Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I can’t wait!  I am heading back to MN to spend time with my family, it was last Christmas since I was back, so I am excited!

Yesterday I was on ABC giving some very practical ways that you can enjoy Thanksgiving to the fullest and still be healthy (well at least a LITTLE healthy )  Also pay attention to the workout tips I give because these can save your body from retaining any more fat as you eat more calories than you normally would.

Do you have a healthy Thanksgiving tip that you would like to share?  I would love to hear it in the comments section below!

One of the more popular services I provide is a 60 minute grocery store shopping tour in which I take people into the world of lies, deceptions, and temptations, known as the grocery store!  The store is the place where billions of advertising dollars, 10,000’s of products, hundreds of chemicals, and strategically designed layout, all come together into one big place!

If eating were considered a war, the grocery store is the forefront battle ground.  It is where the battle of the bulge and health and sickness is waged.  I think that is why I am so passionate about teaching people how to shop, not only smart, but healthy.  After someone leaves the tour, they have been empowered to make the wise choices, set a good example to their kids, and have the tools necessary to stock the fridge and pantry with wholesome foods.

Click here if you want a complete shopping list that you can take with you the next time you go shopping.

Recently Kim Sveum, of ABC news asked me to join her in the store as I hit on some of the main topics at the grocery store!

Kim Sveum has been blogging about her experiences the past 5 weeks going through my program.  The final results are in (you will have to wait a bit longer to see it on TV), but all I can say is WOW!  You won’t believe how much she lost in just 5 weeks!  Click here to read all her blog posts.

If you are in the Madison area and would like to join me on my next grocery tour, please click this link to sign up!  The next two dates are Thurs Dec 3rd at 6:15 pm and Monday Dec 7th at 7:00 pm.  Space is limited to 10 people, so sign up immediately to secure your spot.  Only $20 and you will be given valuable handouts that you can take with you to the grocery store!

I am writing this from my hotel in Connecticut.  Yesterday I flew in to NYC and took at bus to the north side of Manhattan.  I was invited to stay with the world renowned author Victoria Moran in her beautiful new condo near Central Park!  You may have seen her a couple times on Oprah.

I didn’t quite get off at the right bus stop and had about a 1.5 mile walk at night in Harlem with my two bags and computer (yes I pack like a girl).  Now that is an adventure!  No longer in Wisconsin!  I never knew there could be 5 “African Barber Shops” all next to each other on one street.

Once I figured out where I was going and met Victoria at her place, we were soon off to a birthday party at a local bar on lower Manhattan for a guy named Phillip who has lost 200 lbs by following a raw food diet.  He was just featured on the show “The Doctors.”  All his friends that were there were also raw food followers.  For the next 2.5 hours I spent time listening to their stories and hearing about how raw food has changed their lives.  The VIP room that was rented out for the group was large and quite full, and there was not one person there who could stand to lose any weight.

I also spent a lot of time talking with an awesome guy named Anthony.  He is a professional model in NYC and raw food activist.  He was super friendly and talked about the challenges and benefits to eating raw foods.

For those of you who don’t know what raw food eating is, google it!  But basically you can only eat raw foods (duh) that are all natural, organic, and vegetarian.  This eliminates about 95% of the American diet which is one thing that makes it very tough to adhere to, not because you can’t get enough great foods and nutrients in, but rather the culture we live in makes it very difficult to eat raw and still be social with non-raw counterparts.  It was amazing to hear the stories of those who went raw and how unbelievable they feel once all the toxins have been eliminated from their diet.  Many only need 5 hours of sleep to be refreshed, because the diet is so easy on the digestive system!

This post isn’t suppose to endorse or discredit the raw community or way of living, but I really think many of their principals are right on!  I bet if everyone in America followed a raw diet for one year 80% of obesity would be eliminated!  Our society is so full of toxins in the body that trash our organs, mess with our hormones, and create diseases such as heart disease and cancer.  Of course America won’t follow this type of diet but I would be very curious to see if they did!  I would go so far as saying that it is almost impossible to be overweight on a raw diet.  Your body will do such a great job at telling you when to stop eating that you would really have to force it to gain a lot of weight on it.

