February Newsletter

 

In This Issue
Moms In Training
Grocery Delivery Services Tested and Reviewed
Meet Our New Dietitians!
A Note from Lauren...

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Lauren Antonucci, MS, RDN, CSSD, CDE, CDN

Lauren Antonucci, MS, RDN, CSSD, CDE, CDN

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Lauren Antonucci, MS, RDN, CSSD, CDE, CDN

**Upcoming Events**

Spring Training: Nutrition and Hydration Tips for Runners/Endurance Athletes
Hosted By:   
Empire Tri Club
(All runner/endurance athletes invited and welcome!)
Sponsored  By: 
Gatorade Sports Science Institute
When:  Thurs, March 22
Time:   6  :30 PM
Where:
Columbus Circle, Central Park
Presenting:
Lauren Antonucci, MS, RDN, CSSD, CDE, CDN
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Issue: #88 February 2018
 
Get In Shape, Meet Moms & Fight Cancer with Moms in Training

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Moms In Training is a wonderful group for moms who not only want to get in shape, but also meet and socialize with other moms, and support a good cause!

As a mom myself, I understand the challenges faced with balancing work, kids, and our own personal health.  I'm proud to have coached them for them for two years, as well as provided nutrition clinics for the moms and teams during the season through Nutrition Energy.

We are very happy to support such a great program!  Please see below for more information and contact them directly with any questions.

I hope to see many of you there!
-Lauren

 
What is Moms In Training?
A social, flexible 10-week fitness and fundraising program benefiting   The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. The program is available in various NYC locations/online and kicks off the weekend of March 31st . Moms In Training features weekly group work outs with certified coaches, fun socials and culminates with an optional 6.2-mile walk/run event in June.
 
See what's inspired MIT's 2,200+ moms to raise over $2.8 million for the mission of LLShere:   https://player.vimeo.com/video/72209546
 
Who can participate?
All moms! Moms with kids of all ages, moms of all fitness levels (beginner to advanced), expectant moms, stay-at-home moms, working moms - they've all joined and had a blast!
 

*after you put your zip code in, go to page 2 of events and look for Moms In Training/Healthy Start
*Use code MIT75 by 2/19/18 for 75% off registration.

Questions? Contact Michele Steigerwald michele.steigerwald@lls.org or 212-376-4654 .

 
Grocery Delivery Services Tested and Reviewed by the Nutrition Energy Team


One of the great things about living in NYC is the ability to get anything and almost everything delivered to your door! That includes breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks...and any/all of your weekly groceries; which can make setting health intentions and meeting your goals a whole lot easier -IF you use this to your advantage. However, with so many choices, it can be hard, (and time consuming!), to determine which service(s) are best for you. So this month, as part of our commitment to helping you lead healthier more fulfilling lives, the team at Nutrition Energy did the dirty work for you. We searched, we ordered and now we review it all for you here.
 
We reviewed and tested 5 services: Instacart, AmazonFresh, Peapod, Jet and FreshDirect. From each service we got the same list of groceries and compared each service on price and usability. Below you'll find what we thought-the pros, the cons, and easy meal ideas from each of the services we reviewed- so you can make your own decision about the service(s) that best fits your lifestyle needs!
 
 
Instacart is a personal shopping service, where a personal grocery shopper is assigned to your list and will buy groceries for you from a list of stores they cover in your zip code. You need to order a minimum of $10 worth of items to qualify for delivery.
 
Pros:
  • Wide selection of products including fresh groceries, personal care products, household products, pet products, baby products, and international foods.
  • You can choose from the stores you like to shop from and request specific brands.
  • You can buy products in bulk.
  • You can shop from past orders.
  • The price is right! They have competitively priced products.
  • You can get things delivered in as little as 2 to 5 hours that same day, (although you will pay for it)!
  • Delivery windows start at 9am and go until midnight.
  • Only $10 minimum for delivery.
 
