As Chris Perrin puts it, “I live a double life.” You may know him as a local Nike personal trainer, but from 9 to 5 he crunches numbers at a desk as an accountant. “These jobs are completely different,” he says. “One I’m up and about, the other I’m sitting on my tail.” That said, his diet has to be efficient and match his activity level. “Very little energy is wasted,” he says. He’s also a vegetarian. Read on to see what food keeps him fueled throughout the day.
Breakfast (5:30 AM): “My first client is at 6 AM. My go-to most mornings is three eggs on half of a OneBun topped with salsa. I spread chipotle barbecue sauce on each OneBun. I also have a coffee, black. I take the coffee with me and sip it throughout the morning.”
To key to ordering a low-calorie lunch at Qdoba is to avoid the tortilla and opt for a Naked Burrito instead. Photograph courtesy of Flickr user Mr. T in DC.
Lunch can be tricky—you either eat too little and are starving by 2 PM, or you manage to chew yourself into an afternoon food coma. We’re here to help by rounding up five healthy meals in DC with no more than 500 calories. Many of them are protein- and fiber-heavy so you won’t be left wishing for more.
Sweetgreen’s May Salad = 460 calories
Sweetgreen’s seasonal salad is a berry lover’s dream, with its strawberries and cranberries atop a bed of spinach with feta, sunflower seeds, cucumber, mint, and Champagne vinaigrette. Note: Getting a slice of bread adds 125 calories to this meal. (The mainstay Spicy Sabzi salad is another low-cal option at just 455 calories.)
Fresh off training 800 runners for Sunday’s Nike Women’s Half Marathon, Jen Walls is already training for her own big race come September: the Ironman Wisconsin. That means a 2.4-mile swim, 112 miles on the bike, and a 26.2-mile run. On top of two-a-day workouts, she’s the corporate and community development manager for Team in Training, a fundraising organization for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
Just before Sunday’s race, we had Walls keep a food diary for us so we could get a look at how the busy athlete and manager—with a 5:30 AM wakeup call—stays fueled while juggling so many responsibilities.
Breakfast: “A Stinger waffle with peanut butter before my morning workout (a long run). After making an eight-ounce cup of coffee, I put the Stinger waffle and peanut butter on top of the mug—it makes the peanut butter melt and the waffle soft. Delicious!”
Navigating the salad bar at Whole Foods Market can be tricky. Vegan chef Rachel Morris says one tip is to avoid any creamy dressings. Photograph courtesy of Whole Foods Market Foggy Bottom's Facebook page.
If you’re lucky enough to work or live near one, Whole Foods Market’s salad bar can be a tasty and healthy lunch option. In fact, plenty of fitness instructors deemed it their go-to meal for a quick lunch in last week’s Lunch Break.
But as with most salad spots that offer make-your-own options, it can be easy to go overboard at Whole Foods. To help us out, we asked vegan chef Rachel Morris to whip up three combinations from ingredients, ranging from total diet busters to ultra-nutritious meals. You can trust her picks, as Morris frequents Whole Foods in Foggy Bottom every month to put on vegetarian cooking demonstrations.
The Nike Women's Half Marathon in DC is Sunday, April 28. Local runners who have run the race in San Francisco say to expect mid-race perks and to enjoy the 13.1-mile tour through the city. Photograph courtesy of Nike's Facebook page.
You’ve got your running gear and your bib, and your months of training have finally come to an end. The Nike Women’s Half Marathon is this Sunday, and now all that’s left is for the 15,000 participants to make it to the finish line.
To help both locals and out-of-town visitors, we created this handy Well+Being survival guide packed with advice from local running coaches and athletes. From runners’ favorite pre-race meals to great tips for recovery, we’ve got it all. Read on, and good luck!
Race time: 7 AM
Best Metro to Take: Archives Station, although Metro Center and Federal Triangle are other options. The Metro will open at 5 AM on Sunday. Parking won’t be available.
Popular Cheer Points: Lincoln Memorial, Independence Avenue, Jefferson Memorial, and Pennsylvania Avenue. However, family and friends should consider heading to Hains Point, which is notoriously the hardest part of the race for runners due to lack of spectators.