The next morning I got on a train and headed for CT, to meet with a small group of highly successful fitness trainers as part of my mastermind group.  These group meetings have been such a big help to me from a career standpoint and helping me to get from point A to point B as quickly as possible.  If you aren’t part of a group that has a mentor in it, I highly recommend you join one!

I have one more day in CT then back to NYC for a couple days with one of those days being filming of my first national TV spot!  More to come on that another time!

Last night we held our MamaTone party which was awesome!  Bootcampers don’t worry we will have one for you soon!  I made the first recipe on today’s blog.  I really love sweet and sour chicken and this was certainly an easy way to make it!  There was tons left after the party, but I would like to think that was because there was so much other wonderful food instead of the alternative… nobody liked it!  So it looks like I will be eating sweet and sour chicken for the upcoming week!

Enjoy my mom’s recipes!

As we promised last week, we will share some crock pot recipes today.  Dustin just called and was trying to figure out what to bring to the Mamatone potluck this evening (Thursday); I just happened to be looking at the following recipe for chicken.  He thought it sounded good and said he’d try it out and let us all know how it turned out :).  If lots is left, guess we will have to try to revamp it!

CROCK POT SWEET AND SOUR CHICKEN:

2 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken thighs
18 oz. bottle sweet and sour sauce
16 oz. pkg. frozen broccoli and carrots, thawed and drained
1 tsp. dried thyme leaves
1/8 tsp. pepper

Cut chicken thighs into 1-1/2″ pieces.  Mix with simmer sauce in slow cooker.  Cover and cook on LOW setting for 8-10 hours or until chicken is tender and no longer pink.  Twenty minutes before serving stir in vegetables, thyme, and pepper.  Cover, increase heat to HIGH and cook for 20-30″ or until vegetables are crisp-tender.

What a long break we’ve taken from doing recipes!  But Dustin does seem to get some interesting topics going here, so never a dull moment on this site!  We do plan to address your requests from awhile back regarding what you’d like to see here, including the new recipe ideas, etc.  But ever since Tracy, Dustin’s nutritionist, did those articles on soy products, the thyroid, coconut oil, etc., some of my basic dietary understandings have been upended big time–anybody with me on that one??  I felt like we should delete all my past postings of recipes, for starters!   Then I had the further eye-opening experience of hanging with her at your awesome Farmer’s Market at your capitol this summer–what an education, believe me; she knows so many of the vendors and exactly how their product is raised/grown, etc.  She really does need to do Farmer’s Market tours, just like Dustin’s grocery tours!

The coconut oil got me quite excited-I have lots of books from the library and have been trying out recipes, etc., plus being in touch with Tracie with all she has researched and learned with her clients.  Tracie will be writing a blog post next week on coconut oil but I thought in the meantime I would share some recipes.

Here is a quick story before I share the recipes……now that we have been REALLY reading labels, we have discovered that soybeans have truly invaded the planet-even my vit. E capsule has soybean oil in it-yikes!  The other day I was at a natural foods store with my friend Kristy and she picked up some mayo–we read the label and of course there was our friend the soybean oil; after cautiously telling her about it and coconut oil (who wants to be the person who is always telling you how bad that food is that you are about to buy?!), I got home fast and emailed her a recipe from my Bruce Fife book for coconut mayonnaise…..at her request.
Here it is:

COCONUT MAYONNAISE:

1 egg
1 T. apple cider vinegar
1/2 T. prepared mustard
1/4 t. paprika
1/4 t. salt
1 1/4 c. melted coconut oil

Blend the first 5 ingred. plus 1/4 c. of the coc. oil for 60 seconds. While machine is running, pour in the remaining oil very slowly in a fine, steady stream. Each T. of the mayo with have about 1/2 T. coc. oil.
If you have been using coc. oil, you will know that this will harden in the fridge; just let it sit at room temperature half an hr. or so to soften. They recommend using this within several days and say that the texture is best when freshly made. Makes 1 1/2 cups.
Okay, gotta’ tell you that I have yet to experiment with this or any dressings, so feel free to share your experiences! More on Healthy Coconut Fat Recipes

Make a mental list of what you ate today… How much of it contained sugar?  I have a feeling quite a bit of it contained sugar even if it isn’t obvious at first glance.  I believe the dramatic increase in sugar consumption the past 50 years is one of the biggest culprits in today’s obesity epidemic.  That includes the fake sugars found in diet sodas and “low carb” products.

