Motivation Found. Cardio...M.I.A

Oh man. I guess there has been interest in my class after all at the Complex I live in. I got up and started working on my cardio and Wowser! It's missing! I did a 30 minute refresher with steps and started my 40 minute routine only to find that the refresher kicked my butt and 20 minutes into the 40 minute workout I had to stop and catch my breath. I think I'm going to be eating, breathing, sleeping Zumba Fitness!

Motivation...Hello?

WOW! I haven't worked out in forever! Seriously! I feel like I've had no time. I've been so focused on my baking business that I've stopped working out. I haven't just been sitting on my butt either though. I've been doing things most of the day everyday. Well, except the last couple of days. I did my Zumba fitness workout once and thought I was going to die! Yes, DIE! I don't know where my motivation went. I was doing so well! Then I had less time to focus on JUST working out, Just nutrition and JUST calorie counting and everything went to hell.

I spend my extra days baking yummy treats and I now find myself craving them all over again. I've been so busy in the kitchen we haven't even had time for a real meal. Can you believe that!? Last night was the first night we've had something that wasn't fried, fatty or processed goodness evil. I had visions of a friends fried cream cheese and crab wontons dancing in my head as I ate my baked chicken breast, steamed rice and veggies. I tried closing my eyes and picturing the goodness of crab meat mixed with creamy goodness we know as cream cheese...all wrapped in a nice wonton fried to perfection and creating a wonderfully and snugly wonton hugged creamy...yum...NO NO NO!

The one good thing, I haven't gained weight! However, my clothes fit more snug...again. Back to the chopping block. How the heck will I get through the "foodie-days". I've done okay with the baking, but I'm a sucker for those perfectly sweet unnecessarily packed with sugar treats. Don't get me started on the delicious sides of the best the most evil white potato salad (because I guess white potatoes are bad), scrumptious overly processed green bean casserole and the serious culinary perfection most fattening holiday food of all I love to inhale try my hardest to moderate...Tamales!

I've made my request to The Peace Keeper for a blow up mattress until we can buy a new bed, because waking up with the worst pain in my upper back and neck isn't helping my situation at all. When I haven't had my full range of motion from my arms and neck for almost a week now, it makes it even more difficult to find the motivation to get going. Satan's mattress has got to go!
I mean it seriously starts to feel a little better right before bed, than I lay down for the night and the spine demon sucks all of the love out of my muscles. Someone come and exercise this bed, it's seriously possessed by the demons of Simmons's Mattress Company.

Well, I'm off to go tend to Siren and Bulldozer. They've pretty much lost their minds become the most well behaved children on the face of the earth that scream their heads off sing lovely songs of daisies and cherry blossoms. Until we meet again. Hopefully sooner than it a week from today!

Cupcakes - Zumba = Not So Good

Wowser! What a week and it ain't over yet!

I have to sadly admit that I haven't workout out once in the last week. I feel like crap too. My body is complaining too.

Body: Hey! What's up with the non cardio or weight lifting lady!? I've feeling flubbery down here!
Me: I know, I know. I've had a lot of work his week.
Body: Excuses! Better find some time before I start slowing down your metabolism!
Me: Okay, okay...Sunday...for sure Sunday I'll start again.

On a serious note, I've been crazy busy making cupcakes! I've made Caribbean Remix, Irish Carbombs, Blackberry Redwine, Raspberry Champagne, Mixed Berry Margarita, Vanilla Raspberry, Meyer Lemon, Mimosa, Honey Chai and Strawberries'n'Cream. I still have some Vanilla to make tomorrow morning. Should be easy peasy, but it's a decorative order with fondant and colors so...it's gonna take longer than normal. I've been putting in about 20 hours a day of work, errands and deliveries. I finally had a few hours of no baking yesterday afternoon and it ended with me falling asleep on the couch for a couple of hours. Same thing today. I just can't muster up any energy to move. I've so extremely tired that I'm fighting my eye lids to stay open.

I think that has to do with the fact that I'm not eating so well. I'm not eating bad, I'm just not eating as much as I should be. When I get busy like this I forget to eat. Usually The Peace Keeper has to hound me to stop and eat, but since he's been working each day I've been working I haven't had someone there to tell me, "Hey you, remember that little thing called FOOD!?" I get so caught up in my baking that everything else just gets away from me. Even time. I'll feel like I've only been going for like 10-20 minutes and then when I look at the clock it's been two hours!

