I was excited to get back to clean eating foods after being on vacation for an entire week! Don’t get me wrong, I love trying new restaurants, but eating out every single meal for days gets old for me. I love cooking and I love knowing exactly what is in my food. The trip was great and I loved the food, but coming home and making food again was fantastic!

It is no surprise that I gained weight while on vacation (I didn’t track one single calorie the entire time), so I wanted to get back down to normal fairly quickly. I don’t do any crazy cleanses, but I try to pay particular attention to what I eat and drink. My meals are typically clean anyway, but I tighten it up even more right after a vacation or indulgent weekend. [Read more…]

I decided to get a little more creative with my meals this week, which made me plan a little bit more too! It was well worth it because I have been loving every meal that I’ve eaten. You know it is a good meal when you think about it all day… just waiting for the time you get to eat it. Is that just me? Does anyone else do that?!

If you have questions about how I prepared any of these foods, then check out yesterday’s post Grocery Shopping & Meal Prep Week 17. Now here is Day in the Life: Mel’s Meals: [Read more…]

Donny & I were in Wisconsin for a wedding Friday through Sunday, so I knew there wouldn’t be much time to make it to the grocery store. However, Donny suggested stopping at the King Sooper’s that is fairly close to the airport. Genius! In college I shopped at King Sooper’s, but we don’t have a convenient one anymore. It was fun to go to a new grocery store to see all the different products! They had a huge produce section and we picked out some fun, unusual buys for us.

Other than that, meal prep was pretty much with some of the same foods as usual. If you have questions about how I prepared any of these foods then check out yesterday’s Grocery Shopping & Meal Prep Week 16 post. Otherwise, shoot me an email, Facebook message, text or comment below. [Read more…]

Here is this week’s Day in the Life: Mel’s Meals, where I document my clean eating meals for an entire day. Clean eating doesn’t have to be difficult or stressful. A little planning mixed with a few convenient foods helps keep meals easy, yet healthy. For example, our dinner below was full of colorful foods that are all clean eating approved and SO delicious! Plus, I had a sweet treat after my after-dinner dessert!

If you have questions about how anything was prepared, then check out yesterday’s Grocery Shopping & Meal Prep Week 15 post. If that doesn’t answer you question then feel free to send me an email, Facebook message or comment below. [Read more…]

I had another interesting day of eating this week in terms of Mel’s Meals. Nothing too weird, but definitely a little different. Donny & I had another dentist appointment to go to get our teeth fixed up, so my eating schedule was thrown off a little bit. I still managed to eat whole, clean eating foods. The only difference was the timing and some of the foods I chose.

I did end up eating a lot of yogurt, which I didn’t realize until I was putting together this post. I had a little in the morning, a little mid-afternoon and then had more for dinner. Most of the time I try to avoid that, but I didn’t do too much meal prep this week. [Read more…]

I have really grown to love Day in the Life: Mel’s Meals posts. I like to be able to show you the foods that I eat and hope that I prove that it doesn’t have to be difficult to eat clean. A little prep work does wonders. Your meal prep work doesn’t have to be as intense as mine. Start with a few tips here and there, then build on that. Here are some other reasons why I like to share Mel’s Meals with you: [Read more…]

My meals this week have a little more variety in terms of vegetables. I eat a lot of the same foods each week, but this weekend we went to a couple farmer’s markets in Denver and picked up some cool produce (tri colored green beans?!?! Awesome).

Here is everything I ate and drank throughout the day. I drank 5 liters or so of water (one when I first woke up and four more throughout the day). Drinking water is really important and can help with weight loss. I suggest staying well hydrated!

If you have any questions about how I prepared these foods then check out yesterday’s Grocery Shopping & Meal Prep Week 12 post. Otherwise, feel free to send me an email, Facebook message or comment below. If you haven’t noticed… I love talking about food! [Read more…]

Day in the Life: Mel’s Meals is a weekly post where I get to show you everything I eat and drink throughout the day. I want to show you that simple, healthy meals are possible using clean eating ingredients. They don’t have to be difficult recipes or made with weird ingredients. Most of my meals are made with whole foods and very few foods that have been processed. Occasionally I’ll incorporate “convenience” foods, which is perfectly fine every once in a while.

I track everything that I eat in terms of macronutrients. I aim to get 40% of my diet through protein sources, 30% through carbohydrates and 30% from fat. I use My Fitness Pal to track these values and have the app set to those goals. When I prepare my meals for the week I prepare 3 full meals ahead of time. I use breakfast and dinner to “fill in the gaps” in terms of rounding out macros. I also aim for 30 grams of protein at each meal throughout the day in order to keep a steady influx all day long.

I definitely like eating 5 small meals per day with a pre-workout snack in there. Each meal throughout the day is anywhere between 250-400 calories. This eating schedule works for me, but yours might be different! Don’t worry about, just do what works for you.

So I consumed 1 liter of water right away, then another 5 liters throughout the day. I did not do a great job drinking water on Sunday, so I could definitely tell on Monday that I needed a little extra H2O.

Now here is what I ate throughout the day. If you have questions about how I prepared these foods then check out yesterday’s Grocery Shopping & Meal Prep Week 11 post. [Read more…]

Day in the Life: Mel’s Meals shows you everything I eat and drink throughout an entire day. I start at 4:30am with what I eat before I head to the gym and finish with either dinner or after-dinner dessert.

I track my macronutrients so occasionally I explain why I chose to eat certain foods. I try to spread my protein out throughout the day, without consuming too much more than 30 grams of protein per meal. I think that helps give me a steady supply of energy throughout the day to avoid an afternoon slump.

In terms of water, I consumed one liter of water right when I woke up and five more throughout the day. I drank a ton of water on Friday & Saturday, but also sweat a lot (it was in the upper-90s or 100 both days). I didn’t drink nearly enough on Sunday, because honestly I slept most the day! I definitely needed a lot of water come Monday. So here is everything I ate on Monday, from start to finish. [Read more…]

Every week I like to document for an entire day everything I eat and drink to show you that clean eating is doable! It doesn’t have to be fancy or super complicated recipes. Half the time I don’t even use a recipe! I throw random ingredients in a bowl (or this time on a plate) and call it dinner!

If you have questions about how I prepared some of these foods then check out yesterday’s Grocery Shopping & Meal Prep Week 9 post. It will show you what I bought at the grocery store for the week and how I prepared all my foods and meals for the week.

I didn’t consume as much water as I would have liked. I had plenty, but not as much as usual. I had 1 liter right off the bat and then 4 throughout the day. I usually drink two liters before lunch at the office, 1/2 or a full liter over lunch, then another 1-2 in the afternoon. I try not to drink anything after work because I’ll pee all. night. long. [Read more…]