Two Weeks of Keto

In my year of challenge, April is Keto month. I have been doing keto for half of the month and it has been an interesting experience.

If you don't know what Keto is, it is a low carb, high fat diet. So it is similar to atkins or paleo, the difference is that the majority of diet should be fat, between 60%-75% fat. I am aiming for 60% fat, 35% protein and 5% carbs. Though as long as I get below 15% carbs I don't worry too much as long as my fats are higher. I used my fitness pal in the beginning, but now that I am more familiar with the diet I haven't been using it as much. I was averaging 60%-78% fats and around 7% carbs.

Meal Prepping

I prepared for keto by going to the grocery store and making 8 frozen keto meals that serve 6. I have been using those for dinner. They are chicken or meatball based so I switch off from chicken to meatball each time. These have been going well, but some of the seasoning is bland to me so I will add hot sauce or extra cheese to go with it. I usually get full pretty quickly and feel satisfied.

Meal preparing was so necessary. Not only because it makes it easy to figure out my meals, but because of the covid-19. I had been following it closely since February, and the first weekend of March one of the podcasts I listen to said that people should have a months worth of food in pantry like you do for storms. Being from Arizona, we don't really worry about natural disasters like a blizzard. So I didn't know that was a thing. The second weekend my roommate asked I wanted to go food shopping and I decided that was the perfect time to stock up and meal prep for keto. She got enough for the end of March and I got enough for April. We didn't even need things like pasta or rice.

Bulletproof Coffee

I fast in the morning to around noon, the only thing I have is bulletproof coffee. If you are not familiar it is coffee with butter, this adds in a lot of fat without a lot of work. The recipe I used called for 2 tablespoons of butter and 1 of coconut oil I also add some cinnamon. I did this until the fifth day. The coffee tasted so bad to me. I don't mind black coffee, and this was much worse. So, after a bit of google searching I found out that most people work their way up to that amount. So I started to only do 1 tablespoon of coconut oil.

That didn't help, in fact I felt like it was making it worse and I was actually holding my nose to drink it! So, more google searches, many people said the coconut oil wasn't for them. So I switched to 1 tablespoon of butter. That is so much better. I could actually drink the coffee without wincing. I would even be finished with my coffee without noticing. Since then I have built up to 2 tablespoons. I probably won't add the coconut oil back in. I am not going to say I will continue to drink bulletproof in May, but maybe after the next two weeks I will want to.

Snacks

For my first meal I usually have an avocado smoothie made with avocado, protein powder, unsweetend peanut butter and ice. The recipe adds berries, but I think they have too many carbs so I stopped adding those. For snacks I eat a shot glass of olives, meat sticks, and fat bombs which is peanut butter and cream cheese. I ran out of cream cheese so I don't eat those any more, but they were great. 

Thoughts

If you have done keto or know about it you may have heard about keto flu. The keto flu are symptoms like headache, foggy brain, nausea and etc that some people experience in the first week of keto. Forums will try to explain what the keto flu is, but there really haven't been any studies on what causes the symptoms. It does go away after a few days so it is nothing to worry about.

I had some symptoms like nausea, headache and charly horses. It actually reminded me a little bit of when I have done a three day fast.

When my friend was pregnant her doctor told her to eat before you would get nausea and that would help her not be nausea as much, basically snacking a lot during the day. So I used this trick. If I felt nausea I would have oils or fat bombs if it was between meals or I would eat lunch or dinner. This really helped get rid of the symptoms.

As for the charly horses I started drinking more water and I only had them two nights. I haven't felt any flu symptoms for a while, so it does go away, but it is something to look out for. Hopefully, some of these tips help you.

Progress

So far I have lost 12 pounds or so since starting keto. I know some of it might be water weight at the beginning. So I hope that I because I have another two weeks it will stick to me more. It is a diet that would be hard to maintain for months and months, but I think I am learning that Fats are Friends and to opt for that over carbs.

Why I Still Lend to Kiva

How I started

I started lending on Kiva in 2007, after I first heard about it from Oprah. I loved the concept of lending money to people who could use it to better their position. I like that $25 can be reused over and over. In this way a small loan can go along way.

