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This website is a place where you can find interesting articles and facts about nutrition, science, and habits. But you are on this page to get to know me, so before you is first a brief, and then a longer overview of my professional path, approach to habit change, conclusions about nutrition, and also who the man addressing you actually is.

(AI was not used to write this text, nor any other texts on my website)

Brief Overview of the Professional Path

I am Dušan Aragonski, a biochemist specialized in the field of human habits and nutrition. For the last seven years, I have been running my practice where I successfully help people make permanent habit changes. Additionally, I actively hold commercial and volunteer lectures on the topics of nutrition, body biochemistry, habits, and stress, aiming to work on preventing the epidemic of obesity and poor habits.

• Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry (Faculty of Sciences in Novi Sad, 2016)
• Start of private practice in Kragujevac (2019)
• Master of Nutrition and Supplementation (Faculty of Medicine in Kragujevac, 2021)
• Thousands of hours of one-on-one consultations
• Hundreds of satisfied clients
• Numerous lectures and educational sessions held

By clicking the button below, you can schedule a free online meeting so we can introduce ourselves and talk about what interests you.

Professional Path

My interest in chemistry began when I received a science encyclopedia in elementary school and fell in love with the invisible processes happening at the atomic level. In the years that followed, chemistry and biology continued to fascinate me, which led me to participate in various competitions, but also to raise ants in a terrarium and twice almost burn down the house. Not knowing exactly what biochemistry was, other than some mix of biology and chemistry that I love, I enrolled in undergraduate biochemistry studies in 2012 at the University of Novi Sad. Four years later, in 2016, I left the blue faculty building as a graduated biochemist with a head full of chemical reactions and a fear of what comes next. During my studies, I discovered several very interesting fields, including food biochemistry, but at that moment I still didn't know what I actually wanted to do.

I spent the next few years looking for my calling and achieving personal goals like moving back to Kragujevac, getting married, and traveling the world. On one of these trips, I ended up in Spain without luggage or money, so out of necessity, I got a job in a kitchen. For seven days, I worked under the supervision of a professional chef who prepared Mediterranean food, which was also the only thing I ate. In this short time, I noticed a huge change in how I woke up, how much energy I had, and how I felt. I attributed this to the different environment and change in daily routine. However, when I returned back, I continued to choose and prepare food this way, and this good feeling continued. My life at this point returned to its normal tracks and the only change was the food. While before the trip I drank a lot of juice and ate whatever was at hand, after it, I cut back on bad foods and started regularly preparing meals. My conclusion was: Nutrition has a much greater impact than just 'watch what you eat so you don't gain weight'—this is fascinating and I want to know more.

Months followed during which I dealt with the science of nutrition from morning till night, partly by recalling what I learned during my studies, partly by reading new papers and studies on the subject. In 2019, I concluded that the field of nutrition was something I wanted to pursue and started working with people as a nutritionist. Soon after came the corona era, which showed that although modern medicine is miraculous, there are things where only long-term health care helps, like nutrition and training. I used the isolation time to further expand my knowledge and formally specialize in this field. I enrolled in and a year later completed master studies in Nutrition and Supplementation at the Faculty of Medicine in Kragujevac.

To this day, I run a successful practice, talk to people, and help them make changes in their nutrition. Over time, I realized that nutrition is just part of a larger picture of a person's health and well-being, so I started talking to clients about all habits, not just nutrition. I spent the previous seven years in over 3 thousand hours of conversation with people, and based on Google reviews I gained the image of an expert who is there to listen and suggest, not to ban and reproach. Although I gained a good foundation for understanding biochemistry and body needs at the universities, I learned much more about how to support changes through practical work with people. My approach to nutrition changed and evolved through the years, so today it is more therapeutic than exactly scientific like the chemistry and biochemistry I started from.

