Author: melodiealexander

We are only 5 days away from Christmas and our house is full of magic, holiday parties, holiday baking, elf shenanigans and so much love. As we get to the end of the year, I always reflect on the past year as I’m sure a lot of you do too! This year has been so much for me. I’ve went through some obstacles of being a mom to 3. Mallorie went to kindergarten and is acting like she’s 13 sometimes. My mom heart explodes though because she’s such a motivated, generous and wonderful helper in all aspects of her life. Makenzie is going to preschool and beats to her own drum, only wears workout pants, summer dresses and short sleeve t-shirts. She has a kind soul but gets mad very quickly when something doesn’t go her way. The independence is deep in that one. And our sweet Tucker, he lights up our world. There’s something about having a baby boy and I am so blessed he came into our lives. He’s standing on everything and before we know it, he’ll be walking! Time sure has flown.

Growth—Travis and I have grown this year individually and together. We are so very lucky to be able to be where we are in our lives and are so fortunate for the positive people in our lives. 2019 is going to be hard to beat but 2020 is already looking to be great!

This week, the girls and I made gluten free sugar cookies. I’ll post the recipe link below. I thought they were ok and Travis thought they were good! The girls liked them too. I did use egg in it(even due to my sensitivity) because I couldn’t bring myself to using applesauce when I was already using gluten free flour. 🤷🏼‍♀️🤣 We will be making regular sugar cookies Monday. We also made Oreo Truffles which are so rich and sweet but delicious. We took them to Makenzie’s Preschool Christmas party and they were a hit!

Keeping me on track with my nutrition for the most part has been MQT Nutrition. Their meal prep service has saved me from having to put together lunches and dinners along with taking care of the holiday hustle. I highly recommend them!

I’m enjoying the Holidays but not losing sight of my goals. My body fat is right where I want it to be. I am continuing to do my strength workouts and HIIT workouts through the week. I also have been interval running on the treadmill a couple days a week. Averaging about 6-10 miles a week. I’m excited for TWO races this spring/summer and look forward to more. I was talking to somebody when I ran my last marathon and they said generally when somebody does a marathon, that’s either the only one they do or they keep doing them! Looks like I’m the one who keeps doing them. Running outside is so therapeutic for me and my training runs are so empowering. Listening to my body is most crucial. Like, yesterday I worked out with somebody and by the end I was just like I need a rest day I could just tell. So this morning I am just enjoying some coffee, I am kidless because my sister has them for a special pre-Christmas weekend and I’m just enjoying my time and getting Christmas stuff wrapped up! I’m so thankful to have her to take them for weekends and trips because when we need those much needed breaks, it really gives us a chance to be us and they also love spending time with auntie and uncle, so it’s a win win!

I do have to share a Makenzie story. So, Tuesday afternoon neither her or Tucker would fall asleep so I put them in the car and of course they fall asleep. So, then it is time to pick Mallorie up from school because they both had haircuts and so she was stirring around but basically I had to wake her up and I brought her in the school and she insisted that we were staying because she wanted something to eat and she was carrying on and crying and saying she was staying so finally after five minutes of trying to convince her I had to grab her and pick her up. And I had took her in the other hand and she managed to squeeze out and she tried to run back in the school. So I had to grab her again and we got to the vehicle and I sat her down and she started running so I had to grab her again and then finally I got her in the vehicle and she laid on the floor saying she wasn’t going and that she hated us. So got to the hair salon and she came in but screamed at the door yelling don’t talk to me don’t look at me. And we just ignored her and then all of a sudden she came out of it got her haircut was so appreciative and then we got home and I was all of a sudden like “hey Kenzie who was that kid at the school and at the hair salon?” And she looks at me and she says “yeah, mom I was just crying and mad because I just needed something to eat, I was crazy, right mom?” These are real mom moments that I will always look back on and be so appreciative that I was able to be a mom. But in those sweaty moments wrangling them, it can be so overwhelming! To all the mamas out there, keep doing a great job!

Happy Saturday!

Click here for the gluten free sugar cookie recipe!

Sometimes we can become so stuck on our nutrition that we tend to eat the same foods over and over and then that turns into over eating on things that aren’t the healthiest for us because we go for so long without having the foods we like or we just get sick of having the same foods and get stuck in a rut. At least that has happened to me in the past.

