Hey it’s been a while since our last blogger spotlight, so this time I want to feature someone who you PROBABLY already know especially if you’re an avid youtube fitness enthusiast!

Does the name Sarah Dussault from Diet.com ring a bell?

MMMHMM!

I met Sarah when I was in Boston and we got to do a several Pilates videos together. It was really cool meeting someone else who loves health and fitness as much as I do AND also dedicates her time to making videos about it. I mean, how many people actually ENJOY recording themselves workout? Collaborating was a no brainer…and super fun.

I’ll never forget the first time I met Sarah at a coffee shop on Newbury and she brought her own Stevia to sweeten. Marks of a TRUE healthy living blogger.

Anyway, onto the interview with a YouTube Fitness Guru extraordinaire!

Name: Sarah Dussault

Occupation: Author of SarahFit.com, Senior Producer of Diet.com Video, Dirty Water TV correspondant, and YouTube fitness guru :)

1. Describe yourself in 3 words: Competitive, independent and perfectionist

2. Tell us a little about yourself (you can be shameless on your achievements here!):

I’ve been viewed on YouTube over 80 million times.  I have two viral videos that I produced under the Diet.com DietHealth channel, The Photoshop Effect (11+million) and The 4-year Old Cheeseburger (4.5 million).  I wanted to be a broadcast journalist but in the process of “building my reel” at diet.com, I also developed a following and became an expert in YouTube.  Since my start in September of 2006, I’ve created over 500 videos.  I’ve worked with many celebrity trainers and some celebrities themselves like Bethenny Frankel.  I’m now building my own site, SarahFit.com, and working as a community leader for Laughing Cow Cheese.  I am also currently training for the Men’s Health Urbanathlon and am writing online for Men’s and Women’s Health at CrushingTheCourse.com. 

3. At what point did blogging and vlogging become a career instead of a hobby? 

I first took the job with Diet.com in September of 2006 having never blogged before or ever read blogs.  I started my own blog at the time about celebrity health and fitness.  After I produced the Photoshop Effect, I hated anything about celebrities and fitness!  I stopped blogging.  Then Diet.com decided to reduce it’s costs and I went part time.  I decided it was time to build my own audience.  That was November of 2009 and I have been blogging since!  I have been a successful full-time blogger for officially a year now.  I did get certified to be a personal trainer so that I would have some expertise but I no longer train clients since I have am so busy with blog stuff!

4. Why are you addicted to health & fitness? 

I’ve been obsessed with health and fitness since 6th grade health class!  My mom is a weight watchers lifer and passed on the neurotic point counting to me.  I was an athlete all throughout high school.  I was captain of my soccer and track teams :)  I am one of those people that is naturally athletic but I never wanted to pursuit a sport in college.  As a result, I went from being active 7 days a week to binge drinking in college.  I gained that freshmen 15 but lost it quickly during the summer going into my sophomore year.  I battled the college pounds with unhealthy behaviors but once I graduated and landed the diet.com position, I became addicted.  I love to eat and drink.  If I didn’t workout, I would weight 30 lbs heavier!  Working out also helps reduce stress and makes me feel good about myself.  It’s my therapy.

5. Were you always fit? Or was there a moment when you had to stop and evaluate your lifestyle? 

I’ve always been fit except for that infamous freshmen year!  Each school year, I’d gain back the 10 lbs I’d lose each summer.  I still struggle with it, but I’ve never allowed myself to gain over 10 lbs before losing it again.

6. Sample workout week:  M, W, F I strength train, T & Th I do interval cardio and Saturday I go for a long run!

7. Sample daily diet: Protein Pancake with fruit, greek yogurt with slivered almonds for a snack, salad with grilled chicken for lunch, celery with peanut butter or trail mix for a snack, dinner is usually a lean protein grilled with sweet potatoes and lots of veggies, usually a salad or grilled zucchini.  Frozen fruit for dessert if I want it.

8. Fave clean food recipe:  Protein Pancake

9. Fave “bad” food: Margarita’s and cupcakes :)

10. Fave color: PINK

11. Fave body feature:

This is hard because it depends on the season, usually my stomach though, sometimes my arms if Ive been on vacation a lot like lately.

12. Healthy living idol:

I love Carrie Underwood because she always looks healthy and fabulous.  She had a normal college student body when she went on American Idol and transformed into a beautiful woman a year later.  She writes down everything she eats, and I have a hard time doing that for just one day.  I also appreciate Jessica Biel for being a sexy leading lady who is not afraid to have muscles.  I think I have a similar body build as her, minus a few inches, but she is strong and I love that.

Source

13. What’s the coolest thing(s) that has happened to you as well known internet fitness celeb? 

Hmmm.  The coolest happened in the beginning of my career when I flew out to the Sundance Film Festival to follow Bethenny Frankel around.  I literally stayed on her couch the first night.  We went to fun parties and got cool swag.  She wasn’t an A-list celeb then, but she knew what she wanted.  We worked together for over a year which was fun.  The videos are still up on YouTube!  I even filmed in her apartment with just me and her a few times.  I lost touch with her right after she was cast on Housewives.  We got along well, but she is exactly the same in person as you see on TV.  Other than that, I’ve been lucky to work with many celebrity trainers like Valerie Waters.  I also think the highlight of my year was appearing in Women’s Health and Men’s Health Magazines - two months in a row :)

14. Biggest diet/exercise myth you want to bust:

If you want to lose weight and change your body composition, YOU NEED TO LIFT WEIGHTS.  Stop being a cardio bunny!!  Also, the fat burning zone is so false.  Go hard or go home :)

• BLOG: SarahFit.com
• TUMBLR: sarahfit.tumblr.com
• YOUTUBE:  YouTube.com/SarahsFabChannel
• TWITTER: dietSarah
• FACEBOOK: facebook.com/SarahFitFan

So after having so much fun doing Fitness Expert spotlights on celeb trainers, fitness models, and activewear designers…I thought why not highlight some of my fave fellow blogger friends!!?? So here’s the first blogger spotlight! This week, I bring to you someone who has inspired my vegetarian creativity!