Approach to Habits

At the beginning of my work, I expected that my job would be to educate and inform. That people lacked information about what is healthier, better, and more correct. What they should stay away from, and what they should include more of and how much. That my job was to analyze the situation, think through and figure out what the necessary changes were, and present them to the client. In the years that followed, I realized that education is only part of the process.

In my work, I noticed several things. People always come with high motivation and are ready to make a change immediately. They often know specifically what change they want to make, but they don't know exactly how to execute it. They generally claim they don't want quick results and that their health is more important than appearance. They ask me to make them a clear, precise, and difficult plan that they will follow perfectly without problems, because now is the moment for change. However, initial motivation quickly fades, so even when changes are made, they are quickly abandoned. Because of this, my task is not just giving accurate information and providing what clients think they lack, but also looking after their motivation and long-term planning for changes.

In the search for answers on how to make change easier for people, I reached the then-unknown field of psychology, specifically psychotherapy. This is how I arrived at a branch of psychotherapy that deals specifically with motivation and changes called Motivational Interviewing. Many hours, several courses, and a pile of books later, I began to include techniques from this direction into my work, and the results were fantastic. I understood people better, and they understood me better. Changes were made with less resistance and were maintained longer.Today, my approach to habits is a mix of several different disciplines, from psychology, through philosophy, to biochemistry. I consider it well-developed, tested, and based on years of theory and practice.

Changing Habits Should Be Slow

Habits, especially in nutrition, are the consequence of decades of repetition and consolidation. That is exactly why when we change them, it is not good for that change to be sudden; instead, it needs to be gradual. I am not claiming that there aren't people for whom it is easiest to just cut clean and change their yesterday's habits from the roots, but I claim they are very rare, that it is unnecessarily difficult, and that perfect conditions must align.

An example of the poor radical change I'm talking about sounds like this: Starting tomorrow, I will change what I eat, I will add snacks, I will start going to the gym, I will stop going out to town and getting drunk, I will start making shakes, and I will stop smoking. Even though this is an exaggeration, at the moment of high motivation, people really feel like they can change completely from the roots and that if they don't make the change now, they never will. Which is why they often try to make a large number of different changes all at once. Besides being difficult, an additional problem is that a mistake in one of the set goals introduces a vicious cycle of failure, where failure in one field drags down success in others.

A good rule is to pick one thing to work on currently. After two to four weeks of successful repetition, it no longer needs to be in focus and the next thing can be added. However, life is not the Duolingo app, and a streak of successes does not mean victory, nor is the achieved success lost with one bad day. It is important to notice what is being done and do it as planned most of the time, not for everything to be 100% correct.

Nothing at 100%

No one makes mistakes on purpose and we all want to be better; often we just lack an understanding of how to successfully make a change. When entering a change, the obstacles that will inevitably arise are not considered. When assessing how feasible a change is, current motivation and energy levels are observed. However, changing a habit takes weeks and months, so when it is necessary to focus on something else, the energy invested in the change must be reduced. If we set a goal before us that requires 100% of our attention, it seems entirely feasible as long as we can be completely dedicated to it, but when that is not possible, such a goal is abandoned entirely. That is why a smaller step toward a larger goal is a better approach to progress in habit change. It is feasible in the long run and never requires all of our attention, so we can continue with normal life while dealing with the change simultaneously.

Perfectionism is the enemy of change. The good thing is that changing a habit doesn't even require everything to be perfect. A frequent example of this is how people position themselves toward the natural craving for sweets, especially when they gain weight. Aware that they are overdoing it and wishing to change something they don't like, instead of setting a soft restriction which would be reducing the amount, frequency, or looking for better options, absolute either-or goals are often set, I will never eat anything sweet again in my life. The problem with these goals is that an entire cascade of biochemical and psychological processes occurs, working together against making a long-term change.

