Learning to workout like a ballerina

Many of you know that I teach a strength and resistance training class called Gravity. If you have ever been up late at night watching infomercials you have seen Chuck Norris and Christie Brinkley hawking a Total Gym System, its kinda like that but way better! I currently teach at Union Studio at Bathurst and Wellington here in Toronto. Another class on offer there is Union Barre. It is the kind of workout that a dancer would do to stay in such amazing shape. I had the pleasure of being involved while Heather Ogden, principal dancer for the National Ballet of Canada, and Christie Ness (a former ballerina herself), GM of Union Studio were developing the class. It is a super fun and challenging workout that promotes flexibility, stability, posture and strength. And a great butt. That's what I think of every time I take a class, 'this is great for my butt since I spend so much time in the kitchen sampling my recipes'.

Honestly I did feel a little bit like a large whale the first time I did the cardio sequence in the class, but quickly got over myself when I realized that everyone probably feels like this the first couple of classes. Regular people (ie: non-dancers) do not have the innate fluid movement that dancers do but, with perseverance we can forget what we look like and continue the workout for the good of our butts.  Check out http://unionstudio.ca/ for all your barre needs. And if you combine Christie's barre classes with my gravity classes it's the quickest way to get fantastically fit results. Pop in anytime to try a class, I teach Mondays @ 7am & 8am, Tuesdays @ 6:45pm, Wednesdays @ 1pm and 5:45pm.  There are other Gravity and Barre classes daily.

There will also be a Master Class with Heather at Union on December 2nd at 4:00pm. New choreography will be revealed as Heather leads you through a 60 minute workout and Q&A stretch after the hard work! You can also enter to win 2 tickets to see her in action in The Nutcracker and a pair of signed pointe shoes.

Heather Ogden - Principal Dancer National Ballet of Canada

A lot of our clients come to the gym after work and low on energy after a long day of sitting at their desks. So I have come up a gluten-free-dairy-free-low-sugar-high-energy-cookie inspired by my friend DeeDee a jewellery designer and Pilates instructor, check out her classes here          . 

Eat half before a workout and half after, the perfect combo of protein, carbs, salty, sweet and all around energy bursting goodness, but freeze the rest or you'll be doing double barre classes!

BBB Union Barre Energy Cookie

Ingredients

1 cup Almond Butter

2 eggs

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

1 tbsp Ground flaxseeds

¾ cup Coconut Sugar

½ tsp Baking soda

¼ tsp Sea Salt

½ cup Dairy Free Dark Chocolate Chips

½ cup Quinoa Flakes

Directions

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all ingredients into a large bowl. Use a fork to really mash it up. Drop by the teaspoon onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and bake for 10-15 minutes. Let cool for a couple of minutes on the cookie sheet and then transfer to cooling rack or counter top. Makes approximately 15 cookies, depending how big you make ‘em!

Enjoy your workout, until next time

tbxo

Learning to use Pumpkin 2 ways

Ok, technically there are 3 ways, the jack-o-lantern being the first and most famous, thanks to Halloween. Then my new favorite, baking, of course! And finally, through google-vetting I have also discovered the healing properties of pumpkin, especially for Bailey the Dog.   The real life vet is very expensive for "things are pretty runny down there and I don't know what to do".  But google-vet has all kinds of free advice.  The best is a tablespoon of pureed pumpkin with her food once or twice a day until things become solid again. The fibre helps everything bind together again. And it works like a charm: happy dog, happy Tricia.  Note: this will be the last time I speak of my dog's issues here on the blog, not guaranteeing anything for real life conversations. But if you do have a dog give it a try, it really works and they LOVE it!  I have also used canned pumpkin in the past which works just as well, just make sure the only ingredient is pumpkin and not all the fillers for pie.

Speaking of pie. I did make a pumpkin pie. But it wasnt pretty enough to photograph, but certainly good enough to eat, which we did and thank goodness we have neighbours who wanted to enjoy it as well! I will give a pie a try as soon as I perfect my pastry making skills.  So I found these Pumpkin Muffins, adapted them to suit my taste and got my hands dirty. They turned out amazingly, and the aforementioned fibre works well for us humans too.  Not too sweet, soft and fluffy, but nicely filling and a perfect vehicle for nut butter and a knob of Grandma Hedy's Jam. If you don't have any jam in your fridge from your Grandma, any tartly sweet jam like raspberry or black currant by anyone's Grandma will do.

BBB Nutty Pumpkin Muffins

Inspired by and adapted from Anna Olson’s Tender Pumpkin Muffins

cooks note: I took a small pie pumpkin, cut it in half, took out the innards and roasted it in the oven at 400 degrees for 30 minutes and then pureed it in my food processor. Fresh, yummy pumpkin puree to use as you wish.

Ingredients

1 cup Spelt Flour

2/3 all-purpose flour

1 ½ tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

½ tsp nutmeg

½ tsp all spice

½ tsp cinnamon

1 ½ cups Pumpkin Puree (canned Pure Pumpkin works well too)

2/3 cup coconut sugar

2/3 cup buttermilk

2 egg whites

3 tbsp vegetable oil (or olive, sunflower, dealer's choice)

1 cup chopped walnuts (optional, I like the crunch)

1/2 cup raisins (optional, I felt like a little extra sweet)

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F and line a 12-cup muffin tin with large paper liners.

2.  Stir the spelt flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, allspice and cinnamon in a large mixing bowl.

3.  In a separate bowl, whisk the pumpkin, brown sugar, buttermilk, egg whites and vegetable oil.

4.  Pour the liquids into the dry mixture and stir just until blended.  Add the walnuts and raisins. Spoon the batter into the muffin cups and bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until a tester inserted into the centre of a muffin comes out clean.  Cool the muffins for 20 minutes before removing from the tin.

5. Top your muffin with a dollop of nut butter and jam for a perfectly healthy fall snack!

*The muffins can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days or frozen.  Do not refrigerate.

Enjoy until next time

tbxo