Reducing Costs on the Keto Carnivore Lifestyle Part 2

Tired of metabolic health feeling expensive? What if the cheapest changes deliver the biggest wins for your gut, energy, mood, and wallet? 

We’re diving deep into budget-friendly hacks that make keto and carnivore lifestyles sustainable and satisfying—starting with homemade superfoods that beat store-bought every time. 

Learn to culture your own L. reuteri yogurt at home: simple gear, perfect timing, and why this gut powerhouse supports digestion, mood, oxytocin boost, and even appetite control on low-carb. We share why it fits carnivore (yes, even strict versions) and how it transforms health without breaking the bank. 

Next up: beef tallow mastery—render it cheaply from local butchers as your ultra-stable cooking fat, then repurpose leftovers as a nutrient-packed skin balm loaded with vitamins A, D, E, K, and fatty acids for healing, moisture, and barrier support. Double-duty savings! 

Eggs steal the show as the ultimate budget hero: complete protein, choline, fat-soluble vitamins, unbeatable satiety—and way cheaper than premium steaks. We go beyond labels—decoding deep-orange yolk color for real nutrient density, why “free run” often outperforms overhyped “free range,” smart bulk buying in flats, safe storage, and quick meal ideas that kill hunger fast. 

We bust supplement myths with a no-BS rule: test, don’t guess. Track your intake, spot true gaps (stress, dysbiosis, antibiotics can wreck absorption), pair D3 + K2 wisely, and stop flushing money on ineffective pills. 

Finally, tactical shopping smarts: flyer apps + coupon strategies for sale-route planning, bulk-buy medium/fatty ground beef or pork, vacuum seal and freezer-rotate for zero waste, ditch hidden sugars/seed oils that fuel inflammation and fog, and add simple pre-meal pauses for better rest-and-digest nutrient uptake. 

Walk away ready to spend less, feel steadier, build a resilient gut, and enjoy every flavorful bite. These precise habits compound fast! 

If this episode saved you (or inspired you), hit FOLLOW for more budget wins, share it with a friend grinding keto/carnivore on a budget, and drop a quick review: What’s your #1 money-saving hack from today? Your tips help thousands discover real-food freedom.

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Transcript

Welcome And Series Setup

Introduction 0:00

Welcome to Lessons from the Ketaverse. Join Stephen 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 Ketaverse with Graham and Stephen. Stephen, it's great to see you again.

Stephen 0:25

You as well, Graham.

Homemade Nutrition: Bone Broth To Tallow

Why And How To Make L. Reuteri Yogurt

Graham 0:27

All right, today we are discussing part two of a three-part series on reducing costs on the Ketobore carnivore lifestyle. Everybody wants to save money. Food is a necessity. And if there are ways, creative ways that we've found to save money that we can share with you, and you can save a buck or two, then we are very happy campers. If you haven't listened to part one yet, you can go back and listen to that after this one. There really is no order of the episodes. We just wanted to cut them short and sweet. And so what I will do is start us off with uh the first of uh five suggestions on how to save money here in part two. Uh, and that is uh homemade nutrition uh to save money. So um what are examples of that? Um, you know, making your own bone broth. Uh bone broth can be expensive, especially if you consume a fair amount of it. Um, but you can make your own. Um, you can go to the butcher. Oftentimes the butcher will throw it in for free, especially if you order a big meat order or very cheaply, uh, because uh generally they have to pay to get rid of it, uh, and it can be expensive. So if you're taking their garbage and turning it into lemons and lemonade, uh, so to speak, then uh they're happy as well. So um cooking uh bones uh you know in the slow cooker, uh zero waste, uh lots of savings, and you really are eating uh sort of nose-to-tail uh when it comes to the cow. Um second example would be making your own yogurt. Uh Stephen, I want to hear from you um uh about uh your experience in uh in making your own uh yogurt. Why do we want to make our L. rooteri yogurt? Many people have heard of lactobacillus. Um my understanding is uh if you've been exposed to um antibiotics um and you know, the oral antibiotics uh at any time in your life, there's a decent chance that that had wiped out your lactobacillus as well. Doctors are are becoming more and more uh reluctant to um prescribe uh antibiotics because they know this can have a long-term effect on the gut microbiome. Um so uh are there can you go out and buy L Ruderi yogurt? You can't actually buy it. They make the uh pills for uh little children to try and get their butt uh gut bacteria um to uh grow in the right direction, um, but you can't uh it essentially that the these pills are too uh weak to be able to help uh humans. And so how do we make our own? I'm gonna let Stephen talk about uh his example of how uh he makes yogurt. Um so why don't we jump over to you, Stephen? Uh give give us a low-down, uh quick uh rundown of the process to uh making your own L-Ruderai yogurt.