In my grocery shopping tours, I teach people to read the ingredients label and that the ingredients are listed in the order of quantity… meaning the first ingredient is the most prevalent in the food you are going to eat.  When those on the tour start to read the ingredients they are amazed at how much sugar is in foods and how many different names there are for it.

One of the biggest problems with sugar is that it sends blood sugar levels up quickly; since this would be toxic to the bloodstream, insulin quickly comes to the rescue and shuttles the sugar to either the muscles or liver (if they were depleted) or store it as fat.  If you are eating sugar at times when you are not very active (night time) this will almost always get stored as fat.  To make matters worse, sugar doesn’t provide much nutrients and doesn’t do a good job at signaling to the body that it is full and satisfied from eating sugar, so you then eat more, whether it is more sugar or something else.

If many of the products you buy used only one form of sugar instead of 3-6, I would bet that many of these products would contain sugar as the first ingredient.

A great site to check out to visually see how much sugar is in your favorite foods and products is http://www.sugarstacks.com/

Keep in mind not all sugar is created equal; fructose which is found in fruits, doesn’t affect blood sugar quite as much as some other forms of sugar. Also eating fruit is great because it provides you with so many other benefits through fiber, minerals, vitamins, and antioxidants.  So take home message:  Don’t stop eating fruit!

I received a great email awhile back of a list of 56 names of sugar.  This is great, because now you can recognize when a product contains sugar even if it doesn’t say “Sugar.”

Here are the 56 names of sugar: More on Names Of Different Sugars

One area that I can’t say I have much expertise or authority in, is getting kids to eat healthy.  I always get criticized that my food recommendations and choices aren’t kid friendly.  Of course I read and study on the matter, but until I really have experienced and lived by example, I don’t have much to say on the topic.  I recently got a very passionate email from a woman who was tired of hearing moms blame their kids for not being able to eat healthy.  After reading her long email, I asked if she would be willing to write  a guest post, and she accepted.  So here is an-in-your-face challenge from one mom to another!

Enjoy!

“I have heard many times Moms say some version of “I know I need to change my eating habits to lose weight, but I can’t get my kids to eat healthy meals”.

As Moms, we pick many battles for the health & safety of our kids: wash your hands, buckle up, wear bike helmets, brush your teeth. We also get them regular health check ups and vaccinate them.

However, at one of the most basic needs of children-healthy eating-we draw the line and choose to lose the battle. Eating healthy is one of the most important keys to health and wellness for any age; it’s one of the most preventative measures for our immediate and life long health. Yet, time after time, Moms back down from the battle.

I’m not one of those moms that backs down from that battle. Even when embarked on my own battle to lose 30 lbs last year, my kids ate everything I ate from grilled veggies to salmon to ratatouille (all recipes from my Cooking Light magazine). What I’m about to tell you may seem too strict to some, but it’s worked for me.

My kids have never been made special meals. They eat what we eat, because we eat healthy, balanced meals at home. Because of an unhealthy addiction to processed food (which I blame on my pregnancy cravings for lunch meat, hot dogs and Cousins subs), my eldest fought us from day one of table food. Our rule was simple, he had to take a bite for every year he was old. He longer he fought and whined, the more of his helping he had to eat. He would sit for an hour. After that, his plate was removed, wrapped and served to him at the next meal. He did not get any snacks until that meal was gone. He’s 11 now and we still do this battle once and awhile. More often than not, however, he eats whatever is in front of him. More on How To Get Your Kids To Eat Healthy Food

I had a wonderful question that one of my bootcampers asked me this week.  It is probably my FAVORITE question I ever get asked as a trainer.  This Fit Fun Bootcamper has lost close to 40 lbs and is just looking amazing!  She asked me, “Dustin, I keep losing weight, I lost another 5 lbs, and I didn’t want to.  I am happy where I am at and don’t want to lose more weight.  How do I make sure I maintain my weight now?”  I love it!  She has completely transformed her metabolism and her body and is fueling her body with fat burning foods that encourage her body to burn fat and builld muscle!  This has taken over a year to create and has been a process, but now, I am confident she will never have to worry about her weight again as long as she continues with her healthy habits.

