LIFE
8 • Thursday, January 13, 2022
OVER THE MOUNTAIN JOURNAL
HEALTH FOCUS I EXERCISING AND EATING RIGHT IN 2022
Fresh, Unusual, Healthy
BLUEROOT Brings West Coast Healthy Food Into a Comfort Food Culture
By Rubin E. Grant Usually the start of a new year brings more clients to the Three15 cycling studio in Homewood, with folks looking to honor their resolutions of shedding a few pounds and improving their fitness. But this year is different. Because the COVID-19 pandemic continues to linger, there haven’t been as many people signing up for classes this month, especially at the downtown Birmingham Three15 studio. “At the start of the year, we usually see a big jump in members,” said Mandy Moseley, owner and creator of Three15. “As far as I can tell, our classes in Homewood are still busy, but our downtown studio has been affected the most. A lot our clientele downtown haven’t returned to their offices where they work. We can definitely tell it’s different.” Moseley opened the Homewood Three15 studio in July 2017 on Oxmoor Road in Edgewood. Since then, she has added two more studios, the one in Birmingham and another in Tuscaloosa, which hasn’t seen a COVID-related slowdown in membership. Another studio was scheduled to open Monday in Huntsville after a lengthy delay. “We were going to open it in the spring of last year but didn’t because of COVID,” Moseley said. “It’s affected workers and it’s trickled down to everybody. It’s kind of put us in a pinch, but everybody has some issues.” COVID also has changed the dynamics of how people spend their
WORK IT
High-Energy Three15 Cycling Studio Dealing With Effects of COVID money for fitness training. “What I’ve seen the past two years is people have bought their own exercise equipment for working out at home, and others have seen their financial situations change, so they cannot afford exercise classes,” Moseley said. “Others still fear being in an exercise studio. I think we’ll be dealing with all of those issues for the foreseeable future.”
Unique Workout
Moseley understands the time and energy required to maintain fitness and not just because of her studio. She is the mother of four athletes. Her sons Harvey Ray, a senior tight end, and Woods Ray, a junior quarterback, played football for Homewood last fall. Harvey will play in college at Jacksonville State. Her daughter, Annie Ray, plays basketball for Homewood Middle School, and her older son, Alex Ray, also played football with the Patriots before graduating in 2020. Three15 began as Moseley’s brainchild to combine three of her favorite workouts into one unique class. The concept features 15 minutes of cycling, 15 minutes of barre exercise and 15 minutes of strength training in a high-energy fitness studio. Moseley also has initiated a fran-
Mandy Moseley, owner and creator of Three15.
chise option for the public. “I used to be in pharmaceutical sales and that taught me so much about business, so I combined that with my love for fitness,” Moseley said. “My degree is in nutrition from Alabama and I taught exercise classes in college. I’ve always had a love for fitness, but there wasn’t any exercise programs that combined cycling and barre. You either had one or the other, but we combine several different things. “My husband, Chad, inspired me to go ahead because I love barre and I love spinning. At the studio, you get cardio and strength work and toning. You need time for that type of workout.” Moseley’s challenging workout classes and the other instructors’ classes last for 55 minutes. Moseley teaches four or five times a week, encouraging her clients to push themselves. “I actually tell my instructors that when they’re up there on that platform to not see themselves as someone special,” Moseley said. “We just have a louder voice, motivating and inspiring and pushing our clients to get the most out of their workout. “A lot of our clients didn’t play sports in high school or college and are not athletes, so they have not worked this hard exercising before. We have a few men, but it’s primarily women. We want them to work around being uncomfortable and challenge them. I think it helps them mentally as well as physically.” For more information about Three15, visit www.three15studio.com
The West Coast meets the Deep South at BLUEROOT, where owner Jennifer Ryan aims to make healthy eating accessible and approachable. Opening a restaurant that serves healthy food in a comfort food culture can be challenging at times, but Ryan looks at the opening of BLUEROOT as an opportunity to provide information, education and new options to the people of Birmingham. Ryan hopes that people will be interested and curious enough to try new things and be pleasantly surprised by choices they may not have selected originally. Located in Mountain Brook Village, the West Coast-infused menu at BLUEROOT already is a healthy fan favorite. Ryan welcomed Over the Mountain food enthusiasts into her family-owned and operated outpost offering curbside pick up in July 2020. “We were really lucky to have an opportunity to open (in 2020) and very fortunate to have the community support,” Ryan said. Ryan, a Southern California native, moved to New York City to work on Wall Street after college. After 10 years in New York, she and her husband, Mike Ryan, an orthopaedic surgeon moved to Birmingham, where he works for Andrews Sports Medicine. “I never would have anticipated moving to the Deep South, but as many people know, there is a charm and sweetness about Birmingham that we immediately fell in love with,” Ryan said. “About two years ago, I was lamenting the lack of healthy food here in Birmingham, but I was really impressed by the Ryan, a Southern California native, stressed the importance of locally and sustainably sourced marriage of fresh ingredients for maximum nutritional impact. local food and talent that I saw at a fine dining level. My question was, could we make that experience more accessible to the everyday Birminghamian and really focus on healthy food that not only leveraged our amazing economy and agricultural system but also brought health, wellness and maximum flavor and experience to more of the everday person.” Focusing on simple ingredients such as greens and vegetables and eliminating processed foods, Ryan’s vision for her new endeavor included the two-time James Beard Award-winning chef and Birmingham native Robin Bashinsky along with an incredible team of people striving to redefine healthy eating. “It was important for us to make healthy food accessible but also make it approachable, interesting, exciting, flavorful and nutritious,” Ryan said.
Photo courtesy
Journal photo by Jordan Wald
By Ally Morrison
