what i learned about myself while zumbaing

i joined the gym a month or two ago. 24 hour fitness. chris had started going there in january, and always went on mondays with the kids when i went to work. then he suggested i give it a try cause he was already paying for childcare ($10 unlimited for the month, per child) which meant if i went to the gym, i would have some time to myself. sold!

my first day at the gym was embarrassing. though it was over a month ago, i remember it like it was yesterday cause it was so embarrassing. i went on the eliptical machine, and within the first three minutes i was panting like a dog who had run 80 miles in the dead of summer. oh. dear. i have since then gotten much better, but i have to admit, when i am on the machines, my focus is to watch some 'adult' tv shows (NO. not THAT kind of adult show. i am talking about shows with LIVE people, with relatively normal sized heads and eyes. not drawn, made up ones with gigantor noggins like dora and kai lan.) and read magazines. i'm usually on there for 30 minutes or so. breaking something between a 'light sweat' and a 'serious glow'. those are great times for me.

but i also try to go to one zumba class a week. zumba is a latin/hip hop dancing cardio class. it's pretty fun. but i always break a serious sweat in there. mostly cause i don't know what i am doing so most of it is 'physical' sweat. but some of it is mental sweat too!

last week, i discovered something awesome about myself in my zumba class. it wasn't that i was getting any better, cause even though this was my 5th or 6th class, i still found myself with my arms up while the rest of the class had theirs down, and me shakin what the good lord gave me to the right, while everyone was shakin their money makers to the left. oh well. practice makes perfect?...

but the class was doing a 'new' routine, at least it was new to me. somehow everyone else in the class knew exactly what was going on. this dance involved lots of jumping. like jumping jacks jumping. and i have admittedly not been able to jump since before i had lily. birthing that giant child, and then later her skinny-tho-big-headed-brother a year later, really messed up my water works 'downstairs'. running is not that easy, sometimes i pee my pants A LITTLE. that is one of a millin reasons i do not run. but JUMPING is crazy. the thought of jumping makes me need to urinate. i did some (maybe one or two) of chris' P90X workouts with him last year, and i literally did one jumping jack and then had to go and change my pants. i haven't jumped again since.

but here i was, in this zumba class, throwing caution to the wind- and i was jumping! like a maniac! and i wasn't soiling myself! AWESOME! my internal plumbing has fixed itself, and it only took two years of giving my body a break by not being pregnant. thank you body. and thank you crazy zumba teacher for adding jumping jacks into our already exhausting hour together.