Eat. Lift. Play. Repeat.

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…]