My goal through this whole process of living a healthy lifestyle has been to change it up always and not get stuck in a rut of eating the same thing over and over. I used to eat the same thing all through the weeks everyday and then I would find myself eating the foods I loved on the weekend but way too much of them! And on Sunday-Monday I would feel sluggish and bloated. Now, I focus more on what I feel like eating, mostly healthy of course but making sure I only eat until I feel satiety vs eating until I’m way too full! And if I feel like something sweet or a little extra…I have a piece or a serving of it and I feel much better than if I try and not have it. I’ve really enjoyed reading the Plant Paradox book because it really opens your eyes to the types of foods that are best and making sure you’re eating the proper fruits/veggies for the time of year.

Making the changes on my food sensitivity test has made a difference. Just being more aware. Especially with egg ingredients. Dressings I was having had eggs, I was having a lot of things with garlic and coconut ingredients and not even realizing it. I’ve had pizza and various other things but I’ve been so much BETTER! We made Christmas cookies with applesauce as the substitute for egg and that worked well!

Also, another huge thing that has helped this week is getting meals from MQT Nutrition. Seriously, I’m the hustle and bustle of the Holiday season it can be so hard to eat healthy. If you live in Marquette, check out their meal prep options or go in and grab a meal! https://mqtnutrition.com

I still am fasting daily because I love it. I still am fasting until 1-2 in the afternoon, eating between then and 7pm. It really allows me to focus more on my tasks for the day and then have a meal, a snack and then one final meal. Fasting doesn’t work for everyone but it’s worth trying to see if it’s something that works for you! I’d be happy to guide you along if you’d like some help. Not only does fasting have benefits for timing but many health benefits as well!

I’ve been doing so much research and reading on fasting, food sensitivities and overall health/food options and it really can be overwhelming for us but I’m writing in a food journal and a daily journal so I follow through daily and it really makes a big difference when you put things down on paper. It keeps me more accountable to learn but also to know what I’m putting in my body.

The hustle of the holidays is here and I can’t believe we’re so close to Christmas. It can get so hectic but be sure to enjoy moments and time with your loved ones as that’s the reason for the season! I’ve done a good job getting the gifts the girls have really wanted and not just buying things to buy them. It’s been nice to be able to shop with Tucker when they are at school as he can’t tell them what we’re buying YET! He’s a pretty good shopping partner if you give him snacks but he does get a little crazy and stands up in the cart so I have to push the cart from the end so he’s safe! He tries to help wrap gifts but that doesn’t always end well! 🤣 I hope you all are enjoying the Holiday Season!

Here is a picture of him with me at Target helping 😉

Have a great weekend and as always, thanks for reading along!

Continue reading “Nutritional Goals//Food Sensitivity Update//Research//Holiday Hustle//My Helper//” →

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and felt grateful. Yesterday I encountered various people I follow on social media being rude and calling people “idiots” or “stupid” and I just have to say I’m thoroughly surprised at how people can be so rude and say obscene things about people. You know, a lot of people are trying so hard to be better and then there are people who try to take them down. Just be kind, be grateful and most of all respect others.

I got my food sensitivity test results back on Tuesday and I found out I’m highly sensitive to egg whites. I actually cut out eggs almost completely two months ago because I would have stomach discomfort almost instantly after that would last a last all day. But now I’m quickly realizing I was doing other things that had eggs in the ingredients. With Holiday baking coming up, I was researching how to replace eggs in recipes and it says applesauce. My fellow bakers, is that true? I also am moderately sensitive to the yolk so cutting out the complete egg is what I’m doing.

Other items on my list are:

Barley, chicken, coconut, garlic, kelp, rye, tuna and wheat. Now most of these were at 20-25 and my egg white sensitivity was at 109.

Kelp was the second highest coming in at 46. Interestingly enough the fruits and greens powder I was taking had kelp in it and I cut that out last week and replaced my fruits and greens shake with the Plant Paradox green smoothie. So, I talked about in my blog post last week how I cut out heavy whipping cream and high fat cheeses. I did replace my tbsp of heavy whipping cream with almond milk creamer but I realized when I got my results back there is Coconut Cream in my creamer so I will be going to dairy creamer again as it turns out I’m sensitive to coconut products and not dairy at all. So, these last couple days have been a lot of reading labels. One huge thing I have to say is, if you can buy organic, do so. In the organic chicken broth there was only three ingredients and in the off brand there was TEN.