Stephen 3:24

Yeah, thanks, Graham. So uh we stumbled across this. Uh there's a uh um a well-known doctor that has pioneered really the L-Rudery um type yogurts and making it um at home. And obviously, one of the key drivers is anything that's homemade, which is really what what you and I are talking about today. You have control over what's going in there. So you know, the chemistry lab isn't dropping into the middle of it uh because you're there controlling it. So the L-Rudery, it's it's a process, it takes uh 36 hours to uh manufacture. And um, all it requires is the pill that you described, the um active ingredient. And my wife has got this mastered uh down to there's two containers that we make. There's a particular machine, we won't do a plug for the machine, but do a little bit of research, you can decide which one you want. But make sure that it's glass, the container is glass, so it'll have a plastic lid on it. And Graham, you and I were just talking about this offline the other day. So for me, what I found best was to go to a high-end dairy uh company that uh produces high-end milk. And you can usually tell because the expires are very short and tight, you know, they're not the kind of ones that you can necessarily leave in the back of the fridge for three weeks, uh, unless you're looking to uh start your spring garden a little early. So the uh the yogurt actually I use uh table cream, not half and half. I've tried uh 2%, I've tried half and half. And to get the consistency to balance, uh, what it looks like is like a custard when it's complete. And I add it to my favorite Greek yogurt, and I add flaxseed, I add chia, and allow the chia to expand, which has um that would be a separate uh episode to discuss uh the benefits of chia. You can look that up with Dr. Burke, as well as essentially providing the roughage that I require uh uh in my system to support it. Now, why al-Rutary? Well, what's interesting about that, this is why you and I sort of got excited about it, is because it'll feed uh and normalize uh the dysbiosis in the small intestine, which is hard apparently to do because of the environment. There are only certain bacteria, some bad ones uh that cause issues, as well as only very few um of this call it the regular good bacteria can survive in that environment. And now rutery is very, very important. Um, so if you take uh call it a prebiotic, and we'll get into this a little later about um you know consuming the uh the vitamins and supplements and so forth, but so suffice it to say is that you're giving your body a natural food as opposed to a supplement that you're creating and manufacturing and adding it to high-quality Greek yogurt gives it a great consistency. It's very creamy. And uh the result is uh is uh quite quite interesting. You know, it you can you won't be able to go back to sugary yogurt after this stuff. It certainly changes your palate. I even squeeze lemon on it sometimes, fresh lemon, and add in berries. I know you don't do the berries thing, but I do low glycemic ones. And uh spoiler alert, strawberries have a lower glycemic index. Graham and I were surprised the other day because we researched this, then blueberries. And blueberries may taste more sour, uh, but actually, strawberries have a lower glycemic index. So go to town, add some berries on top if you wish, if you're like me. And um, and the best way to gauge it is if if things are going well, and you know what we're talking about once a day, uh, and you're you're regular and uh you have um uh properly formed bowel movements, and that's a good indication that your your gut floor is healthy and this stuff will really help it. Over to you, Kevin.

Gut Health, Mood, And Yogurt Tips

DIY Sauerkraut And Quality Tallow

Graham 7:17

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And um, for for those people who um could use a bit of a mood boost, um it's worth trying. Um, there is uh associations with um gut microbiome and mental illness. We've talked about change your diet, change your mind by Dr. Georgia Eid. And uh Stephen and I both uh found that when we fixed our guts, uh our our mood changed significantly. Not only did we have more energy, but um our uh positive thinking, I guess for lack of a better word, um improved uh noticeably. And so um this this is a free way to do that. This is not uh relying on pharmaceuticals. Of course, you want to work with your doctor for any um any concerns that you have, but this may be worth uh trying. And the really cool thing is, yes, you have to buy the um the baby versions of L. Ruderi pills um to make them, but um, you can actually um make new batches of L Ruder yogurt with uh the last amount, sorry, a small amount of the last batch. So if you're consistent about it, um you can buy this stuff once uh and you will have to uh you know provide it with uh some something for the bacteria to uh eat off of. Um but um the uh the pills themselves that can be expensive, uh, you can likely get away with you know reusing um the last batch and making 10 more batches before you have to use another pill. So it's worth uh Googling L Ruderai, make your own L Ruderi yogurt. There's lots of YouTube videos on it, um lots of places where you can buy the ingredients, and uh it's quite fun. It takes about 36 hours at 99 degrees. Um, so there's some time investment, but once you make it and once you set it, it's kind of a forget it thing until that 36 hour mark when uh when your yogurt's ready. Um, throw it in the fridge for a little while, and uh you've got some delicious yogurt that's actually um incredibly healthy for you. Two more on the list. Uh making your own sauerkraut. I've done this a few times, uh quite a few times actually. You take uh organic cabbage, um, the you know, the the best source you can possibly find, you cut it up, you weigh it, and then you add about two percent of the cabbage's weight in uh you know uh really good salt, uh so sea salt, redmond salt. Um uh you find find a really top-notch salt, not the the stuff in the you know, the the super cheap stuff in the in the white box for two bucks. Um invest in some good salt for the um cabbage to ferment in. Again, this is gonna be an amazing food for your uh gut. Um, and it also can be an incredible snack food. You can throw it on steaks, you can throw it on anything. Um, you know, some love the taste, some don't like it, but at the end of the day, if you're able to feed the gut what it needs, um, taste is uh should be lower on the list versus you know health. And the last one is an example, um, tallow. Um tallow is a difficult thing to make yourself, um, especially difficult to make it in the quality uh for uh cooking, uh, and even more difficult to make it in the quality for um putting tallow on your skin, for example. Um I talked to a good friend of mine who was having some skin problems uh on parts of his head, and uh he had tried everything under the sun, and I suggested um giving tallow a try. Uh there's not there's likely to be no downside to it, um, but it may be worth investing in. Uh he called me a week later and he said um 75-80% of the problem is gone from putting tallow on it every single day. Um so he saw some some great uh results from that. It's it's it's the one of the most perfect things to put on your skin um to feed it, to protect it. Um it's not a suntan lotion, um, but it can be fantastic for um for uh for those purposes. But if you look online, you go to you know Etsy or or Amazon, you're gonna find that these uh skin tallow are expensive and the food tallows are expensive. I went to a really amazing um butcher grocer uh uh locally owned nearby, and I went up to them and I asked them if they have uh any tallow for sale. And he said, come with me. I ordered a a large chunk and I'm I'm always ordering from them, so I think uh they see me as a decent customer. Uh I went back and went back to the back of the store with him, and they had um tallow, they had um uh all of these different natural cooking fats. Um I grabbed what I would call like a gallon of tallow for 27 bucks. I can use this on my skin. So I'm I I'm cooking with it, and while I'm cooking with it, I put a little on my face, which kind of sounds weird, and that is weird if you're talking about canola oil or something, or even maybe butter. Um, but tallow is an amazing thing both for uh your insides and your uh the outside uh of your skin. Um, and so there's a cheap way to uh uh to jump on board and save some money and not spend those expensive online prices. Stephen?

