The blog in which I completed one!

By this point, we are all well aware of the calamity that ensues any time I try to participate in a group exercise class at the YMCA.  In general, it's painful, never completed, and frustrating to me for weeks on end.  I am not entirely hopeless though, and while my daughter did write and illustrate a story about me and sleeping yesterday, I was motivated by that to get dressed and go get active.  I knew that a Zumba class was going to start within the hour, so I called a friend who seems to be ready for anything I throw her way lately, and we are there, for the Sunday Zumba class at 1:15 PM.  Most classes that I have dropped in to are an hour.  As far as I know, that is the standard.  And yet, I have never made it through an entire class.  We joined the YMCA on February 28, 2012, and a year later, I am still saying that.  Until...

Lucy.  Adorable, perky, realistic, Lucy.  She was the instructor.  And while dancing is incredibly challenging for me, about half way through, when I was beyond my limit, I decided, "just one more song, and then..."  One more song, and Jenn, workout partner extraordinaire, agrees we can do one more.  Well, the next song slowed us down and wasn't as intense.  That set me up for the "we can do another" and then, before you know it, there is only ten more minutes, and how can I quit now?  And then, I realized my knee was hurting.  Yep, same one that caused the cortisone shots last year, and if I remember correctly, it was this Zumba and the Hip Hop dance classes that did it to me last time.  So... while I was so excited and thanked Lucy profusely for getting me from start to finish in my very first full length class, I am up now realizing that I really don't belong in a class.  I will continue with my elliptical and weights, and maybe switch up the cardio onto the step machine.

Bottom line is- I can do it.  And if I can do it, ANYONE CAN!  I am slowly losing weight, but am still FAR from the finish line in this race.  I am really enjoying the journey in this process.  From changing my diet, to the addition of supplement intake to better aide in natural forms of preventative medicine, I am finding my thresholds for perceived stamina is stretching each day. The competitive in me is being fed, and the excuse making me is slowly dissipating.  I don't suggest that each person spend an hour and a half in the gym each day in order to get healthy.  I do suggest that each person find their own way in getting more active, and do it regularly.  Geoff has learned of a few people around our age that have recently dropped dead of massive heart attacks.  I suppose if you don't take care of your heart, your heart can't take care of you.  Exercise- it does a body good.