It started with a simple idea.
When I started Moves, the vision was simple: build something rooted in research, honest about what real life actually looks like, and designed to last. Something that works for years, not just weeks. Something that grows with you, through the seasons, through the stages, through everything that changes and everything that doesn't.
Working towards that standard took time to build, as it should. My husband Drew and I have always been methodical about this approach and we’ve spent years assembling the team, rebuilding the platform, transitioning to a custom app, and bringing in the right experts. It's a balancing act of timing, resources, and need — one we take seriously because we really care about our team. We weren't going to move fast and figure it out later.
What our members kept telling us.
But even as the workouts got stronger, more specific, more trusted — something was missing. Our members told us, over and over, some version of the same thing: Moves changed how I train. I'm stronger, I feel better day to day. But I still don't know what to eat, and I know that's holding me back.
That stuck with me, because they were right. We tried to address it through challenges, through recipe resources, through Meals Made Simple. Those things helped, but the ask was always the same: make it ongoing, like their workouts.
So that became the question we had to answer before we could build anything: Could we actually do that? Could we create a nutrition offering that people would trust the way they trust our workouts? Could we price it fairly? Could we genuinely alleviate the tension of weekly meal planning and maybe even save people money on their grocery bills?
Those weren't small questions, and we weren't going to ship something until we could answer them honestly.
Finding the right people to build it with.
A big part of what made me feel ready was finding the right people. I reached out to Courtney Rushing years ago, and I knew immediately she was the right person. With a Master’s in Clinical Nutrition, Courtney presents nutrition information in a way that's empowering, not scarcity-focused, and never ignores the reality of women's actual lives, goals, and training. She's gold standard — in her work, in her values, in her commitment to lifelong learning and keeping up with research across every demographic and life stage women care about most.
Heather found me, and I'm so glad she did. She'd been a longtime Moves girlie, had a background in tech and app development, and was also a Registered Dietitian and former personal chef. She gets it from every angle: as a foodie, as a mom, as someone who actually uses the app. It's actually a really hard bridge to create (education, recipes, meal planning, grocery lists, macro information) in a presentation that feels personal and implementable. Her coalescence of skills comes through in everything she touches, and she won't settle until it all has synergy.
Together, they made Moves Plus possible.
Decision removal — but with intention.
The philosophy behind the Meals tab is the same one that drives the workouts: decision removal. This has become even more important to me since becoming a mom. Whether or not you have kids, the mental load of figuring out what to eat every week is real, and it shouldn't have to be.
For me, it's not just about having a decision handled — it's about having it handled with intention and strategy, so that when I carry out the action, it builds toward something. I want my nutrition approach to be simple, but not at the expense of the benefits I know come from eating in a way that experts have carefully considered: nutrient-dense, fiber-focused, protein-forward, cost-effective, for myself and my family. But I also do not want to spend more than 10 to 15 minutes gathering recipes, creating grocery lists, and calculating macros. It needs to be done for me so I can show up at the grocery store, open my app, and feel confident shopping with three little kids in tow.
That's the standard we held ourselves to. And I think we got there.
How we'll know we got it right.
Moves programming has never succumbed to fitness trends. The reason driving that is our commitment to view these workouts as our responsibility to set women up for their current and future phases of life, and trends fall short. We see this happen in nutrition and diet culture too. We want people to have a trustworthy, sustainable approach to both workouts and nutrition, and Moves Plus is where those two finally live together.
The workouts and meals are counterparts and each fuels the success of the other. In the same way that just showing up for your workouts creates physical changes you can feel, the meals are designed to create those same advantages, simply by eating well.
What would tell me we got it right? If you feel grounded when you open the Meals tab. That's what I feel when I open the app for a workout: everything I need is planned for me, and even if there's a lot in life I can't control — this I know, I trust, and it will be worth my time.
If we can give you that same feeling around nutrition? We got it right.
Come see what we've built. Explore Moves Plus
— Madeline
