Lose bad habits, gain a better life

SANDUSKY — With a new year here, a common resolution revolves around losing weight, getting in shape and living a more well-rounded, healthier lifestyle. One local man wants to make 2026 memorable for anyone interested in improving themselves. So he revealed his blueprint for the world to read about, unleashing no-nonsense tips and time-effective strategies to eat better, feel stronger and live with less pain — all obstacles he's personally overcome and wants others to do the same. Dustin Smith — a Sandusky resident and 2005 Perkins High School graduate who's a local personal trainer and owner of his health-based business WellFit Rx — recently came out with his first book. It's titled "Fat Loss for Life: The Busy Person's Guide to Sustainable Weight Loss, Increased Energy and Getting into Great Shape in Less Time." "Whether you're just starting your fitness journey, need more accountability and support or want highly effective strategies to take your health and fitness to the next level, the information in this book will hopefully inspire and equip you to take meaningful steps to your goals," according to the book's summary. "With over a decade of experience in the physical therapy field, personal training and online training/nutrition coaching, Dustin is deeply committed to helping busy people get into their best shape without having to make working out become a part-time job," it added. Smith recently spoke more about his fitness journey, the reason he wrote this book and how readers can benefit from his knowledge: Q: What do you do today for a living? DS: My professional life involves being a full-time personal trainer, movement specialist and nutrition coach. I work in-person at Tim Dorsey Fitness and also work remotely with clients online as well. In-person, I mainly work with clients who have aches, pains or injuries that restrict them from doing more of what they love and feeling their best. Many of them are post-rehab, worked out in the past and hurt themselves, have had previous surgeries or want to learn how to get in better shape fitness and health without the increased joint pain that is fairly common among gym-goers. Many people have a goal of weight loss or at least want to eat better to have more energy and feel better overall, too. We combine highly effective and time-efficient strategies that work with even the busiest of people. Q: Where does your background come from? DS: My background, prior to this, was in the physical therapy field where I worked and gained experience for 10 years. I saw how many people could benefit from a holistic approach to rehab, health and fitness. Optimizing your nutrition can be a game-changer not only for your health, energy levels, mental clarity and how you feel overall but also helps provide your body with essential nutrients for tissue healing and repair, reduces inflammation and helps with weight management to reduce excess strain on the joints. I have seen the life changes that can happen when someone is committed. Q: Can you talk a little bit about your brand? DS: I created WellFit Rx to bring wellness and fitness together. I wanted to create a business for clients that specialized in post-rehab fitness, improving movement and sustainable nutrition — a business that bridges the gap from physical therapy, injuries and surgeries to health, fitness, nutrition and overall well-being in a way that is sustainable and helps people feel their best long term. When you dive deeper, you find most people want to feel better overall. It's not just about adding years to your life: It's about adding more life, ability and functionality to those years, to help people have more energy and do more of what they love with less aches and pains. When people improve their movement, nutrition and make other lifestyle changes, massive changes can happen with effort and consistency. The book covers so much of this in organized and easy-to-read chapters. Q: Why are you so passionate about this lifestyle? DS: My life took a turn about 10 years ago when I broke my back. I went from feeling very strong to having daily pain and unable to simply walk around the block without triggering increased low back pain. The pain was there every day for over a year. It was a low point in my life. I started to think this is how my life was going to be. I made a promise not to give up on myself though. I took it day by day to focus on what I could do to move the needle. It was a hard road, but I thought if I don't quit, I won't lose, and knowledge and experience will be gained along the way. It became an obsession. I went all-in: • I listened to any podcasts and interviews about overcoming low back pain. • I purchased an abundance of books and DVDs by top experts in those areas. • I drove to different states to get evaluated by specialists. • I consulted with spine specialists from different countries. • Still today, I invest in nutrition and training courses across the country to be able to apply the best strategies for clients. One of the areas I had control over was what I ate. I have been into nutrition since being a teenager playing sports, but this time was different. I wanted to eat in a way that could help me heal. I went from having low energy, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, brain fog, pain, injuries, inflammation, bloating and bloodwork showing I was a future heart attack waiting to happen to having much better health, more vitality, way more energy and in some of the best shape and ability I've ever had at nearly 40 years old. Imagine if you were committed to making consistent choices that aligned with your goals and how you want to feel. You could be in a completely different place in six months to a year. That year, I ended up losing about 60 pounds by focusing on nutrition. I didn't move much because it increased the pain. It's not often someone is sedentary and doesn't work out but focuses in on optimizing nutrition. It gave me great insight to how powerful what we eat is for increasing energy levels, improving health, weight loss/management and feeling better overall. It's one of the most potent things we can do to improve those areas. Being persistent and consistent paid off. I was able to avoid surgery and now feel better overall at nearly 40 years old than I did in my 20s. I have the energy, strength, mobility to keep up with my