Skin Care With Tallow And Castor Oil

Stephen 12:30

Yeah, I was just gonna add actually uh as we've discussed, so I also use tallow on my face, and I have noticed a significant difference. So the other thing I would mention to people, and I'm early stages researching and trying this on myself, as we've repeatedly said, Graham, we are our own continuous improvement process. So I wanted to throw it out there. I've been doing some due diligence on castor oil and using it also as a facial application. Uh I haven't done it yet, but I'm uh I live in a remote area, so I've got to find um an old-fashioned water bottle, and I'm going to try castor oil actually on the abdominal region because it has some insane properties. The only strong uh thing that I want to point out here, whether it's tallow or or if it's uh particularly if it's castor oil, make sure it's in a dark brown bottle that's glass. You can buy this stuff at your drugstore that's super cheap in a plastic bottle. Do not use that because the castor oil actually pull the uh plastic into the material in a way that not even water can. So it's penetrating capacity is both good and bad. If it's not stored properly in a proper container, you're literally imparting those toxins in the through the subdural region of whatever wherever you're applying it. So you don't want to do that. So um you couldn't call that plastic surgery waking up in the morning after using plastic castor oil on your face.

Graham 13:56

So uh great suggestion, Stephen. And and I would say uh the vast majority of the time when I'm treating any skin problems, I don't have many uh uh a rise these days. Um I'll I'll use beef towel or castor oil for almost everything. And it works, it's you know, it's cheap, it's natural. Um, and I know I've saved uh uh a ton of money on other options um that uh I don't think are gonna work as well. Do you want to go with number two?