Since I have started I have made 39 loans to equal $975 loans. I have been repaid $792.08 and lost only $27.63. I only have $134.40 total currently lent or waiting to be lent. Even though, there has been some loss the majority of people will pay in full and I believe that the loans help people better their lot. 

In the last three decades extreme poverty has declined 60% to less than 10%. I believe that Kiva lending has had some impact, however small that is to helping that. It has also provided water, education and sanitation to people all over the globe. This helps impacts everyone.

Differences

Some things that have changed over more than a decade, there are teams that you can assign your loan too and people in those teams can also loan. You could also pick loans from the teams. Some of the teams are based on types of loans like Give Green which finds green loans to invest. The only team that I use to find loans is Late Loaning Lenders which finds loans that are about to expire without being fully funded. The other teams I will just add my loans to. 

Another difference, is that there are group loans. I don't remember there being group loans in the beginning. When they first started having group loans, I stuck to individuals, because I thought it would be more difficult for a group of people to repay a loan than an individual. I also thought it was more helpful to help one person. I haven't been as picky about this lately. I haven't noticed a difference in the pay back. I also started to think that helping more people makes an impact as great or better than an individual.

You can get a loan if you are in the US or give a loan to someone in the US. I selected a US loan when they first made this change, but it default with only seven payments to go. I would consider loaning in the US again, but I think peer-to-peer lending companies already fill the niche.

Something different I do is, since January 2018, I have started to deposit $5 into my account every month and donate a $1 to the Kiva foundation. I think a steady amount every month even if it's a $1 is better than the $3.75 that is recommended when you make a loan. Because of this steady amount and repayments I have made 9 loans in 2019 and 2018. This is better than making up the difference to my balance, it's consistent so I belief I have been able to take more loans than previously. So, this year I increased my deposit to $7 and donate $2 each time. I lent in late December, so today was the first time I made a loan since the new deposits.

How to I pick my loans?

When looking for a loan, I usually look for loans in the Americas. This is for a few reasons, I know that they really have a need for the loans, and because I think lending to North, Central and South America has a bigger impact on people in the US than lending to people in Europe, Asia or Africa. Simply because of the distance and the connections of our economies. I imagine the money trickling up here no matter how small or how long it takes and impacting migration.

Even though I try to look in countries in the Americas, there is also a feature where you can look by countries you haven't lent in yet. So I sometimes I will do that as well, but I still prefer loans in the Americas.

I also try to look for women or a woman. While I do think women have more of a need for it, I also think that when you loan to women it has a bigger impact on her family, community and nation. 

Like I said sometimes, I will look for a loan that is about to expire before it is funded. I don't always do this because, but I think it is nice to help loans that get overlooked.

I currently have 7 loans that are pending, one that is fundraising, four that are paying back and two that are paying back delinquent. Kiva will continue to let people pay if they are willing to pay even if they go delinquent which is good. One of the loans was in Puerto Rico, and after hurricane Maria they had trouble paying, and another is in Ghana. The other loans are in Columbia, Guatemala, India and Moldova. 

Kiva Gifts

Early on I gave gift certificates to some of my family to get them started as well. I gave gifts to 8 people and they have relent at least 13 times, two gifts are private so I can't see if they relent. I will gift a Kiva cards to the first commenters who is interested.

I will continue to deposit and donate to Kiva, even though there are other microlending and peer-to-peer lending companies out there, because I believe that it has an impact. If you used kiva what are your thoughts? Do you have any loans that you think need fundraising?

My latest Kiva loan:

Kiva.org

4 Spring Things to do While on Quarantine

Are you on quarantine? Millions of people are in 2020 and you might be struggling to find something to do as well. I have found a few things that I started doing this spring in order to combat bored and isolation. I am not going to talk about spring cleaning or home improvement. I think those are two things that are more work than pleasure. While they might be great things to kill the time, I am looking for more unique and leisurely activities.

Start an Indoor Garden

One thing that I have been doing is growing plants in my home. I already have some potted plants that I maintain, but I have also began to grow plants from seeds, tops of carrots or bottoms of onions.

You don't need fancy pots or containers. I have just been using contains, plastic or paper. I even used the Styrofoam from the chicken I bought at the store. For the carrots, onions and celery, I cut off the part ends that I wasn't going to use to cook with. Then, I put them in a shallow try until they grew white roots. I transferred the celery and onions to normal potting soil but the carrots were moved to the chicken tray. I am going to plant them in soil soon. 

