Musings on eating & moving

In celebration of summer's arrival and with it the advent of online nutritional info for every PS meal, here's another installment of our Power Profile series where folks from the local food/intentional fitness community share their experiences, tips and takes.

The May addition features Megan Brown, co-Founder of Mind the Mat Pilates & Yoga, as well as Doctor of Physical Therapy, Pilates/Massage Therapy/Yoga pro and intentional eater. Megan shares tips and tricks from her own successful eating well journey, including the role of nutritional info, food logging to get a handle on where you are and, yes, managing indulgences like chocolate and ice cream. Take a look. Thanks Megan!

Google “super foods” and you’ll get a gaggle of lists…top 10, top 16, a top 7? But what about actually putting these punch-packing ingredients to practical use in the everyday maelstrom? Particularly if you're new to this business of going sans gluten and dairy? Here are 5 Power Foods I rely on to fuel my generally time-starved, working out, three-kid-chasing, company-building life. Some of these also showed up in Washingtonian's Food Diary post of a day of my meals, a good quick look at real world day of eating this way.

• Almond Milk – Easy and fast to make from scratch. It takes 10 minutes, a standard blender and a nut bag (little mesh bag you use to strain the pulp for this and other nut milks…bout $7 on AMZN, nifty little thing, name notwithstanding). This milk alternative is super healthy, tastes great and can power everything from a cereal replacement for gluten-free folks to the best chocolate smoothie shake a sugar-free eater can buy.

What requires no shopping, cooking, driving, or special gear…is free if you can find it and widely agreed to be super good for you…yet is wicked difficult to get, a little personal to talk about and more than a little fleeting?

Here's a back-to-good-habits, summer's over installment of our Power Profile series where folks from the local food/functional fitness community share their experiences, tips and takes.

The September addition features Devin Maier, Managing Director at Balance Gym. Heaps of helpful info in here including ideas on breakfast, interesting takes on the variety of results you can see from better eating and a plug for a more balanced view of carbs for active folks. Thanks Devin!

We did a Whole 30 challenge in my house and included our 3 girls in a modified/shorter version. Good stuff but holy cookfest! It’s one thing to eat differently yourself but getting the spouse and wee ones involved for the full family affair? That’s a whole other kettle bell.

Here are a few breakfast-focused tidbits from our travels that should be helpful for trying to tame the morning whether cooking for yourself or prepping for a crowd.

Time for another installment in our Power Profile series where folks from the local food/functional fitness community share their experiences, tips and takes.

The February addition features Erika Moburg-Jones, Director of Operations and Head Trainer at Patriot CrossFit. Loads of good info in here including ideas on where to start, a nod to the almighty pork shoulder (great cook at home item) and a perspective on eating Paleo for two during pregnancy. Thanks Erika!

There's so much goodness to be had from other folks' experience. So on these pages we're going to start sharing perspectives and tips from folks across the healthy eating and moving spectrum. Got a story you'd like to share or know someone we should chat with? Let us know.

CrossFit Coach Sarah Mills leads us off, sharing her nutrition story and some of her best tips. Check out the video or scroll down for the transcript. Paleo brownie? Nice.

Come this time of year when family (by that I mean that multi-generational, in-law/sibling/cousin/neighbor influx coming soon to a "holiday" near you) meal prep is on the rise, there's often an almost election-like revisiting of familiar kitchen policy debates. Like the rules for preparing poultry... how long to cook, how much to scrub yourself and the bird before cooking, etc. The home team has their take. The visiting team then pipes in with their theory. Before long benches are clearing and you're considering player suspensions.

We've covered tips for warming up your meals for max yum. Let's focus too on a few hints for ensuring max freshness on their way to the warm up.

• Anything I need to keep in mind for getting my meals from pickup location to home? As long as your gym commute is under an hour you should be fine. Keep your meals with you in air-conditioned comfort, not the trunk, out of the sun. And if for some reason you’ll be out and about for more than an hour, bring a cooler bag with you for pickup.