Monitoring Our Weight Loss Plan – PART II

October 30, 2025The Heta AkiraLeave a comment

Yes, this post builds on the previous one, and while this type of monitoring might not be useful for other weight loss programs, we can’t deny that when following “Keto,” keeping track of our level of “Ketosis” is crucial.

I went with the “Keto Mojo Blood Monitor,” and as I mentioned earlier, it functions just like a standard glucose monitor. Simply load the device with the blue ketone reader strip, prick your finger, collect a small drop of blood on the tip of the strip, and wait for the results.

This was my result for last Friday.

If your level is below 0.5, it means you’re not in “Nutritional Ketosis.” If that’s the case, don’t worry; just stick to the protocol. Get your carbs only from the list of approved vegetables, include your protein, and focus on consuming plenty of healthy fats.

Another thing to keep in mind is that the Keto Mojo comes with blood glucose strips, and when you measure both glucose and ketones, the device can provide a reading called the GKI. This index is gaining recognition as a more valuable metric to monitor since it factors in your blood glucose levels.

How often should you measure? Don’t do it too often, twice a week or even once a week is enough. Another good time to measure is if you think you’ve eaten something that might have knocked you out of ketosis. But remember, if you stick to the protocol, you’ll soon notice other signs of being in ketosis, with the lack of hunger being the easiest to recognize.

On our next post, we will continue with other steps in weight monitoring.

See you there!

Monitoring Our Weight Loss Plan – PART I

October 26, 2025The Heta AkiraLeave a comment

While many nutrition experts claim that a diet plan should come naturally without special monitoring, I have to disagree. Especially if you have a history of consuming unhealthy food for years and, like me, are obese. In the case of following the Keto Diet protocol, as we are, monitoring becomes even more crucial.

That’s why the next three posts will focus on the topic, “Monitoring Our Weight Plan.”

How can you tell if you’re on the right track to achieving the benefits of the Ketogenic Diet?

The answer is: When you spend most of your time in nutritional ketosis. This metabolic state is quite fragile, especially in the early stages, which is why monitoring is crucial.

What is Nutritional Ketosis? This metabolic state happens when carbohydrate intake is sufficiently low, prompting the liver to convert fats into ketones, which are then used as a source of energy.

Given that definition, the goal of measuring is to determine whether we are in nutritional ketosis and to what extent.

The three most important methods for measuring our ketones are:

Urine Ketone Strips: A cheap and easy way to check ketones, though less reliable, involves using urine test strips. You simply urinate on the strip, ensuring the test area comes into contact with your urine stream. Afterward, wait a few seconds and compare the strip’s color with a chart to determine the results. The issue with this method is that it measures ketones being excreted. While this works early on when your body isn’t using ketones heavily, the results may become less accurate as you start using more ketones as fuel.

Ketone Breath Analyzers: If you’re familiar with the Alcohol Meter used by the police, then you already understand the science behind this Keto monitoring tool. It’s a more accurate method compared to “Keto Urine Strips” and is the least invasive of the three methods. However, the results can be influenced by a recent meal or your hydration level. To use the monitor, simply breathe into the mouthpiece, and it provides a result based on the acetone level (a byproduct of Keto) in your breath.

Ketone Blood Meters: Think of this device as similar to a standard glucose meter, but instead of glucose-detecting strips, it uses ones designed to measure ketone bodies. This is widely considered the gold standard for keto measurement. A good device often doubles as a ketone and glucose monitor, and some even combine the two readings to calculate an index of ketone effectiveness. While a blood reader is typically less expensive than a quality breath analyzer, the cost of strips can add up to the solution cost over time.

My final recommendation for a measurement method is to skip the urine strips and opt directly for the blood meter or the breath analyzer.

In my next post, I’ll share the results you can get with the Keto Mojo Reader.
Until the next time! 🙂

Coca-Cola (Diet) and other Bad Habits

October 24, 2025October 24, 2025The Heta AkiraLeave a comment

teaorcoke
I am sorry…
This post was supposed to start with a typical “XX years as a Coca Cola Drinker, and I am an addict”. But to be honest, I really can’t remember for how long the product known as Coca-Cola Diet/Light/No Sugar had been such a “close friend” of mine. A good guess would be around 35 years.