I am also going seeds in a plastic container from a get together in February. I kind of mixed up which seeds I put in which sections, but I think the seeds that sprouted are peppers. I am going to transfer them into individual containers so they can grow roots for a few more weeks. I also put lemon and grapefruit seeds in a jar with cotton balls. Those are starting to sprout too, but haven't gotten up out of the cotton yet.

I also put some potatoes and garlic into paper milk containers. I saw some growth in one of those, but I think it takes over a month to see growth from those.

It is nice to have all the green in the house. I also planted a orange tree that my roommate's Mom bought for me at the beginning of February. She heard that I always orange tree and she got me one. She brought her daughter a smaller lemon tree and told her that when it was ready to plant she had to move into her own home!  

Art & Wine Day

A fun thing to do in the spring is to take a wine and art class on a calm Sunday. So, on the last Sunday of March my roommate and I decided to have one on the patio. We made Sangria using a cheap red wine, cocktail fruit, and fresca or spirit. You can use a more expensive wine if you want but I don't like to waist good wine if I'm adding fresca. We also made pineapple salsa and chips.

Then we put on flowery dresses, big hats and sunglasses and went out to the patio. We used our limited supplies of paint, brushes and canvas and put on some Sunday brunch music.

My roommate painted her feelings on the corona virus and I painted some kitchen decor. It was very relaxing and nice to be outside. Next time I am going to paint the plastic terracotta pot. 

Bird Watch

Another activity we have been doing, is that we bough bird feeders for different kinds of bird feed (sugar water, seeds, suet. We hung them outside on our tree. We have had a lot of birds that I have never noticed in Arizona before. We even have one lark that comes in the evening and sings pretty songs. I don't know what kind of bird he is, but we name him Jake. We even have two ducks or mallards that started hanging out on the sidewalk by the feeders.

If you don't want to buy bird feeders you can use milk cartons and make some. We couldn't do that because we used ours on the garden. It is nice to see the little birds around and actually pretty entertaining.

Start a Blog or Journal

Even though, I have had my blog for a while, I usually only post after I have traveled, which isn't often. I think this is a good opportunity to make blogging a habit. I think people get better at coming up with content and ideas the more they practice. 

Pick a topic that you like and know a lot about and start blogging. I try to blog about topics that interest me like traveling, genealogy and finance. You might not appeal to everyone, but on the internet you will find your niche. 

Doing one or some of these activities can help you build your attention span, which can be hard to do with social media and instant gratification. Extending your attention span might help you to be bored less often and for short periods of time. Let me know if you try a few? May you have an activity that you started doing that you want to share?

Crochet Projects

I started crocheting maybe two years ago. I started doing it because I wanted something to do with my hands while watching netflix. It is a way to keep me from looking at my phone while watching. Though I still look at the project more than the television. I can still pay more attention to the what I'm watching than I can when I am scrolling through social media or playing games on my phone.

My first projects were very bad. I would make a simple single crochet blanket but the blanket would shrink with each row. I will say I still think I'm a novice, but I feel better about giving my projects to people instead of to the dog shelter.

Project 1 - Amigurumi Bees from Red Heart

For this spring, I was going to give my niece and cousin's baby crochet bees for Easter. But with the coronavirus, I probably won't see them for Easter. I will hold on to the Bees for now. I picked this Amigurumi because it looked simple compared to the other designs. It was just a ball, which I have done before and wings which I haven't done before. I think the bees turned out well.

The kit says it makes two bees, but I was able to make four. I have some yarn leftover. The yarn is thin so I needed to get a 2.5 mm hook. The yarn also tangles pretty easily, but it didn't knot bad enough that I couldn't get it out. I also had to get eyes.

I also bought the mermaid kit. We are planning a trip to San Diego at the end of May. So I was going to give a mermaid to my niece and my cousins baby. I haven't started those projects yet. I have another to complete first.

Project 2 - Baby Blanket

I started a baby blanket on Tuesday because I found out that my other cousin is pregnant. I based it on the blanket in the link. It didn't like all the colors so I am just using blue, yellow and green. I will do the colors blue, yellow, green, yellow, and finally blue. She wants to do the gender reveal on Memorial day while we are all in San Diego. I want to have the blanket ready to give to her then.

