IIFYM and the Chef’s life

Many of us go day to day tracking with no problem. Weigh your chicken, calculate your rice, carefully pouring wine not to spill a drop. Routine sets in and all the sudden you think you have tracking down to a T. Sound familiar?  Seems easy right? What about going out to eat? Do you still par take, do you bring a scale, guesstimate portions, say F it and have a free for all?

I thought it would be fun to turn the tables and give you an insight into the life of a few chef’s that also track macros. Why you say? Well, think about it. A chef might make 1 dish a day, or he might make 100, but the common factor between is that they need to know what it tastes like. Without our sense of taste, as chefs we are running blind in the kitchen. So now you might start to see were tracking calories or macros and working in a kitchen could be hard, and or potentially problematic.

For this article I have teamed up with the great up and coming Chef Dana. Quickly advancing her skills and knowledge in the world of cooking. I really wanted to get a female perspective and side of this as I know macros are far lower for the male counterpart so I wanted readers to be able to relate to both sides of the coin!

 

The Perspective of Chef Dana

 

Hi everyone.

Before I go on with my blog post I would like to first thank Dustin

A little background about me, I live in Toronto and I am currently studying Culinary Management at George Brown College and have been into fitness for about three years right now and half way through my time doing so I started tracking my macros and then moved onto tracking my protein intake and just letting my calories fall through with the rest of my caloric intake.  As a person interested in both fitness and culinary many would question how I manage to balance being around food most of the time while still achieving the goals I want.  After tracking for quite a while it is now easy for me to guesstimate what I ate, however I am of course not going to track every morsel that goes into my mouth for example a bite of veggies or something that I know is low in calories. On the other hand, if I know what I ate is probably calorie dense I then would guesstimate what I ate.

One other thing to add is that there is more of a leeway with the amount of food eat since my time at school is active and as a result I’m increasing my daily NEAT which in turn gives me more calories to eat daily.

Being able to do this as a living has also taught me to have a better relationship with food due to the fact that I am still going where I want when it comes to my fitness goals while at the same time I am doing what I love and that is to cook and eat.

You may wonder what a typical week and day may look like for me both training and diet wise. Training happens four times a week with three falling during the week which means they occur during school days as well. I attend school four times a week and on those days I am pretty active with my steps ranging from 12-16k , with that being said I try to make my training days have higher calories than my non training days and on the days where I don’t train I usually go by feel of hunger and that means I don’t exactly worry about meal timings or how many meals I eat during the day. On the other hand, on days where I do get a gym session and have school I get a full meal in early in the day since my kitchen duty is pretty active and would need that energy in followed by another meal right after class and prior to training I usually get a fast acting carb source such as muffins, bagels etc. 1-2 hours before I start. My post workout meal consists of a regular full meal followed by one last meal before going to bed.

I personally prefer to eat out during weekends unless something happens during the week. When it comes to flexible dieting guesstimating is probably one of the most important thing one should learn because for one not all nutrition facts are exact and sometimes you don’t have any listed. When it comes down to me having to guesstimate something that does not have nutrition facts I just search for something similar to it on my fitness pal. However, if I feel something is off I just eyeball it and over estimate by increasing serving sizes on the entry. I think I struggled to eat out a lot in the past and the more I practiced guesstimating the more I felt comfortable eating out because at the end of the day chefs aren’t weighing out our food for us even if they do provide nutrition facts for us.

Being able to do this as a living has also taught me to have a better relationship with food due to the fact that I am still going where I want when it comes to my fitness goals while at the same time I am doing what I love and that is to cook and eat.

You can follow me on IG @shortcakefitness as well as the blog i have run by @kag1994 and myself www.flexible-aesthetics.blogspot.ca

 

 

The Perspective of Chef Dustin

Thank the lord I am gaining! Macros are high and life is good right? Wrong. I personally actually eat a lower fat diet. Currently I eat 65g of fat per day. Now, with 215p and 460c I need to make sure I have fat spaced out to make that all happen. In cooking you learn early on, specially from my gathering if you are french is that FAT IS FLAVOR. Now I might have 460g carbs but to cook with fat and survive on 65g of fat becomes challenging.

