Zumba . . . a newbie's review

So I was brave last night and I tried out Zumba.

Note, I have never been a dancer, never taken a dance class in my life. Well, except for that week or so of adult beginner tap classes I took a few years back with Sarah and Heather. But that's different. And I retained none of that, so it doesn't count. And can I just say thank goodness Zumba is not like tap because I was even WORSE at that!

The good news about zumba, is it's fast paced, the class was full of people of all different zumba levels, and I was told the average person burns between 600 and 800 calories in the hour of class. So that's a plus!

For those of you who have not done zumba, or heard of zumba, it's a dance (Latin I think...?) based fitness/cardio class. I can't imagine many people haven't heard of it before. Lots of places are offering it now from gyms (where I took this one) to dance studios and more. There is even a zumba video game! Now, I like to think I am pretty athletic, so aerobically, I could keep up. Step wise, not so much for some parts. But the instructor was not really explaining, or showing us the moves before each little dance routine, so there were some parts where I was just lost, shaking, and hip-swiveling trying to figure out how everyone else was able to move that way. It was a wise decision to stay in the back of the room so when I was trying to figure out what I was supposed to be doing I wasn't messing anyone else up (I hope)

The class was broken down into a bunch of little fitness routines, maybe five minutes a piece I think. We would do one, then take a 30 second break, then go right into the next. Overall, I'd do it again, though I might wear a shirt that says "I'd rather be kickboxing."

Helloooo, 2011.

So, I have been posting for a little while now on my other blog, Joshua Paul - The Blog about the newest member of my little family, my pride and joy, Joshua, and about my adventures being a new mom to him. 

I have enjoyed blogging so far, and wanted to add another blog that is just about me. And my life, both as a mom, and not as a mom. So here it is!

For the last few months, I have been trying to get back into shape. Really though, I have been trying to get back into shape since I left college in 2005, though it has always been more of a "I need to go to the gym . . . but it's too cold to go outside . . . I'll just start my new diet and workout on monday," kind of thing. But now that I have Joshua, he is motivating me, and now that I have found a gym with a daycare in it, and an awesome trainer, that motivated me even more. I HAVE lost a pathetic amount of weight so far, (better than none though, right?!) but I can feel myself getting stronger again and getting some tone back, hooray!

The most challenging thing for me, and always has been, is eating right. I can't exactly pin-point why though. I LIKE healthy food, I LIKE eating well and the way I feel afterwards. The thing I chalk it down to on most days, is the fact that I am usually so busy worrying about making healthy, well balanced meals for the two boys in my life, by the time I actually can sit down to eat, I don't want what I've made. I am sure that sounds ridiculous to most people, who are probably thinking, well if you already made it, why don't you just eat it. And I can't really explain it. But, I just don't want to. I'd rather pick at things, or grab something on the road knowing I can eat it in the car, it will still be warm, and no one will try to steal it from me. It's a bad system, I know. I also blame it on the cost of healthy food. Have you SEEN the prices of fruit and veggies lately! Sheesh.

So when that doesn't work, I try to trick myself, and do the "think about what you want for yourself in the future, not what you want right now, then you won't want it anymore," thing. Which never works out for me. I always end up going, "Hmmm... I really want to be back in shape in the future, but right now, I still really want the snack, and ONE little snack won't hurt, right?!" And then there is the old theory that, If it grew on a tree or in the ground at some point in time, it MUST be at least a little bit healthy. Let me explain how this one works . . . take, for example, chocolate. Chocolate, is made from a cocoa bean, a cocoa bean grows on a tree. If it comes from a tree, it MUST be healthy . . . see?! You can apply the same theory to red wine, beer... the list goes on. (My trainer at the gym is going to kick my butt this week for this I am pretty sure.)

So anyways. This year, I am going to try to not do that . . . haha. We'll see how this goes. I bet once Joshua is walking (any day now) I'll get more exercise chasing him than I already do, we shall see!