active family: my wife, Francesca, and two toddlers. I can move my body in ways I didn't think would be possible again. I say all this because you might be in a low place right now or you feel unmotivated, have trouble getting started or want to improve what you are already doing. Q: Is this your first book? Why did you want to write it? DS: This is my first book. There were many reasons I wanted to write it. I was always amazed even as a kid going into a library. I was amazed that someone could write hundreds of pages to write a book. Sometimes I struggled to write a few pages in school so I couldn't imagine writing an entire book back then. Later I found out I enjoyed writing when it was about things I was passionate about and could help others with. I started writing it around the time our son was born. Being a parent has been one of the greatest gifts in life. It can be challenging at times, too, especially when balancing a career, growing a business and aiming to spend as much time with the family as possible. I wanted to show them that you can do challenging things and take steps toward your goals even during busy times if you are consistent and don't give up. Those small actions add up over time. There is a Japanese concept called Ikigai. It means a reason to live or reason for being. I want my kids to find their Ikigai. It combines what you love, what you are good at, what can help others and what you can make a living doing. It's about combining those to find a deeper sense of purpose and contentment in life. Q: How else did you find motivation to write the book? DS: Another reason to write the book was it allowed me to relate understand and empathize the obstacles busy parents go through. Two examples of those are lack of time and energy. There's a lot of time, effort and energy that goes into parenting, careers and daily responsibilities that it can feel overwhelming or hard to get started and be consistent with your health and fitness. The good news is that it doesn't have to be a part-time job. Even among working mostly with clients that have aches, pains and want to move and feel better, weight loss is still one of the most common goals. There is so much confusion around it. I wanted people to have a reference to simple, practical, and highly effective training and nutrition strategies that can work in even the busiest of times. A way to form habits that align with their goals and last but doesn't take a lot of time away from other important areas in life. Q: What are people going to get out of reading it? DS: Readers will get a practical, realistic guide to fat loss that fits into a busy lifestyle. The book is subtitled "The Busy Person's Guide to Sustainable Weight Loss, Increased Energy and Getting into Great Shape in Less Time." You can learn how to build habits that support fat loss, fitness, health and energy levels without extreme dieting or quick fixes. It provides actionable strategies for nutrition, exercise and mindset. Beyond just weight loss, the book aims to help people increase their energy and feel better in their daily lives. It helps people get back two of their most precious assets: time and energy. Q: What basic strategies is in it? DS: There is nutritional guidance, tips on how to set up your nutrition for fat loss in a sustainable way so you can help keep it off in the long term: • There are step-by-step strategies for weight loss using nutritional tracking. • There are highly effective strategies for weight loss without using tracking, too. • There are chapters to help people with common obstacles, such as overcoming late-night snacking, strategies for traveling, weekends, mindset, holidays and more. • There is also a chapter for setting up your own resistance training routine to build strength, muscle, ability and more. These quick, but effective workouts can take up less than an hour of your week if that's all the time you have. Q: Why should people read your book? DS: If you want to have more energy, improve your health, move better, get into better shape and feel better overall, this book is for you. It's not another diet book. Many diets can help you lose weight. These strategies help with sustainability and keeping most of it off in the long-term. It's for anyone who's tried to lose weight before and failed in the long term because the plan was too restrictive or unmanageable. This book gives a more balanced, sustainable and realistic road map. It's made for people with limited time, so you don't have to sacrifice family time, work or rest to get results. The practical strategies are evidence- and experience-based. The book isn't just about weight loss: It's a holistic approach to having more energy, getting into great shape and feeling your best. This is not an all-or-nothing approach either: You can focus in on the chapters that apply most to you or where you feel you need to work on most. Q: What advice would you give to people to best summarize your work? The book is a no-nonsense, time-efficient guide that helps busy people lose fat, get in great shape, boost their energy and build healthy habits that last without fad diets or endless hours at the gym. You'll learn how to eat in a way that supports your goals and how you want to feel overall, move better and and develop a mindset that prioritizes consistency over perfection. Through smart nutrition strategies, practical workouts and forming new habits, the book empowers you to make lasting changes. Eventually, the change in behaviors form new habits. By doing those habits that align with your goals and how you want to feel consistently, it becomes second nature. Accountability is a big reason for having success, too. I didn't just want to write a book and have people be left to do everything themselves. I created a WellFit Rx Community group on Facebook for more support and guidance in regards to nutrition, training, health, rehab tips. It's a place that clients and readers can interact and ask any questions they have about the book or fitness topics to help them on their journey. Q: How can people go about getting the book? DS: You can purchase it in paperback, hardcover or Kindle version on Amazon. You can also pick up a copy in person at Tim Dorsey Fitness, 301 E Market St., Sandusky, or Sandusky Book Bar, 2101 W. Perkins Ave., Sandusky. Feel free to reach out for a complimentary consultation at dustin@wellfitrx.org.