These last couple days have been so eye opening on how much I was eating that had my sensitivity foods in it. It really helps when you have someone (Travis) who is willing to help with these changes and give ideas to make the necessary changes.

With Thanksgiving yesterday I had turkey, mashed potatoes and then we made a homemade stuffing with sausage, celery, (eggs, but we substituted with homemade applesauce) and spices as well. It turned out super tasty. I opted out of the pies because of the egg ingredients but I had some chocolate mousse for dessert.

We had a great day with family and we ended up having to go out and buy a new Christmas tree for our dining room. We’re planning to go pick out our real tree this weekend!

If anyone has any egg free Holiday recipes they’d like to send my way, please do!

As always, thanks for following along! And if you’re interested in doing the Everly Food Sensitivity test, follow the link here and use code BESTSALE for 25% OFF and let me know if you’re doing it so we can talk about your results when you get them!

So, in the past month and a half or so I actually have really had to own in on my nutrition, as far as what “healthy” foods I was putting in based on the choices I was making. For the past three years or so I implemented heavy whipping cream in and really had no issues. I had Tucker and it seems like with each kid, moms may hear me on this one, I know friends who have dealt with the same types of things. But, you develop food sensitivities after, I just think it comes down to hormones and I haven’t researched too much on this so it’s just me making the assumption that this is probably the case, so, I started having more issues like I said in the past month and a half and things were just not feeling right, my stomach was upset and bloated so I had to do the pull away foods “method” to see what foods were basically making the bowel issues. I actually switched the long chain lactose foods(thanks to Travis’ knowledge) which are you know higher fat so heavy whipping cream and whole fat cheeses was what I took out and I noticed a huge difference right away and then I was also doing a fruits and greens shake with ketogenic shake powder and I also took that out because of the high fats. I initially didn’t take the fruits and greens out until this week when I started implementing the green smoothie from the plant paradox book(for the recipe click here) and I’m not even kidding my bowels and stomach have been the best yet.

Until last night when I got a salad(the good choice) and I ate a couple sweet potato fries from Makenzie’s burger meal and I have had a severe allergic reaction to brussels sprouts, which I love, since I’ve had Tucker I had a severe allergic reaction this summer where my throat was itchy, I got hives and the sweats when I ate like 10 brussel sprouts and last night as soon as I ate like five sweet potato fries, I got severe heartburn my throat was itchy right away and I felt like I was burping up Brussels sprouts and Travis said they most likely deep fry the brussels sprouts in the same oil(duh!) so that makes sense. I just have had to be careful with choices and options and usually salads are my go to when eating out.

My DNA states that I am not lactose intolerant and so that was my claim to Travis when he suggested to cut out the heavy whipping cream and high fat cheeses and he said but yes, but you’re eating all high fat type, it’s not the lactose part of it(again, thanks Travis for the knowledge) I’m guilty of not always listening but he’s generally always right (that was really hard for me to type, LOL!) So what I do is if I want creamer in my coffee when I am done fasting, I put almond milk creamer in and I actually have liked that better, and so has my stomach. I completely took out the cheese and have replaced that with Brazilian nuts(high in selenium) because in my DNA it states I need more selenium which Brazilian nuts have. I recently took a food sensitivity test as well and I’m waiting for the results to come back on that so I will definitely be sharing when I get those results!

Just another fun fact after having babies, during my pregnancies with both girls my shoe size went up a little more than a half size. I started at a 6.5 and by the time Makenzie was born I was a size 8 and I stayed a size 8, now after having Tucker, my foot is actually back down to a 6.5. Hormones and pregnancy is crazy and no joke but I wouldn’t trade any of it for my babies.

Just a reminder, don’t be afraid to ask questions, get the knowledge from people you need and don’t be afraid to talk about the things like bowel movements and other things because at the end of the day being healthy is what matters.