Although not exactly nutritious, chicken nuggets are at least less likely to cause foodborne illnesses, along with ham and sausage, according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest's report “Risky Meat: A Field Guide to Meat & Poultry Safety." Photograph via Shutterstock.
The DC-based Center for Science in the Public Interest is at it again with its mission to transform the American diet. Its most recent report, which analyzed 33,000 cases of foodborne illnesses related to meat, found that chicken and ground beef pose the highest risks.
The report, “Risky Meat: A Field Guide to Meat & Poultry Safety,” ranked 12 categories of meat and poultry based on reports of foodborne illnesses and outbreaks. Researchers found that chicken caused the highest number of outbreaks, with 452 reported in the past 12 years; ground beef came right behind, with 336 outbreaks. The two meat products are often contaminated with salmonella and E. coli, respectively, according to the report.
Jillian Michaels spoke for more than two hours to a crowd at Warner Theatre Wednesday night about health, nutrition, and self-empowerment. She chose to wear a different outfit in DC after donning the same get-up during her last 12 shows. Photograph by Kevin Hulse.
Jillian Michaels says two simple sentences have helped her become a “very rich person”: “Eat less” and “Move more.”
“Can you believe that shit?” Michaels told the audience packed into Warner Theatre last night for her Maximize Your Life motivational tour.
Michaels, who became famous for her sergeant-like training and tough talk on the reality show The Biggest Loser (now in its 15th season), spoke about nutrition, exercise, and self-worth for more than two hours to an audience eager to find out how the once-chubby kid from Los Angeles became one of the most well-known personal trainers in the country. Standing in front of a flashy backdrop and pulling examples from her own life, the foul-mouthed, five-foot-three personal trainer wowed a female-dominated crowd with her real talk.
Read on for some of the most memorable moments and helpful health lessons we learned from Michaels’s show.
We all have our preferences when it comes to fitness. Favorite running trail. The best personal trainer in DC. The indoor cycling instructor with the best music.
And we want to hear your picks.
Fill out our survey to help us determine Well+Being readers’ choices for best barre studio, local race, healthy restaurant, and more. A randomly selected participant will win two tickets to see New York Times columnist Mark Bittman at Sixth & I Synagogue on Saturday, May 4, as well as a copy of his book Eat Vegan Before 6.
The winner will be announced May 2. Good luck!
Take the Washingtonian Best of Fitness Survey.
Jummy Olabanji has a seriously early wake-up call for her job as a reporter/anchor at ABC7 News, but her day doesn’t end once the show ends. During her free time, the adjunct professor of communication at Marymount University can be found at Lava Barre and Revolve DC, and manages to squeeze in some Pilates, yoga, or Dance Trance sessions at various fitness studios in Washington. Despite all that, she says, “I’m usually in bed by 8 PM.” We don’t blame her!
Read on to see how her diet of several small meals and snacks helps her wake up at 2:45 AM and stay fueled through her workouts. (Shockingly, copious amounts of coffee are not involved.)
Fitness instructors in Washington have plenty of favorite places in their neighborhoods to grab quick and healthy lunches. Sweetgreen's salads are a popular choice. Photograph courtesy of Flickr user tedeytan.
For the past two years our trusty nutrition experts have helped us scour local lunch spots’ menus, finding the healthiest and worst meals to order. We’ve learned which frighteningly fatty salads to stay away from and the healthiest sandwiches to order at our favorite sub shops.
We’re doing something a bit different for this week’s Lunch Break. We love finding out how local health experts eat for a day, so we reached out to local studio owners and Well+Being readers to find out their favorite places to order a quick and healthy meal for lunch in their respective neighborhoods. Read on for their tasty recommendations.
GEORGETOWN: Kafe Leopold, Sweetgreen, Peacock Cafe, Baked and Wired, and Unum
The yoga instructors at Georgetown Yoga have their favorite spots in Georgetown for every meal: breakfast at Kafe Leopold, lunch at Sweetgreen, fresh juice from Peacock Cafe, dessert from Baked and Wired, and a glass of wine (or two!) at Unum.