Another thing where perfection is not necessary and does not have to be done at 100% is food choice. People approach food items and meals with an all-or-nothing mentality. Meaning, now I eat healthy and only healthy food comes into consideration, and if I accidentally crave and God forbid eat one burger, it's over and my work went down the drain. Things are not black and white. Just as if every meal is bad, one supremely healthy meal makes no difference, a single super bad meal makes no difference in a sea of good ones either. The goal shouldn't be exclusively healthy food. Diet should be tasty, thoughtful, beautiful, healthy, and easy to fit into life's rhythm and needs. It's natural that we occasionally crave a burek, pizza, or a burger and eat them, but it's not smart for every meal to be like that.

Habits change gradually in small, designed steps. In the case of nutrition, the first step can be something like choosing which foods will be used for one of the meals, establishing a meal routine, or determining how often sweets are eaten. Maintaining smaller changes in habits long-term has proven drastically better than a short-term radical change. Setting smaller and achievable goals not only makes achieving them easier, but also creates momentum for the next change. When we achieve a few easier goals, motivation and self-trust are built, which later helps in achieving goals that require more discipline and will.

How Change is Made

Up until now, I wrote about my observations and opinions. In this section, I talk about well-studied psychological phenomena and the theory of habit change.

Well okay, how is a behavior change actually made?A person doesn't make changes all at once but moves through different stages or phases of change. According to the transtheoretical model (TTM), there are 5 stages in behavior change:

1. Pre-contemplation (Precontemplation) - The person is unaware of or refuses to accept the need for change. At this moment, a problem exists, but solutions are not even being considered.
2. Contemplation (Contemplation) - During this stage, the person is aware that something needs to change but has mixed feelings about it. Plans are still not being made, and thinking is directed toward assessing whether the change is worth the necessary sacrifice.
3. Preparation (Preparation) - In this phase of change, people express a desire to change something soon, say within the next month. They also seriously consider how and what they should do to achieve it.
4. Action (Action) - This is the hardest part because, besides thinking, it requires actually changing something. They have thought it through and prepared, now it is time to do something. Although it is the most demanding, the action phase also gives the most motivation, because now something that was only thought about becomes a reality.
5. Maintenance (Maintenance) - Once a change is made, it is necessary to maintain that change. Although maintenance is the easiest phase because it doesn't require extra energy and people feel good about their success, this phase lasts the longest, and the effects of the change stop being obvious after a while, making it deceptively difficult. According to TTM, it takes about 6 months of consistent behavior maintenance for it to become the new normal. After this phase comes permanent success, but a return to old ways (Relapse) can also occur.

This explanation looks logical and simple if we imagine someone passing through the different stages of change in order, climbing up the ladder. However, I have yet to talk to someone who actually functions that way. In fact, it is expected that people shift phases without a specific order, even during just one meeting. So, change is never one-way, even though everyone would want it to be. When imagining habit change, we all think only about the improvement part and completely ignore the possibility of slacking off or temporary deterioration. This is beautifully expressed in one of the exercises I do with clients called 'Preparation for Failure'. During the exercise, we consider what the person will do on days when, for some reason, they cannot follow the agreed plan, when they are exhausted, grumpy, or sad. The reactions I get are very similar to reactions when it's mentioned that someone will die, despite the fact that death awaits us all. Me to fail, oh, knock on wood, what are you talking about Dušan? You don't know me, what I decide, I definitely do. But the situation comes, failure happens, and instead of Okay, this is a normal part of the process , people tell themselves Oh no, I ruined everything! In a word, life and habit changes are viewed like a boxing match in which you can only win or lose. However, there is a trick. A boxer who has lost fifty matches and then won one is a bad boxer and a loser. A person who has failed to quit smoking fifty times and then succeeded once is a non-smoker and a winner.

10 Steps to Better Nutrition

I do not possess some great secret and hidden knowledge for which people must pay me to discover it. My mission is not to become rich, but to be of help to people who want to change their habits.

People often want to change something and then do everything all at once, which is a recipe for failure. Each of these steps is an excellent goal for three or four weeks, after which it is okay to introduce new changes. These steps do not have to go in order, although to me, they make the most sense in this order.