Also, I want to say, I was so swollen last night through this morning, I weighed myself this morning and I was up 4 pounds and so I’ve just been drinking water, had 2 cups of coffee and then my ketones and more water and I have been going pee pretty much nonstop but I had to weigh myself before leaving my workout at the Y and I was already back down 3 pounds, I know it’s not a huge deal about the weight, but it just goes to show when you have those inflammatory foods you should not have, it takes a toll on us, so that is why it is so important to make sure we are taking care of our bodies and putting in the proper foods 80-90% of the time. But, thankfully, my bowels and stomach feel fine, because of how fast I am back on track!

Also, another thing to keep in mind. It is Friday and a lot of times I think when people do a great job during the week on their nutrition and then they come to the weekend, a lot of times (me being one of these people before, but not anymore!!!) We tend to over eat or over drink beginning on Friday night and it lasts for the whole weekend! Try to stay more in realm with your food and drink choices, if you like to have fish fry, share with someone or have half, if you like to have drinks, try having 1-2 instead of 5-6. Making small changes like this will benefit your long term health!

As always, thanks for following along! And As always, if you have any questions or would like some guidance, just reach out.

I had a major learning lesson a couple weeks ago and I debated posted this blog post but then decided, heck yeah I’m posting it. We got our vehicle cleaned and Makenzie’s carseat was left in there because we have extras. When I got her in her car seat before we went to school I “assumed” her car seat was buckled in as it was in the same spot where she always sits. I buckled her up and got in the front seat to leave but then I’m like “No, Melodie, don’t just assume that car seat is buckled in.” I went back to the back seat and sure enough..it was not buckled back up, why would I assume that someone who cleans vehicles should know how to buckle my kids car seat in? I should not assume.

Assumptions definition: a thing that is accepted as true or as certain to happen, without proof. You should never assume anything in life. I’ve been told by various people on my postpartum journey…”well, it’s easy for you to get and stay in shape because you’re married to a trainer and it’s what you guys do” That’s a huge assumption, I work my butt off and make sacrifices for the way I want to look and in return it makes me feel really good. And that’s what it’s all about, that full circle. And at the end of the day, it’s my choice. Or another one, “you don’t know what it’s like to have a lot of weight to lose, you don’t understand.” Assumption because I’ve gained 35-40 pounds with each pregnancy and guess what?? It didn’t magically come off, I had to work to get it off both mentally and physically. If you’re going through hard times or you think you don’t have the time to workout, let me tell you, that’s a choice, choose whether you want to live longer, look and feel better but don’t blame it on others because of you not following through to ensure your success and also don’t assume that your journey is more tough than others, we all have our hardships, our struggles and things that we can’t control but I’m here to tell you, if you take an hour, 45 minutes, 30 minutes or even 15 minutes to move and put exercise in your life for at least 3-4 days a week, you will see a difference in not only your body but so much in your mind(what matters most) because of those endorphins. If you make a CHOICE to put a healthy greens shake with protein in your system instead of candy or sweets, that’s your CHOICE and I promise you, if you keep doing it, you’ll see changes. Commit to a better you. Own YOUR journey, not anyone else’s because life is tough and if you’re worried about what others think or are doing, you’re taking time away from your journey. That’s been a battle of mine, worrying about what other people think and now after three kids and owning my journey and doing what’s best for me, I don’t care what the negative people’s perception of me is. No one has time for that! My grandma used to say, “if you have nothing nice to say, then don’t say anything at all.” choose to find the positive in every day.

I think we all need to strive to make better choices. Is there a time and a place for things you love? Yes, I think so because I enjoy them from time to time. I think sometimes we make so many excuses for ourselves because it’s easier to choose not to workout or prep food. I’m all about helping others, but if I guide you, you need to do your part and follow through to see the results. That’s just a fact.

I recently started helping someone with their nutrition and we implemented short 20-30 minute workouts in as well. I check in, she asks questions. She’s following my guidance and seeing results. That’s how it works! And the workouts are what she’s falling in love with because of the way she feels after.

As always, if you need anything, reach out. I really enjoy helping others live a more balanced, healthy life without sacrificing everything! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, “balance is beautiful!”