As a chef, you have to taste your food. You NEED to know how your dish is coming along, if it needs more seasonings, texture, and more. Now a small taste here, a small taste there wont make a huge deal, but if you are working a line and doing it over and over for 8-12 hours that mayo or cheese sauce will add up. So how do I approach this?

Well for starters I always say a diet must work for you, not force you to work for it so as a flexible dieter I don’t stress to much over the little stuff. For example if I was cooking in my home kitchen, or even in a professional setting and preparation was slow or limited and tasting was kept to a minimal amount. Those macros or calories I most likely would not account for unless I was getting close to a show or meet and needed every single calorie to count. Now if I was nibbling on cheese, freely tasting spoonfuls vs small tastes, licking spatulas when done with, etc then that’s when calories can and will add up. If I was in a situation were I had been snacking a bit more than I should be, I will typically think about the food I was consuming and the main macro it consists of. Cheese for example, I would track some fat grams separately and put them into my data tracking app. Depending on amounts, and types I might track 2/3 of the macro nutrients such as fats/proteins in the cheese example. I guesstimate the amount because I rarely have a scale handy at the time, or because its small amounts repetitively. From tracking over time I have become very familiar with what a typical serving size of certain foods look like, and with cooking I ‘eye ball’ ingredients all the time so I am use to ‘guessing’ the size/yield of things. Then it is as simple as adding that into the app to account for it. Another thing I always like to do as well, over estimate. Add a few extra grams of fat, and 10-30g carbs, depending on what you can offer just to give yourself some cushion room! After a day in the cushion I might take 20f/70c/10p depending on what I was doing that day. Now that’s a pretty good cushion to work with. Maybe I over estimate, or maybe I under estimate but if you under estimate to often you’ll have excess weight gain and if you track weight you will be able to tell and adjust for a bigger cushion.

Now, I’ve gone over how I would account for macros. Let’s talk about how to set yourself up for success when dealing with unknown macro situations. So, typically on a day where I will be working in a kitchen(these same principles can be applied to events, going out to eat, social outings, etc) I might choose to fast for the morning, or have a voluminous, high protein, high fiber breakfast designed to try and keep me as satisfied as possible as long as possible. Since fat is my lowest macro I always try to keep the fat low if I don’t know what I might encounter that day, so it just helps keep things open. A big missed key as well to remember is STAY HYDRATED. Loads of people eat just because they are bored, or dehydrated. Both of those causes are fixable. That honestly is my simple, straight forward strategy to tackling the day, any event, get together, etc.

Bullet Points –

• Stay Hydrated
• Eat High Protein
• Eat High Fiber
• Stay Busy
• Overestimate to create a cushion for error
• Don’t stress the little things

I hope you enjoy reading into the perspectives of the people responsible for the food you love and enjoy! It is an extremely rare pleasure being able to create something that can cause so much joy and happiness. Sometimes it can be stressful and tests your patience but the outcome is so worth it.

 

Here are a few other pages I think you might like!

Macro Counting Essentials Volume 1

High Protein Smores Pudding

Low Fat Vanilla Maple Pumpkin Spice Bars

 

Wait, I forgot ….. Whats Flexible dieting??

I want to start adding in more rants, opinion based articles,  training resources, and more…. but I am not the best writer so bare with me.

I wanted to right up a little something about Flexible Dieting.

Key word…. FLEXIBLE.

What does flexible dieting mean to you?

Well for me, it got me away from labeling foods as ‘bad’ and developing a mental capacity on labeling ‘cheat meals’ If the plan was that great would you have to cheat on it?

It also brought back all of the foods that I enjoy to eat, on a daily basis rather than suffering eating foods I may not like for weeks on weeks to the binge one day on everything and everything I can think of and fit into my mouth.