Most people wonder how I'm not 500 pounds since I bake. Well, I have to sample a little of each thing that goes into these cupcakes, I don't have to eat whole cupcakes to make sure they work well. I already know the flavors work well, that was tested long ago. Honestly, by the end of the day yesterday I had a tummy ache from sugar overload and nutritional deprivation. The last thing I wanted to do was think about eating a cupcakes, let alone actually eat one.

I'm making more of an effort to eat better today and eat enough. Tomorrow I'll start working on some more Zumba Fitness Choreography. I've had four woman call about my classes and they all said they were interested. Then none of them called back. :o( We'll see how it goes I suppose. I just need to make sure I'm ready come Sept. 1st. For now, I think I'm going to lay down again. My eyes are screaming sleep. The kids are laying down and I think that means I should too.

Can A Zumba Audition Get Any Worse Than This!?

After about a week of nursing my poor little wounded psyche, I've picked myself up to try again. The last time I was on here I was crazy busy preparing for my sort of audition and working on some cupcakes orders. I went through a lot of hard work to be prepared for Tuesday's great adventure. I created my own warm up (I knew it was amateur, but at least I tried) to the song Party Rock Anthem, then learned some of Beto's Choreo to 5 Letras and a Samba from their Cardio Party Dvd. By Sunday of last week I had developed some stage fright and wanted to just cancel the meeting for Tuesday. Had I known how it was going to go, I would have in a heart beat. Let's just say this experience has left me somewhat scarred. I have no desire to ever talk to another Zumba instructor, let alone Group Fitness Coordinator.

I want you to know that I didn't go into this thing thinking I was going to be perfect and a pro. I know I'm new...extremely new. I know I'm inexperienced and I know someone would be crazy to hire me so unseasoned. What I didn't expect was a downpour of negativity from someone in such a high position. The whole experience left me feeling like I wasted money and space at the instructor training just by attending. It was terrible. I really should have known it was going to go badly because I went with a friend to the instructors Body Flex class the day before and she was commenting that she already had someone lined up to teach when one of her current instructors left on maternity leave. So...I wondered why I was even having the meeting to begin with, but I went anyway because I figured any feedback and help was better than nothing at all.

I showed up for my meeting 15 minutes early. I waited patiently as the woman I was meeting with had stepped out for a few minutes. I waited, waited some more, waited a little longer and yes continued to wait for 45 minutes. The woman came strolling in at 230pm and asked me how long I had been waiting. When I told her I had arrived at 1:45pm she seemed annoyed. Our meeting had been scheduled for 2:00pm and I've always been told "if you're on time, you're late", so I was a bit confused when she seemed irritated and asked why I would show up so early. I followed her to her office while she gathered her snacks and then we went to one of the group exercise rooms.

I was told to start, so I did. I began with my warm up and made it through without any hick ups. It was a little distracting to have someone sitting there making faces of disapproval or not even looking at you and more focused on the wall behind you. She told me she was looking at the mirror on the back wall so I chalked the distraction to the inexperience I had with the whole group fitness instructor process. I moved onto the choreography by Beto for 5 Letras. Part way through she exclaimed "He can't possibly just stand there when switching from a move to another". I let her know that he in fact did and took the time to motion to the next move during the 1 count music pause. She refused to believe that which was fine. I'm new, so why should she take my word for it. Maybe they gave out different material when she went through Basic 1 training and that's why she wasn't familiar with it. I don't know. At this point some eye rolling started and I was getting more and more distracted. I had lost my count at one point, but was able to pick right back up. Then I moved onto the Samba from the Cardio Party Dvd, which I'm assuming is from the older at home workout Dvd set. I didn't get 1/4 of the way in before she had me stop and just turn it off.

Then came the review. I was told my warm up was wrong, backwards and that she would NEVER want to do my warm up. Ouch. I was told to "keep it simple, stupid." No really, a person running the group fitness of the YMCA actually used this phrase. I knew she was just using the saying and not calling me stupid, but I still found it very odd that someone in such a high position didn't have a better way of communicating. I took the advice to heart and thought "Okay, I need to cut back on some of my moves", after all I had 5 parts, a tag and an outro. I have no clue how step touches, marching and v steps were complicated, but then again I'm new so maybe they are too confusing for many. This was then followed up with her saying, "you did too many of the same moves and it became boring." Now I was getting confused, I wasn't keeping it simple enough and yet somehow I managed to make it so repetitive that it was boring. She told me I should have no more than 4 parts and 1 tag per song. I was getting really confused at this point because I had 5 parts, a tag and an outro, so how was I making it boring. I mentioned something along the lines of maybe I could change the outro to more resemble another part of the song and she laughed at me. I guess she's never heard of the term outro in a song before. She made me feel very foolish and I was starting to be afraid to talk about anything anymore.