Also, last week was one of those weeks where I feel like I couldn’t keep up with the girls attitudes or dinner options, where nothing sounded good. We all get stumped and have weeks that aren’t as good as others, but, that’s what the balance of life is all about. Here’s to a new week, shopping done for food this week, time to conquer it!

As always, thanks for reading!

My success is measured by how hard I work, your success is no different. On a previous podcast I talked about my own personal success on how the scale didn’t win. I’m at a higher weight than I was after both girls but a lower body percent fat. The scale isn’t always the winner and I’m here to tell you how that can be so mentally taxing. I wanted the scale to read 118-120 until I was stuck around 130 and then my monthly measurement check came up and low and behold, I reached a lower body percent fat at this weight than I did when I was lighter. You see, the scale isn’t always the biggest determination of our success. Lowest weight for me meant, less muscle, higher body percent fat. Travis said I could lose 2 more pounds and be at my ultimate weight! Guess what weight I reached yesterday morning on Halloween?!

Now, what are my goals, since the scale doesn’t need to go down for me anymore?

1. More toning, especially my mid section because I’ve carried three babies and I’m darn proud of those imperfections but it doesn’t hurt to keep working on ourselves.

2. Being consistent with my weight training and varying my workouts. You just might find me teaching group ex classes again! 👏🏼💪🏼😊 But I will never not use weights again.

3. Making sure I’m filling my body up with mostly healthy foods and ENOUGH. I can’t stress this enough, more muscle has proven to me that I need more calories, especially while breastfeeding Tucker. Fasting has allowed me to do 2-3 big meals so it’s less time consuming to meal prep and it’s working. And I’ve done a lot of research on fasting and breastfeeding and fasting has actually shown to have higher fat amounts in breast milk.

4. My other goals I haven’t quite committed to yet. I’ll let those out of the bag soon! 🤣 I’m going to run Grandma’s marathon again next year, hoping to get into the Bayshore half marathon in Traverse City in May.

5. Being the best version of myself for myself, my husband, my kids, my family, friends and clients. Positive vibes only is my mantra and I’ll be the first to say…if you’re feeling negative or down, try a workout, focus on the food you’re putting in your body and make yourself accountable to reach your goals. At the end of the day, you are ALWAYS in control. Need guidance? I’m always here for that!

As the end of the year is approaching(I can’t even believe I’m saying that) I looked at my stats for my blog for the year and it is amazing to see over 20,000 views! I do this because I love doing it and helping people. My greatest asset is living the healthy lifestyle and showing that it IS possible to reach those post partum goals or goals for any person. It’s not easy, but it’s so damn worth it!

I also am so excited to attach my website to order products online! Why TM Fitness? Because Travis supports me and M Fitness didn’t include my whole family. Because without Travis, Melodie, Mallorie, Makenzie and Tucker none of this would be possible. tmfitnessmqt.com

As always, your love and support is so appreciated. 👏🏼✨💪🏼

Halloween is always my weakness because I LOVE Reese’s peanut butter cups and three musketeers! I decided to “allow” myself to have one a day through last week to see if it would make me honestly only have one because I’m usually guilty of having 4 or more a day 😳 once the girls go trick or treating! Finding things that make you more successful vs binge eating or making the wrong choices is always my goal.

So it is Sunday as I write some of this and I’ve had one like four times this week.

I didn’t have any yesterday(Sunday) so I decided to kick off this week with a cleanse. Modified because I’m still breastfeeding. Why Halloween week? Because I like to challenge myself. As always if anyone is interested in doing a cleanse, let me know, always have products to ship, pick up or drop off. The website to order products directly from is going to be live by Friday! That’s the fun thing about what I get to do. I not only get to help, guide and motivate people, I also get to design things because that’s what I went to school for too. I thoroughly ENJOY what I get to do!

Yesterday Travis and I worked out together and it’s funny because I thought I was really pushing myself with weights and with him I used weights I haven’t tried when I’m working out by myself. I was thoroughly impressed that I was able to do the weights I did and also I was excited to sleep last night because I was so tired from the workout. 🤪 I generally run on Sundays but we had family in town for the weekend so it was nice to be able to get the workout in with Travis while the kiddos were in tot watch. I slept from 9:30-7! Felt so good and now I’m ready to conquer Monday!

