Zumba LOVE--Life Changed

IAT = I am thankful

For:
Sunscreen (but only my local zumba friends will get this)
Zumba
A healthy body
United purpose
Visiting family

Almost a year ago, a friend invited me to go to zumba. I didn't know much about zumba. I just knew it was some kind of crazy dancing exercise and I'd probably feel AWKWARD. I ignored the thought and figured I could try it and if I didn't like it, I didn't have to come back. The biggest block? One day a week it was at 5:30 am! AM! I don't like am. The other day a week was 8am. Quite frankly I didn't like either time, but I figured I'd give it a whirl.

We meet in the gym at our church and a very enthusiastic, amazingly wonderful woman leads the class. We dance mostly in the dark. I think so no one has to feel self conscious. I kinda like that. I can go all out no matter how stupid I feel or look. 

So, I went. And, uh, I felt like a total dork, but I liked the teacher and generally I liked the class. It was challenging. After a few weeks, I felt like I was getting the hang of it. So glad I was on the drill team in high school, which was more dance than drill. As the months have rolled on, I've enjoyed it more, pick it up faster, and my stamina has improved. It's still really hard. There are still some routines I detest because they push me so hard. I still have to slow down during parts because it's so hard.....but.....

How Zumba has changed my relationship with exercise. I can't tell if it's Zumba or Amy (the instructor) or both. I suspect it's more Amy than Zumba, but I do think it's both. I've never attended another class, so I'm not sure.  Whatever it is, Zumba has made my tolerance for exercise turn into love for exercise. For some reason, my love for this method has permeated into my walking and other exercise. Overall I complete exercising more regularly than ever before. I appreciate and want to do it more than ever before.

On Zumba days, I have literally dragged myself out of bed on mornings that I was feeling depressed. I have pushed through the dancing and sweating with tears rolling down my cheeks. Sometimes I have come in and gone out without talking to anyone, but it draws me back. Why? It has to be the energy of the group, and Amy.

Here's Amy.

Amy is the epitome of enthusiasm. If you've never looked it up, the root word means divinely inspired. (Entheos) I think that's appropriate. But the definition in English is

1

a :  belief in special revelations of the Holy Spirit 

2

a :  strong excitement of feeling

In both cases, they are appropriate. Because I guarantee you, if Amy meets you, she will be enthusiastic about YOU. I've seen it over and over and over as new people come to the class. I have seen it with her family. I've seen it with her teaching in church. I've seen it in every way it can be seen that I'm aware of.  And it spreads through our class.

This class has fat, skinny, short, tall, younger, older, and everything in between. Courage is encouraged and is found at the front as class members are invited to come up and lead. It's scary. But the class supports and hoops and hollers over those who take the scary step forward and lead. Amy has shared her fears and we've supported her. One of our class members has struggled with cancer and we've supported her. It's just an amazing network. 

The funny thing is, because we dance in the dark, it's hard to recognize class members. So, I saw her sister dance with her up front many times and when I first ran into her in the light at a ball game, totally didn't recognize her. But, my brain was going, "she looks familiar. She looks like Amy. HEY that's Amy's sister from Zumba!" Yeah, I'm smart like that. That's happened half a dozen times now with other class members. Haha. And some of them didn't recognize me either likely for the same reason. Ok, now I'm just rambling. We always end the class with this song. I LOVE IT. See #1 on the gratitude list today. Every time I hear it, something pops out at me. Today it was, "Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind. The race is long, but in the end, it's only with yourself." Yep, that's true. 


You should try Zumba, but don't blame me if you don't like it because you don't have Amy, or my class, or a dark gym. :-) I'm going to die, because we aren't doing Zumba for the Summer. Pretty sure. But I think I'll train for a tri.

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