The thing is, no matter how long you had it, you can get rid of bad habits. And while it’s not always easy, it’s doable.

Let me give you some information to ease the process.

I will stop 35 years of “Diet Cola Drinking Habit” and hopefully it will serve you as an example for your own fight. So, choose a bad habit and work along with me. If possible, choose a habit that is holding you back on our current goal. Maybe you are addicted to certain food at a specific time (like while watching TV) or maybe you fall into your bad habit when you are in a certain mood. It doesn’t matter the habit; these rules apply to all of them.

So, for starters what is a bad habit? To put it simple, a bad habit is a negative behavior pattern. And according to MIT research, a bad habit follows a loop of three main components: CUE, ROUTINE, REWARD. If you are able to disrupt this loop long enough, you will be able to break the habit. There is a saying that a bad habit takes 21 days to be changed. It really will take a little more than that, especially if we are talking about years of doing what we want to stop doing.

The first thing that we want, is to concentrate on the ROUTINE. Try to isolate the bad habit while doing the action. A good way of doing this, is Imaging that you are someone else looking at you while we are doing our sinful act. In my case, I will think about someone following me everywhere and watching when I drink a Diet Coke, that someone will be shocked how often I do it and he (me) will pay close attention to details before and after the negative behavior. In summary, we will understand better the action of the habit that we want to change, and we will give it a correct label (Overeating, smoking, Fast Food eating).

Next let’s work with the REWARD system.
This is the hard part of the deal. You must make sure that you can create rewards that can replace the ones that you receive from the bad behavior. Let say that you want something sweet, but it doesn’t need to be Chocolate Cake, right? Why not trying an Apple and complementing your good deed with some positive thinking. Think that you are closer to your weight goal because of this small step. In my case, I will replace the Cola drink with Green Tea (and the positive thinking is needed too LOL). This is in my opinion, a very easy approach because I am not changing anything about the process, just the element that I will be drinking in excess. It turns out that drinking a lot of green tea is GREAT for your health. However, because this part is not always easy, prepare for lots of trial error until you find the right GOOD reward for changing or killing your bad habit. Always aim for positive or healthy rewards, replacing one bad habit with another bad habit is not good for anyone.

Finally, we deal with the CUE.
You may not realize it yet, but your bad habit is not coming to you out of the blue, there is something that tells you to start rolling. A signal, a trigger, a CUE. And it could be as simple as being in a place or talking to someone or doing something specific that leads to the problematic behavior. Identifying our CUE is a must if you want to stop the habit. For now, instead of trying to fight the bad habit, pay close attention to the moment before you engage in the action:

Where am I when I do it? Is the place important?
How am I feeling? Happy? Sad? Bore?
Who am I with? Alone? Friends? Significant other?
How is my health? Strong? Weak? Those days of the month (in case of girls)?
Write down anything that you think could somehow take you to the bad behavior. And be ready for the next time that the “Cue” repeats.

After knowing my cues, I can take action. Let’s say that most of the time that I drink Diet-Coke, I am either bored or Watching TV. Well, the next time that you are in that state, be aware that it is an opportunity for change. Be alert and ready to identify the moment that you are getting the urge to engage into your bad habit. At that time, interrupt your pattern with something else. If must be something that take you out of cue (pun intended).

Example: you are watching a movie on Netflix and you get a strong desire for Chocolate Cake. You decide to go to the kitchen and… Call your Mom to check how she is doing. Talk to her for a few minutes, tell her that you love her and make her feel special. By the time you hang up the phone, I feel confident that you will be happy and proud (Reward) and you won’t be thinking about chocolate cake. Good! go back and finish your movie. At the end of the movie, pad yourself on the back because you just avoided giving-in into your bad habit. You did GOOD!