She didn't have much to say about the second song I did, other than she didn't believe that I did every move Beto did. The Samba was another story. She just tore me a new one. I did the move exactly like they show on the video. Started with a pony and progressed from there on the balls of my foot. She was upset that I did it this way at all. She wanted me to pony onto the balls of my foot then roll my foot to my heels. When I did it her way she told me I was shifting too much weight that way and that I just needed to stop. Perhaps a Samba wasn't the best choice to walk in with, but I wanted to show that I was willing to do difficult and try. Once she finished going over what I had done for her she went off on how I was stuck on the Exhilarate Box set. Now I was beyond confused as I hadn't done 1 song or routine from Exhilarate. I did 2 that came with materials from my instructor training course and a warm up I made up myself. I didn't argue with her, as that is something I consider unprofessional in an interview type of situation, so I just let her tell me how stuck I was on my Exhilarate box set.

We went on to talk about the instructor training course and this turned into her I don't like Gina Grant rant. She said Gina was too much of a Diva and was too complicated to follow and then went on to rant about how Beto is now becoming like Gina and she's tired of the "new" Zumba Dance Fitness. I'm just super confused at this point of the meeting. I don't know what to think, other than I know nothing. The woman then took me through one of her songs she has and then asked me how many moves she had. I counted and she had 4 different moves and 2 tags. When we were naming the moved I referred to the six count we learned in class and she just lost it. She raised her voice and started telling me there was no six count in her choreography, then she went off and said the company was counting the steps wrong. At this point I'm wondering, "What in the world is going on? What did I just get myself into!?" She started giving me advice not to follow anything they send me, because for the most part it's worthless and very little of it is actually usable. She mentioned she liked Tanya Beardsley and that I should follow her. I told her I was bummed Tanya taught on the East Coast because it made it difficult to take a class from her. The Coordinator responded to look for her when they do master classes like her and Gina had done. I really wish I hadn't replied, but I did. I said "Oh, the Gin and Tonic Masters Classes they did?" I got the worst look ever from her. She told me I knew too much about Zumba and was starting to make her sick. She lectured me on being too technical and knowing the company info too well. I always assumed knowing your brand and things about it was a good thing, but in this case I was making the Coordinator "sick" and found myself apologizing for knowing anything about Zumba in general.

The meeting continued on and by now it's almost 4pm. She told me to stand in the middle of the room, played some music and started shouting moves at me. Left V step, right v step, turn it, turn it, turn it, mamba cha cha...HUH!? I was lost. I didn't know exactly what she wanted from me. She stopped me and then had me follow her. I followed her once and then the shouting of moves started again. At least this time I knew what she wanted and did it. Soon after she had me following her and told me how she comes up with 3-4 routines in 15 minutes before her classes. I think that was suppose to impress me, but it really didn't. It made me feel like she didn't care enough to give it more time to make sure things worked right. Then again, maybe that's just the way it is. All I know is that it took me 4 hours from start to finish to choreograph, tweak and learn my warm up that ended up getting a craptastic review. I just think if you really care about your class and students, it should take longer than 15 minutes to choreograph and learn even just one song. The class deserves more than just a quickie routine that was thrown together minutes before the class starts. The meeting ended up taking a turn to a topic I wasn't even comfortable with. She talked about how she was offended that my friend had asked another instructor about eating habit instead of her, about another member's thyroid issues and how she was going to change her regardless (FYI, I know this member but I didn't know her medical history until now) and about how this member still has her nutrition book. It was all a bit odd and I felt like she shouldn't be sharing this information with me. Especially since she used names. Isn't that a violation of privacy?

The whole event finally ended a little after 4pm. Of course there was no job offer, no sub job offered and she ended the meeting with talking to me about signing up for a family membership. She pointed out her best Zumba instructor, again told me I should get a family membership and then ended by whispering to me that I had potential and that in 1 years time I could look like her body building pictures in her office. I was thrown for a freaking loop. How was the whole meeting so negative and yet I have potential? What if I don't want to look like a body builder?

