About Me

I'm Dustie! Inspiring you to lift, eat the cookie, not take life too seriously, and live a little.

I use to think I was an odd duck. I did all the ‘right’ things: went to college, got a degree (two actually!), became a career woman, and I was unhappy sitting at a desk E V E R Y D A Y of my life, working for people I didn’t like that much. No matter what job I took or the money I made, I still felt incomplete.

Often I found myself fantasizing about being a housewife: cooking meals, having children, being part of the PTA, traveling to clubs and sporting events, etc. It sounds simple, but I REALLY wanted that—motherhood. My work-life took up a lot of my mental capacity because I felt a lot of pressure to succeed, to have money!

And, after S E V E R A L horrible relationships that left me in my own Brittany Spears 2005 moments, I wanted to be alone and my purpose in life seemed bleak.

I was working as a Marketing Director, overweight, single, and having weekly panic attacks about what I was doing with my life. I struggled with gaining weight from competing in fitness (watch Post-Competition Hormones: Fit to Fat to Thick and read What Happened to My Body After Competing), unhappy working for a company that I didn’t believe in, plus my boss was a wannabe playboy, and I was over it. 

After being left with an ultimatum at work, I decided I could do better and quit with no plan. It was scary, but what was supposed to be a little break ended up being life-changing! My focus was on me, and I created a protein cookie mix that originally  was just for me to lose weight (I did, 30+ pounds!) which blossomed into a business (Variant Nutrition), met someone and road-tripped with him from Canada to Florida, and became happier working longer hours and pouring my own money in a business and product that helps people!

My biggest struggle was finding my purpose and trying to fill it with people, things, or money, and what I uncovered is it’s not what is my purpose in life, it’s what can I do with my life that’s important to me!