Cons:
  • Since they are shopping at an actual store rather than a gigantic warehouse, the stores seem to be more likely to be out of a requested item then other online ordering systems. If the store is out, the shopper attempts to get in contact with you by text message-to ask for acceptable substitutions. If they cannot contact you they make the decision themselves. In our experience you don't have much time to answer them (8 min from start to finish), and it did not always turn out so well when they made substitutions, as we often got items we did not want. Average was 3-4 items per order that needed to be substituted at time they were shopping.
  • Delivery fees can be high! $11.99 per store, which can add up. They offer a 1-year membership for $149, roughly $12.50 a month.
  • You must be present for delivery.
  • There is also a "service fee" of 10% of your total, which is NOT the same as a tip for your personal shopper. As per the site, this service fee is used to "operate our service and provide you with the best service possible." You can opt of out it, but must do so each time you shop.
  • Cannot get anything delivered before 9am-much later than other delivery services that start at 6/6:30 am.
 
Quick easy meal ideas:
  • Try the Whole Foods Mesclun Goat Cheese Salad, Superfood Salad, or the Spicy Harissa Salmon Salad. These are great during the week to bring to work or as an addition to dinner.
  • We also love Whole Foods Rotisserie Chicken or Grilled Salmon. Adding these to some rice and veggies makes dinner quick and easy, not to mention healthy!
 
Peapod is the delivery service for Stop and Shop grocery store. Your order needs to be $60 or more in order to be able to checkout.
 
Pros:
  • Wide selection of products including fresh groceries, personal care products, household products, pet products, baby products, local purveyors (e.g., H&H Midtown Bagels, Juniors), and the ability to participate in local CSA.
  • Site is easy to use and allows you to make lists, which makes reordering easier.
  • They offer meal kits and pre-cut vegetables and fruits, making cooking at home easier!
  • Cost effective! Peapod has good prices and delivery costs between $6.95 for orders of $100 and above, $9.95 for orders of $60-$100. If you are willing to increase your delivery window from 2 to 4 hours, you can save between $2 to $4 on delivery.
  • You can sign up for a 3, 6, or 12-month delivery plan called PodPass for $49, $69, or $119 (plus tax) respectively. This works out to roughly $16, $11.5 or $10/ month. You get unlimited delivery but orders must be $100 or above. For orders $60-$100, $6.95 is credited to your order and you are charged remaining fees above $6.95.
  • You do not have to sign up for a monthly or yearly membership if you don't order often.
  • Delivery times start at 6am and end at 10pm.
  • Delivery windows are 2 hours and start every hour.
 
Cons:
  • Minimum delivery order of $60, which is higher than other sites.
  • Restricted to only things Stop and Shop carries.
  • Delivery window was for the next day even though we ordered early in the day.
  • You must be present to receive the delivery.
 
Quick easy meal ideas :
  • Try some of Peapod's Meal Kits such as the Chicken Tortilla Soup or Slow Cooker Chicken Cacciatore. They provide the ingredients already prepped, making dinner a snap during the weeknight!
 
FreshDirect is an online grocery service with its own warehouse of products. Your order needs to be $30 or above in order to be able to checkout.
 
Pros:
  • Wide selection of products including fresh groceries, personal care products, household products, pet products, baby products, local purveyors (e.g., Eleni's, Zaro's), and the ability to participate in local CSA.
  • They offer meal kits and pre-cut vegetables and fruits, making cooking at home easier!
  • They offer catering options for parties or large gatherings.
  • If the items you want are not in stock they make suggestions at check out.
  • You can make shopping lists and order off past orders.
  • They will leave your delivery in your building by your door as long as they can gain access.
  • They have Sourced, a Food Blog, that has good dinner and special event entertainment suggestions.
  • Office users can make standing orders that are recurrent, service comes complete with preferred delivery time slots and account managers dedicated to help serve and meet your needs.
  • Need to order a minimum of $30 of groceries for delivery.
  • Delivery is a flat $5.99, which is competitive with other sites. You can get unlimited delivery for 6 months for $79.00 ($13.20/mo.)
  • Delivery windows start at 6am and end at 10pm.
  • FoodKick provides same day service, only smaller selection. If you have delivery pass it can be used on FoodKick as well.
Cons:
  • Prices are not cheap! Compared to the other services, our total grocery bill was significantly higher.
  • In practice, we have never been able to order for same day delivery. Delivery slots are usually taken. Good idea to order sooner rather than later to get a delivery time you want
 