A good strategy for CONSISTENCY

Ok, we kind of know what to do. Now how long do we keep doing it? Until it WORKS! We are going to be using the Seinfeld Method (yes, the comedian Jerry Seinfeld). If you don’t know what I am talking about, let me just tell you that there is a good story about Jerry Seinfeld teaching his method to a new comedian during a Q&A session. Work on your skill (jokes) and mark every day that you do it on a big calendar. If you miss one day (break the streak) you must start all over. And believe me, after repeating that “starting over” a few times, you will be caring about your Seinfeld-Method-Streak. I am adding an ending point of 21 days to the cycle (for reward and accountability purposes). So, you will be doing this cycle over and over again (21 days at a time) until you break your bad habit. Ah, and don’t forget to give yourself a big reward after finishing each 21 days cycle.

If you want to know why I am giving away Diet Coke, I promise to tell you, but in another post.

Now go ahead, pick your habit and get ready to break it!!

Intermittent Fasting as a tool for losing weight

October 21, 2025October 21, 2025The Heta AkiraLeave a comment

iFasting

One of the things that I love about science is that is always renewing for the better. There is no stubborn pride in keeping things being done a certain way when there is evidence that the old way was the wrong way or at least, not the best way.

And there is evidence to support that keeping your insulin levels high all day is far from healthy. With that being said, many meals a day (including snacks) was considered a very healthy way to feed our body. Now we know that fewer meals are better and that the quality of those foods matter the most.

The super important hormone known as Insulin goes to work every time we eat, taking glucose from our blood stream to our cells. But keep eating constantly modern food and soon enough, your body will start resisting the work of insulin, so our pancreas creates more insulin to complete the job. If this cycle keeps repeating for enough number of years, and you might end up with “Insulin Resistance” also known as the first step to become a Type 2 Diabetic. With that being said, maybe the 5 or 6 small meals a day might not be the best after all. In fact, is just the opposite. Reduce your meals and get them no so far apart and that will translate to benefits.

Here is what I mean…

Arrange an 8-hour window to eat!
After that? Water, Water and more Water. This is called Intermittent Fasting 16/8.

Before you go into shock and feed your mind with all kinds of defeating thoughts, please believe that this is something that you can do. And it will help you to lose weight and in overall it will help you be a healthier person.

This is my Plan recommendation:

No Breakfast, but you can have black coffee (black as in no cream, sugar of any kind)
Good Lunch (of course of allowed protocol food)
Light and Healthy Dinner (just before the end of the 8 hours eating window)

Example:
Breakfast – None, just have black coffee. And remember, not Splenda or other Artificial Sweeter.
Lunch – Salmon with a green salad and half avocado.
Dinner – As much salad as you want and you can complete your dinner with some Macadamias nuts.

This can be a little hard in the beginning, so here are some tips to follow:

Water, as sometimes we might think that we are hungry and we are just thirsty.
Avoid going out at night the first couple of weeks. Keep away temptations for now.
Go to bed as early as possible.

AGAIN: This is only hard at the beginning, resist and believe in yourself.

Last but not least, hop on the scale so you can monitor the results of your new tool.

Tomorrow, we start doing 16/8 Intermitting Fasting!

And Here We Go!!

October 20, 2025October 20, 2025The Heta AkiraLeave a comment

A new opportunity, life improving changes, a better you… No matter how I put it, a diet plan always starts with positivity feelings. You want to change something from you for the better. We know the science, we know the procedure and most importantly, we know the results.

As a very simple indicator, I am getting up on my scale and with that getting the following numbers:

Weight: 316.6 pounds
Fat %: 44.0

Not very different from our previous Profile, but this is our starting point for Keto.

Now, let us start putting the work to change those numbers.
There are many strategies to try, let us see how it goes.
On the next post, I will be sharing very important information from a blood test that I took a couple of days ago.

Ok, let’s Go! Start your Keto Engine Now!!! 🙂

Today you are allowed to “Eat/Say Goodbye” to some type of food

October 19, 2025October 19, 2025The Heta AkiraLeave a comment

fastfood

Wait a minute… Are you actually suggesting we eat something off protocol today!?