Somehow, my tiny little brain hung on to the one phrase it wanted to. I had potential. I was so happy that one positive phrase came from the entire meeting, I immediately told The Peace Keeper we had to get a family membership. Thankfully, I talked to The Peace Keeper and one other person about the whole meeting and quickly realized this situation was not a good one. I should not look to her as a mentor. She tore me down until I felt 2 inches tall and then gave me a spec of hope. I wondered if it was a ploy just to get me to join. Needless to say, I did NOT join the YMCA nor did I go back. We instead joined a different gym, but now I'm afraid to talk to anyone about being an instructor in a gym setting. The Peace Keeper told me to follow what I was taught. I was doing okay with this. So now I'm offering classes starting in December at our Apartment Complex. I'm learning choreography and doing research about warm ups and cool downs. I've had one person call to sign up so far, but I'm hoping that is only because the news letter just went out yesterday afternoon. Can I even teach if it's only one person? I honestly wish I could get involved at a gym even as a sub, but I really don't want to end up with another experience like the meeting with the lady from the YMCA. I guess it was naive of me to think instructors were suppose to be supportive and helpful toward one another and their students.

Working Out, Learning & Baking.

My goodness, life decided to take off at 150 mph this week. It's a GREAT thing though. I've been baking cupcakes like a mad woman, working out and I have a meeting with the Group Exercise Coordinator of the local YMCA on Tuesday. She wants me to do a few songs, so I've been trying to work on Choreography and I really don't know how ready I will be by Tuesday. Her main concern was my ability to hear music changes and count music.

Now I grew up around music as a child, but I never was taught anything. So I hope something stuck just from being around it so much. I also loved learning Mickey Mouse Club choreography and performing it in my living room because my parents couldn't (or maybe just wouldn't) put me in dance. I so desperately wanted to be in dance. I had this love for it as a kid and no real outlet. I think that's part of the reason why I absolutely LOVE Zumba dance workouts. It feeds my childhood dream of being a dancer. I'm hanging on to some small hope that I have this innate ability to "feel" music.

I've been practicing since the Coordinator told me most music centers their changes around 32 counts. I've been hitting right on the count more than missing. It almost feels to easy and too good to be true. I even choreographed a random Jane Fonda style warm up to LMFAO's Party Rock Anthem on the fly just by counting. Seriously, I just got up and started counting and every 32 count the music would slightly change or dramatically change and I'd automatically know to do something new because I was done with 32 counts. Maybe that song is just really easy. I don't know. Then someone posted a song on Facebook (yup, seriously on the fly counts because I was working with some videos someone posted on Facebook. How much more random can you get to test yourself, right?) and I was off and on. It was Jennifer Lopez's On the Floor song and it just gave me a run for my money. Sometimes I was right on and it would change at 32 counts, other times it had an extra 4 or 8 count or a random small count in between two parts of the song. I was so CONFUSED! I'm hoping this is one of those songs that doesn't base all of it's music sections off of 32 counts and I was doing okay.

When I say life took off at 150 mph, I mean I have no down time all of the sudden. I still have to keep up with the daily chores too. Like I said, I love it. It's nice to have more to do than nothing at all. I get to hang out with my daughters, have work in the kitchen baking and have things to work toward with my Zumba Instructor License. It's indeed exciting. I also added in a workout from a Nike App I found on my iPhone. It's called Nike Training and it totally kicked my butt even at the beginner mode of the Lean workout section. I did a workout that required no equipment and made it through the 30 minute workout cursing the lady in the app. We went from light jogging and back pedals, to modified burpees, planks, hip lifts, and squat jumps, to pretzel stretches and standing hamstring stretches with so much more in between. They include videos to show you how to properly execute the moves and the "woman in the app" reminds you about important aspects of each move as you go while giving you the time left for each move every 15-30 seconds. She also lets you know when you need to switch legs or when it's time to switch to a new exercise. I'm glad she isn't real though, because I was yelling profanities at her and let her know I hated her repeatedly. I highly recommend this app for anyone needing a little home workout. They range from 15-45 minutes in length and you get to pick what you have time for. Totally worth the lengthy download.

Off I go to work on my choreography. Tuesday is just around the corner...sigh...I hope I'm ready.