Name: Brittany

Location: Richmond, VA

Blog Name: Eating Bird Food

C: Hi Brittany!! So happy we connected over Twitter. Since becoming vegetarian a month ago, I’ve been using your recipe index as a guide for some delicious plant-based recipes! Can you tell us a little about yourself before we get this interview started?

 B: Hi Cassey, thank you for this opportunity! I’m Brittany - an online marketing professional and blogger who’s passionate about living a healthy, balanced life. I love eating and cooking and want to share with the world that being healthy doesn’t have to be difficult or boring. I’m also enrolled in the Institute for Integrative Nutrition and will graduate as a Holistic Health Coach this fall!!

C: Why did you start your blog?

 B: I started Eating Bird Food in March 2008. I had been reading Self’s blog, Eat Like Me and realized there were other healthy food blogs out there. I soon decided I needed a space to share my own weight loss story and help to inspire others. Eating Bird Food started out as an online food journal, but it has definitely progressed since then. :)

C: Did you ever expect it to be such a widely read online “publication”?

 B: No, not at all.

C: I read about your weight loss/getting fit journey on your blog and am very proud of your accomplishments! What can you tell us about how someone can empower themselves with the decision to make a healthy lifestyle change?

B: Just like anything else, the decision to get healthy has to be for YOU and no one else. You have to make up your mind what you want for your life. I think setting small obtainable goals are the best way to get started. Overall, you need to make a lifestyle choice and incorporate healthy modifications that you can stick with for the long run, not a temporary diet.

Before:

Today:

C: Give us a snap shot of your daily diet/meal plan!

B: Typically I start my morning on a sweet note with something like protein overnight oats or oatmeal with nut butter. Some days I have coffee with almond milk, some days I don’t want or need it so I don’t have it. For lunch I normally throw together a salad with lots of veggies and a vegetarian protein source like quinoa, beans, tofu or tempeh. I almost always have a mid-afternoon snack. Lately I’ve been on a Greek Yogurt kick. I buy the plain 0%, sweeten it up with liquid stevia and add a little fruit or 1 T of nut butter. For dinner I try to have more veggies and protein as well as some sort of whole grain like brown rice or quinoa. Last but not least, I normally always need/want a night-time snack so I’ll snack on something like a small bowl of Kashi Go Lean cereal with almond milk, cottage cheese, yogurt or frozen fruit.

C: Now give us a snapshot of your weekly workout!

B: Recently I have been doing the Body for Life training plan so my weekly workouts look like this:

M- 45 min upper body strength training

T- 20 min HIIT, 10 min moderate paced cardio

W- 45 min lower body strength training

TH- 20 min HIIT, 10 min moderate paced cardio

F- 45 min upper body strength training

S - 20 min HIIT, 10 min moderate paced cardio

S - OFF

I also like to add in a few yoga sessions a week  - even if I just do them at home. I love using yogadownload.com to try out different types of yoga.

C: Fave healthy recipe?

B: That’s a tough one. Here are a few - Overnight Oats, Kale and Sweet Potato Brown Rice Bowl, Black Bean Burgers

C: Fave “bad food” ;)

B: Ice cream. And sweet potato fries, which I make “good” by baking them in the oven at home. :) Here’s my recipe for crispy sweet potato fries.

C: For aspiring healthy living bloggers, what is your best advice for “getting out there”?

B: The fastest way to get a larger readership is to tell everyone you know about your blog and to engage in the community. Leave (meaningful) comments on other healthy living blogs, connect with bloggers on twitter and reach out to bloggers that inspire you.

C: What’s the coolest thing that has happened to you or that you have experienced as a blogger?

There are a few cool things! One, I’ve meet so many wonderful people (including you!) and become quick friends with many of them. I won a trip to San Francisco as a Nature’s Pride bread ambassador for a veggie-stuffed hummus sandwich recipe I created.

I was also named one of Richmond’s Healthiest people and even got the chance to be a judge for a meatless gourmet Iron Chef competition.

C: Thank you Brittany for sharing with us your healthy living tips! You look fabulous!

I always love browsing through Brittany’s recipe page for vegetarian inspiration. So far, all of the people I’ve encountered in the healthy living community are so kind and generous in sharing their experience and their knowledge. That’s how I met Sarah from diet.com and sarahfit.com. We had coffee after a facebook comment I left her, then shortly after we began filming vids together!

The cool thing about bloggers and YouTubers is that we are all real people that you can relate to and “talk” to on a daily basis - whether that’s facebook comments, emails, or tweets. I love hearing from you guys and I already feel like I know some of you…so much so that if we ever met up, I could probably predict what you would say ;)

Want more Brit!?? Check her out here:

BLOG: http://www.eatingbirdfood.com

TWITTER: http://www.twitter.com/eatingbirdfood

FACEBOOK: http://www.facebook.com/eatingbirdfood