Day in the Life: Mel’s Meals

I’m not going to lie, I had some gooooood eats in this Day in the Life: Mel’s Meals post. Donny is out of town and yet I still threw together a delicious and healthy dinner!!! I managed 5 1/2 liters of water (one right away then 4 1/2 throughout the workday). If you want a little more information about how I prepared some of these foods then check out yesterday’s post Grocery Shopping & Meal Prep Week 3. If you have additional questions or what to talk food (pretty much my favorite thing to talk about) then let me know. I’d love to answer any questions about Day in the Life: Mel’s Meals.

4:30am – Pre-workout:

As always, I started my day with 1 liter of water. I drank the first half plain and then took the other half and mixed 1 scoop MusclePharm Assault (fruit punch). I also took 1 BCAA capsule pre-workout and one post-workout. [Read more…]

Time for my weekly Grocery Shopping & Meal Prep list. Donny was gone on Sunday so meal prep was entirely up to me! I survived, no big deal.

I bought a Bountiful Basket this week so I picked that up on Saturday. It FULL of fruit, plus I bought two fruit add-ons! I never go grocery shopping before I pick up my basket so I don’t buy stuff at the store that I’m already getting in the basket. That’d be silly! I usually pick up my basket and go immediately to the store for all the other weekly staples and random fruits and veggies that I didn’t get. [Read more…]

Here is this week’s Day in the Life: Mel’s Meals post. If you want to know how I prepared some of these foods then make sure you check out yesterday’s Grocery Shopping & Meal Prep post.

Clean eating doesn’t have to be difficult, but it does require some planning. I try to prep everything for the week sometime throughout the weekend. If you don’t have time to do that, then find another way to keep healthy foods cooked and ready to eat. For example, if you are cooking a pork chop or chicken breast for dinner then cook several of them and keep them in the fridge to grab in a pinch. If you want to eat brown rice for dinner one night then make 2 cups instead of 1/2 cup and use it for lunch or dinner the next day. [Read more…]

Here is week 2 of my Grocery Shopping & Meal Prep posts. If you have any questions about what I purchased or how I prepared it then let me know.

I buy quite a bit of produce but I don’t always use it all every meal prep session. I try to keep some fresh produce around for weeknight dinners. Last week we didn’t make very many dinners, instead we used the already prepped foods for that meal.

I try to keep a nice balance of fresh foods and prepared foods in the refrigerator so that we can make a nice dinner if we have time and feel like it, or we can throw together a 5-minute meal if we get home late or are being lazy. Some of these foods I’m mentioning I already had in the refrigerator or pantry, so I didn’t need to buy them this week on my shopping trip. [Read more…]

Here is my latest Day in the Life: Mel’s Meals post where I document everything I eat and drink throughout the day. I am still aiming for 1,600 calories per day with 40% coming from protein sources, 30% from carbohydrate sources, and 30% from fat sources. I really like this ratio and feel like I can manage it for a long time without feeling deprived of carbs!

By the way, Day in the Life: Mel’s Meals posts are here to show you that it doesn’t have to be difficult to eat healthy or eat mostly clean foods. It does take some planning, but there are a lot of short cuts you can take too. If you ever have any questions about the foods or preparation it took for any of Mel’s Meals then please, feel free to ask!

Today I drank around 5 1/3 liters of water. I had one right when I woke up. Then throughout the workday I managed 4 more, plus around 1/3 on the drive home from work. I typically drink quite a bit of water on Monday’s, because I’ve generally slacked in water consumption over the weekend. Now on to foooood…. [Read more…]

• 

I am starting a new weekly post that documents my grocery shopping & meal prep. I made a list of the foods I buy at the grocery store and what I like to keep in stock in My Clean Eating Shopping List, but it didn’t detail how often I have to buy these items.

I also wanted to give you a break down of my meal prepping. It is not difficult. It might be overwhelming at first, but it really does become routine and you pick up a lot of time-saving tricks. It takes a little planning and some trial-and-error, but the more you do it the easier it is. [Read more…]

Here is another Day in the Life: Mel’s Meals post with pictures and descriptions of everything I ate and drank for an entire day. Before I get started, I had someone ask me the other day what macros were and if they were specific to me. Well, yes and no. Macros is a short term for macronutrient, aka carbohydrates, protein, and fat. Micronutrients refer to vitamins and minerals such as vitamin C, A, D, E, zinc, iron, etc. Think macro as in “big” so you need higher amounts of each and micro as in “small” so you need small amounts.

Tracking calories alone can help you lose weight. Tracking the amount/percentage of macronutrients can help you lose body fat. I personally track macros because my goal is to lose body fat, not just lose weight in general. Macronutrients are tracked in terms of grams, for example I aim to eat 120 grams of carbohydrate per day, 160 grams of protein per day, and 58 grams of fat per day. Carbs and protein each have 4 calories per gram and fat has 9 calories per gram. Basically, I need 640 of my calories to come from protein, 480 calories from carbs, and 477 calories from fat (it comes out to 40% protein, 30% carbs, & 30% fat). Does that make sense? So, yes, the macros I am talking about refer to me and my body. However, anyone can track macros and you can make macros whatever you want them to be depending on your goals. Make sense? If you want help figuring out how to calculate your needs then let me know as well. [Read more…]

I spent quite a bit of time in the kitchen over the past weekend. I made quite a few new recipes and also prepped quite a bit of food on Sunday. I have liked the meals I’ve had so far! Enough variation, but nothing too crazy. Here is what I ate from start to finish on Monday.

4:30am: Pre-Workout

First thing I drank 1 liter of water, half plain and the other half used to mix 1 scoop MusclePharm Assault (fruit punch). I took 1 BCAA pre-workout and one post-workout. [Read more…]

We got back from St. Louis Monday afternoon. Let’s just say I’m feeling quite large because we did not hold back on vacation. Ice cream, BBQ, LOTS of beer….and that was just Saturday! We had a blast but I am feeling a bit bloated still so I’ve been drinking a lot of lemon water and really watching my calorie intake. Give me a few days and I’m sure I’ll be back to normal! Here is everything I ate and drank on Tuesday.

4:30am – Pre-workout

I always drink 1 full liter of water when I get up. On week days when I workout first thing, I drink half the liter plain and mix the other half with 1 scoop MusclePharm Assault (fruit punch flavor). I also take 1 BCAA capsule pre-workout and 1 post-workout. [Read more…]

 

I honestly LOVE grocery shopping. I don’t necessarily love crowds, but if I could walk up and down each aisle and look at all the food products, read labels, and check out new items then I would be in heaven! If I could get paid to grocery shop, then I totally would.

I feel like there are list-people in this world and there are non-list-people in this world. I, for one, am a list person. I hate going to the store and forgetting ONE item because I didn’t make a list. However, I don’t always shop with a list because I pretty much know my go-to items when it comes to filling my pantry and refrigerator. If I want to try a new recipe or have a couple items that aren’t weekly purchases, then I definitely make a list. Otherwise, I have some grocery-store staples that I buy each week to use for meals. [Read more…]