Friday 27 September 2013

Deliciously Grain Free Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies


Y’all ready for this? Prepare yourselves for what you're about to experience…


Cookies! But not just any old, flour-packed, sugar-laden, unhealthy little morsel. These bad boys are totally clean eating, and a little bit healthy to boot (well, not if you eat the whole batch…. But I digress) plus they are also grain free which we think is awesome.

These will make a fabulous weekend treat that your whole family will LUV!

Ch-ch-check it out!

1 Cup Natural Creamy Peanut Butter (or even almond butter…I used half and half)
1/3 Cup Raw Honey (or you could 1/2 this and use a packet or 2 of stevia)
1 Egg (Free Range is best!)
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1/4 tsp Salt
1/2 Cup Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips (Note: If you wanted to be even healthier here you could use Carob Chips!)
1/3 Cup Hemp Hearts 


1.    Pre-heat your oven to 350
2.    Mix together the Honey and Peanut Butter
3.    Mix in the egg
4.    Add the Baking Soda, Salt, Chocolate Chips & Hemp Hearts
5.    Scoop 1Tbsp measurements of the cookie dough onto a baking tray covered in parchment paper and bake for 10-12 minutes
6.    Once you pull the cookies out, allow them to cool for a few minutes on the tray before transferring to a wire cooling rack
7.    Voila! Enjoy your cookies

Note: The dough is significantly more sticky than regular cookie dough, don’t worry it will all sort itself out into a deliciously Grain-Free treat!

Tell us how your cookies turned out! Tweet us @jqfitness or tell us about it on facebook!

Have a great weekend!

Wednesday 25 September 2013

Easy Homemade Almond Butters


Almond Butter is becoming more and more popular! Here at JQ Fitness we LUV us some Almond Butter! It’s a great spread on fruits, a dip for celery and a great addition to some of your healthy baking ideas like those Pumpkin Bars I posted about yesterday (Check out the recipe right here if you missed it!) - which by the way were so totally delicious, and healthy to boot!

While it's becoming easier to find in grocery stores – it's always great to have a way to make it at home so that you know exactly what's going into your Almond Butter. You can control the amounts of added ingredients or simply make it straight up out of almonds! (Or really any other kind of nut that you wish to – mmm cashews!)

Check out this simple almond butter recipe down below! (note: timing is sort of unclear as I've heard mixed reports, but I think it takes around 20 minutes - so patience is indeed a virtue here!)


Doesn’t that look so yummy!?

Here are some other recipes for almond butter that you could try out (personally I think that vanilla cinnamon almond butter looks to die for!)

Happy Nut Buttering!

P.S. if you decide to try your hand at any of these lovely looking Almond Butter recipes tweet us a photo @jqfitness or facebook us and tell us about it! We would LUV to know how it turned out!

Tuesday 24 September 2013

Why We Luv Group Fitness


This week is a great week to talk about working out with others in a group! Obviously it’s something that we are extremely passionate about here at JQ Fitness… just in case you hadn’t noticed ;)

We LUV the upbeat, motivational vibe that we can put out at iluvthis Bootcamp and our other group fitness classes to keep you moving and motivated, and most of all to help you along on your journey to a healthier and more active lifestyle! It’s a great place to meet new faces and have a blast while getting an amazing workout!

So I figured, since we're launching some brand NEW small group fitness classes, we could talk about some of the ways and reasons that group fitness can benefit you:

1. Classes are FUN!

Working out with a group of people, with some great tunes and an awesome instructor makes for a really great atmosphere! You’ll completely forget that you’re getting an awesome workout because you’ll be having such a blast! Not to mention that doing a fitness class with a friend, or even with a stranger can be a great way to de-stress after a hard day at work, or at home with the kids. 

2. Classes are MOTIVATIONAL!

Going to a group boot camp or fitness class alongside a friend or even exercising alongside a stranger is a great way to stay motivated! Being able to keep up with the class is an amazing way to push yourself harder than you would if you were working out on your own! Not to mention, the amazing instructors who are there to push you past what you think you can do! It really is a great rush and you’ll be so proud of what you are able to accomplish.

3. You’ll get a FULL BODY WORKOUT!

Both our bootcamp and our group fitness classes are specially designed to get your body in amazing shape! Whether you want to tone your core, get rid of fat, or build lean muscle, there's something for everyone.  You’ll be working all kinds of muscles that you never even knew you had, probably without even realizing it because you are having such a great time (see point #1)…

4. You’ll get PROPER INSTRUCTION

Awesome instructors will teach you the correct form of each exercise as well as how to use particular pieces of equipment (like that stability ball) in new and exciting ways! They'll walk you through each exercise so that you get the most out of your workout in a safe and effective way.

We LUV group fitness and would LUV to know what you LUV most about it too - Tweet us@jqfitness or Facebook us and let us know!