Quick easy meal ideas :
  • FreshDirect offers the best options by far! They have a large selection of foods both cooked and uncooked made from fresh, real ingredients and a section of meals that are all under 500 calories.
  • Try FreshDirect's premade salads such as their Arugula Salad with Goat Cheese or Greek salad.
  • We also love their pre-made food such as their Turkey Meatloaf, Turkey Meatballs or Shredded Jerk Chicken. Add these to pasta or rice with some vegetables and dinner is served!
  • Lastly, we recommend their meal kits such as their Dijon Salmon, which comes with asparagus. The kit comes complete with the food already prepped. It was quick and easy, making dinner a snap!
 
AmazonFresh is the Amazon of online grocery stores for their prime members. You do not need a minimum order for delivery, although delivery is free for orders $50 and above.
 
Pros:
  • It's Amazon and as expected they have a wide selection of items, including foods from Whole Foods.
  • You can buy groceries, household/ beauty supplies, can shop at local markets, and can order meal kits.
  • They have sections for specialty diets such as Gluten-Free, Organic, Kosher, Paleo, etc.
  • They offer Attended Delivery and Unattended Delivery in NYC. For Unattended Delivery, you do not need to be present; your door must be accessible or have access via security code or doorman. Food is left in temp-controlled totes. Store the items quickly to avoid spoilage!
  • The price is right! They have competitively priced products. For our grocery list they were between $10 and $5 lower than all the other services. However, beware of the other fees (discussed below).
  • Offers free shipping for orders more than $50.
 
 
Cons:
  • AmazonFresh is for Amazon Prime members. So you must have both a Prime membership and pay a monthly fee of $14.99. Which on the face of it, is competitively priced. However, once you factor in Prime membership of $99/ year, you are paying a little more than $23/month. This fee is significantly higher than other services and does not factor in delivery fees for orders $50 and below.
  • For our grocery order, which was under $50, delivery was $9.99, yikes! That seemed like a lot given the membership requirements discussed above.
  • Ordered at 12pm and could not get same day delivery.
  • Delivery windows were more limited than other sites: 6-8am, 8-10am, 10-12pm, 4-6pm, 6-8pm, 8-10pm.
 
Quick easy meal ideas:
  • Try the Whole Foods Mesclun Goat Cheese Salad, Superfood Salad, or the Spicy Harissa Salmon Salad. These are great during the week to bring to work or as an addition to dinner.
  • They also have great homemade soups such as Mom's Chicken Soup, which can be served for lunch or dinner.
 
Jet is an online retailer like Amazon; they are a subsidiary of Walmart. Their focus is on affordability and offer incentives and discounts to costumers if they waive their right to return items or if they order products from the same distribution center.
 
Pros:
  • Wide selection of products including fresh groceries, personal care products, household products, pet products, baby products, electronics. They also have a section for wellness products such as resistance bands, barbells, yoga mats, etc.
  • You do not need to be home for delivery.
  • They use biodegradable bags but they use a lot of them!
  • Delivery is free for orders over $35 and only $5.99 for orders under $35.
  • There are no annual or monthly membership requirements.
  • The price is right! By far the most affordable service when you compare their prices and low delivery costs. When compared to AmazonFresh, which was the cheapest service for products (not factoring in delivery costs), Jet was only $4 more, however delivery was free and there was only a $4.95 cold pack fee.
 
 
Cons:
  • There's a $4.95 cold packed fee.
  • 2- business day delivery is the only option and orders must be placed by 2pm. At check out you are not given a delivery window but they do state that you do not need to be home for delivery. No delivery on Sundays or major holidays.
  • There are no returns. No other site explicitly stated that and for other services, if things were not correct, money was refunded or new items were delivered.
  • Limited selection of brands available for delivery. No CSA or local purveyors.
 
Quick easy meal ideas:
  • Try their premade snack packs such as their Protein Pack, Cheese and Fruit Bites, or Tuna and Quinoa. These snacks are perfect to bring to work for weekday lunches.
 
