Mani’s “keto boot camp” by Cassey Hauser

The very first night I arrived in Texas, I went “full keto” with little warning as Mani was the chef and he was on a strict keto diet at the time for both him and his schizophrenic brother. I was planning to stay in Texas only a few days and ended up there for 2 weeks, while Mani and his neighbor, Jeff, helped me upgrade my van just before I was planning to cross the border to Mexico. With no other preparations, my metabolic journey began.

(Preparation of “Pulpo a la Gallega”, an octopus dish made in Galicia, the northwest province of Spain, where they play bagpipes but don’t wear kilts. Mani)

The first one happened after Mani & Jeff woke me up early in the morning to go fishing on Jeff’s boat. Then Mani told me that I would “not be eating again unless I caught my own food.” Spoiler alert, I did not catch the fish, but I did end up with a seafood boil at the end of afternoon. This did indeed include fresh caught blue crabs from Mani & Jeff’s crab traps, over a pound of shrimp, and a whole lot of other keto goodness.

The second fast occurred after a salsa & mambo social, where non-stop dancing was on the docket for the evening. There was a lot of cursing at Mani and some real feelings of hostility after experiencing the “keto fog” in full force, especially that night, while keeping a high tempo evening and not having eaten food.

Surprisingly, Mani danced every dance throughout the evening with high-energy and a happy smile, maybe there was more than weight loss to the “keto lifestyle.”

By the third 24-hour fast, I had already learned a lot about the capabilities of my body. So when we just decided to fast for 24 hours randomly, I agreed with little fanfare. At this time I was nursing a hurt dove found by Jeff’s wife who had a gaping chest wound and needed my full attention. It turns out once all of those hunger pains calmed down for a minute, I barely even noticed the hours go by. My body was already adjusting to all of these new concepts and ideas, I felt like I was the one catching up! The third fast went without a hitch, no “keto fog”, no feelings of harm towards Mani for withholding food, no nothing. Just clear eyes, a clear mind, and a 24-hour fast sailing by. Short of experiencing the whole thing in real time in my own body, I may never have believed it to be true! I was astounded by this immediate change. As a side note, The dove, Maya, made a full recovery by the way, and Mani released her into the wild.

I have been all through the hills of certain countries and can attest that it is tricky staying healthy in even the more remote areas. Sadly, the rampant illness is apparent by looking at children still at a young age, where all their added fat sits like a tire around their bellies. It wasn’t until I had done research that I saw this for what it was: A prevalent and systemic health problem that is more far-reaching than one would think. This is made worse by the goods sold in remote shops, all high-carb, high-sugar snacks.

For my setup, I had a 2-burner gas propane stove, a sink, and a small blender for the duration of the trip. Although at certain times during my journey such as at hostels or camp spots, there were full kitchen areas I was able to use. Considering this was keto at a more basic level with only a propane stove I was able to get creative with the meals. At most super markets I always left with a bushel of vegetables and sometimes some fruits depending on what was in stock, and at times I had to get very creative as the options were pretty limited. I made a lot of cucumber and tomato salads with rice vinegar, salt and pepper, one of my absolute favorite items on the road then and now. This salad is so fresh and so simple, what more could you want!?

I suffered 2 major bacterial illnesses, one in Mexico and one in Ecuador where I had very bad diarrhea and couldn’t keep much down. I felt very weak and sickly during both scenarios. During the first episode I was staying with locals in San Miguel de Allende. They had a home remedy liquid on hand which helped a whole lot with my sickness and got me backup and out in no time. The second scenario happened while I was parked in a parking lot in Quito Ecuador. It was awful. I didn’t even know if I was going to be able to walk to the bathroom in time throughout the night. I called Mani and he told me to keep fluid levels up as well as salt and magnesium levels to help with the sickness. I did as he said. After a few days I was back on my feet and at it again.

I of course ate different foods from every country as I wound my way down through all the different countries. These foods weren’t always keto. What can I say, when you are dabbling in new and exciting cultures, sometimes you just have to try what the locals are eating. But I did manage to keep all of the weight off and even lose about 5 more pounds while I was on the trip. When I got to Peru, I was forever repulsed by Inca Cola. Have you ever heard of it or seen it? It is a lime/lime green soda that they drink there, which is a product of Coca Cola with 39 g of sugar and 39 g of carbohydrates in just one 12 oz. can. It is so bad they actually don’t list any of the ingredients on the bottle! It is the epitome of drinking sludge.

Alas, as bad as some things were, there are many healthy alternatives down South. Have you ever tried the chicharrón in Columbia, or the fresh cuts of beef in Mexico? What about the homemade salsa or fresh guacamole from avocados the size of your fist? Or my favorite, the local soups from Ecuador. I don’t know how it came to be, but I sure do love a good soup! I cannot say a lot of these countries do salads often but there was plenty of food to try that had all of the keto feels. I spent plenty of evenings in food heaven, and the keto kind if you know what I mean. I am so happy to have met Mani on my journey and got some of his Metabolic Multiplier insights before leaving for my trip.

I hiked a lot throughout the journey as it was a main intention of mine during the trip. Instead of taking all kinds of snacks for the day, my perspective was totally changed. I was canyoning in Nicaragua and out all day and did not need to eat anything until dinner. This was a revelation!

Keto was the game changer I had been living to discover and now that I have, I will never go back. Since then I have recently, as in a few days ago, added zinc carbonate, B-complex, cod liver oil, magnesium L-threonate, and iodine to my arsenal at Mani’s suggestion and I continue to learn new things about the keto and intermittent fasting lifestyle every day. Luckily, Mani’s vast amount of research occasionally gets relayed back to me, which is a good place to start. From a novice to the experts, I can only learn from here and I plan to continue this path for the rest of my life. Salud!