1. Framing Meals - The simplest and only step necessary for most subsequent steps, which makes it an excellent starting point. Put simply, you need to know when you are eating and when you are resting from food. Everything you eat is part of a meal or a meal on its own, so attention should be paid to whether you are chewing all day long while technically having 3 meals, or if food was actually ingested only three times during the day. Besides food, attention should also be paid to other things containing calories, like coffees and teas with sugar, juices, compotes, smoothies, a handful of nuts, a single piece of candy, and the like.
2. Fixed Number of Meals - brings a reduction in the possibility of chewing and snacking without order or meaning. It also forces us to dedicate a little more attention to each meal and ultimately create a good habit. An ideal number of meals does not exist, but generally it is good to have 2 to 7 meals during the day, depending on capabilities and needs. A small note: if a decision was made for you to eat three times a day, and then you notice that it no longer suits you, it is completely fine to change the number of meals, just don't change it every day.
3. Fixing Meal Times - eat at a similar time every day. Meals do not have to start at the exact same minute, but it is good for them to start at an approximate time. Let's say you decided to have breakfast at 9:00; it's good to start breakfast between 8:30 and 9:30 every day. After 2 to 3 weeks of following the schedule, the body will get used to this rhythm and you will feel hunger around the time you normally have meals, so this will easily become a habit.
4. Water and Hydration - if you want to lose weight, if you want health, if you want muscle mass, if you want better results in whatever, a good fluid intake will help you with that. Water intake is very problematic in our area, and many people drink a glass or two of water a day. The daily recommendation is 3.7 liters for men and 2.7 liters for women. That is 15 glasses for men and 12 for women, and if you sweat and have physical activity, you need even more. However, these recommendations should be taken as an ideal rather than a realistic goal, so the conclusion is to intake more and strive toward the recommended amounts.
5. Physical Activity - If physical activity could be packed into a pill, it would be the most frequently prescribed medicine in the world. Physical activity has a positive impact on every aspect of life. No matter how physically active you currently are, more is generally better. More activity has no negative effects, and it has plenty of positive ones. In our city, most people do not have nearly enough training during the month and year; we move very little and this causes many problems. A frequent excuse for the absence of training is that people have physically demanding jobs, that they often stand or walk around while working, and the like. However, there is a difference between physical training and physical exertion. What is training? I am not an expert in physical activity, but I am surrounded by people who are. In their opinion: Training is any physical activity that makes you tired, that you repeat regularly, and that you do solely for the sake of health.. Running, walking, gym, soccer, swimming, cycling, hitting a punch bag... While one part of the positive effects comes from the activity itself, another comes from the mind and from doing something for yourself and something you find interesting. Because of this, I suggest to all clients to find anything that seems interesting to them and that they can train for a while. Few people plan to become professional athletes, so there is no reason to stay with something that doesn't fulfill you, as long as you quickly start with something else. In this way, physical activity remains a way to reduce stress, not its cause.
6. Adding Food Items - if you are trying to change your diet, lose weight, or feel better, do not start by cutting out foods and ingredients. Start by adding new foods. There is a lot of food you aren't currently thinking about and probably don't have at home. Some suggestions for this are grains, vegetables, fruits, fish, and nuts from the basics, and hummus, tofu, soy, salads, organ meats, and seafood from the slightly more exotic ones. Essentially, try things; if you like them, great, if not, you never have to eat them again.
