Looks can be deceiving. When Dustin was 25 years old, he looked like a very healthy young man but he was struggling with his health in a big way and didn’t know what was wrong. Dustin was always super active, even as a child he wrestled, played football, baseball and was always running around outside. He took that active life with him to an excess into the Marine Corps and then college football over using his body to his own detriment. For those of you who played sports at a high level, you know the chronic aches and pains of pushing your body to the limit, but this was different. It became hard for Dustin to walk his dog around the block because of his joint pain, lack of energy and overall fatigue. Dustin started down the path of traditional doctors and tests to figure out what was going on and then as time went on looked into alternative medicines to find answers. About two years later, the doctors finally diagnosed him but also told him while medications could treat symptoms, there was no “cure” for what he had and he just has to live that way.

At 27 years old, Dustin did not believe this was just going to be his lot in life so he continued to look for answers and spent a lot of time and money consulting different doctors, specialists and researching information on his own. He realized at one point that he was allowing the doctors to dictate his life by telling him how to live, eat, sleep, exercise and that he was not taking any ownership of his own health. It was at this crucial point that Dustin decided to clean the slate and made the decision to do something crazy – to stop eating for 14 days. First four days sucked and all he thought about was food and he didn’t’ really feel any better. On the fifth day, Dustin was helping a friend with a yard renovation project, and he finally felt like himself again, like he was invincible and could do anything. But what had Dustin done? He had kickstarted his body into ketosis and now he had to figure out how to eat keto to keep himself in a ketogenic state. It felt so good to finally feel good again. His energy, focus, strength, and vitality were up while his achiness was down. But it was also a bumpy journey discovering how to do the keto diet because 20 years ago the keto diet was not well known. Thinking he could eat some foods like sweet potatoes or fruit but also discovering that every time he did, he felt bad because at the time he didn’t realize he was kicking himself out of ketosis eating those “healthy foods.” Through trial and error, Dustin locked in on the keto diet, figured out he needed to exercise smarter not harder to optimize his health and gained a whole lot of knowledge along the way about general health, vitality, and wellness.

So Dustin discovers that the keto diet is one of the main keys to taking control of his health, feeling better and getting his life back. There was just one hitch. This crazy, amazing diet was also super strict and kinda controlled his life – to the point that when he met his future wife, she questioned if it would work out between them because he ate the same things for breakfast, lunch and dinner and couldn’t seem to veer from them. He also because a grumpy bear whenever he didn’t have enough food in his system. When your health is not optimal, you don’t make ketones very well so you have to be super strict and disciplined to get the same experience as someone who is relatively healthy. AKA why food controlled his life.

Several years, a marriage (she did say yes), and his first baby being born, Dustin gets introduced to the first ever ketosis drink and it completely change his life. Not only could it get done in 60 minute what took him weeks to do on the diet, it also finally gave him freedom to have some flexibility in his life and throw off the yoke of the constant demands of the keto diet. Now, Dustin maintains his optimal ketone levels by drinking ketones and following a modified keto diet. He can take his kids out for gluten-free pizza and enjoy some with them – a normal thing for a lot of people but not something he could do on the keto diet alone.

Not only did Dustin get control of his life and the freedom to enjoy it, he also noticed a ton of other benefits to drinking ketones as it took him deeper into ketosis. His joints loosened up so I could get on the floor to play with his kids. While doing the keto diet alone, if Dustin played a game of softball he could barely move for the next few days but when drinking ketones, he could play a game and enjoy his life without the aftermath of an old athlete’s body. His focus increased exponentially and he was able to go on rollercoasters for the first time in many years as his brain could now handle it. The best gift in the world is that drinking ketones allows him to participate in his kids life at a whole new level. Dustin often felt anxious and overwhelmed in life and this was before having four kids! After introducing this ketosis drink, those feeling greatly diminished and he can live much more joyfully.

Dustin has spent the last 23 years working in the health and wellness profession helping clients discover their best health. It is his passion to assist people on their health journey so they don’t have to face the uncertainty and confusion he did all those years ago. While he has many tools to help people achieve their goals, the keto diet and ketosis drink are some of the most powerful tools he has in his arsenal to get people feeling better faster. As a keto coach, it is Dustin’s mission to help people take control of their health and their life so they can be the become the best example for those around them.