I have not done a V-stitch before but I have done the double crochet. It is also a lot faster to do a row than the blanket I made for my niece, which was single crochet. So far the project isn't getting smaller as I go. The only issue is that when I change colors I have been using a magic knot and so sometimes the color doesn't change until after the three chains at the end. I think that is ok, because there will be a trim around the blanket, and I do not think that will be noticeable.

If it doesn't work out at the end I will give to my roommate and try again.

So, if you need a hobby to pick up while quarantined or to keep your attention off your phone, consider crochet. It's a good way to help combat a short attention span, relaxing, and you can have some nice projects at the end. As you are getting started you can donate early projects to animal shelters. Dogs and cats don't care if their blankets are a trapezoid shape. At least near me the shelters are always in need of blankets and towels.

Uplifting Exchange

Last week I received an uplifting exchange chain email. I normally would ignore a chain mail, but I only needed to send it to one person. You also only needed to send one quote or poem to the person you were uplifting. Since it was easy and I wasn't annoying all my friends, I thought it would be nice during a time like this.

So this is what I sent:

Have a happy day.

Quote:  

I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. –Maya Angelou

I sent this quote because I think it is during a time of crisis we need to remember what is important. The reason why we are staying home, and social distancing because we all have people that took care of us and now we are taking care of them.

Book: 

Leaves of Grass the reason why I linked this book is because I love this:

I celebrate myself, and sing myself, 
And what I assume you shall assume, 
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you. 
I loafe and invite my soul, I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass. 
My tongue, every atom of my blood, form'd from this soil, this air, 
Born here of parents born here from parents the same, and their parents the same, 
I, now thirty-seven years old in perfect health begin, 
Hoping to cease not till death. 

I think that is so beautiful and true.       

Video: 

I love my hairs I love this affirmations video. It reminds me of myself as a child. I sometimes watch it when I feel down.

Song:

Fight Song I sent this because of Cortex. I has been in my head and it is not bad to have there.

Poem: 

Of Love I sent this because it's good not to be too serious with these things.

Bonus:

Pale Blue Dot this speech always makes me a little happy and a little sad. It is humbling and inspiring at the same time.

What would you send to be uplifting.

One Tweak a Week Challenge

Because I decided to do monthly and yearly challenges this year I was encourage to take up the Tweak a Week Challenge when I was listening to Paula Pants's Afford Anything episode called 26 Easy Moves to Improve your Finances in 2020. I joined the Mighty Networks app so that I could join the discussion with other people. So I have some record of the last 13 weeks.

Anyone can start at any time. Just visit the Afford Anything blog and look for one Tweak a Week for an e-book about the challenge.

Tweak 1: Automate 1 Extra Percent - of your income towards savings or debt repayment anything that will improve your networth. I added 1% to paying off my 0% credit card transfer for a total of $367.

Tweak 2: Track Networth - I already have an idea of my networth because I use personal capital. But I updated some numbers in an Excel spreadsheet for a total networth of $174,437.49. I also track the ratio of networth to lifetime income as suggested in Get Rich Slowly. My networth is 37% of my lifetime earnings. That is pretty good. About 50% of my networth is the value I have in my house. I think it is better if your primary resident is less than 30% of your networth. Obviously, when you are young your home will have a bigger portion, but if it's too high than you could be considered house poor. The other half of my networth is mainly in retirement accounts. So even though I am proud of my networth and my ratio, I have room to improve.

Tweak 3: Check Credit Report (bonus freeze it) - I check my credit report at least twice a year, once when I do my taxes and a second time when I get raises in the fall. So, I ran the report a little early, but everything looked normal. I also froze my credit. I don't need my credit right now since I'm not planning to take out a loan soon.

Tweak 4: Have a Throw Away Day - The tweak only required one hour to declutter. So, I went through some of my clothes and my kitchen's junk draw to declutter.

Tweak 5: Sell an Item - I didn't have an item from the last week I could sell. I tried to sell an old couch instead, but I had it on the curb for a bulk trash day before I got a response. At least I finally got rid of it.

Tweak 6: Write Your Why - The reason I am doing the challenge is because this is the year of challenge and I thought a financial tweak a week went well with the year's theme.