Let me put it this way… I am a junk food regular, Diet Coke addict and a sworn salad hater that is about to embark in a journey into the unknown starting tomorrow. So, YES, I want to say goodbye to some of my regular food, the same way that I would say goodbye to a friend. Only time will tell if that long-lost friend ends up badmouthing me, revealing that he was not such a good friend after all.

With that being said, excuse yourself today and eat away some of what has been until now your favorite food, because tomorrow, they will be gone. No harm done today, just savor the moment.

Happy forbidden meal!

Supermarket list for Keto

October 16, 2025October 16, 2025The Heta AkiraLeave a comment

ketosuper

Ok, it’s time to get ready! We must visit the Supermarket and get our food. I know that you are wondering what to get. Well, we know that we must get food for our Macro groups. So let me break it down in that same order, by Macros:

FATS

Avocado
Nuts (Macadamia, Pecans, Brazil Nut)
Butter (look for grass-fed cows)
Olive Oil
Cheese (Fatty type)
Coconut Oil

PROTEIN

Chicken
Beef
Salmon
Sardines
Tuna
Eggs
Bacon

CARBS

Cauliflower
Broccoli
Spinach
Kale

And what to DRINK?

Coffe
Tea
Lots of WATER!

While we want to get creative with all these ingredients. There are a couple of rules that if you follow the process will be a lot better.

Salad First! A Salad is something that can’t miss your new eating plan. In fact, I want it to be that it should be the first thing to it. And no, I am not contradicting myself since I know that salad is part of the Carbs group, but this is the difference between empty carbs and healthy dense food as your carbs, quite a difference. We can use Olive Oil as dressing and get our carbs more aligned with our Fat goals.
Fatty Protein better than lean protein: Don’t trim your steak, cook it with its natural fat and even at a little of butter to it. In Keto, protein shouldn’t be a lot, but protein with fat is adding to the hardest part of this diet protocol, that is “Eat Enough Fat”.
Be sure to add the fatty part of your meal. I didn’t like Avocados, but now that I see how this superfood can add up to any diet, it is part of my eating plan. So, if you are even eating salad from a restaurant, ask if they can add Avocado. That will be a great PLUS.

Well, the starting point is coming (the 20th) so get that food ready, go to your preferred Supermarket and get all your food, you are starting Keto en just 5 days!!!

Sometimes Believing is Not Enough

October 13, 2025October 13, 2025The Heta AkiraLeave a comment

believe

How do you help someone that suffers from compulsive spending?

Many people believe they can fix compulsive spending by switching from plastic to cash. Seeing real money disappear adds a powerful psychological impact.

What about smoking? Do you gradually reduce your daily cigarette intake? No, for most people, you stop smoking COLD TURKEY. Hey, this one I know from personal experience. And for this one help from friends or family is recommended.

And what about drugs? This one is tough—it falls into a category where control is minimal, and people may go to extreme lengths to obtain drugs. So going cold turkey could be in pair with being locked down somewhere having all kind of terrible withdrawal symptoms.

Ok, so what do we do with sugar addiction and weight loss? Do we follow a vague plan and hope for the best? Do we rely solely on willpower and self-belief?

NO, WE DONT!

In seven days, we’ll begin a new way of eating—unlike anything you’ve tried before.

We are going to:

Stop Refined Carbs: Bread, pasta, rice, tortillas, wafles, cake, crackers, etc.
Stop Starchy Vegetables: Potatoes, corn, plantains, yams, pumpkin, etc.
Stop (for the time being) Fruits: Yes, I know this one is very tough. And while you won’t be eating a banana, you can try berries, avocados, watermelons, tomatoes, peaches.
Stop Alcohol and sugary drinks: No drinking, not even a beer and also stop juices, soda and anything that have sugar. Your new drinks will be water, coffee and tea.

Maybe after reading all these “Forbidden Things” you still believe that you can do it. Maybe you believe you’re up for the challenge and possess extraordinary willpower.

I am here to tell you that no matter how much you believe, you won’t make it alone. So, choose a diet guardian that will help you uphold this very difficult challenge.