Now to build on that I see so many people who adapt the flexible lifestyle which is great, but then they allow themselves to fall into some of the same ruts or issues that they faced when ‘clean eating’ or even more issues! I don’t know how many times I’ve seen someone have a meltdown because they cant weigh something, or find nutritional info on it. Continue to pass on social events in fear they may have to eat something they didn’t prepare, fall back into eating only the same foods over and over again because its easy to track. Believe me I have been there! Now grant it, if you enjoy eating a particular food a lot by all means DO IT! I love ice cream, so I eat it almost every day, but what I mean is people will only have chicken breast/broccoli/sweet potato in fear of making something else may be to difficult to track.

We must remember the goal and purpose of flexible dieting. To develop a healthy, maintainable approach to life long healthy eating habits to sustain our current goals at hand.

With the tools and tricks I have learned from flexible dieting I feel that I could venture out and never use a scale again, never track my food again, and still be alright. Making smart decisions and to remember that moderation is key. ANYTHING in excess can be ‘bad’ for you.

With that said, you also need to look at current and future goals and use that to be a base of your decision. For instance if I am trying to diet down for a show, or make weight for a meet it would be very beneficial to be weighing and tracking my food to dial in progress and really be in charge of positive or negative results.

Now on the flip side, if its your off season, if your going on vacation, having kids, whatever it may be that your primary focus may not be making weight, then by all means have a more intuitive style of eating. With that said you still want to be conscious and aware of portions, making sure your eating good micros, hitting fiber, and staying hydrated but after that just enjoy yourself!

Don’t allow a great way of eating take control of your life, so that you don’t continue, or start to develop unhealthy eating trends or habits, and worst case scenario give up on yourself.

Thanks for reading guys and gals, like I said writing, grammar, all that good stuff has never been my strong suit so bare with me as I develop these skills, just like anything else we do.

Always strive to be better than yesterday.

-Dusty

White Girl Adventures, Pumpkin Muffins

Well,

It’s that time of the year again. Days get shorter, temp gets colder, leafs start to change color, and most importantly….. PUMPKIN FLAVORED EVERYTHING!

Now I actually use pumpkin year around, but hey this just gives me more time to embrace it haha.

Easy Quick Pumpkin Muffins

1/2 scoop Vanilla Protein(roughly 17g for mine)

1/2 Scoop Cinnamon Protein(roughly 17g for mine)

8g Sugar Free Fat Free Vanilla pudding mix

1.5 svg Liquid egg whites(roughly 70g)

15g Self Rising Flour

5g Raw Honey

Splash of Vanilla

roughly 2 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp pumpkin spice, 1/2 tsp nutmeg

Milk/water/syrup to mix.

Once mixed, pop into sprayed muffin ton,

Add 7g pumpkin morsals to the top of the muffins and bake at 350 for roughly 12-15 min.

Macros per 1 muffin: 60 cal / .7fat / 5 carb / 7.4 protein

Edit***** i forgot to add pumpkin puree to this post. You can have anywhere from 60-120g. I will remake and post actual recipe soon. ******

Not to shabby. These came out,,,, brace yourself,,,, so moist. Going to play with this recipe a bit and add a few things to it I think. Give it a shot, super quick, super easy.

Remember if you liked it, feel free to let me know! Comment here, tag me on Instagram(d_chron) or hashtag #dustyscalculatedmadness !

Peanut Buttah vs Chocolate Family reunion

So I ask you,

What goes better. Peanut Butter and Chocolate, or Chocolate and Peanut Butter. Is there a difference? I don’t fucking know, but the two together brings me more happiness than a clearance rack of doughnuts.

I had a can of beans left in the fridge and I wanted to get them used up. Been awhile since I made brownies, but I was thinking I wanted to give a cake a go, well trying to keep the carbs as low as possible. So, through countless hours SLAVING away in the kitchen I came up with little beauty.