Tweak 7: Automate 1 more percent - I now pay $417 to the credit card and I set up Surprise savings at Ally bank. It will move money from checking to savings account randomly. I have had $133 surprise savings in 5 weeks.

Tweak 8: Research Your Salary - When I changed jobs last year I researched my salary. It wasn't different than it was last year. I have averaged 8.31% raises since 2009.

Tweak 9: Create a Catch Phrase - I would rather have a baby than retire at 52.

Tweak 10: Adjust Thermostat by one degree - I don't have the thermostat on this time of year. I try not to get as far into May as I can. Last year I made it all the way through. I will keep the thermostat at 79 once I do turn it on.

Tweak 11: Fill Tires - I have never done this. So I had my dad show me how. One of the tires was low. I have not noticed a different in getting gas, because I have been quarantined for almost two weeks now.

Tweak 12: Delay Online Purchases for One Week - I did badly at this because I just bought yarn to make a baby blanket for my cousin's rainbow baby. I want it to be ready before the gender reveal. I will restart today.

Tweak 13: Switch Mortgage to Bi-Weekly Payments - I started doing this years ago. When you do bi-weekly pay half your mortgage every two weeks, by doing this you are making a 13 full payments a year. If you do this for 12 years you have shaved a year off your mortgage. My paid in full date went from July 2026 to November 2025. I have added an additional principal payment every month since my roommate, Paloma, moved in. Today I paid half of my April 2021 payment. I only predicted having a roommate for a year. If that happens my new paid-in full date will be August of 2024.

Those were the first 13 tweaks this year and another 13 tweaks to go. I like the challenges so far even though some of the tweaks I already do. I have notice some changes in the last quarter. I recommend the challenge to other people.

Monthly Challenges

My monthly challenges for the year started with intermittent fasting in January. The rules were that I could only eat between noon and 8 pm. I have done one-three day fasts in the past. I learned as a teenager that the zoo only feed the lions six days a week. I figured if a lion could fast I could as well. More recently I will not eat before noon on the weekends. 

So the month of January wasn't too difficult. I was allowed coffee as long as it was black so that was a life saver. Some days I would be ready to eat at noon but other days I would not be hungry until later. I didn't notice a change in energy or anything like that, but I didn't feel deprived either. 

I found not doing something was easier compared to doing something like the 10k steps challenge in February. I wasn't sure if my steps would count on the treadmill and I felt guilty walking but not walking my dog. So I opted for walking him instead of going to the gym. I usually got about 3,000 steps at work, and I would get 2 miles in or 5,000 steps with my dog. I got the additional 2,000 steps at home. I could get about 100 steps walking from one room to the next. 

Mid-way through the month Paloma, my roommate, and I went to a dive bar and line danced. I got enough steps for that Saturday and the next Sunday. So after that I would put on a line dancing youtube video to boot, scoot and boogie my final 2,000 steps. 

On the last Saturday in February I walked to the shopping center and grabbed pho. Paloma came to pick me up after and said I was like an old man with dementia wandering away from my home.

Mediation March is the current challenge. I was doing well with it, but I was sick last week skipped a few days, so I paid a dollar to the jar! The rules are that I must mediate 30 minutes a day or try to. I use youtube or a podcast to help.

I am a skeptic so I only use mediation for relaxation. It is the only claim that has evidence and that evidence does not compare mediation to other forms of relaxation. So an activity like listening to calm music or journaling may be just as good. I believe I am good at relaxing, but when I mediate I do notice that I feel like I do when I get a massage. So maybe I don't relax as well as I thought prior to March.

April is Keto diet challenge. I figured that only way to get through Keto is to plan ahead because if I have to figure out what I'm doing in April I will mess up. So two weekends ago I bulk prepared 8 freezer meals that feed 6 people so that should be enough for dinners. I am planning to fast in the morning until noon, so I will probably break the fast with hard boiled eggs and cheese squares or steamed veggies and avocado simple meals like that. I have no expectations for Keto. It is just a challenge to beat.

Future challenges include, No Internet, Walk Up at 5 am, No Coffee, Vegan, No Added Sugar, Mediterranean Diet, Stephen King's Writing Schedule and Bedtime at 8 pm.