Eggs As Budget Power Food

Stephen 14:24

Sure. And I I think what we'll do is we'll take that as uh an opportunity as well to to you and I to do a podcast on this down the road after a few weeks to see what kind of changes that we have. You know, one of the things could could show up actually even in my uh CGM and my sugars, we can use that as a potential baseline. If I keep all other things equal, then um it's potentially the uh the rationale for it as well as there are some indicators and some people that are promoting the fact that it can also help with re-regulation of key areas of the body, including the liver. So I'll be very interested to see how that works. So yeah, thank you. Uh for for the next one, uh, we're gonna talk, it's all about eggs and building delicious high-protein keto carnivore meals on a budget. So eggs are a good one. They're highly satiating, they offer a ton of nutrients uh in there. So if you are uh pursuing a carnivore diet, that's probably one of the best sources of protein and other supplements, vitamin A, vitamin E, uh a host of really, really good things. And what's in it, and of course, people will say, well, what about cholesterol? That's a separate topic. I would point you to Dr. Gundry and Dr. Berg on that. Uh again, cholesterol is uh basically a boat, a transporter of um of in in our our system to uh support nutrients that need to go elsewhere in the body. So it's hard to get them there if you don't have a means of transport. So we'll cover that on a different topic. But um one one of the things is uh I would recommend is make sure you're getting it from a decent source because the eggs as an end product are uh their ingredients sometimes are a consequence of how the eggs are are harvested, meaning that if I get it from my daughter who has 12 chickens uh in her her farm, obviously I'm getting the highest quality eggs you could possibly get because the feed is managed through a local co-op. I do the same because she's quite a quite a ways away, but when I'm there, I certainly eat her eggs. When uh when I go to my butcher, he will only sell eggs that come directly from farms that are what I would call small non-industrial farms because they're not feeding feeding the chickens things that chickens wouldn't normally eat. We won't go into detail on that. But do your do your uh research. And I also know that that those eggs aren't filled with antibiotics and a host of other things that could be transferred uh into the egg. So it's I would say I'm probably um mostly a uh a late breakfast, so I don't normally eat before for noon or 1 p.m. I'll have eggs, bacon, and um that holds me over. And some days I do one meal a day as opposed to two. And if I'm having a second meal in the evening, it's usually like hardcore carnivore. I'll just have a steak, nothing else. So I I just find that generally um eggs, uh whether uh you're having three or four, really fill you up, and I don't really find that I need I need anything else. And even uh the eggs have got expensive, but for the differential in price for the level of say of satiety that you're achieving with eggs, they're probably one of the cheapest sources you can get even as a high grade, say compared to a New York strip or you know, a sirline. Um, you know, pound for pound eggs are way cheaper, and and you can do a lot more with them. One of the things I like to do is I make my own salsa as well, Graham. So I get some of my um, you know, call it my veggies in there. Uh and again, it's got it's fermented and so it has some of the same benefits of sauerkraut. And I find it very calming on my gut. I'll so I'll put in some high-end well-aged cheeses, not soft cheeses, but hard cheeses, into an omelette. And I'll dice up uh some farm sausage in it as well. And um, you'd be hard-pressed with four eggs and all that stuff added into it, the cheese, the the uh salsa that I make, and and the the uh farmer sausage from my butcher, not to say that it isn't a full meal.

Sourcing Better Eggs And Storage

Track Meals Before Buying Supplements

Graham 18:27

100%. And I I loved your suggestion about um seeking out uh good sources. Um obviously the grocery store has changed the way uh we uh buy food and uh change the the uh the the kinds of food that we have access to. Um I went on maybe it was Facebook Market Marketplace uh when we moved because I had a good source before, but it was too far away. Um and I found uh an Amish farm uh where I can buy you know free range free run eggs. Um they're outside or you know uh fed naturally. And uh you can tell when you crack the egg open, it's nice and dark orange. That's that's what you're looking for. Um and so uh if you don't have access to that, if you're in the middle of a big city, uh one thing to take a look at is um you know, you'll see all of these different labels, free range, free run. Um, you know, some are more expensive than others. Free range, all that means uh for the most part, is that these chickens are in a giant warehouse and there's a little door uh somewhere where the chicken go outside. The problem is the food's all inside. So the likelihood of the chicken actually going outside is slim to none. Um obviously I'm not a chicken, I don't know, but um you do the math if you've got hundreds of chickens in a warehouse and a little door somewhere. Free run means that they have to go outside, uh, which is uh, I think going to be an improvement. Um, but if you can find something that's a really good source of eggs, you know, I'll buy uh a hundred at a time, like four flats at a time. A flat has 24 eggs in it. Um, and then I've got a fridge uh downstairs, and you know, uh it's got enough room that I can fit all of those eggs in there, and then I've got a little egg um sort of drawer that goes in the fridge that I can put stuff on top of so it really doesn't take up any space. That thing fits 24 eggs. So we always have access to eggs all the time, and and as soon as I get low, I'm placing my order and I'm going to get it uh right away. It's to me worth the drive. I'm getting the amazing sources of those eggs, so there are some ways to be creative there. Um, and you know, some people will debate do I need to put eggs in the fridge or not? Um, my understanding is um if you're buying the cheap uh sort of um eggs from the grocery store, and there's nothing wrong with that, if that's what you uh have access to, it's certainly better than anything in the junk food aisles, no question about it. Um, but if those eggs uh are white and they've been pasteurized, then the coating on the outside of the egg uh will uh mean that you're uh likely going to have to refrigerate those eggs, and I think most people do. If you buy them like I do from a free-range farm, I can keep them on the counter for a couple of weeks. Um I don't. I choose to keep them in the fridge just because um it it's it we have the capacity to be able to do that. Um, but just keep that in mind. Um, and so the darker the orange, that's what you're looking for, get the best source eggs you can afford. It's an incredible source of uh nutrition. Um, number three on the list, uh, track your meals for a short amount of time to understand if you really need those expensive vitamins. So uh a little less about food, but we're still on the nutrition um topic here. Uh you know, when you're scrolling whatever social media you do scroll all day, um you're gonna come across uh you need to take this uh vitamin, you need to take this vitamin. People are very swayed by um salespeople and operations. Obviously, sometimes they're actually selling the vitamin that they recommend that you take. And even those, you know, multivitamins. Do a little bit of research on what's in those. You know, a lot of the time you're not getting anywhere near the sort of therapeutic dose that you might think you need in order to improve whatever area you're trying to improve. You know, insert illness here, the this vitamin will fix it. It's usually not as easy as that. I track my meals for about six months. Um, there's apps out there like MyFitnessPal chronometer. There's even ones you can take a photo of your food and it will figure kind of out what the nutrients are in that meal. Um, I was very careful about it for six months. I tracked everything because when I went down this path, I wanted to make sure that I wasn't going off the deep end and all of a sudden I'm uh severely undernutri uh you know, undernourished in particular kinds of vitamins and minerals. Um, and it turns out as I got to a comfortable uh meal plan and a comfortable amount, because it's not just what you're eating, it's the amount that you're eating, I was able to track what vitamins am I actually deficient in. For the most part, it was calcium. I added a little bit of cheese to my list and got that calcium uh score up a little bit. But if you don't know, you're gonna be very swayed by you need to take this vitamin and that vitamin, and you're you know, you're gonna be the best that you can possibly be. Now, um, having said all that, I do take vitamin D. I do get a lot of sun, but in the winter it's a lot harder to do so. So I'll take vitamin D3. I take vitamin K2 because uh K2 really helps that D3 um find its way into the bones, which is where I want it to be. I want my bone health to be top-notch. Uh, without that K2, the D3 does have a more difficult time, as I understand it, from getting into those bones and making those bones strong, not um, you know, calcified and getting that calcification into the bloodstream. Uh, and I also take magnesium. Um, all three of those are fat soluble, so you're gonna want to make sure that you have some kind of fat um that you're taking along with that in order to allow those um uh those vitamins to work. Um, but for the most part, you know, uh I've I've had lots of vitamins um that I've bought being swayed by whoever's telling me, you know, I'll be healthy in two days if I take this vitamin, and it's never true. Um, and so I know I've saved considerable amounts of money because now I know exactly what nutrients I'm getting from the food that I get because I track those meals. Stephen?