7. Excluding Food Items - there is no food you should never eat; there is food you shouldn't eat on a daily or weekly basis, and some food is too much even once a month. Examples for Not every day are red meat, bread/pasta/potatoes, and juices/sweets/snacks. An example of food It's fine once a week is fast food and bakeries, and food up to once a month is deep-fried food like french fries and Karađorđeva steak. I do not advocate the philosophy: Nothing unhealthy in life, only gym and boiled chicken. On the other hand, eating only bad food every day leads to problems that everyone wants to avoid. It is best and most sensible to make a balance between living super healthy so all food is tasteless and eating pizza for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The right balance includes both pork cracklings and broccoli.
8. Meal Quantities - When the ingredients are varied and you have the same number of meals every day at a similar time, you can start thinking about quantities. This is a big step and unfortunately, I don't have a simple rule for how much to eat. By making a schedule of regular meals, hydrating well, and having physical activity, you have already helped your body better feel satiety and hunger. If leptin and ghrelin (the main hormones signaling hunger and satiety) work normally, your body knows how much food it needs and you know yourself when you are overdoing it and when you are not. If the hormones do not work properly, a serious problem already exists and, without attempting to advertise, professional help is of great use.
9. What to Eat When - It is not all the same which foods you intake at what time. The best time will depend on your biorhythm, sleep schedule, work, training, and other commitments, but a general rule exists. Simple and medium-complex carbohydrates are the best choice in the morning, before physical exertion, or before training. This replenishes the sugars that the body consumed during sleep and gives the body time to burn them off. Examples of foods are flakes and grains, corn bread (proja), a sandwich, tortillas, pie, polenta, kačamak, and other things made of flour or that are sweet. Lunch is usually the time of day when we have the most time, so for lunch I suggest a complete, traditional meal, which means cooked food, meat, salad, and dessert. This suggestion is more due to time and organization than a clear biochemical advantage. Finally, dinner should calm the body and provide proteins for the recovery and building of muscles and the immune system. Good options for dinner are eggs, chicken, mushrooms, dairy products, low-starch vegetables, and fish. Like the other steps, this is not a rule, but a guideline on how you should generally eat.
10. The Great Rest - When the previous 9 steps are made, everything else can come in turn. The great rest implies everything you can do to improve your health, length of life, and physical appearance that isn't directly connected only to nutrition. In a sea of things you can do, here are some I would highlight that have scientifically confirmed effects. Finnish sauna, regular use of a sauna with high temperatures and rapid cooling with cold water significantly improves heart health. Broccoli sprouts, consuming broccoli sprouts rich in antioxidants, such as sulforaphane, can help protect the organism from oxidative stress and reduce the risk of certain diseases. Intermittent fasting, this practice, known as autophagy, has proven beneficial for heart health, lipid profiles, and reducing inflammation. Vitamin D3 supplementation and sun exposure, vitamin D3 deficiency is common in the modern world and especially in Serbia, and this vitamin is very important for the aging process, fat metabolism, bones, and many other processes in the body. Wim Hof method, breathing exercises and short-term exposure to cold water as part of this method can have a positive impact on reducing stress and anxiety, thus improving general health conditions. I must mention that there are many practices that are proven to be pointless or even dangerous, so it is important to be cautious when introducing new things. I always recommend more education and experimentation in safe conditions to find the things that suit you and your body best.

