Zumba??!!

Well, as many of you know I have struggled with my weight for the better part of 20 years now. I have yo-yo'd up and down many times losing loads of weight only for it to pile back on bringing friends with it. Each time I lose it only to gain it back makes the journey that much harder and fraught with disappointment. The excess weight has brought it's share of medical problems Type II Diabetes, knees that are shot, and a general sense of being "unwell." Hypothyroidism as well as being a long time smoker just add fuel to the fire that has been consuming my body image and my self esteem. I have finally conquered my smoking addiction having been smoke free for 2.5 months now, and it is way past time for me to do what I can to further improve my health. It is no longer about how I look it is about my sense of well being.

With that being said, I have been looking for a motivator, and I think I have found it. Several of the nurses that I work with began going to Zumba classes. Zumba is aerobic exercise based on Latino dances. They asked me to go with them, and I said what the heck it can't hurt. So, I went to my first class this past Tuesday, and boy what a class!! It is very high energy, but also a lot of fun. The class is supposed to last an hour, and I only managed to do 20 minutes. I wasn't disappointed with that, because compared to the exercise I had been doing it was about 20 minutes longer than that. Haha. So, last night Kendra and I went again, and I paid for the whole month. Last night I made it through 28 minutes beating my previous time by a whopping 8 minutes. I'm really proud of that, and I hope to keep increasing my time little by little until I can make it through the entire class. Baby steps forward however small they may be are still steps.