zumba your heart out

January has absolutely just flown by, and I only have one blog post to show for it! So much for my unofficial 2011 resolution of blogging more. My goal is to write at least once a week. Obviously I've failed miserably.

But it's a new year, and it's time to do new things so we can give it up after 3 weeks of saying we'll do new things. For instance, I joined a gym. Yes, I am now a card-carrying member of the YMCA. Basically what it comes down to is that I have a bridesmaid dress that I must look good in by July, and Chicago's deep dish, deep-fried everything is making that prospect somewhat dismal. So I joined the Y.

Not only did I join the Y, I actually took a class. No, not a remedial yoga class. A Zumba class.

This all came about because a friend asked me if I'd take in a class with her, and I thought, "It's a new year! I'm doing new things! Yesss let's do this!" In the excitement of doing new things, I completely overlooked the fact that:

1. I am an embarassingly bad dancer.
2. At my peak, I ran a 6-minute half-mile.
3. I can't remember the last time I did something continuously for an hour that didn't involve some sort of sitting or sleeping.

Nevertheless, I showed up for the 8:30 a.m. Zumba class on Saturday. The instructor was a very thin white girl who looked like Mary from Medill, dressed in a tank top and boy shorts, and was basically one back-flip-off-a-car away from being Channing Tatum from "Step Up." It took all of my concentration just to be moving in the same direction as the rest of the class...and it was awesome. I kid you not. It was so much fun, especially since there was such a huge range of age, diversity and dance ability. Some people had the most incredible lightness of step and awesome wiggling abilities, while others (like me) could only hope to be clambering in the right direction. All in all, everyone seemed to be having a really good time. My favorite was this very, very old gentleman who stepped and pivoted happily, sometimes to the beat and sometimes not, choreography be damned.

Who knows, maybe I'll give this up in 2 weeks. But I overheard one older lady say that, since she started the class, she's lost a ton of inches in her mid-section and doesn't even have to diet or do sit-ups anymore to keep toned. That alone is enough incentive to keep me coming back!