Today’s Day in the Life: Mel’s Meals post is a little different. This is actually everything I ate and drank on Monday, which I had off for Memorial Day. I was going to wait and document Tuesday, but I thought it was a good way to show you how I eat when I’m not working 8:00am-5:00pm. This was pretty typical of how I eat on the weekends, especially Sunday’s since it is my meal prep day and I did meal prep on Monday. I didn’t have any BBQs or get-togethers, so I ate everything at home.
You’ll notice that not only are my meals a little different, but the timing is VERY different. I slept in and then lounged around before eating breakfast. I also didn’t workout very first thing, so you can see how I plan meals around my workouts when they are in the middle of the day too. Let me know if you have any questions about what I’m eating or how I prepared it! Refer to yesterday’s post Grocery Shopping & Meal Prep Week 4 for what I purchased at the grocery store and details about my food prep.
In terms of macronutrients, I am still aiming at 40% protein, 30% carbohydrate, and 30% fat. I am trying to consume right around 1,600 calories and that has worked pretty well for me lately. I’m definitely in the groove and know how to eat throughout the day and still have a good balance of macros at the end of the day!
7:30am – Wake Up
I drank one liter of water first thing, as always. On the weekends or a holiday like this I drink my warm lemon water first thing too, rather than with breakfast. I filled my coffee cup with water and heated it in the microwave. While that warmed up, I finished the rest of the liter.
8:15am – Meal #1
I sat on the couch and read for a little while as I drank my warm lemon water. After I finished that I decided to make breakfast. I had one homemade whole wheat waffle topped with 6oz Greek yogurt mixed with 1/4 scoop vanilla protein and cinnamon, 30 grams strawberries, 25 grams banana, and 3/4 Tbsp cashew butter (Trader Joe’s). I put some of the yogurt on the waffle, but didn’t want too much so I ate about half of it out of the bowl I mixed it in along with some of the strawberries and cashew butter. This cashew butter is the bomb, I’m not going to lie! If you make it to Trader Joe’s then pick some up. You will not be mad about it.
9:00am – Pre-workout:
First of all, check out that adorable photo-bomb. Thanks for adding interest to the picture Dougie Fresh! Anyway, I was about ready to head to the gym so I made sure to drink my pre-workout mix beforehand (it needs 30-45 minutes to kick in). I mixed 1 scoop MusclePharm Assault (fruit punch) with about 1/2 liter of water or so.
11:15am – Meal #2/Post-workout:
I got back from the gym and made my next meal really quick. I like to eat within 30-45 minutes or else I get feeling yucky. I had a protein smoothie made with leftover coffee (from the day before), 1 scoop Musclepharm Isolate Protein (chocolate), 60 grams banana, two almond-milk frozen cubes, and 1 frozen spinach cube. Not my favorite smoothie combo of all time, but it did what I needed it to do: provide protein!
The smoothie was not quite enough calories or carbs for that post-workout meal, so I also had one brown rice cake topped with 3/4 Tbsp peanut butter and 1 Tbsp homemade strawberry chia jam. This PB & J rice cake is one of my favorite snacks! I rarely eat them during the week, but have one on the weekends occasionally.
12:30pm – Munchies:
I was making my spiralized carrots and it gets a little difficult to spiralize towards the end of the carrot, so I stopped with about an inch or so left. I spiralized three carrots, so instead of letting the ends go to waste I snacked on those. They weighed 60 grams total. I don’t know about you, but I love large carrots. For some reason they taste so much better than the baby carrots!
1:30pm – Meal #3:
I portioned out my cod for the week and had some leftover (3.25 oz left). I ate that with 1oz grilled green beans, 50 gram broccoli, 1oz avocado, Sriracha, and 1 tsp sesame seeds. This is one of my favorite veggie-bowl combinations… plus I’m addicted to Sriracha-sesame!
3:45pm – Meal #4:
I did some yard work for about an hour and then decided to read a little more. As I was reading I got a little hungry. I threw together a chicken salad, very similar to the ones I packed during meal prep. It was 2 cups romaine, 5 oz boneless, skinless chicken, 2 Tbsp sweet corn, 2 Tbsp green peas, 1oz broccoli slaw, 118 grams celery (some chopped, some in stick-form), 50 grams cherry tomatoes, and 1 Tbsp feta. I drizzled a little balsamic vinegar on top too. Delicious!
6:45pm – Meal #5
For dinner I threw together a quick frittata. I was REALLY into my book (Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger) so I didn’t want to get too crazy with dinner. I made the frittata using 2 whole eggs + 4 egg whites, 1 cup kale, and 35 grams mini heirloom tomatoes. I sautéed the veggies and then put the eggs in. Once it was set on the bottom I put it in the oven at 350° for 15 minutes. I let it cool and topped it with Cholula!
8:45pm – Meal #6
I still had some macros to fill and I started getting slightly hungry later that night so I had a bowl of cereal. If it looks random that is because it was! I had to get a little creative with the macros I had left, so I mixed 1/3 scoop MusclePharm Isolate Protein (vanilla) with 1/4 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk. Then I added 20 grams banana, 2 Tbsp Ezekiel 4:9 Organic Sprouted Grain Cereal, and 1 Tbsp peanut butter. Again, random yet it was really good! I tend to crave cereal late in the evening, so this really hit the spot.
So that was everything I ate on Monday. I did manage to drink 1 liter of water first thing and then another four throughout the day. I generally DON’T get that much water on the weekends, so I really had to be conscious about my water intake. I had splurged quite a bit over the weekend, so I wanted to flush some of that crap out. Water is a great way to do that!
All in all, I hit my macros almost dead on! I was right on track for both protein and carbs, 160 grams protein & 120 grams carbs. I was 1 gram over my fats with 54 grams for the day. That is probably the best I’ve ever done to be honest!
What did your Memorial Day look like eating wise?