You have one week to stop believing that you can do it alone and get a failproof strategy that will help you in time of weakness. Use this week to find out as much as possible about clean/healthy keto and get your support partner as I am telling you again, this won’t be easy and while you might believe in yourself, this is as close and you can be to having a drug addiction (sugar addiction is real) so get help.

GET READY FOR THIS CHALLENGE, YOU AND YOUR DIET GUARDIAN!

Dirty Keto vs Clean Keto

October 11, 2025The Heta AkiraLeave a comment

By now, most of us know that the Keto diet emphasizes high fat, moderate protein, and very low carbohydrates, right?
But here’s a better question: what kind of fats, proteins, and carbs should we be eating?

If you walk into a fast-food restaurant and order a bun less burger, are you technically following the Keto diet?

The short answer is “Yes”. This is what is called “Dirty Keto” meaning that while you are following the rules of the keto diet, you are not choosing the best ingredients. You might lose weight with Dirty Keto but trust me, it can come at the expense of other important health markers.

Think about it, do you want your Keto dinner to be highly processed junk food? Of course not!!

Now imagine instead a juicy steak paired with a fresh organic salad.
That’s Clean Keto, the kind your body will thank you for.

Now let me give you a few examples of Clean Keto food for each of the Macro Nutrient Groups:

FATS

Olive oil
Avocado oil
Macadamia oil
Coconut oil
Butter
Ghee
Cream cheese
Avocados

CARBS

Spinach
Tomatoes
Mushrooms
Peppers
Lettuce
Kale
Broccoli
Cabbage
Eggplant
Zucchini
Garlic
Onions
Cauliflower
Celery
Blackberries
Blueberries

PROTEINS

Bacon (yes, bacon)
Eggs
Cheese
Chicken
Turkey
Pork
Salami
Cod fish
Sardines
Salmon
Liver
Hummus
Tofu

As you get more comfortable with Keto, you’ll naturally build your own go-to list of clean, satisfying foods. You’ll see, you’re going to get good at this!

See you on the next post! 🙂

So how does this “Keto” diet works?

October 7, 2025October 7, 2025The Heta AkiraLeave a comment

To begin this journey, you need to set aside everything you think you know about nutrition. After all, who would have believed that a diet built on 75% fat could be “good”?
But here’s the thing: that’s exactly what we’re working with and getting.

This is a diet built on 75% fats, 25% protein, and about 5% carbohydrates. Yes, hitting those macronutrient ratios is challenging, but it’s precisely how we’ll direct your body into the fat‑burning metabolic state known as ketosis.

One non‑negotiable rule: no cheat meals, no cheat days. Stray from this, and you’ll get kicked out of that magical fat‑burning zone. What is worse, it might take five days or more to return to ketosis. That is, unless you’ve become fat adapted. A level that you achieved only after months of perseverance into the protocol. At that point, slipping slightly won’t derail you so badly. It is better however to early on, stick to the rules.

How “Keto” Works

Normally, your body runs on glucose, which comes from carbohydrates. But when carbs are scarce for a long time, the body switches to other kind of fuel, ketones. Ketones are created by our liver, and they come from fat. This is without doubt one of the cleverest survival mechanisms we have.

Now let us think about it this way: when you run low on glucose, your body signals you to eat more carbs. But when your fuel is fat (especially if you’ve got excess stored), those hunger signals basically disappear. As unlike glucose (that you can only store a very small amount) you won’t feel hunger because your body will be in auto-eating mode from a pool of very dense energy source, your body fat. That being said, one of the clearest signs you’re in ketosis are: reduced cravings, reduced hunger, even when you’re eating less.

You might wonder: How long does it take to get into ketosis? That depends on how well or “damaged” your metabolic system is. For someone who’s overweight or obese, it’s entirely possible to enter ketosis in a week or more. Of course, only as long as you stick strictly to the plan and avoid anything that might pull you out.

Yes, I know… you are getting excited already.

THE HETA BLOG

Month: October 2025