So, my challenge to you is, limit the sweets this week. I said limit not none at all! If you want to join me in that challenge, let’s do it! With the cleanse this week I’m going to let my liver take the potentially harmful chemicals and turn them into water soluble chemicals that can be sweated or excreted from the body. I’ve taken my measurements this morning and a before picture and on Friday morning I will let you all know my results in 4 days. I’m challenging myself to NO HALLOWEEN CANDY in these four days and maybe after even because a lot of times once you rid yourself of those harmful sugars, you don’t want them anymore and to be honest after having some last week, I’m ok with not having any this week, for now. There’s always the challenge when the candy is in front of you.

As always, thanks for following along. Fun fact, Tucker is 9 months old today, here we are 9 months in and here we are 9 months out!

As always, thanks for following along!

Today began with a whole lot of chaos, I was trying to get my printer to print a couple pages I needed this morning. It wasn’t cooperating, I couldn’t figure out how to print from my phone since my computer kept saying “printer not responding” all while that was happening, my computer then died and I couldn’t find my charger. Finally found it after about 10 minutes of looking and also realized I was connected to the wrong printer so I got the pages I needed. 🤦🏼‍♀️😂

I became stressed and frantic. I kept telling myself to breath but my mind kept going to the negative. While all this was going on, Tucker was getting tired because he woke up at 6:30 today ready to play so then by 8 he wanted a nap so he was getting cranky. Makenzie was nagging at me about what she was wearing and she always wants a specific dress but then ends up wearing what we originally picked the night before.

Mallorie needs no help in the morning getting dressed, brushing hair, teeth and getting her back pack set. It seriously has made a huge difference with our time schedule and I’m completely grateful for that but it’s also bittersweet because she is growing up so fast.

Mallorie got on the bus, before we went to the Y for my workout I had to stop at the eye doctor to pick up a contact because I’m having issues with the brand of contacts I’m wearing in my left eye. I couldn’t find my car keys but I knew I had them because the car was started so I was searching in every bag only to find them about 5 minutes later on the seat.

We got to the Y, and after I dropped Makenzie and Tucker in tot watch, I immediately went to the stair climber and busted out 10 minutes of complete cardio to sweat, get my heart rate up and just breath.

I then went into workout, which I’m going to share with you

Round 1:

Kettlebell squats with a press

Medicine Ball walking lunges (push medicine ball up and when you do each lunge)

ladder push ups or regular push ups

Repeat the round 3 times total, going from

14, 12, 10 reps

Round 2:

Squats with a bar, plate or body weight

Kettlebell step through lunges

Kettlebell shoulder press

Repeat the round 3 times total, going from

14, 12, 10 reps

I finished with a 15 minute stair climber workout with someone on the FitRadio App

The perfect workout to get my mind set out of the gutter and onto positive thinking. For me, it’s not always about how much weight or how hard I push myself, for me some days it’s because I need that hour to regain my focus. I don’t want my kids to see me mad for silly reasons. My focus is and always will be to make sure they know they are loved, taken care of but in order to make sure they are, I need my me time to ensure I am leading by example and being the best version of myself. Today was no joke, it seemed like the whole day was going to just be problem after problem. But after my workout, I was able to get back into that positive mind set. Now I have food cooking to keep our nutrition in check this week, Tucker is napping, Makenzie is playing with her barbies and I’m doing some work! Beautiful balance. I’m sure there will be plenty more crazy moments as there is everyday but now I feel more focused and ready to handle situations!

On another note, the girls and Tucker stayed overnight at my sisters this weekend and Tucker is back to biting me. Bites my arms, my stomach, he was on the floor crawling around today and he bit my toe even. I am not sure what my best option is discipline him as he is so little. He is getting more teeth, his 5th tooth is through and his 6th one is close to breaking through. I give him stuff to chew and that hasn’t seemed to help. I thought maybe that was his way of punishing me for leaving him! Any advice would be appreciated!

I made Chicken Fajita Soup today, click herehttps://melodiealexander.com/recipes/ for the recipe.

As always, thanks for following along. I always get such positive feedback and I appreciate you all for following along!

Some weeks I’m a little more strict than others and I focus on various things.