Absorption, Dysbiosis, And Testing

Stephen 24:42

Yeah, I've got uh those are really, really good ideas and good points. Um, what I would add on that, since uh I do too take uh vitamins, I would say as a first stop, uh, I would recommend you get a baseline before you uh proceed with any of these, because how do you know whether you need 600 milligrams of magnesium or not? Magnesium bisculate, uh, for instance, and make sure you take the right type of magnesium because there are different metabolic effects um in terms of absorption. But that's the key that I want to uh really focus in on because you're you did a great job of speaking to how you use supplements. It's not uh a panacea, it's it's it's in conjunction with uh an a very healthy carnivore diet. And I know you're quite strict about that. I would say though, for myself, as a diabetic and as somebody who's traveled quite a bit in places where you know your body encounters things it wouldn't normally that have made you sick and and so forth, uh one of the key issues is absorption. And obviously, absorbing minerals through, like for instance, the consumption of meat and B12 is well known, well documented. The issue is if you have diotic bacteria that's complicated by factors uh that you touched on earlier, which could include PTSD and IBS in my case, I'm not absorbing very much. And uh it's not conjecture, uh, it's it's uh a legitimate concern because I was consuming high-quality meats and my B12 was so low, my naturopath immediately recommended that before I even left the office, um, probably because I I travel quite a distance to see her, that I get a B12 injection. It was that low. And so it begs the question: well, okay, my grocery bill looks like I'm buying a lot of meat, but my body's not necessarily retaining it. And I did spend quite a period of my life, um, a few years as a vegetarian vegan. And we've talked about uh the the issues and concerns with that, but I still hadn't ramped up. So it wasn't until uh we mutually realized from testing that I had dysbiotic bacteria that were working against me in my stomach, four different types, and uh essentially my absorption with meat alone was not very impressive. So supplements would be, and this is my point, infinitely worse. You wouldn't absorb anything. And uh, you know, there's there's jokes and stories about taking B12 and you know, literally peeing it right out, you know. Um, and uh in my past, uh I was in a relationship with a doctor that used to think this is before I I had a diagnosis, a diagnosis, she she was a Western doctor. But we would argue about how I could be possibly passing these things in the time that would that it appeared to be, given that I didn't have time to digest her for it to process. But when your body's in an inflammatory state and in a fight or flight state, it's not hanging out to let that magnesium take its effect. It's not hanging out to do the chemistry to grapple with that B12. It's just everything is going, you know, out of you. And I was a living example of that. So I still had the energy decline, even though I was eating better, all these other things. And it wasn't until I repaired my gut, leaky gut, all these other factors, did I set myself up? It's a bit like it's a bit like trying to put food in your fridge and it's full of holes. Like you're gonna, it's one, it's not gonna work very well, it's not gonna keep your food cold, and your food's gonna keep falling out on the sides and everything else. I think essentially that's what my my you know, my uh my stomach was like at the time, and then add in the additional consequences of PTSD and those triggers, it's not gonna work for you. And so, for more I would describe as the average person that doesn't necessarily have to deal with that. Also keep in mind when you're adding these supplements, that doesn't it's you know, I've had these conversations as you have too, Graham, is where people are like, hey man, I take I take my vitamins and you're like, well, and so I don't think they really do much because I haven't really seen any difference. People have a very tunnel sort of mindset in terms of what they describe in the construct of an argument or a discussion that is a fallacy. They have comparison bias. Because what they don't tell you is they went to Kentucky fried chicken the night before, and their body's so inflamed from those seed oils, they've had, you know, to not to be um too gross, but they've had diarrhea all morning. So their ability to retain anything for a few hours in that heightened state is zero. So even if they took their vitamins, even if they had a steak after and muscled their way through it, they're not getting proper absorption because their body is in a reactive state instead of a relaxed state. The sympathetic is kicked off, it's not parasympathetic. It thinks you're trying to eat a sandwich while you're being chased by a dinosaur. That's not gonna work, you know. Um, so these are things to consider what to take and when. And you mentioned a great example is that the bonding capacity of potassium or K2 is very important. The timing of when you take vitamin D3 and the volume of the quantity of the dosage is so usually quite a bit different depending on who you in terms of your information, be it Dr. Berg or others. That again, people don't think it's doing anything. Oh, I'm still tired, oh, I'm still this or that. Again, full circle, talk to your naturopath. It's unlikely your doctor um will do anything about it. We all know that the at least uh Western doctors on average only get one week of nutritional training. So candidly, um, I would argue that with the research you and I have done, um, we could probably cover an entire class of of doctors and comparative investment in time and resources as well as we live our values, we we're doing these things. So, comparatively speaking, you need to do your own analysis and you need to push for these things to be tested when you're feeling weak, when you're even when you're training and you're not recovering properly. And and and if anyone tells you, hey, it's because you're getting older, it's just walk away. That's not that's not the way to solve issues that are oxidative, stress-related, that are impacting um uh the mitochondria in your cells. Like that's that's not an acceptable response because there are plenty of people out there in their 70s and 80s, just get a Hume bracelet and it'll tell you what your metabolic age is, that you can be much younger biologically than the number of birthdays that you covered. And that's a wide swath of a conversation. But I think you know what you and I, Graham, are trying to get at here is in this specific episode is you know, be your best advocate. And when you're trying you can save money, eat well, but monitor what you're eating. Because again, if you're spending money and it's just going through you and you're not getting the nutrition, what's what's the point? You might as well just fast, right?

