thinking about food at all until dinner time. Sometimes I'll even skip dinner. Um the there there are occasions where I'll go 24 hours and it's probably you know, I can count on one hand the number of times I do that in a month. Um, but it's not an issue for me because I I I really think about have I eaten enough uh satiating food in the quantities that I need it for today. And if the answer is yes, I don't need to eat um because I listen to my body and what it needs, and sometimes my body says I need I need more protein for whatever reason. Um and so I'm gonna go and I'm gonna have satiating foods at dinner time, and then I'm not snacking until the next day. So this is the most important thing, in my opinion. Um, how to get to a reduction in meal frequency, how to um stop that craving for snacks, because Steven and I understand that craving very well, is you need to have incredibly uh satiating food in the quantities that you need it, and then your body's not going to be reminding you that you're hungry. Steven?

From Snacking To Two Meals A Day

Stephen 28:46

Yeah, I was just gonna add, I think we talked about this the other day. You know, you and I are at an age where um we're quite familiar with the spelling of a colonoscopy. And, you know, I found the first time that I tried to do it when I had a sugar addiction and I didn't know I had diabetes, is um, you know, I was prepared to cause great bodily harm to anybody um that crossed me that day on my way, because I had obviously gone through the whole process of cleansing the system and then being probably somewhat dehydrated because I didn't do it properly. And then on top of that, the sugar crash, my brain was angry, my body was angry, um, I had a pounding headache, and um I I had a follow-up, you know, five years later, you know, four years into intermittent fasting, and you know, basically my body was doing a tap dance, um, yelling, is that all you can do? Is that all you got? Because it was nothing. You know, and what I find is interesting, and I'm I really throw this out if you want to save money, as as Graham had said, um, you know, try try doing a a uh a fast um aligned with and consequential to your travel. So if you're gonna travel, avoid all the Wendy's, the Burger King, the McDonald's that are along the highways and just say, hey man, I got water here, put a little bit of salt in it. Um uh, you know, don't be tempted when you gotta you know stop for gas or or what have you and and and and not go for convenience because convenience equates to consequence. When you eat these ultra-processed foods, they're not they're not actually food. Um they're just calories. And calories um can can be your worst enemy and they're empty calories. So again, it's just a glucose, as you said, sugar bomb earlier. So um it's good discipline to do that because you're actually using um your your uh mental mindfulness in a positive way as well. It's because you're saying when I travel, I don't need to eat. So that way when you do eat out later in the day, you're going, okay, this is the first time I'm eating, or perhaps you had breakfast before you left, you had a nice healthy breakfast. Um realistically, you don't even need to eat again if you've trained your body effectively to eat until the next morning. So if you are gonna go out to eat and you have to go to to a restaurant, then you've just saved, you know, probably thirty, forty dollars worth of of horrible food. Um, which by the way, when you add good food onto it, it's still horrible, right? Because you're probably not digesting it properly, because now you're in an inflammatory state uh from you know the seed oils and everything else that's in those fries that you had or whatever else you indulged in. Go have a great meal and see how you feel the next day. That's always the marker for me. I don't mind spending money on on a steak at my butcher. I won't pay $64 for a New York uh at a restaurant um because I'm way past the age of needing to impress myself or anyone else, I won't do it. I'll find something that's more sensible on the menu that I know is is healthy for me, but I'm not going all out because candidly, unless you're spending $150 on that steak, I can do a better steak at home that I pay $28 for than you can do for me at $65 in a restaurant.

Graham 31:50

Yeah, very good. Stephen, let's jump to number five. Uh last on our list for this part one of a three-part uh series on reducing costs on the keto carnivore lifestyle.

Stephen 32:02

Do you want to tackle that one, my friend, first? Or how about that?