Sooo..... Which to chose? Depends on what you value more, price or convenience, brand vs. generic. For our shoppers, Peapod and FreshDirect were easy to use and provided us with all the items we wanted. While FreshDirect has higher prices, it's delivery fees and ease of delivery made it a good deal. Plus it has a wide selection of items and offers meal kits and pre-cut veggies. That alone is worth something to some in our office. Peapod had great prices and depending on how flexible you were, great delivery fees. Its site was uncomplicated and ordering was straightforward without requiring more commitment. Instacart had a fair number of issues with our orders including missing delivery times, delivering the wrong items. It was our least favorite service right now. If they work out the kinks in delivery as promised and replacing items they do not have, this will improve this service tremendously. We liked being able to order with such a short lead time-we just need better guarantee that they will have and deliver all ordered items.
 
Packaging is another aspect we considered but not reviewed here. Whether you are eco conscious or just weary of a lot of plastic and packaging (what a headache!) Peapod and Instacart have the least packaging since the items just come in bags (as if you had shopped for them yourself). A possible downside is that those bags are plastic, but we recycle and reuse them in our office for regular garbage, reducing the burden. All the other services have a fair amount of packaging, in particularAmazonFresh, FreshDirect and Jet. Figuring out where to dispose of the packaging after delivery was a consideration in it of itself!
 
Finally, it's important to note that there are other services out there such a Max Delivery and Google Express, not reviewed since they did not quite compare to the services above. Max Delivery is a small operation that is good for last minute items. They offer delivery within 1 hour and give you the option of using reusable totes making their service eco-friendly. However, the scale of Max Delivery operations did not compare to those reviewed above. You pay a premium for 1-hour delivery but if you are hosting a party and out of margarita mix they are your go to service! Google Express is more like a Costco or Walmart online. You can buy in bulk for non-perishable items but given the nature of the services discussed above, did not make sense to include in our review.
 
So there you have it. Whatever service you choose, finding a way to get fresh foods into the house, even if only occasionally for some of you, will go a long way to helping you meet your health goals! In the city that never sleeps, finding ways to make things easier is something we all can use.

 
Meet Our New Dietitians!


Nutrition Energy is very excited to announce the addition of our newest Registered Dietitians, Angela Goscilo and Laura Kovacs to our team.

Angela is a Registered Dietitian and New York State Certified Dietitian Nutritionist, who loves helping others find balance in eating and enjoying food.  Angela works with clients on an individual basis to develop creative nutrition solutions and sustainable healthy habits that fit within their lifestyle. As a true "foodie," she believes no food groups are off-limits and can fit into a healthy meal plan. She takes time to understand her client's individual habits and motivate them to implement long-term sustainable changes. 


Laura Kovacs is a Registered Dietitian and New York State Certified Nutritionist who combines her love for nutrition, cooking and education, to help create comprehensive and realistic nutrition plans for her clients.  
She firmly believes in the concept of balance, and leads her evaluations with a focus on empowering her clients to make the changes that will lead them towards their goals: you will leave your appointment feeling confident in your next step(s).

Welcome Angela and Laura!
Please do not hesitate to reach out to us with any questions, or to schedule an appointment!  

A Note from Lauren...


February, as we all know, is the month of hearts: Valentine's Day and National Heart Health Month.  Our hearts deserve  a lot of love - not only through emotion, but also through nutrition and physical care.  This month, try a new exercise class with your significant other, go out to a new restaurant for lunch with a friend, or have some quite meditation time with yourself.  When you take care of yourself mentally, physically, and emotionally - you really do show your heart some love!

Don't forget some chocolate too!  While you should eat everything in moderation, there is nothing wrong with having some chocolate now and then.  Try some cocoa dusted almonds, chocolate chia pudding, or a square of 85% dark chocolate.  This is my favorite way to end the day!

Is there a Valentine's Day tradition you and your significant other always look forward to?  Have you tried any new workouts/classes and want to share your excitement?  Tweet us @NutritionEnergy or let us know on  Facebook - we're always excited to hear what you are doing.  Maybe we'll see you at the next class!
 
Sincerely,
 
Lauren Antonucci, Director
Nutrition Energy