Graham 31:33

Yeah, 100%. I I couldn't have said it better, Stephen. Um, do you want to jump to your number uh four?

Smart Keto Shopping And Freezer Strategy

Stephen 31:41

Sure. So that's um so that would be the smart uh keto shopping. So in in terms of smart keto shopping, and I've talked to some of the local folks here, and I'm I'm sort of uh the type of personality that once I find something that sort of works for me, it becomes a simple, repeatable work process. So I like my butcher. But there are other higher-end grocery stores when I do travel into town that um I can go to. There's another butcher uh that I have access to that makes um uh ethnic meals that are are traditional and what I'm used to having uh uh as a young kid. So uh those appeal to me for the purposes of variety. And since the the the episode is mostly focusing on cost, then there are instances, and I know you do it uh a fair bit, Graham, is um you'll look at uh Farm Boy and some of these other places where they they have these these sales and you'll balk up, bulk up. You've talked before, and maybe you should should comment more on that about getting a stand-up freezer uh to to stock it. The only thing I would say though is is folks, is be careful that you're not leaving meat for six or eight or ten months in the freezer. Make sure you're consuming it because sometimes we have a tendency to fire and forget with that model as well. You know, Costco's a great example. You go in, you spend a bunch of money, and you're like, oh, you know, I'm gonna save a fortune. And then, you know, a year later you're digging in the back of the freezer finding stuff that you you you bought 10 months ago. So you haven't saved anything because you still continue this continuously consume. So that would be another way of saving is make sure you consume what you have before you simply, especially for people like myself, where I live a ways away from that kind of variety, and it's easy. It's like Christmas. You show up and you're like, oh, I can go to blah blah, I can go to Farm Boy, I can go to all these places. And meanwhile, my blueberries are going bad in the fridge because now I have three cartons of them and I can't eat them that fast. So something to think about.