Last M. M. W. of October!

Here we go!

Here they are for October 19, 2011

• Neck: 13 3/8 in.
• Waist: 34 3/4 in.
• Hips: 41 3/4 in.
• Weight: 167.2 lbs.

Here they are for October 26, 2011

• Neck:  13 1/2
• Waist: 34 1/2
• Hips:   42 1/2
• Weight: 168.8 lbs.

Not the best numbers, but I guess it could be worse. I'm very unimpressed with my body this week. Since it's the end of the month though, here are some before and after images of me. The images on the left will be from September 1st and the images on the right from October 26th. I think they look pretty good.

 Yeah, yeah, yeah...so there's a change from when I started. I need more!

The photo session took a bit of a detour.

Bulldozer did NOT like my attempts at body building poses (with cocky attitude expressions) or Greek statues, which I was informed I looked nothing like. She decided to come running at me with a cheap shot from behind...See, BULLDOZER! I won in the end. Little 27 pound kid didn't stand a chance. 

Take One Giant Step Back Missy.

Okay, so I think I got a little ahead of myself on the whole LipoFuze idea. I'm taking one giant step back and instead adding something I very much haven't tried. This should really already be part of my diet, but it was quite an oversight on my part. I haven't been taking a multivitamin. Yes, I know! How can I not be taking a vitamin!? I completely forgot and am guilty of neglect in the 1st degree of fitness neglect. In a website I found Dr. Marylin Glenville PhD states, " Whether food is burned or stored is determined by a number of chemical reactions that take place in your body. These are activated by enzymes, which are, in turn, dependent upon vitamins and minerals." She lists other vitamins that would help in the weight loss process if added to your daily regimen on top of the multivitamin.

Light bulb! If I'm exercising a lot and not getting the right or enough of the necessary daily nutrients, then I could hypothesize that my lack of sufficient vitamins and minerals is slowing down if not derailing my weight loss. Correct? I think. Anyway, that was just the first website I found after The Peace Keeper walked in with a bottle of multivitamins that I read the label for and stated an increase in metabolism. I have much more research to do...aka...googling and reading. I figure, why not give this the good old college try. Especially before jumping into other supplements like Thermogenic Fat Burners. I figure if this doesn't work I'll make a pit stop at GNC and see what less intense options they have other than LipoFuze and Alli (I really don't want to have to carry an extra pair of pants around).

This is definitely a good step back. After all, I have been vitamin D deficient a couple of times now and have been given that crazy liquid pill with an insane amount of vitamin D to take. Who knows what else is suffering. A multivitamin is important seeing as we don't always get all of the vitamins and minerals we need from food alone. So what does our body do when we don't have enough and it is pushed in exercise and trying to recover? I have no clue. Here's what Dr. Marylin Glenville PhD recommends for a supplement program that aides in weight loss.

A good multivitamin and mineral supplement eg Femforte II

B-complex (containing 50 mg of most of the B vitamins, taken daily)

Chromium polynicotinate or picolinate (200mcg per day)

Zinc citrate (30 mg per day)

Co-enzyme Q10 30mg twice per day

Linseed (flaxseed) oil (1000mg per day)

I figure its better to try these vitamins where I'll at least know what I'm ingesting...sort of, instead of ingesting some unknown source of stuff in a Fat Burner. First things first. Start with a multi vitamin. I can't believe I overlooked the essential need of a multi vitamin. Sometimes I wonder about myself.

Another One Bites The Dust!

You know how I've been preaching about eating healthy and working with your calorie intake? Well, I'm still 100% sure this is the absolute right way to go about getting fit or losing weight. Here's were I have my dilemma. I've been working out for two months now and it's been rather consistent. I've been watching my calories and making more healthy decisions in my eating habits and that too is consistent. I've lost quite a few inches and have only dropped three pounds. So what if eating healthy and working out just isn't enough? I'm reminded of something my doctor told me during one of my check up after Bulldozer was born. He said that he doesn't recommend people use diet pills or rely on them solely, but sometimes when people are doing everything right their body resists. In that instance he says he suggests trying a supplement to get the body going. Of course he said he doesn't recommend long term use and said to stop using them after a couple of weeks. I'm left to wonder that after 2 months do I fall in this category? Does my body need a little jump start?