Today I wanted to give you a sneak peak at what I brought home recently from the grocery store.    I have found these foods to work well for me and keep my weight and body fat at a level I am happy with.  I have found that this grocery list of foods to be very tasty and satisfying!

Click here to visit a previous post where I show you once again what I brought home, most of it is different.

I apologize for the awful camera work!  I should have double checked it before I filmed.  It is hard to get my 6′5 body in the shot!  I just realized it when editing and couldn’t redo it.  The content is great, just ignore the fact you can only see half my face!

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YouTube Direkt

More on Healthy Grocery Shopping List

This post has been SOY long due! (Sorry, I had to go there!)  Soy has been a food that I once thought to be very healthy, in fact, I use to pride myself on trying to eat as much tofu as I could as a badge of honor.  The more I have studied soy, the farther I go to avoid it! I certainly am no expert on it, but there is lots of research to show that we really need to be careful with it.  There is also research to show some benefits to it as well, which makes it such a confusing topic!

I think many of the thyroid issues that are going on can be somewhat contributed to the increase in soy. Soy hasn’t been massed produced in America for all that long.  You might be wondering why we have been taught to believe that soy is so good for you.  The answer to that question is simple…  $$$$$$$$$$$ Our government, the media, and even some research is all run by how much money it can make.  Soy is a cash crop and a multibillion dollar industry. When so much money is at stake, of course there are going to be multimillion dollar campaigns to persuade American’s at just how great soy is… Do you remember this past year all those high fructose corn syrup commercials saying the HFCS is actually GOOD for you?? Man did that make me mad!

Since I am not the best person for this subject, I have asked my nutritional consultant that I work with and send my clients to, to write an article on it.  Tracie specializes in healing metabolism through natural foods and is awesome when it comes to weight loss.  She is having an 8 week seminar starting in mid July.  If you are in the Madison area I highly recommend you join.  It will be life-changing! More on Is Soy Making You Fat?

I get many questions about pre and post workout nutrition.  Do I eat before I work out or should I workout on an empty stomach?  There are good arguments both ways, but I recommend eating at least a little something.  If you are working out with no food in your stomach (most times in the morning) your body is already at a low glucose state.  The increase exercise will soon cause you to break down muscle in order to provide the body with enough energy to make it through the workout.  It is generally ok to eat a regular meal 2.5 hours before a workout, but anything sooner and you might be asking for it to come back up!  I recommend eating a little something within 30 minutes of starting to exercise.  This will do a couple things: it will provide the body with some energy to get more out of the workout, it will prevent your body from eating its muscle, and it primes the body to recover and heal faster after the workout.

For after a workout your body gives you a 45 minute window where the muscle fibers are very receptive to protein, in fact, it is 400% more receptive to protein.  So it is important to get enough quick absorbing protein into the muscle cells as possible to aid in muscle recovery.  In order to more quickly and efficiently get this protein into the muscle, you need simple sugars to shuttle that in.  Think of the sugar as a high speed train, carrying the protein into the muscle.  Without the sugar it would be like a biker trying to bike the protein into the muscle, much slower and less efficient.  So the sugar you consume after a workout (assuming it isn’t too much) will be used to replenish glycogen stores in the liver and muscle, which means you don’t have to worry about it getting stored as fat.

In both the pre and the post workout meal, it is important to not eat fat, because fat slows the absorption rate down, making it more difficult for the protein to get shuttled into the muscle… think of the fat as rush hour traffic for the biker or train.

Well there you have it, the geeky and scientific part of pre and post workout meals.

Now here is my moms post and her suggestions!

Today’s topic is another good one that was requested. I have learned that I have been doing it wrong; typically, I’ll take a protein shake along to the “Y” and drink maybe a fourth of it before working out and save the rest for afterwards. This part is fine, Dustin says. However, I put all but the kitchen sink in this drink, including ground flaxseed-a big no-no! I have learned that this drink is ONLY simple carbs and protein, NO fats! And it should be in a ratio of about 2:1 or 3:1, carbs:protein, with 50-100 cals before and 2-300 cals after the workout, depending on your size. More on Pre and Post Workout Nutrition