Satiety First: Protein And Eggs

Graham 32:06

Yeah, uh happy to take it on. So um, and this probably will be obvious to people, but I'm not sure how many people have actually tried it, and that is bulk buying uh of meat. Um, I you know, I I went to the grocery the other day, and and like I said, I I I can buy a normal size brisket for call it nine bucks a pound, um, but they had a uh you know eight-pound uh brisket there, a big one, and that was only seven dollars. Now, two dollars a pound uh doesn't sound like a lot, but over the course of a year that's gonna add up. So, what does that mean? Uh, you are finding uh cuts that are cheap, making it cheaper by buying in bulk. And hey, you can do this with ribeye steaks if you've got the money. Um, buy it in bulk. Uh, sometimes you can even cut it yourself. Um, anytime that you are preparing the food or or investing the time to prepare the food, it means somebody else isn't didn't have to prepare the food and charge you for that preparation. And so, uh, like I said, I'll I'll get them to cut it into smaller amounts. They don't charge me uh to do that because I am buying uh this you know giant cut of meat, but then of course I need the space to do that. And so I am currently researching uh stand-up freezers because I've always been bothered by those deep freezers that you have to lean into because I know exactly what's going to happen to me. All the meat at the bottom is never gonna get touched, and so investing a little more in a stand-up freezer um makes sense to me. I'm looking into it, and then I can buy even bigger cuts of meat. I can go to the butcher and say, you know, give me 20 pounds, uh, and now I'm only paying five bucks a pound for meat. I know those listening in other countries like the US will uh you know be in shock at the prices we pay here in Canada for red meat these days, it's significantly cheaper in other places. Uh, and so uh we've got to get creative um in where we go and and how we actually um uh how we uh how the quantity we purchase is going to um you know uh put more money in your pocket, but it does mean more planning. So what does that mean? I get I've I've gotten to know my local butchers really well. Um it's a fairly large store. Um, and uh I I've gotten to know the people that prepare the food. They're super friendly. Um, they're more than happy to have a conversation with you because I found the right place uh that loves their customers and loves engaging with people. I don't find that um to to be the necessarily the case in the big box stores as much. Um, but they, you know, those local butchers or a local regenerative farm if you can find one, they want your business, they'll go out of your way to give you the best value, right? To the regulars, the people that come every week. They're going to say, Oh, I got this brisket back here. That's you know, better cut for you. Or I got, you know, uh I'll I'll keep a uh a 10-pound uh brisket for you if you want to come and pick it up next week. All these things are possible. Um, so get to know them. Uh you know, in my experience, they not only will go out of their way, they'll also tell you about upcoming sales. I had somebody say, no, don't buy the brisket today, come on Friday. It's going to be significantly cheaper. Um, they wouldn't necessarily do that with somebody who's just popped in uh once, um, but when they see a friendly face, uh they are going to uh give you some inside information. And then uh the last thing I would throw out there is, and we've done this from time to time, compare your local prices. We always I always say buy local, uh buy from farmers if you can, uh, because those are the people that we really want uh that cash to go to. Um but yeah, you can also take a look at regenerative farms that actually mail you uh orders. And because you're ordering in bulk, um, it can actually be cheaper than a local. Um so you you want to do your shopping around, you want to make sure that you're getting great sources of meat. Um, but sometimes you know, that lack of overhead that these regenerative farms have, they don't have to set up a store, um, they just have to have freezers, uh, it can mean lower prices as well. Stephen?

Stephen 36:10

Yeah, those are some some great things. So I have two safety messages out of your your statement. When Graham says stand-up freezer, do not stand up in your freezer. We're both over six foot. I'm not sure you can get one that big anyway. Um all cutting aside.

Graham 36:23

Do not stand in your freezer.

Travel Fasting And Avoiding Junk

Stephen 36:24

Yeah, and and the other safety uh uh thing that he mentioned there with with the benefit of the stand-ups as well is if you're um in our age class, um, we'll say uh north of four of our 40s, maybe our 50s, uh, we uh we the last thing you want to be doing is bent over at the uh uh levered over your deep, deep freezer, pulling a 25-pound turkey out of the bottom of that, because that's a great way to uh finance your chiropractors kids' um future education in university. So you don't want to be doing that either. So uh I I just wanted to touch on the farms as well. That's my other part three of the safety message. Just be careful. Um, I think for myself personally, I was looking at a local farm. I was excited at the prospect of going farm to fork. And um unfortunately, I think there are, and I can't say definitively, um, but I did some research. Um there are predators out there. Um watch which communities you're you're purchasing from or thinking of purchasing from. If it appears dodgy and you're getting different addresses and the phone numbers don't line up with where they say the meat's coming from, you're either dealing with a middleman or a scammer. Um so if you can't at all when you're spending fifteen hundred to two thousand dollars on on a side of the EV, um, I think it's worth the uh gas tank to drive down and see where it's coming from and how they're treating the animals. So that's just a warning because I almost got caught and I found out later that yeah, it was likely to be a scam. They'll take your deposit and you'll never hear from again. They pretend they're a farm, they take a few pictures and stuff, and they have you know uh a pleasant-looking um person, uh in this case a female is talking about how well they treat treat the animals, and I almost got sucked into that. So I just want to throw that out there just to be careful.

Graham 38:02

Yeah, uh well said. Um and you know, those farms that uh and I I I've bought at uh regenerative farms, spoken to the farmer, those uh that are on the up and up actually welcome you to drop by and have a conversation with them. They're more than happy to give you. I I learned more from my local farmer about farming than you know, watching Clarkson's farm um because I'm I'm getting inside information on you know local uh situations that they have to deal with. Uh, I find it pretty fascinating. And I know that these are decent people that are giving me highly nutritious food. Um, so for those people that are on the up and up, they're generally welcoming those conversations. So I think that's a really good point. Stephen, uh, this has been a great uh first episode of three on reducing costs on the keto carnivore lifestyle. Thank you for your time today.

Stephen 38:53

Yeah, you as well, Graham. I think this is a great episode. Thanks everybody for listening in.

Graham 38:57

Thank you, everybody, and we'll see you next time.

Introduction 39:00

Thanks for tuning into Lessons from the Ketaverse. Join Stephen and Graham next time for more keto tips and stories to feel your health. Subscribe, share, and let's keep the keto vibes going.