Time, Priorities, And Coupon Habits

Graham 33:42

Yeah, I agreed. And and you know, this is so related and sort of unrelated. Um you know, people when they hear some of these things, making making your own sauerkrape, making your own yogurt, um, you know, uh, checking uh the coupon um mailer or the coupon apps, or um, you know, when when the flyer comes out actually taking a look and reading it, some people are gonna say, I don't have time to do that. Um my recommendation is the next time you say that, um, switch it around and say, that's not a priority of mine. Um, because I have a feeling if I uh check that person's um you know social media hours, it would be hours in a day that they've spent actually you know doom scrolling through their social media. Or there are other things that they're doing that may um on the surface be you know enjoyable, but at the end of the day, if you don't have your health, you don't have much. Um and so you know, there's an old saying, uh, when you know everybody will say they have a hundred problems, but when they're um you know really sick, they only have one problem. That becomes the priority. Well, what we're trying to do here is uh make sure that that is high up on the priority list. I do take the time to read my flyers. Uh as soon as I see um you know meats on sale, I run and get it. And yes, you you that probably means it's it's uh closer to the expiry date. But if I'm not 100% sure, I can vacuum seal it and throw it in the freezer and uh buy myself a couple of weeks if I need to. Um but for the most part, I'm cooking that in the next couple of days. Um and so I I'm I'm you know consciously doing a turnover of the fridge in the freezer, and I'm uh I I spend a little bit of extra time monitoring that because uh I went and as soon as I switched it from I don't have time to do all that stuff to it's not a prior, it's not on my prior, it's not high on my priority list. It changed the way I thought about things. And I stopped doing other things. You know, I I uh you sit down, you watch a hockey game, well, that's or a football game or whatever sport you love, that's two and a half hours. Or you're watching, you know, your your favorite housewives of whatever show, and and all of a sudden you burn through an hour and a half. Um, you could switch that out with I'm going to focus on my nutrition for me and my family and make that a priority for that day. Um, and it may just change the way uh that you look at these things because at the end of the day, uh, if you're feeling great, uh both mentally and physically, um, you're gonna have more energy to do the things that you love. Um and then that priority prioritization may make sense to actually uh put the you know your nutrition and health much higher on the priority list.

Stephen 36:31

Absolutely. Actually, Graham, I was just gonna add, if I may, interject for a sec. So, I mean, you you actually spurred an interesting idea that I would share with our uh listening group, and that is do the calculus, you know, make a determination. Like, what do you mean you don't have time? Um, if you're if you're initiating time in order to earn an income and that income is paying you so many dollars per hour, ask yourself the question with a little bit of planning and some savings, how many hours do you got to work to not plan and pay for those groceries versus how many hours would you have to work if you planned it well? Is it three hours of of of of labor that you would have required in order to allocate to that grocery bill, or is it an hour and a half because you've got a few coupons? So it all depends on on um what what economic model you're using and what litmus test. If you value your time that much that you're the money that you're earning in terms of your your JOB isn't appropriately offset by those savings, then um I'm I'd say lucky you, but most of us, most of us have to be conscientious, like like anything on a budget about what we're spending. And in reality, I look at it based on our age that we're going back to the way it was for our parents, particularly if you weren't in a high-income environment, and I certainly wasn't. So it was natural and normal, you know, to to cut out coupons and take them to the store because that's how things were done back then. And you fully expected to wait 10 minutes behind somebody that had a week's worth of groceries because they had to hand over all their coupons. And people don't have the patience, not only for for other shoppers doing that, which now is on your phone and easily scanned, but also don't want to take the time. So I think you really hit on something really important is that uh the this misplaced uh focus on social media for instance, uh, when in a fraction of that amount of time, think about how much money it takes for you to work each week to pay for those groceries to begin with. And if you can take 30, 40% off the bill and do some of the things that you and I've described here, then in reality, that's more money in your pocket.

Choose Cheaper Fatty Ground Meats

Graham 38:39

Yeah, I mean, you say five bucks a week um doesn't sound like a lot until you have an extra 250 bucks at the end of the year, of which you'd have to uh earn, you know, three or four hundred dollars to me to keep that two hundred and fifty dollars. So uh and it's likely gonna be more than that. My local grocer, um, they they've got a new app. And so instead of cutting out the coupons, I I physically go into the app and I say add all coupons. And I actually am I'm really interested in in knowing what percentage of people do that because it doesn't cost me anything. It takes me five seconds just before I you know I get to the checkout counter. And I know you know every now and then I'm saving three bucks or two bucks or four bucks or it adds up. It you know, it can be five or six bucks. It took me five seconds to do. Um, so I I I I would bet that you know, well under 50% of people do that every single week. Um, and there's no charge, it takes almost no time. It's just more of a habit uh that people form. Uh the last one on our list is uh is a quick one, and that is um look at the fatty ground beef and pork uh if you have that available in the grocer. Where I used to live, um, it was only lean or extra lean ground beef. Where I live now, interestingly enough, um there's also medium ground beef. And a lot of the time, sorry, all of the time, the medium ground beef is cheaper than the uh lean or extra lean because the fat is something that the store has to get rid of. If they can get rid of it by giving it to you, um they're they're happy campers and they're gonna take a couple of bucks off per pound. Um and so I'll often switch it up, and it does depend on what I'm making. Um, if you feel like you're getting too much fat in the butt in the body, um you're likely finding that in very loose stools. Uh, if you're if your stools are uh not loose, they're they're super hard, you're probably not getting enough fat. That's a good way to um sort of gauge it. Obviously, there's other reasons why those things can be happening, but when you eat really clean, you start to be able to monitor it that way. So uh taking a look at the fatty ground beef or pork, um, or even asking the butcher if they can make some for you if they don't they don't uh sell it, you might have to give them some advanced notice. Uh sometimes you can save a couple of bucks per pound, uh, which is uh you know money in your pocket. Steven?