This week I am focusing on:

No sweeteners/sweets—sometimes when I do coffee and heavy whipping cream I will put stevia in the raw in my coffee for a little extra but this week my goal was to do zero sweeteners. And sometimes I have a Diet Coke but honestly I can’t even remember the last time I’ve had pop, so I’m realizing it’s been pretty easy to let that go. I am also doing this because Makenzie turns THREE on Friday so there will be some sort of cake or cupcake enjoyed with her for sure! Weighing my food—I put my food scale out on the counter this week to weigh my chicken breast, nuts and other things that need to be weighed. I have gotten really good with eyeing things but this week I wanted to hone in a little more on the foods and make sure I’m logging properly. If you click the scale it will take you right to Target online to order or you will see what aisle it’s in at your local Target!

No evening snacking—I generally am always really good at this but it took me a while. I would be guilty of being so good throughout the day and being below my caloric intake and then I would be SO unbelievably hungry I wouldn’t be able to not eat so if I do get really hungry, like stomach growling hungry, not just because you’re bored or have a craving hungry, because we all know that’s most of the time the case, I generally mix up a shake with protein/water or have 2 tbsp of nuts. (Almonds, macadamia nuts or cashews) But now I focus on having my daily calories in by 6 or 7 pm!

I had a pretty tough evening to conquer on Sunday with the way I was feeling and letting negativity win but I can say I blasted through the negativity and this week has been great! Positive vibes for the win!

Dinners this week have included:
Chicken Breast(I bought 5 lbs and cooked it all so it is readily available to make whatever it is I’m feeling like)

Monday: 4oz Chicken Breast with 1tbsp Bleu Cheese and 1 C. steamed broccoli 🥦

Tuesday: 4oz chicken breast with 1tbsp mustard and 1 C. steamed broccoli

I also made a chicken Cesar salad for Travis for dinner and lunches this week:
8oz chicken breast
2 tbsp Cesar dressing
1/4 C shredded cheddar jack cheese
Pepper on top

Wednesday:
4oz steak
Asparagus with olive oil, salt, pepper and Parmesan cheese cooked in the oven at 425 for 15 mins

I hope your week is going well so far! As always, I hope you are making better choices and you are moving in the right direction to reach those goals. As always, thanks for following along and if you need any guidance or have questions don’t hesitate to reach out! You can easily reach our by filling out the contact page by clicking here.

✨ Introduction time ✨

I’m Melodie, I was born in Hancock, MI but born and raised in Greenland, MI and went to Ontonagon Schools. I’m the baby of four. I have two brothers and one sister. I graduated high school in 2007.

I went to NMU and earned a degree in Health Information. I met Travis the first week of school through a girl I had just met in my freshman classes and the rest is history. We were married in 2011 at the ages of 22 & 23. He’s older! 😜

I had a job at a local gym for 7 years.

I am a Health Coach according to a certificate I earned, but in my eyes, living and doing the “fitness and nutrition” aspect for almost 12 years, my real life experience is where I pull most of my knowledge from.

I’m in the best shape I’ve been in at 30 then I was years ago.

I’m a mom to three, two girls and a boy. I had non medicated births because that’s what I wanted and I was able to do it. I may have questioned myself during but I had fairly fast labors and a great husband to guide me through.

I love spending time with my family and lately one of my favorite things to do is watch a movie and cuddle with them all in our king size bed because life can be pretty crazy and taking those moments together is crucial.

We have two beagles boys who test our patience more than our kids.

Travis works as the Manager of Personal Training and Wellness and is a Personal Trainer at the YMCA and works very hard. He’s truly our super husband/dad.

I’ve never broken any bones. I’ve ran two marathons, one at 7 weeks pregnant.

I’ve never got a speeding ticket.

I’m a stay at home, working mama.

I have a blog, I offer many health and wellness services, I sell therapeutic ketones and supplements(website launching soon👏🏼 🎉) I love summer and fall but I enjoy the change of seasons.

I’ve never lived anywhere other than Michigan.

We want to retire in the warmth but intend to do a lot of traveling. We will always call Marquette home. And we will snowmobile at least once a year!

I’ve breastfed all my kids for just over two years. Well, not Tucker yet. 🤣

My passion is to help others achieve their goals in a realistic approach.