My First Zumba Class

Ho. Ly. Cow.

I just survived my first Zumba class. What an experience. I'm not sure where to begin.

One of my co-workers, Msgana, was leaving work a couple of weeks ago and stopped to change into workout clothes. When I asked her where she was headed, she told me about a Zumba place that charges $2 per one hour class and doesn't require a membership and is very close to my house.

I have always been interested in Zumba. I love to dance, though I don't do it often. I'm totally a car dancer. You know - in my car, when a good song is on, I love to jam. A dancer from the waist up. And I have always considered myself to have decent rhythm. I have toyed with the idea of having a "dance party" workout night every week because there are a handful of songs that, when I hear them, I just can't help but dance. I thought Zumba might be a great fit for me.

I am laughing and shaking my head as I type those words now. Talk about a fish out of water! I almost feel the need to apologize to the Latin community for thinking myself capable of their dancing. Or at least apologize to the 50 year old lady next to me whose hand I accidentally knocked 5 minutes into the session.

So, I was originally supposed to go with my sister Laura last week and chickened out. After my refreshing weekend with the hubs, I was feeling better today, and woke up almost excited about going. Well, tentatively excited. I worked all day, came home, went to the bathroom and changed clothes and then headed to meet Laura.

Zumba is... quite a workout. It's fun, I think. For me, it was mostly funny. It's not that the moves are hard to do, I just don't move that fast! I've got a lot of momentum because of all of the extra weight that I carry, and moving around like that is just... well, not always gonna happen.

I did my best. I made it through the whole hour, which I probably wouldn't have done if Laura hadn't been there. She and I were the only white people. There were a few African Americans, but the class was 95% Hispanic. There was very little instruction, but everything the instructor said was in Spanish, so Laura and I just looked around hoping we could follow along. Also, the class was 95% female. I thought it was great to see a spattering of guys in there gettin' their sweat on. I hope it was for the sake of exercise and not because they are pervy. If I had to guess, I would say there were at least 100 people in the room, don't you think Laura? The air-conditioned, I might add, room. Thank goodness! I think I would have thrown up without the air conditioning.

Halfway through, my body just wouldn't do all of the things that the instructor wanted it to. I couldn't jump and I couldn't keep up, but I kept moving. On the second to last song, some of my moves looked more like square dancing than Latin dancing. How embarrassing.

When I left, my feet hurt a little, just because I'm heavy, and my face hurt from all of the laughing. Not a bad combo. I think that a few other parts of me will hurt tomorrow.

Aside from the obvious benefits to the body that working out provides, I LOVE that when I exercise, I automatically crave healthier food. I am excited to grocery shop this weekend.

Tomorrow, my sisters and I are going to see The Hunger Games. I'M SO EXCITED!!! I hope it's good!