Another one bites the dust. I'm jumping on the diet pill band wagon. I probably wouldn't have jumped on the band wagon if my three pounds I worked so hard to lose had stayed just that, "lost". I am so confused. After Thursday's extreme Zumba day, my body went up in weight. I realize my muscles are repairing from the increased intensity in workout and that I shouldn't be too upset about the weight gain, but SIX POUNDS!!!! REALLY!? I expected two or three and I expected to see it start going away, but six is just...well, insane! I realize I didn't eat that great this weekend, but I was running around with my hair practically on fire all weekend and two or three days of not so perfect eating does not make a six pound gain in two to three days. I'm frustrated and annoyed. I'm not going to stop my workout and I'm not going to stop eating healthier. I'm actually going to probably work out more now that I'm working on choreography to hopefully lead some Zumba classes soon.

I decided to talk to The Peace Keeper about this and he said that he was wondering if I should try something as well. He can see how hard I'm working and it is kind of odd that the weight isn't moving at all. If I had kept my three pounds off I would be averaging a tenth of a pound per week. One tenth of a pound per week. That's just ridiculous. We thought about getting Hydroxycut, but those kinds of diet pills seem to be more appetite suppressing than anything. I'm doing okay with my food intake and calories. I actually have a hard time eating enough calories because I'm used to normal portions now, so I don't think I want to try one of those. Then I thought about Thermogenics Fat Burners. There is one product that keeps coming up over and over as I try to research this type of supplement. LipoFuze seems to be consistently mentioned as a top brand and it has a 100% life time money back guarantee. I'm not coming up with much bad information about it which I find interesting.

I do find the basic side effects and warning that go hand in hand with any weight loss supplement and I'm aware of what they are. If I feel not so great on these I'm going to stop taking them, but I do want to try something that I can eat and exercise with. It's recommended (as it always is) that you have to work out and eat right to get the best results. Well, I have that part down! It states that it's proven to have lasting results and only attack fat as opposed to lean muscle. We'll see how this works. Price wise, it doesn't seem to expensive when compared to other Thermogenic Fat Burners or diet pills in general. I figure I'll give them a whirl. My goal is to only use at most a 1 month supply then stop. I just want my body to get on the weight loss/fitness train. I have a high and unhealthy BMI and Body Fat Percentage. I want to get those numbers down since heart disease runs in my family. It's important to stay healthy and if my body needs a nudge in the right direction, then I'm willing to try it.

If this still doesn't work (which if it doesn't I understand, I'm a big preacher of "there is no magic pill") then I'll be setting up an appointment with my Doctor. I'll have them do a work up on my thyroid and hormone levels as I have read that low progesterone and high estrogen lead to weight gain. Again, my family has a history of some Thyroid issue so this could be something to look into. I haven't gone to the doctor because the last time I had a workup they said all of my numbers were fine, but that was about five ago. I don't feel great about jumping on the pill band wagon, but I also don't plan on relying on them. I feel that I'll at least me using them in a correct manner, which is more as a tool to support my already exercise and healthy eating lifestyle and not as a single miracle pill.

We'll see how it goes and please don't take this to mean always go the diet pill route. I really don't believe that should be the first thing to jump towards. The only reason I'm writing about this is because I want to be honest with my efforts with anyone who might be reading this. I don't want to discourage anyone from doing things without resorting to supplements. I also want to be held accountable that I'm only going to be on these supplements for a few weeks and not become dependent on them. I know how tempting it will be to continue them if they work, because who doesn't like to see progress. However, this is a tool not a solution.

Zumba Instructor Course = Epic Awesomeness!

What a week it's been indeed. I've been going mock 3 with my hair on fire since Thursday. Ah Thursday...the day I became a Licensed Zumba Instructor and was taught by the wonderful Gina Grant!
I'm still a little star stuck and in disbelief, but I did it! I made it through. I accomplished a goal I set out to complete. I'm excited to start working on choreography and using my friends as guinea pigs in my efforts to practice in a group exercise environment.

Registrations was at 8am on Thursday, so we had to get up bright and early (5am early, I'm not used to that). My husband pulled into the parking lot a couple of minutes before eight and part of me wanted to run screaming in the opposite direction. I didn't though. I went in and was partly excited to soon meet Gina Grant and start the class. Once I signed all of the waivers (they warned of death. DEATH! Really!?) and forms I received my little goody bag filled with...well...instructor essential goodies. I got to know one other student and she was pretty nice. There was a lot of standing around when you first get there among the sea of woman and then, could that be? Yes a guy! Two guys! Nope, three guys taking the class!!! They were warned that being Zumba instructors and male, they'd probably have ladies going ga-ga over them. Ha!