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Explosion Cake

Things you will need for Chocolate Cake:

1/2 svg of chocolate protein(mine was 15g)

6g SF FF chocolate Pudding mix

60g Rinsed and processed cannellini beans into flour

5g Coco

1/8 tsp Baking soda

1 tsp Baking Powder

7 g Coconut Flour

30g Pumpkin Puree

70g Almond Milk*

10g Chocolate Syrup*

Mix above ingredients in a bowl and set to the side

Peanut Butter Cake ingredients:

.75 scoop of peanut butter protein(roughly 23g)

60g rinsed and processed cannellini beans into flour

6g PB2

60g Pumpkin

7g Coconut Flour

1/8th teaspoon Baking soda

1 tsp Baking Powder

60g Almond Milk*

10g Pancake Syrup*

Place batters into Sprayed and Lined Baking dishes and Bake at 375 for roughly 25 min. Chocolate took about 27 min.
Make sure to do the knife or toothpick test to tell if done or not. Once done, take out and leave to cool on a raised surface for 20-30 min

Well Those are Baking we will make the Frosting:

15g Chocolate Protein

5g Coco

6g SF FF Pudding mix

50g Almond Milk *

30g Chocolate Sauce*

Mix together and place in fridge to thicken.

Now a note to add. Items that have a * behind them may need to be adjusted to deal with your specific protein powder or likeness. Less liquid will be much thicker, more liquid will make it a bit more runny.

Now once the cakes have cooled, slice each cake in half. Now you can just layer the cakes, you can use a bit of frosting to help each layer stick, or you can just use a bit of chocolate syrup. I wanted to save all the frosting for the outside so I just spread a bit a chocolate syrup on each layer to help ‘hold’ it. If I wanted to increase the protein content a bit I would most likely add either another half scoop chocolate or pb protein to make more frosting and could place between each layer,,, but for this recipe I skipped it.

Okay, now at this point you should have a 4 layer cake. I did Chocolate layer, then a pb layer, then chocolate, then pb on top. Now take your frosting out of the fridge. Should be pretty thick, so feel free to add a shot of chocolate syrup or a bit of almond milk/water and remix it. Then, begin to cover your beautiful naked cake.

Now if you would like to add the PB Drizzle, just take 6g of PB2, mix with a bit of liquid then pour over the top.

Proceed to top with your favorite toppings if you would like. As soon as this is done, grab a eating utensil(I wont make ya use a fork if you don’t want to) and begin to instantly consume until you are forced to take a breathe.

Macros for the Cake are 582 Cals / 6.8g Fat / 64.5g Carb / 65.5g Protein and a HUGE 20g of Fiber.

Macros for 1/4 of Cake : 145.5 cals / 1.7g Fat / 16.1 Carb / 16.3 Protein / 5g of Fiber

I hope you guys Enjoyed this as much as I did!

If you did like it please let me know how it turned out!

Tag me on Instagram under d_chron or just use the hashtag #dustyscalculatedmadness !!!!

Lets be Honest. Chocolate and Peanut Butter Fucking Rock.

What is up everyone! I decided to share some Reese cake recipes with you.
Will work on building these recipes into even better versions but until then let these satisfy your taste buds. First one I made ages ago, 2nd one made last night. Very similar, next time I will use regular flour.

Blend 90g cannelloni beans. Put half in one bowl and half in another(for two cakes if only one combine everything) then put half equal parts of each next ingredient in each bowl. 20g coconut flour, 90g pumpkin, 8g sf ff pudding, baking powder, vanilla or chocolate extract, sweetner of choice I used stevia and chocolate sauces, and a egg white in each. Then in the chocolate cake I put 5g coco and 1/2scoop chocolate pb casein. Almond milk to mix. Other bowl I put 12g pb2, 1/2scoop pb protein, and again almond milk to mix. There is the base, chocolate cake and pb cake. Put in oven at 350 and cook till done. 15-25min. Pb cooked way faster than chocolate. Take out and let sit till cool. Then take 5g coco, and 1/2scoop protein (chocolate pb for me) and a bit of almond milk and chocolate sauce if you have and mix into frosting. Can add more sweetener if needed. Cut both cakes in half. Place chocolate on bottom, take half of pb cake on top, take a thin layer of frosting and spread on top of pb cake. Then if wanted place desired goodies(pb cups and cereal for me) then place 2nd pb cake on top of filling. Place chocolate cake on top of that. Then use frosting to cover the cake. Top with desired goodies.
I hope I’m not missing anything.