Motivational Interviewing

Motivational Interviewing (MI) is a scientifically recognized and proven approach to habit changes. It is not psychotherapy in the standard sense, but simply a way of communicating based on listening, reflecting, and an equal relationship. It was designed to strengthen a person's motivation and commitment toward a set goal, and you can read more about it HERE.

For me, the most useful part of MI is understanding the ambivalence within all people. Do you know that feeling when you want something to change, BUT something gets in the way? You want to eat better, BUT right now you don't have time to cook. You want to go to the gym, BUT before that, you need to buy new sneakers. You want to stop smoking, BUT your whole friend group smokes. These are just some examples of the ambivalent attitude that is the most significant obstacle to habit change. Through the experiences of those better than me in MI, I learned how to successfully deal with this difficulty and how I can help people deal with their personal 'BUT' against change.

This style of communication originated when one of its creators noticed that by talking about a planned change, people actually increase their chances of success. Later, change talk was defined as talking about desire, ability, reasons, or need for change, because they all signal movement toward behavior change. Of course, it is not enough for the change to just be spoken, but it is the first step, so the core goal of motivational interviewing is seeking and listening for change talk.

I noticed that this way of talking and listening to people significantly increases their chances of achieving the desired change. Although I am not an expert in this field, I adopted some of the techniques and connected them with my approach to nutrition, biochemistry, and experience in working with people. With this, I created my own method that relies on several scientific disciplines and has so far given excellent practical results.

Personal Life and Philosophy of Living

A friend once told me: The less fake you are, the more people justifiedly trust you, and that sentence stuck with me. And indeed, we live in a world where seemingly everyone tries to present themselves as something they are not, to look richer, more beautiful, smarter, and more successful. This approach to business and life is not only ugly because it is a deception and a lie, but it forces people to live their life as someone else.

On the other hand, if what you do is honest and real, there is no need for pretending, no effort spent maintaining a false image, nor fear that people will find out you aren't who you portray yourself to be. A person who tells the truth doesn't have to remember what they said to whom.

Thinking about these things, and as someone who strives for the life of a philosopher, instead of just a classic biography talking about my titles, successes, and professional approach, what follows is the second part of the story of who I am, how I became that, and why I do what I do. Telling the story of myself turned out to be much harder than I imagined, which is why the entire biography stood open on my computer for almost 6 months. I believe the reason for this isn't that I don't know myself, but because it's hard to talk about yourself to a stranger without sounding pretentious and unrealistic. Hey, we all think we are the good guy in a book named after us.

The central part of my life is occupied by my life partner and spouse. We have been together since our teenage years, so we have been together longer than we weren't before that. Besides lifelong support in being a successful and happy man, she is also the reason why seven years ago I dared to take the first steps toward opening a practice. Today, she is also the mother of my children, healthy and wonderful girl and boy, who are growing up in Kragujevac.

I feel like I spent a large part of my life looking for a role model and a mentor. Although my life was filled with both good and bad examples of the human species, at the moment I got married, started living independently, and had a child, I still hadn't found one, so I gave up on this search. But as it often happens in life, when you stop searching and chasing things, they come on their own. That's how on the wide internet I ran into a clip from Epictetus's book Discourses, was thrilled, and ordered the book that very evening. When it arrived, I found in it the continuations of many of my thoughts and answers that arrived at the right time, so this book still stands next to me. Although I had previously read Seneca and Aurelius, who talked about similar things in the same spirit, Epictetus spoke in a language I understand well, and his version of Stoicism became what I strive for. Unfortunately, during the previous two thousand years, most ancient texts have been lost, and to this day, besides Discourses, only one other work of Epictetus has survived, Enchiridion (Handbook). Luckily for me, these two works are so rich and precisely written that I don't need anything more. It is a bit ungrateful to summarize philosophical books and talk briefly about philosophy, so I won't even try. If you are interested in reading Discourses, I suggest the Karpos edition from 2017, an excellent translation, and Enchiridion (Handbook) you can find in my translation on this website.

Hobbies are not only the most important secondary thing, but the most important most important thing for human well-being and satisfaction. Of my numerous hobbies, running D&D definitely holds the first place, which I have done at least once a week every week for the past 12 years. 'Dungeons and Dragons' is a board game played live, and if you don't know what it is, imagine five people writing a book about magic and fantasy together. Today, this game is quite popularized, partly due to its quality and interest, and partly due to popular series in which it appeared, such as 'The Big Bang Theory', 'Community', and 'Stranger Things'. Almost a year ago, I founded a D&D club in Kragujevac and I can say with pride that today it is very successful and gathers people around the table for live socializing that everyone deeply lacks today.

My other hobbies include almost daily walks through Šumarice, computer games, most often 'The Binding of Isaac' and 'MTG', writing, playing the guitar and the didgeridoo, and other things I do occasionally such as drawing, reading, handmade items, and more.

If you have reached the very end of this text, first of all, I want to thank you for your time. I believe you are now very well acquainted with who I am and what and how I do things. If you wish to cooperate, by pressing the button below you can schedule a free meeting.