We went right into our morning workout. A sort of master's class and let me tell ya. It totally kicked my butt! Gina killed me, but in a good way. It got so crazy and sweaty in the room that people (including me) were sliding around on the floor. Our shoes couldn't get any grip. This inspired a field trip outside to continue working out while the room aired out for a song. The rest of the day was filled with lectures and more dancing. The lecture periods were much shorter than the dancing periods, so you do dance pretty much 75% of the time. By the end of the day I wanted to curl up on the floor and just sleep. The last our was the hardest to keep up with. My legs were fatigued, my arms were feeling the burn, my body was very noodle like and I was already on my second pair of clothes. It was the most fun experience you could think of and the workout was as intense as you made it. We all of course pushed ourselves to the limit. At least I know I did.

The day ends by getting your certificates and you get a little mini picture session with Gina if you wish to of course. Um, I did! YAY!!!! For anyone thinking of doing the instructor classes, I say Just Do It! It's so fun and a great experience. Don't worry about the workout. It's Zumba fitness. It's geared for each person to bring as much or as little intensity as they need. It's geared toward enjoyable exercise. If you don't think you can move just like everyone else, who cares! That comes with time. That comes with practice. That comes with muscle memory and experience and everyone had their own little flair with their moves. So don't be afraid. Don't talk yourself out of it. Go for it!!!

At one point you do a little group work and come up some choreography to a song. Not the whole song, so don't worry. Your group gets assigned a part of a song. This experience can be really fun, but like any group activity, you tend to see who is the self proclaimed leader who wants to take over and listen to only a select few. Can we tell I'm not a fan of group work in learning environments? This was honestly my least favorite part of the class, but I can see why it's effective and important. It's only a small part of the class anyway.

It was definitely an awesome experience though and I want to start practicing teaching so I can take Basic 2 in December with Gina again. She recommended to have some teaching experience though and I'm going to take that to heart. So if I have to practice teaching I will. The husband offered to save up and fly me to a Basic 2 wherever Tanya Beardsley teaches, but that's completely not necessary. Although I would absolutely LOVE to take a class from her, I can't justify the expense. I really want to get my books for AFAA Cert. and start studying now. At least I can study those things at home.

 My one piece of advice to anyone wanting to take the course. Don't schedule anything else the following day! I was completely exhausted and slept for 12 hours that night. I was a bear! Nothing could wake me. Even with all of this sleep I still had a hard time keeping my eyes open the next day. My eye lids felt heavy and I just wanted to curl up in my bed for another day or two. My body was so sore and achy that it hurt to just be, but it was in such a great way! I still have moments today that I think, "oh yeah I'm still sore in that area" and it's three days later. Also, drink more fluids the rest of the evening. I woke up feeling super dehydrated the next morning and the feeling lingered all day.

For anyone taking a class soon. Take extra snacks, water and a light healthy but filling lunch. I had plenty of 3 protein bars, water, Gatorade and a turkey sandwich on wheat for the day and it was pretty much perfect. I was never too full, too hungry, too thirsty or too water logged. The last thing you want is to feel like you have a sack of potatoes in your stomach or feel weak and hungry. Take an extra change of clothes if you don't want to be sweaty and icky all day. Also take a sweater. After you workout and start to cool down it gets rather chilly. Bring cash in case they have some Zumbawear, which we did (I bought an instructor tank that I refused to wear until the class was over and I had my certificate of completion and some wristbands) and bring a credit card/debit card for your ZIN payment if you plan on joining. I highly recommend it because of all of the resources you are provided with once you join. It worth the monthly dues and you get invited to convention when your a ZIN member. Bring your A game! Put everything else out and be prepared to have some fun!

The Certificate of Completion!



Gina Grant! The nicest, most down to earth person. No really! I made a comment about having a long way to go before I could teach with my weight and she was so encouraging. She let me know Zumba Instructors come in all shapes and sizes!

Yup, that's my Instructor tank!

Yup! Zumba is awesome and oh yeah, I sewed my capris and they were so much better. My instinct was right. If the cuffs were tighter the length wouldn't be a problem.