Macros without goodies but with frosting was 565cals 8f 64c 63p give or take a few.

1/2 scoop pb protein

1/2 scoop chocolate protein

1/2 c cannelloni beans

90g pumpkin

2 egg whites

6g pb2

5g coco

3 sweetner packets

7g reese chips

Almond milk

Baking powder

Syrup and Chocolate Syrup.

Make just like above cake mixing chocolates with chocolates, pb with pb. Bake same amount of time.

In the meantime Take

5g coco

1/2 scoop chocolate protein

11g SF FF Pudding mix

Chocolate syrup

Splash of almond milk and mix for frosting.

Take takes out to cool, once cool slice each in half and spread a thin layer of frosting on each. Stack the pb on each other with 1 layer of chocolate on the bottom, and one layer on the top. Cover with remaining frosting and top with Reese chips.

Macros for 1/4 of the cake before extra toppings: 144 cal , 2.2f/15.4c/15.3p and 5.1g of fiber

Macros for whole Cake before extra toppings: 574 cal, 8.8f/61.5c/61.3p and 20g of fiber

A light drizzle of peanut butter and the fats can still stay low, or even use a PB2 drizzle to keep it way down. I also recommend adding in at least one crushed up Reese =]

Not to shabby for eating a whole cake. I think just about anyone could fit a slice of that into their day. Served with ice cream is always best of course.

What flavor cakes would you guys like to see? Enjoy the cakes even or am I wasting my time eating all this dank ass food?haha

Remember to check me out on Instagram under d_chron or use the hashtag #dustyscalculatedmadness

Gods drink…..but cold…?

So I usually drink my coffee one way. Black. Sometimes I will throw a bit of 0 cal flavoring in but 90% of the time I take my caffeine black, strong, and packing a punch. Well, its summer so I figured something cold was in order. Wanted to make a super macro friendly recipe so I decided I would whip up a Iced coffee or a play on a frappe or moolatte

 

What you need.

Vanilla caramel ice coffee.
3oz fresh brewed @alphamind_coffee  (be sure to go to http://www.alphamindcoffee.com and use the code “Rhine” to save 20%)
1/2 scoop protein. I used @bpi_sports vanilla…
1tsp @alphamind_coffee grounds
4oz almond milk
Dash of vanilla and cinnamon
5-15g Caramel @waldenfarmsinternational depending on lvl of caramel you want.
Couple hand fulls of ice
Dash of xanthium gum

Blend and enjoy!
Macros for whole glass
90cal 3f/6c/12p and 3 fiber.

Don’t forget to check me out on Instagram and if you like my stuff be sure to give me a tag so I can see it! Otherwise always throw down the #dustyscalculatedmadness hashtag to!

Drink on my Coffee People!

Wait, you dont eat clean?!? You are the devil

The title says it all.

Recently I got into a small argument on a food post I made on Instagram. He claimed how could I be in a lean bulk if I ate the way I do. I.e. Ice cream, cakes, pizza, and every other GOD DAMN DELICIOUS food their is. He claimed that it would be a ‘Dirty Bulk” eating the way I do.

I proceeded to explain to him calories in vs calories out, counting macros, hitting my fiber goal, and making sure to get in plenty of my micros. After dropping science on his Bro self he continues to argue the fact that you cant eat sweets or ‘junk’ food and ‘lean’ bulk or even cut weight(which I did as well).

First of all, I had spent plenty of time eating chicken and broccoli and ‘clean’ eating. I lost some weight sure, at one point I did get pretty lean, but I was also small, weak, doing cardio, not eating things I enjoyed very much blah blah blah. If you want to eat that way, by all means do it! LOVE IT! DO YOU! But, my friends one size does not fit all.