Stephen 40:57

Yeah, I think that's uh that's a great example. And not and we understand that not everyone consumes pork and and that's fine. But uh the uh certainly the ground beef is a good alternative. Uh I turn it into chilies, I get it directly from from the butcher and make my own chili. Uh the um the only thing that I tend to splurge on in terms of expense is very, very high quality soups. So we talked a bit about this earlier. I'll sometimes use those because their nutrition nutritional density and content in those soups is pretty extraordinary. And I'm talking about again some of the higher end grocery stores or or in fact, like the specialty shops, for instance, where I can get my my ethnic um uh meats and so forth. They have some of those. And just and some of them are just convenient but still high quality. I always spin them around and make sure there's no um inflammatory oils in them. I always check the sugar content. I'm still amazed that how you can have pickles that are basically not sugary pickles, still have sugar in them. I don't know where that comes from or why they why they do that. It seems to find its way in there. And I think we've talked before a few times now, but just a gentle reminder: try to keep your sugar intake uh as low as possible and certainly well below 20 grams a day. Your body doesn't need it, and uh you don't want to do that. So that's the other thing on top of all this is that you're looking, if if this was a business model, you're looking for revenue leakage. You're looking for revenue leakage from the money you're spending on on groceries. Um, as we talked in the previous episode, where you're sneaking out for lunches or you know, doing the social thing at work and not tracking that. Those make a huge difference. And yes, of course, we used to, you know, some of us still have that high school uh uh influence of bullying because you brought your lunch and didn't pay for the cafeteria ones, which reflected your, you know, in our time, your economic strata. And that sometimes is implanted in you. So you think going out is the right thing to do. But a lot of times, you know, those foods are so, so bad. I wouldn't even necessarily call them foods. And uh, you know, you and I are guilty of that. I mean, we we uh enjoyed spending time together at work, you know, so much it was more of a social event, regardless of what food was put in front of us. We wanted to catch up. And um, and often often I know in my case there were consequences when I got back to work. I didn't feel uh well at all. So um these are the things that you want to gauge is prioritize your health. Um do it now, um, or you'll pay for it later. And it'll be paid in the form of, you know, for our American friends out there where they don't have their health care free like in Canada, there's there are significant consequences that can wipe you out. And if you you know have this principles, I'm going to limit the amount of oxidative stress in my body. I'm gonna have a mindset that prevents, you know, me from adding too much cortisol into my system. I'm gonna self regulate. I'm gonna pause before I speak so I'm not reacting, I'm reflecting because I don't want to kick in my parasympathetic. I'm not gonna have an argument on the phone while I'm shoving a burger into my mouth because. Again, using the dinosaur analogy, your body's going to react in an aggressive way, and you're not going to get any nutritional benefit from it. All you're doing is exercising your jaw at that point. Or if there is any nutritional benefit, you're passing it so quickly, it's almost negligible. And that should be showing up in brain fog. You can't sleep at night, you're restless, you're always hungry, you've got a sugar crash. All those things we're trying to help uh you from attempt at least to help you avoid. And starting with eating at home and eating these whole foods will allow you to be able to solve that ball of yarn that's all wound together in knots and figure out what it is, what levers you can pull that work for you, that are consequential to the outputs, meaning that you're having proper bowel movements, that you're not angry all the time and reacting because you're in a bad mood, and that generally you just feel satiated and um your mindset is is you know nice and calm. What do you think about all that, Graham?

Avoid Sugar, Eat At Home, Feel Better

Graham 45:02

Yeah, I at the end of the day, and and your the medical cost, you know, in in Canada, you're gonna be uh you may not have to pay it out of pocket, but you may be waiting uh too long to get that uh access to the right medical treatment. In the US, uh you probably don't have to wait very long, but it's going to be very expensive for those people that don't have great um insurance. And even when they do, the insurance itself can be uh really quite expensive. So um couldn't couldn't have finished off that topic better myself. Uh, thank you for listening to another episode uh Lessons from the Keto Verse with Graham and Steven. Uh Steven, it's great to talk to you again.

Stephen 45:40

Likewise, appreciate it, Graham. This was great.

Graham 45:43

Thanks, everyone.

Introduction 45:44

We'll see you next time. Thanks for tuning into Lessons from the Ketoverse. Join Stephen and Graham next time for more keto tips and stories to fuel your health. Subscribe, share, and let's keep the keto vibes going.