In honor of our New Years Resolutions, I am posting about my FAVORITE workout ever:
ZUMBA (the following is from my teachers (JP Santana) facebook page)
Zumba is an exciting and dynamic fitness program that allows you to dance your way to a happier and healthier life! Most people hate to exercise but everyone loves to party! Zumba has turned the exercise into a party! Set to a hot, heart pumping soundtrack, Zumba turns up the heat by combining sexy latin dance styles such as Cumbia, Salsa, Merengue, Reggaeton, and Samba with fun and easy to follow exercise movements. Warning! Zumba's high spirited energy is contagious! Participants are likely to get lost in the fun and burn some serious calories! People of all fitness levels and dance experience CAN and LOVE to Zumba! So we invite you to ditch the workout. This is one party you don't want to miss!.
Here is a video where my teacher, JP, is teaching the class (the man in red jumping all over the screen)
The following is a video that really captures the essence of Zumba
The third video is a show case of my teacher, JP, who is fantastic
So, if you know you need to start working out, but can't face the treadmill or the same old classes, give Zumba a try. It is TRULY addicting.
And the teacher in the 2nd video is right - you do start moving your hips/body in ways you didn't realize your body could move ;)
Normally, I can walk up to anyone and start talking about anything. I'm friendly with all the moms at the monkeys' dance class, with all the moms in school, with pretty much most people I meet. And I am the friend who will come up to anyone and start chatting.
At my Zumba class, there are two girls, who are also Russian. I would love to strike up a conversation with them and maybe become friends. I've chatted with some of the other women there, and they are very nice. For some reason, I am shy in front of these two. I think, from experience with my own kind, that these girls may be opinionated and may look down on me. So, why do I want to be-friend them? No clue. I feel like I'm in middle school all over again.
Tonight, I did come up to them and tell them how they could stream Zumba music (they had asked the teacher about it a couple of weeks ago in class) and they were nice enough but that was the end of the conversation.
I should take a page from the big monkeys book. According to her, she just comes up to people and says "Do you want to be my friend"? If they say yes, she plays with them. If not, she moves on.
I'm sure she gets hurt if they say no, but that doesn't stop her! I guess it's a matter of do as I teach, not as I do :)
I have a lot of thoughts in my head, but none are REALLY landing in a cohesive pattern. So, with that said I will walk you through my day (not that anyone is interested, but I'm not really sure what else to write about). This day is pretty typical except for the fact that Wednesdays are one of the 2 days of the week when the monkeys don't have activities that I am taking them to or picking them up from.
7am-8am - Wake-up and take a shower. As soon as I get out of the shower, the big monkey comes in and starts talking to me. We review the concepts of "greater than" and less than" - this involves me making the "greater than" and "less than" signs with my arms and threatening to eat her because she is bigger than the little monkey. Pretty good for just wearing a towel . Subsequently, I get to referee a battle between her and the baby sitter about her "crazy hair day" hair style! Too late to make lunch for the big monkey, so $1 it is (for school lunch). 8am-9am - Drive big monkey to school going west, head back east to drop off the little monkey, listen to pre-school teacher complain that little monkey isn't memorizing her words for the winter concert (um, thanks for bitching about this every day but we have over a month left until the damn concert). Drive back west to work, getting in at almost 9am. 9am-7pm - Work, be nice to people calling on the phone, repeating the same answer I've given AT LEAST 100 times already, all with a smile in my voice. Get taken out to lunch by a vendor (yay! free lunch at a yummy place! with leftovers in the office kitchen for tomorrow! can't wait). Work some more, be nice to more people on the phone, off-load some work on to my amazing staff, work some more and go home! At home, review "greater than" and less than", "1 more and 1 less", "10 more and 10 less", realize that my ranting and yelling has worked and the big monkey understands (at least for today), eat some dinner and play with the kids for a few minutes. 7pm-8pm - Go to my FAVORITE new obsession - ZUMBA. This is like a dance class on CRACK! I can tell that I'm getting an amazing workout. It's also renewing my love of dance. I haven't taken dance class in so long that I didn't know if I would just suck the big one! Well - I'm on my 3rd week (2 times a week) and am actually doing quite well (in my own mind). I keep up quite well and am even starting to anticipate some of the steps. 8pm-8:30pm - Come home and read the big monkey the end of The English Roses by Madonna. Great book and the big monkey falls asleep. 8:30pm-now - Procrastinate cleaning and paying bills by zoning in bed, watching my TIVO'd shows and reading other peoples blogs for inspirations.
Wow! Wasn't that just scintillating???? If you're still awake after hearing about my THRILLING day, drop me a line and tell me what you do on a typical day!
I've been doing "treadmill with a smidgen of elliptical" and getting pretty bored. With all the dance classes my kids take, I've been getting the dancing bug. I haven't REALLY taken a dance class since I was 18! I've half-heartedly began looking to see if anyone had classes after 8pm! I put the kids down at 8pm and can be out of the house by 8:25 (usually).
After hearing about how great Zumba was,I realized there is a studio 4 blocks from my house, next to the kids Taekwondo, that advertises Zumba. Lo and behold, there's an 8:30pm class on Tuesday nights!!!!! So, I went tonight.
WOW! What a workout - I was drenched afterwords. I am looking forward to going back.
Best of all - I held my own. Apparently, everyone else has been taking for months. The instructor thought I had taken Zumba class somewhere else before coming here. I was really pleased. I will take Zumba again - and yes I do like saying Zumba :)
Frugal count: Brought my lunch - saved on lunch Trial Zumba class - $10 +$1 for water Net = my savings for lunch paid for Zumba.
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