Melissa Joulwan

Melissa Joulwan is the author of the cookbook Well Fed: Paleo Recipes For People Who Love To Eatand the blog The Clothes Make The Girl, where she writes every day about her triumphs and failures in the gym, in the kitchen, in life.

In case you’re wondering: her favorite vegetable is cabbage, her favorite spice is cumin, her favorite city is Prague, and her favorite book is Jane Eyre.

After a lifetime of yo-yo dieting and food as the enemy, Melissa found the paleo diet in 2009 and has been happily, healthily following it ever since. That year, she also underwent a thyroidectomy. In the aftermath of the surgery and recovery, she became particularly interested in how diet affects hormones, body composition, mood, and motivation.

Well Fed is her second book. Her first is Rollergirl: Totally True Tales from the Track, a memoir of her experiences transforming herself from nerdy girl to Rollergirl as one of the founders of the Texas Rollergirls, the original Flat Track Roller Derby league. These days, she’s hung up her skates, and her workouts are just as likely to include yoga and meditation, as lifting heavy things and trying to stay ahead of the CrossFit stopwatch.

In 2012, Melissa’s blog won the Homie Award from The Kitchn for “Best Healthy Cooking Blog,” and Well Fed was the winner the 2012 “Best Cookbook” Award at the San Francisco Book Festival. She is also a Community Ambassador for Experience Life magazine and has been a featured chef for U.S. Wellness Meats, as well as an instructor at Whole Foods Culinary Center.