It’s always a great day to start something new. If you're not involved in any group fitness classes but want to be, you’re in luck! We have some new classes starting tonight and throughout this week in Burlington & Mississauga (Tabata Interval Training, Cardio Kickboxing & an awesome Core Ripper class)!

Monday 16 September 2013

Feeding Your Body With Luved vs Unluved Carbs


Special Guest Post from Melissa Windsor, JQ Fitness

When I decided to completely change the way that I was living my life (in regards to health and fitness and by extension, many of the other things that I was unknowingly doing), I had to look at the things that I was putting into my body. I had to ask myself is they were helping me or hurting me. Food is arguably the most important battle that anyone who is facing the great battle of weight loss must conquer. I will be the first to tell you that it is without a doubt the hardest.

Please give me a bootcamp workout any day of the week, you could even give me 10… (no joke – you can read about that right here) but food for me is one of the hardest things to wrap my mind around  and something that I constantly have to be on top of, educating and re-educating myself as to what I need to be feeding this body of mine for optimal health, to ensure a healthy future, to promote wellness and to ultimately conquer my inner ravenous monster/beast/junk foodie that literally wants to devour every chocolate bar and bag of chips I see… like I said it’s a daily battle.

So over the next couple weeks I think it will be super helpful to give you all some great pointers, tips, and tricks for eating for weight loss, and generally eating to help our bodies stay as healthy as possible!!

LUVED & UNLUVED CARBS

Did you know that every time you put food into your mouth your body responds with a hormonal response? The main hormone responsible for this is called insulin.  Insulin has one goal, get rid of the sugar in your blood and store it as FAT.

Eating highly refined and refined carbs (think any kind of WHITE SUGAR/FLOUR anything super processed – If it’s WHITE, it ain’t RIGHT!) causes a MAJOR insulin response in your body compared to when you eat proteins and fats (which do not trigger an insulin response).  This is why you need to be really aware and mindful of the AMOUNT and TYPE of carbohydrates that you are consuming!




When you eat these UNLUVED carbs (High Glycemic Index (GI)) foods along with fatty foods, its like throwing gas onto a fire – accelerating fat storage in your body. Really, let’s be honest, who wants that?

That’s why in bootcamp and with our personal training clients, we recommend that you CUT OUT these unluved carbs from your diet! You might LUV them, but they definitely don’t show your body any LUV – so why would you want to put them in there!?

Instead we should be eating limited amounts of lower GI/LUVED carbs including:
  • Wild rice, Brown Basmati Rice, White Basmati Rice, Brown Rice
  • Sweet Potatoes
  • Whole Wheat Spaghetti, Sprouted Grain Spaghetti, Spelt, Quinoa, Capellini, Kamut
  • Exekiel 4:9 Sprouted Grain Bread, Ezekiel 4:9 Raisin Cinnamon Bread, Stonemill Sprouted Grain Bread
  • Steel Cut Oatmeal, Ezekiel 4:9 Sprouted Grain Cerealss, Dorset Museli Cereals, Nature’s Path Smart Bran, Natures Path Granola/Flax (*note: not all Nature’s Path Cereals are low GI!)
  • Stevia, Xylitol, Raw Honey, Sugar Cane Juice, Organic Sugar, Maple Syrup

Lets try and cut out those UNLUVED carbs and show our bodies the LUV they deserve!!

On a more comedic note, I found this while trolling Pinterest the best website on the planet and had a great chuckle, thought you would all appreciate it as well ;)


Wednesday 11 September 2013

Locke Street Festival in Photos

Hey there Blog Readers!

Firstly, we wanted to extend a HUGE iluvthis Bootcamp welcome to our brand new Bootcampers this week! Its FALL WEEK 1 BABY, and we are so excited to get right back into it and kick your butts into shape this fall! Returners if you see a new face in bootcamp make sure to say, "hello" and make our new bootcampers feel like a part of our bootcamp family!

We had a great weekend this weekend at the Locke Street Festival in Hamilton, despite the torrential rainfall mid-morning.  Emily, Tanya and myself (Melissa), managed to keep our tent up, and stay relatively dry as well (ok, that is a slight extension of the truth - Tanya had to run home mid-day to dry our sweaters and bring some towels...), BUT we were able to support some local vendors by purchasing 3 very nice, large, and stylish umbrellas!


Did I mention that the umbrella's also doubled as roof supports for the crazy amounts of water that decided to collect in our tent garden gazaebo... (please feel free to laugh)... 

In other news we had some amazing conversations with people about bootcamp and just generally had a great time being out in the community! Tanya, was really into it as you can tell from the photo below...


She even made me do a mini bootcamp, I'm sure people thought that we were crazy, as I stood there completing my squat pyramid/ladder/whatever-we-are-calling-it workout *laughs* 

Here are a few more photos from out time at the festival:

A shot of the whole street! We were up on a hill so had a great view of the entire Locke St Festival!

Emily and Tanya at our tent Garden Gazaebo! 

That's all for now!

Have a fabulous, LUV filled day!