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Tag Archives: healthy eating

Christmas Cookie Conondrum

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The final product

Hi there, this is Katy one of Dustin’s blog contributors.  This is one of my favorite times of the year.  I love all of the family traditions that go along with the holidays, but there is one tradition that I seriously thought about cancelling this year.  It’s our annual Christmas cookie baking weekend.  My mom, my sister, and our 5 young children all get together for a full weekend of baking.  This typically involves tons of butter, sugar, flour, chocolate…. well, you get the idea.  As you may have guessed from my previous blog “To Bake or Not to Bake”, I am a sucker for cookies.  So, instead of cancelling, I challenged myself to find a decent sugar cookie recipe that was better for us then the one we’ve used for years.  Continue Reading →

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What I Have Been Eating To Lose 15 lbs in 6 Weeks

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I am one week away from competing at the world fitness modeling championships in Vegas.  This is my 4th time competing and I must say that my body is changing less quickly this time than others.  I think the two biggest factors for this have been 14 days of traveling (ate well but didn’t exercise much), and the fact that I sit in front of a computer about 10 hours per day, instead of two years ago when I was training people in the gym 40 plus hours a week.

I have mentioned before that I don’t think getting my bodyfat to 4% is the healthiest thing to do, and then people start asking why do I do it.

They ask me if it is for the money.  NO!!  I have to pay about $1000 to compete, more than my 7 day fitness cruise costs.  Is it for exposure?  NO!  I have no desire to be a model.

Basically it is the same reason why people do Ironman or marathons.  It is the desire to push the body past what most people believe to be limits.  It is the discipline that is formed with a strict eating regime and exercise program.  It is the camaraderie of meeting over 400 other competitors from all over the world and sharing stories and cheering each other on.  It is the feeling of being on stage knowing that for the past 7 weeks I have worked so hard and sacrificed a lot to get to that point.  It is the feeling of the muscles being so hard and the skin (fat) so thin that it feels like a bullet could be shot into your abs and it would just bounce off.  It is the feeling of accomplishing a goal.

The start of dinner

So what have I been eating?  I hesitate to share this because this isn’t quite how I would eat normally, but it is much better than most people eat.  I estimate I am eating about 1800 calories which is almost half of what I normally eat in a day.  Yes I have certainly lost some muscle in the process.  Normally I would eat a little more carbs in the form of whole grains and fruits.

For a woman I recommend about 1500 calories for someone to lose weight, but it really depends on body types and activity level.

Breakfast:  4 whole organic eggs, 1 cups of chopped green and red peppers, 1 tomato

Snack: 1 Tbs of organic natural peanut butter with an apple

Lunch:  1 can of Progresso light chicken dumpling soup (220 cals)

Snack: 1 Chocolate Prograde Craver Bar, handful of raw cashews

Snack:  Two big handfuls of organic spinach, shredded carrots and purple cabbage, hot peppers, and olive oil and vinegar dressing Continue Reading →

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Eat This and Lose Weight

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Today’s story is so exciting for me to share with you.  It is an update on a past food journal that I shared with you.  The food journal came from a new bootcamper of mine who thought she was eating well, but actually had one of the worst food journals I had ever seen.  Before reading on, click here to check out her food journal before.

Okay now that you saw the ugly, what you are about to read is the beautiful.  I am so proud of Michelle, because instead of getting upset about what I wrote, she took it to heart and completely transformed herself and her diet.  She has lost 18 lbs and is at her ideal weight.

More importantly, is what is going on inside her body.  I would bet that she has increased her life expectancy at least 5-10 years (assuming she continues her new healthy habits), by getting rid of caffeine, fake sugars, other chemicals and toxins, and instead eating foods that heal the body.  What Michelle did you can do too!  You are not too addicted to change your habits, I promise you, you will feel amazing!

Here is Michelle’s story in her own words:

I was the person who wrote that food journal that Dustin e-mailed everyone about in June, with the subject heading “What to eat if you want to die early”.

I have to say I was shocked when he told me that my food journal was one of the worst he had ever seen, because I thought I was doing okay–low-calorie foods, fruits, yogurt. But now I realize that I wasn’t eating very much real food—-mostly a lot of fake chemical diet foods, a lot of caffeine, and very little protein or vegetables. Also, my favorite workout was a jump-rope routine that took me about 45 minutes to complete—all cardio and nothing else.

In June I started Fit Fun Boot Camp and changed my diet, completely giving up coffee and soda. I”ve been a coffee junkie for 15 years, but it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. Over the summer, I lost a total of 18 pounds and felt a lot more energetic and generally happier and more relaxed. I’m no longer doing boot camp, but I’ve changed my workout. I still do my jump-rope routine, but I time myself and try to finish it in 25 minutes instead of 45. Then I do about 20 minutes of core and other weight-training exercises that I learned over the summer. A lot of these I already knew, but I just never actually did them on my own. Continue Reading →

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Healthy Snacks and Meals To Pack When Traveling

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The past 18 months I have flown more than all my other years combined.  Traveling can be a stressful and tough time to make healthy choices.  But when I hear people saying the can’t eat healthy when traveling, or use the excuse that it is impossible to make healthy choices, it really gets me upset.  These are just excuses to help make us feel better.  I had a bootcamper recently tell me she was having trouble eating healthy because she lives alone and doesn’t cook.  Again, that is just another excuse to help justify a current behavior.  Sure things might not be ideal, but that doesn’t mean you can’t make the right choice with a little planning.  Jillian Michaels from the Biggest Loser, has probably logged close to a million frequent flier miles since the start of Biggest Loser, but I have heard many interviews with her explaining that she refuses to eat any processed food and packs all natural all organic snacks and meals.  It shows in the way her body still looks despite the fact she says sometimes she goes weeks without working out.

Ok, I will get off my soap box now…

I am writing this from UC Irvine, just got done with a great workout with my friend Andrew and we are headed to the Huntington beach.  Yesterday I had 10 hours of travel with a 4.5 hour layover.  I wanted to show you how I am able to make healthy choices when traveling.

I have to give a shout out to my girl friend Abby who made these snacks for me to take.

What are some of your strategies you use when traveling and trying to eat healthy?

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Healthy Hummus Recipe

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I am very excited to announce that my mom is going to be a guest contributor to this site.  I am blessed to have an awesome mom!  Growing up she was a great example of how to eat healthy and how to get her kids to eat healthy.  I credit my nutrition knowledge and lifestyle eating choices to her.  Even at 60 years old, she weighs 115 lbs at 5’4 (mom, not sure if I was suppose to say that!).  She weighed 30 more lbs then that in her 20′s, so she has done a great job of losing and now maintaining a healthy weight.  She is now lifting pretty hard which is so important for someone her age.  She even has a goal to do a pullup, which would shock me so much if she was able to do that!

Each week we are going to feature a recipe or ingredient that is healthy.

So here is the first post by my mom!

“Dustin has asked me to do some kind of weekly thing with recipes; what would be neat is if it turned into a recipe exchange, with those of you who can find an extra minute to send off something you and your family are currently enjoying!
Continue Reading →

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