I am not a dog, I don’t treat my self with little goodies(well I do but in a different way). I don’t spend 2 months eating cardboard in hopes to have 1 cheat meal. In fact I don’t even like the word cheat, cause that implies you are doing something bad. Why and what the hell is bad about a fat ass burger and pint of ice cream. Not a damn thing in my mind. I think ‘clean’ eaters can develop just as bad relationships and eating disorders with food as anyone can. Is mentally breaking yourself healthy? No.

It falls down to personal preference but, ask yourself. How is your relationship with food. Do you view food as the enemy, do you view things as bad, and will never eat a peanut butter filled doughnut with chocolate frosting ever again cause its not ‘clean’. That is why I absolutely love Flexible Dieting and/or IIFYM eating style. I am able to enjoy anything and everything I want day in and day out without EVER feeling guilty about eating something or hating myself for eating something then spending the next 3 days doing hours and hours of cardio or starving myself.(note: starving and fasting are two totally different animals)

Now, with that being said, everything is in moderation, and I make it fit. If I want to have ice cream and pizza I will either fast to save macros for that said dish, or eat very low fat or low carb to give myself plenty of allowance to enjoy those foods. Where you enjoy here, you may sacrifice somewhere else, but you are not at all hindering progress in the least.

I don’t want to go on and on and on about this, but I did want to do a quick write up about this topic as I have had it mulling around the head last few days.

What is your take on eating? Id love to hear.

OhYeah! One Bar (Chocolate Brownie)

I recently was selected in a contest from OhYeah! and received their new “One” Bar. I got Chocolate Brownie and Cookies and Crème. I tried finding these on their website but they must be to new? Only found CCCP, Pb, and lemon pie.

I wanted to start doing some reviews on different products I come across just to possibly help someone else with a purchase down the road.

Lets get started.

Macros: 210 cals 7g fat / 24 carb / 21 protein / 10g fiber / and only 1g of sugar

Squeeze test: Felt soft in the wrapper. Had some give to it so it was a decent que that it wasn’t going to be hard as a rock.

At first glance the bottom for some reason reminded me of a Snickers bar. unfortunately this wasn’t a Snickers bar.

First Glance out of the package: Nothing super special about the Aesthetics on this one. Plain flat brown protein bar. Smell has a slight chocolate smell to it, but nothing over powering.

Split it open to check the inside.

Now on the wrapper it shows the bar is fully brown/black throughout the entire bar, but when you bust it open it has a tan filling with small black crispies.

Taste: At first bite it wasn’t terrible but nothing special. I felt that there just wasn’t enough bang from the chocolate that was there let along get the feeling of eating a chocolate brownie. The crisps were nice, but yet again not strong enough of a chocolate flavor. Now the tan filling at first glance threw me off but I thought that it may just be how their coloring turned out. With further eating IMO it tasted like it should of been a chocolate chip cookie dough flavor vs a chocolate brownie.

Texture: Soft and flexible with a nice chewy consistency. Just a tad bit of graininess, but I did like the added ‘crunch’ from the crispies even though I felt they didn’t ‘crunch’ enough.

Heat test: of course I had to try in the microwave as well. 10 sec later it turned it quite soft, maybe even just a tad to much. I thought it helped improve the taste of the bar as I then had the ‘melty’ feel well eating.

Overall thoughts: I am going to give this a 6.5/10. Mainly because the lacking of a rich chocolate, and the filling throwing me off.

Compared to Quests Chocolate brownie that comes in at 170 cals / 6g fat / 24g carb / 20g protein / 19g fiber / 1g sugar and the same bar weight at 60g I would probably have to go with quests. Less overall Cals, Tad less fat, more fiber, and more like eating a chocolate brownie.

Would I recommend? If these are all you have access to then yes, if these are marked down cheaper ( as I found online the other flavors were just over 2 bucks ) then yes. If you have to pay the same price and can get quest then I would say go with quest.

Let me know if this review was worth the read and informative. I have many other protein bars, proteins, and more I would be willing to through reviews to if you guys wanna see em.

Don’t forget to check me out on Instagram under d_chron or #dustyscalculatedmadness