After having asked around and done some more looking myself I found a relatively local school that teaches several traditional Chinese martial arts. I'm going to the only class that my schedule permits: Baguazhang. I'm hoping to once in awhile get some tips/direction about qigong too and general theory.
Anyway, the class is at 7 pm. Looks like it is an hour class, so I would be finished around 8 pm. Traditional Chinese wisdom seems to discourage eating after 5 or 6 pm, especially anything more than a snack. Are circumstances different for training in the evening? What about the rule that one should wait 30 minutes after qigong to eat? Does this apply to Baguazhang too (I realize it's not exactly qigong, but I thought that like Taiji it was classed as an active type of qigong)?
Once upon a time when I was really into weightlifting I got it ingrained into my head that eating the right food and a reasonably large quantity of it after training was important.
I will of course pose these questions to the teacher of the class when I meet him, but I wanted some other opinions and points to consider too.